David Hall's Non-Duality Blog
My name's David Hall. I'm the creator of this web site and its content. I live in Wales in the UK.
I developed the Celtic design software KnotWorker, I create electronic music as Goldcup7, and I've written books on spirituality and non duality.
Hope you enjoy this Non Duality blog. New blogs are added on Fridays.
Please use the Contact page if you have any questions or would like me to discuss a topic.
- Category: The Universe
- Hits: 53
Some people think, "The universe is against me." Things always seem to go wrong. Good things never last. Attempts to find happiness are dashed against the rocks. So is the universe really against us? Well, yes and no.
Firstly, yes, the universe is against you. The universe will never be peaceful whilst 'you' exist. Notice 'you' is in quotes. This 'you' is the problem. It is this notion of being a separate being that is the problem. There really isn't a 'you' and the universe. There is only the universe. When 'we' mentally identify ourselves as distinct beings separate from the rest then trouble will inevitably follow. The universe flows in a battle for rebalance. The universe seeks the peace and perfect harmony of the singularity from which it seems to have exploded. When 'you' single yourself out in the universe the universe will seek to rebalance you and bring you into harmony.
That sounds a bit crazy maybe. But that's what happens. It's like flowing with the ocean then developing a sense of identity and saying, "No, I'm not part of this. I'm going to sail off on my own." That's kind of what has happened to humanity in its evolution of mind and identity. Now, rather than flowing as one with the universe, the mind carves out its own identity, like a boat floating on a turbulent ocean, struggling defiantly to maintain its sense of independence. Then it thinks the universe is against it.
Let's understand these forces of rebalance in the universe. Eckhart Tolle talks about this to some degree. It's worth seeing what he has to say about it. Basically, the identity, or the idea of 'me', is inaccurate and leads to a life of imbalance, selfish seeking, rather than being as one with the universe. The idea of 'me' separates itself form the whole, creating a conflict. We could be a good 'me' or a bad 'me', or more accurately a 'me' somewhere along the spectrum of goodness. But that makes no difference. If there is an idea of 'me' then it is separating itself from the universe and creating a sense of conflict, and the rest of the whole seeks to rebalance, whilst the idea of 'me' resists to maintain itself. It is the idea of 'me' separate from the universe that creates conflict.
So although the universe is against 'you', it's not really against the real You. The universe can never be against itself. It is One. You are not what you think you are. You are not what the mind thinks you are. Rather, You are all that is. We are all that is. Really there is no 'we'. Only This. It can be called the Universe, the Whole, the Infinite One, God, Being. It is the One Infinite Life.
When this is recognised it can be understood that the universe is never against you. What happens just seems to happen. Difficulties in life are life's way of bringing humanity into balance. This is the human experience. It is one of rebalancing. Tough experiences will happen to bring about harmony. But none of that affects You. The real You. You remain as the unchanging witness of all change. You don't need to become One. You are One, timelessly. You are That in which the world of apparent conflict and chaos plays out. And it's aim? To find You, the real You. The universe plays out its game of separation then returns to the Singularity which is its peace, harmony and rest. But this Peace and Harmony, the Singularity, is never truly broken. The Singularity remain timelessly as it is, throughout the play of time and space that we call the universe.
- Category: Spirituality
- Hits: 32
In spiritual circles we may hear of different states of consciousness, of raising the level of consciousness, and progressing to higher levels of consciousness. Is this something to aim for? Is it something we can achieve?
Let's first explain what we mean by consciousness. There are different states of being conscious or unconscious, when the body is physically awake or asleep. That's not what I mean here. We are talking about the spiritual state of awareness a being has. How spiritual a being is, we could say.
But in Non-Duality we don't consider there to really be multiple beings or multiple states of consciousness. Consciousness is all there is. It is One Infinite Awareness. It has no form. It doesn't move and it doesn't change. There is nothing to achieve. Though Consciousness seems to be stretched out like a beam of light dispersed into a rainbow of variety, it is only an appearance of many different levels. Truly there is no divide between the levels, just as there is no clear divide between the colours of the rainbow. The colours flow through the change.
