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: Spirituality
- Hits: 1058
The aim of spiritual seeking is often enlightenment. With Non-Duality the aim, once one understands the teaching, is to realise the non-dual nature, to achieve Liberation, Enlightenment or Self Realisation. There are lots of questions about this, sometimes about the fear of totally letting go of everything. Let's consider that.
Certainly, for Self-Realisation there is a need to let go of everything. The other terms mean the same really, Liberation, Enlightenment, Moksha, Nirvana, etc. They all point to that recognition of Reality as it is. That Reality is without limits or division. So the person we think we are is not who we really are. Spiritually minded people, of course, would recognise that they're not the human body. Some may believe that they are a soul.
The soul is and isn't accepted in Non-Duality. It is accepted as being part of the play of Maya, the illusion that is the appearance of the world. There is the material dense world that humans live in, and there is the finer, hidden world of souls and the spiritual realm. This includes the development of the soul, incarnating in human form, getting caught in the wheel of Samsara, the endless round of rebirth. The soul lives life after life after life, learning, making mistakes, getting tangled up in karma. But in Non-Duality this is seen as the play of the Infinite One Being seeming to become many, but not really.
We could consider souls as sparks of divine spirit. But that's not strictly true. They're not really sparks of the divine spirit released into the world. The world is the Divine Spirit, only appearing to be less like or more like the divine. Just as the human body isn't really limited, neither is the soul. There really is no divide in the Infinite One. What seems to divide the Infinite One is also the Infinite One - the space and the substance are the Infinite One.
So we can say the soul seems to be limited but really isn't. It takes on human form and experiences human life. That's what's happening here. The human world is heavy and dense. Dark clouds loom over it sometimes. Humanity is limited by the hardened physical limitations of matter and the hardened mental limitations of the human mind. The human mind develops a pointed sense of itself as a separate individual in a competitive world. This is the opposite of Reality, which is selfless and limitless, whole and complete. But the human experience allows a lot of possibilities. Personalities develop. There is a great variety in the One. All humans are different and express their particular developmental experiences as well as the influence of the soul.
The release of the soul from the endless round of rebirth comes when the soul's attachment to matter and form is dissolved. This comes about when the sense of being a separate self is released. It is the Self-Realisation that there is no self. It is Nirvana, the extinguishing of the sense of being a separate self. It is Liberation, freedom from the bondage of illusory limitation. When this Enlightenment occurs, when the sense of being a separate self is no more, there is no subjugation to karma. It is clear that not only is the body unlimited, the mind and the soul are unlimited. This means that there is no body, no mind, no soul. There is only What Is. This What Is is here right now. It is only the sense and belief of limitation that makes it seem otherwise. But that is the development of humanity in this time.
So when Self-Realisation occurs, it doesn't mean that the world ceases to exist, being sucked back into the Singularity. The Singularity is always timelessly here. Nothing changes, only the sense of being a separate self is nowhere to be found. The human in which this realisation occurs does not identify as a human, a mind, a soul, or anything. It just is. Yet the human life continues. The Awakened Human (for want of a better expression) still has its personality but without the person. It has its flow and role in the human world, as momentum has always been active in it anyway. The human life changes in a way that it is no longer guided by the selfish aims of a separate self. There is no ego in the Awakened Human, so the human life flows naturally with the way of What Is.
Similarly with the soul. It doesn't mean that the soul is dissolved upon Self-Realisation. The soul flows with the spiritual nature of the universe in further play and adventure, in the Divine Play of Multiplicity.
- Category: The Universe
- Hits: 1047
The world appears as a division/reflection of the Infinite Indivisible One. There appears to be the opposites 'alive' and 'not alive', 'conscious' and 'not conscious'. It is as though the Primordial Pure Conscious Being split in two, to show what it is and what it isn't. This is a play of separation, of reflection and contrast, an expression of the inexpressible Infinite One by means of its opposites.
The world doesn't have a beginning or an end, only an appearance of beginnings and ends. The truth is Infinity, and limitations can only be illusory or imaginary. It's much like a dream. In a dream there is you, other people or animals, and the world in which the dream happens. But it is all the dreamer. The dream seems to split into you and a world. But really there is no splitting, and the division is imagined.
Back to the real world. Well, it's not really real. It's an expression of the Real. Nevertheless, there is a realness about this world. The realness is the Consciousness in which it appears. The world appears to have a contrast of conscious beings and non-conscious objects, alive beings and not-alive objects. This all appears within Consciousness. Consciousness is Life itself. It allows the appearance of opposites within its indivisible infinite oneness.