The rainbow is a good way to understand how One Consciousness can seem to cover many different states, whilst remaining one. The apparent colours of the rainbow can't really be numbered. We can single some out and call them yellow, red, blue etc. But they aren't really defined. There aren't even multiple shades of yellow, for instance; there is spectrum of yellow, just as there is a spectrum of each colour we choose to single out from the flowing spectrum of colour that is a rainbow. Note also that what we see as a rainbow is really colourless 'white light', seemingly dispersed as a spectrum of colour. The total sum of this dispersion of colour is the colourless 'white light'.
Similarly, Consciousness does not disperse into multiple consciousnesses or a range of states of consciousness. It only seems to do that. Consciousness remains One throughout the seeming dispersion. What this means is that this world of many aware beings is really One Aware Being playing at dispersing itself as many. This apparent separation doesn't really happen.
The One Aware Being, or Consciousness, does not move or change. It doesn't need to become something else. There is nothing else. It cannot raise its level. It is no level, yet it encompasses all seemingly separated levels. Progression is a play within Perfect Consciousness. All progression through states of consciousness aims to reach a culmination in Infinite Consciousness. The aim of spiritual progression is to transcend progression and realise the timeless, ever-present Consciousness. Aware beings seem to develop, or fall from high states of consciousness to low states, then work towards returning to the highest state of consciousness. But it is all a play of separation. None are separate from the Perfect Clarity of Consciousness that is the Infinite One Aware Being.
Within planet Earth lifeforms have developed and continue to develop. They rise up from the low levels and take to the air. They rise up from hardened limited forms to become freer. Their highest achievement is Self Awareness. It is the dropping of the error of individuality that brings the freedom of the recognition that there is only this One Aware Being, in which this seeming spiritual progression plays out.
This spiritual progression towards the highest state of consciousness cannot be achieved. There really is no end to the progression. Well, the end is in the recognition that there is no end. You see, reality is infinite, not finite. Reality is not divided into states or levels. It only seems to be. So there comes a leap of recognition, from developing states of consciousness, recognising that there is only Infinite Consciousness. This is Self Awareness, Enlightenment, or Liberation. It is the dropping of ignorance. The dropping of the knowledge of finite things as being correct, and an opening up to the natural freedom of the Infinite.
We are not bound by spiritual progression. At heart we are complete. We are not that which progresses. We witness progression and change within the permanent perfect clarity of Infinite Consciousness.
- Category: The Human Experience
- Hits: 7
Restriction, boundaries and limitation seem to be common aspects of this world. They refer to the same thing, of course. Limitation, boundaries, restriction, separation and division, are the same sense of beginnings and ends in the world, where one thing ends, has a limit or boundary, and another thing begins. And where these beginnings and endings seem to appear they form a distinction between one thing and another.
Let's consider some examples. A vehicle may be restricted from driving over a certain speed limit. It reaches that point and cannot go beyond it. A kitchen will have its boundaries, and where we walk through a doorway out of the kitchen another room or hallway begins. We all know about life and death. It seems we, or these human bodies, are born, live for a time then die. There appear to be limits on the life of the human body and there appear to be boundaries of each human body. The human body is restricted in what it can achieve. For example, there are boundaries to what the eye can see and limits to how fast the body can run.
But none of these boundaries or restrictions are true limits. There is no clear divide between a kitchen and the next room. We can say there is a doorway, but there is only a vague definition of where the kitchen ends and where the next room begins. These ideas of 'kitchen', 'hallway', 'living room', 'bedroom' and so on are human made definitions without any clearly defined edges. It is the same with the human body. We can't really say where the hand ends and the arm begins. There isn't really a divide.
We can't say at what point life starts in a human body, because life is there before the body developed. It is life that develops the body throughout, and life continues when the body 'dies'. When the mental activity ceases and the body can no longer function, it doesn't suddenly lose life. It is life that continues through the body's decomposition. But even aside from that, our idea of who we are based on the limits of the human body are flawed. There are no true limits, only vague ideas of limits. There is no boundary to the body that separates it from the world. The body is a flowing, interactive quality of the planet. It may seem that air separates one person from another, but the different humans and animals and the air they breathe are the planet. They never truly become limited and separate from the planet. Our ideas about boundaries are flawed.
The human body may be restricted when locked within a room of solid walls. The body can't get through the walls because of its relative density compared to the wall. But the wall and the body are not wholly truly restricted or impervious. Restrictions can only appear relatively. A 'body' that was made of a less dense form may well be able to glide through walls, just as radio waves can travel through brick walls.
The point here is that restriction, boundaries and limitations are not as real as they are generally presumed to be. They are not real. There are truly no limitations to Life. Restrictions in the world are only relative. Boundaries and limitations do not really exist. The world is infinite and indivisible. You are not limited. You are not a human body, because there is no clear boundary to any human body. You are all that is. It is the activity of the mind that thinks and believes that it is restricted and limited as a human body.
There is never really a divide between you and the world. You don't have any limits or restrictions. There is only the Whole. There is only That which seems to appear as many by aid of restriction and limitation. But it is never truly divided or restricted.
- Category: Spiritual Symbols and Patterns
- Hits: 23
The cross is a prevalent spiritual symbol, most notably prominent in the Christian religion, where it signifies the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the cross can also be found in relation to other religions or spiritual beliefs, such as the Ancient Egyptian Ankh and the Hindu and Buddhist Swastika. Why is the Cross such an important spiritual symbol?
The Cross represents separation in unity. It is a symbol for the world, where the world flows outward from the source in the symbolic four directions. The world appears by this magical method of apparent separation. The top and bottom points of the cross stand as opposites, as do the left and right points of the cross. The opposites go out in separation from the central starting point.
Importantly, although it appears that the starting point separates out into four, it nonetheless remains one. The arms of the cross are not truly separate. They only give the appearance of separation. The world is not truly separate. It only appears to be separate whilst remaining indivisibly one.
Both the cross and the number 4 represent this apparently physical hardened world of separation. But unnoticed within it is the centre point that isn't separate. The source is not separate from the creation. The number 4 is often used to represent the weighty dense world of matter. The '4 corners' represents the world. The placing of four-legged animal sculptures at the corners of temples and spiritual buildings represents the grounding of spirituality in the material world. The elephant is a good representation of this, as it is a heavy animal, and the material world is weighty in contrast to the spiritual realms.
This link of the cross and the number 4 in relation to the world and the weight of matter brings in its other link to death. The cross often represents death, as obviously so in the Christian religion, but also in Mayan depictions such as the sarcophagus of King Pakal. The tree of life becomes the tree of death. In this material world we experience death. Death is the opposite of the reality of Life, but here in this apparent world of separation we experience the weighty world of dense matter that culminates in death. Separation, and the division into opposites, brings with it beginnings and ends. Human life seemingly begins and seemingly ends. The Tree of Life seemingly divides to become the Tree of Good and Evil, Life and Death.
But this is all only how it seems. As mentioned, the cross isn't really divided. It remains as one. The spiritual aspect is there within the Cross. Although it represents death, it also represents Life, endless life. Although at first it seems to show separation, it truly shows the secret heart of permanence in all apparently separate life. The centre point remains unchanged throughout any appearance of separation. Although the body may rise and fall, the essence remains unchanging. Although the world may appear to be a World of Opposites, in truth there is only the Permanent One, the Infninite One whom we may call God.
It is God that takes the sacrifice of separation, appearing in the world as one who is separate from the source. Yet God transcends the apparent World of Opposites, of life and death, to show the reality of Endless Life. The cross of separation and death is transcended in the recognition of Infinite Timeless Oneness. None are separate from God. There is only God, even in God's manifestation of separation.