In this planet apparently non-living forms (elements etc.) have combined and interacted. They've been called the building blocks of life. It seems that these buildings blocks have combined and interacted to an extent that living conscious beings have been formed, namely animals and humans. There is a path of evolution from barely animate, to animated, to intelligently animated, or as we call them, alive and conscious beings. This sense of difference of what is alive and not-alive seems quite obvious to us, but if you look closely it's difficult to find the divide. The reason for this is that there is no divide between alive and not-alive. There is only Life.
This seeming dichotomy of Life into alive and not-alive cannot be perceived without the permanent Life that you are. This flow of alive and not-alive appears within the absolute life of Consciousness. It is by Consciousness that it is perceived, and it is in Consciousness, made of Consciousness.
It's worth mentioning here that it's not that the elements and forms come to life and become conscious beings. Really, life and consciousness is timelessly here. The life that the human body has is Consciousness. The consciousness that the human body seems to have is this Consciousness that is the background to the appearance of the world. Imagine Consciousness like a perfect sheet of paper, then different creatures are drawn on the paper. The real substance of the creatures is the underlying paper. The drawn beings don't come to life, yet at the heart of their being there is pure Life. This pure Life is expressed in the world of opposites as a coming and going, a rising and falling, what we call 'coming to life' and 'losing life'. It is all Pure Life expressed through a world of opposites.
It is the same Consciousness that is the heart and life of all beings. The beings/creatures/humans/animals are like pockets of perception in the world. These pockets of perception are the means by which Infinite Consciousness perceives the expression of itself. Like the dream analogy, the world is Infinite Consciousness perceiving itself through the illusory separation of the subject perceiving objects. For example, your human self perceiving the world around it is really Infinite Consciousness appearing to separate into the human and the world it perceives. It's all One. There is no beginning or end to the world. It is Infinite Consciousness.
- Category: The Human Experience
- Hits: 1024
The Non-Duality answer to the question, "Is there a me?" is that there really isn't anyone. The ideas 'we' have of who 'we' are are mere imaginations in the mind. But then there isn't even a mind or minds. There is only Beingness appearing to be otherness. There is not a 'me' thinking or a 'me' doing. These are labels that don't stand up to scrutiny.
We could say that humanity has made a mistake in identifying with the body, and feeling that 'I am this and not that'. There is a feeling or sense of personal identity that most humans have. It's a mistaken identity, but it's okay. It's not the truth, but it's okay. This sense of personal identity has developed from the experience of centralised senses. There is a sense, a feeling, and a belief, that 'I am this, perceiving that'.
But really we can't pinpoint who or what we are. There aren't any real limits. It's more accurate to say that the personal identity appears to happen, but it appears to no-one. So what I'm saying here is that there is no-one saying this. That can sound a bit ridiculous until it's recognised that really there is no-one saying anything. Words being written or spoken just happen. It's part of the flow of the appearance of the world. We could say that humans write and speak, and that's relatively accurate and useful, of course. But it's still not accurate, because we can't define the 'human'. We could also say the hand writes or the mouth speaks, but we can't really define that either. It's all just an appearance of flowing, movement, vibration, and so on.
Where are we in all of this? Well, we're nowhere to be found. Humans like to think we are personal and we are all separate people. That's the play of Oneness, appearing to be something other than what it is, appearing to be many. There is only this What Is or Beingness, no matter what appears to be. What Is or Beingness can't create something other than what it is. At best it can appear to be or seem to be what it is not. But that's all a play.
So there isn't really a 'me' separate from others. There is only always What Is. We are That. But there's no 'us' and 'That'. There is only What Is.
- Category: The Human Experience
- Hits: 1032
Humanity, and indeed planet Earth, is on a path of spiritual evolution. Life forms on the planet don't just randomly evolve. There is an underlying directive force in the universe, firstly a push towards outer limits, then a returning inwards to the limitless. This is all spread across a vast expanse of space and time.
Life on planet Earth appears at the far end of the spectrum of density. By density, I mean density of spirit. What we call matter is more like an appearance of limited, separated, dense spirit. It is the far end of the vibrational universe, where forms become more separate, dense, seemingly more limited, and less interactive and flowing. So life forms on planet Earth appear of a denser, solidified nature. Yet they are evolving to become freer, less limited and less dense. The natural interaction of forms at this far end of density is to be hardened and clashing, less collaborative and more competitive. Hence the survival of the fittest. Seemingly separate life forms compete against each other.
Nevertheless, animals on planet Earth are highly developed life forms. They've evolved, and they're evolving towards increased intelligence and awareness. Animals just see the world as it is. They've not progressed to the stage where humans are at yet. Humans have reached the stage where we can think about the world, label things, define things, and understand cognitively how the world works. I'm reminded of the 'Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil' mentioned in Genesis in the Bible. It's where humanity has moved on from the basic animal nature to thinking, gaining knowledge, and gaining self awareness, a recognition that 'I am this body'. In some ways it can seem like a step back, out of the blissful unaware state, into thinking, worrying, and seeing the challenges and difficulties of 'me and the world'. At this stage the ego develops - the mind's sense of being a separate being, defending its borders, strengthening its position, and asserting its importance. This ego nature rules the human world. It's an evolutionary step forward, but certainly not the culmination of evolution.
The next step for humanity is to develop this 'self awareness' further. For all humanity's confidence in its sense of being right, all its knowledge and conceptualising is inaccurate. Its sense of self is misplaced. Its sense of right and wrong, good and evil, is a separating of the world. The sense of separation, of me and the world, is flawed. Truly there is no separation. This appearance in planet Earth of many different life forms is illusory. It leads humanity to believe that separation is real and the ego is right. But it's not. These many life forms can also be considered as one planet expressing itself in seemingly many ways. There comes a change of perspective. A deeper understanding, that there is not 'me and the world'. There is only this.
As self awareness continues to develop, it turns inwards. It turns from seeing the world of many separate forms. It turns from the difficulties of competing against the world. It turns to a recognition of the underlying Oneness of what appears to be a multiplicity. As the ego nature continues its development it is recognised that the greatest ego is not the one that dominates and wins, it is the one that surrenders itself in service to the whole. The greatest ego gives up itself, reduces its sense of importance, lets go of its belongings and ideals, to bring peace to the world. In religious terms this can be recognised in the sacrifice of Jesus, giving up his life to save others. It's a move towards dropping the limits and defenses of the ego, in favour of the Oneness of the whole.
This next stage of evolution is in letting go of the limits that seem to define. Recognising that limits are illusory. There is only One Infinite Being, expressed as many beings and non-beings. What Is is expressed as what is and what is not. But truly there is only What Is. Humanity evolves to a point of enlightenment, where the separate individual, the ego, is seen to be false, and the Oneness of What Is is realised.
- Category: The Universe
- Hits: 1022
Imagine that planet Earth is one being. Within that one being there seem to be billions of beings, all made up of the body or substance of that one being, Earth. There are beings and non-beings, formations such as rocks, lakes, rivers, air, cars, buildings etc. The beings are the insects, fish, animals, humans etc. We could class plants as beings too, in that they seem to have their own existence or life force. There is air and water that seems to separate the solid forms of these beings and objects. All this is planet Earth.
What we have here is one being playing at being many beings. Within the form of this one being it divides itself with itself to create many beings. Through the use of density of form there can appear a separation of form. So some forms appear solid, some appear fluid and separate the solid forms. The seemingly solid forms of animals are separated by air and water. This juxtaposition of solidity and fluidity creates the appearance of separate beings within the one being. For example, the human body is mostly fluid but appears reasonably solid, and air, which is less dense than the human body, seems to separate these solid forms, creating the appearance of separate beings. Though it should be said that air and water flow through these seemingly solid forms.
So what seems to be happening here on planet Earth is that one body (the planet) is appearing as many bodies (animals, humans etc.). These bodies seem to be separated, but it is just another substance of the planet body that seems to create a separation. The play and flow of solid, liquid and gas in the planet body create the appearance of many bodies. But truly there is just the one body, planet Earth. Earth's solid forms, liquid forms and gas forms are all planet Earth. So there only appears to be a division in the planet's forms based on the contrast of density of form within the planet. The division of the planet is illusory.
We imagined that Earth is a being, albeit a somewhat spherical being. And why not? Ultimately even planet Earth is an appearance of separation in the universe. Planet Earth is one appearing as many. The universe is one appearing as many. The universe and planet Earth are expressions of one appearing as many. This is the play of the universe. The universe can't really be separated from something else. There can only seem to be a separation by means of appearances.
The universe is the appearance of One Being expressed as many separate forms, though never truly separated. This expression of 'one to many' is scattered and multiplied throughout the One Being. Or so it seems.