GC: Hello everyone! We're here for another videocast. Once again, Master Gualberto is with us. Thank you, Master, for being here.
Today, I'm going to read an excerpt from a book by Joel Goldsmith called "Consciousness Transformed." In one passage of this book, Joel makes the following comment: "Ten righteous men can save a city. Who are the righteous? Those who dedicate themselves to righteous prayer. And what is righteous prayer? That which seeks nothing for itself, but seeks only the Presence of God."
Master, in this excerpt, Joel comments on this righteous prayer that seeks nothing for oneself. Within this subject, can you share your vision of how the ego hides itself within spirituality?
MG: Look, Gilson, this is very common in all of us. Life in ideas, in concepts, in beliefs, our great attachment to expressions, to words. Therefore, we are living within an abstraction when we talk about this life of spirituality. So, this disguise for "I," for the ego, the disguise of a spiritual life, is very common.
In general, we are content with beliefs, with ideas. We are content, see this, in our discontent, we are content to follow doctrines, mystical practices, spiritual beliefs, and we believe that we are living real spirituality, real spiritual life. We even take pride in it. So, in fact, the ego hides itself, it disguises itself in this model of spirituality.
We don't have eyes to see, nor ears to hear what is here, inside us. To know our own mind, to become aware of how it works, how it functions. That is what we need to do for a Real contact with Divine Life, with spiritual Life. And this is something that involves the question of listening.
We don't know how we function. From where we find ourselves - within the particular vision we hold of who we are - we project what we wish to be, based on criteria we receive from so-called spiritual teachings, commandments, and doctrines. This is not the Real Truth about us; it is, in reality, a movement of hypocrisy, and we are unaware of it. Moreover, in the mind, from this curtain of beliefs, images, and ideas that thought has established within us, everything we see from this place, from this curtain, is within this unconsciousness. It is within this pattern of unconsciousness of the mind.
This mental unconsciousness, which has shaped our lives, is the mind trapped in patterns of behavior. These are our conditionings. All this result of acquired knowledge, of tradition that we receive within the culture, within this movement of human history, we are still living within patterns of worldliness, linked to the values ??of the senses, to the values ??of the mind. Values ??that we receive from the cultural context, from the social context. So, in fact, our life as people, in the spirituality that we know, is a life in the ego, it is a life in this "I."
The presence of this "I" is the element of separation between you and Divine Reality. It is Divine Reality, Real Spirituality. But Real Spirituality, which is this Divine Reality, is unattainable by the mind, inconceivable by thought. All we have done is imagine, create a spirituality within imagination, within thought. And thought within us is an element of psychological conditioning, of memory structure, of continuity of the past. That is what our spirituality is like.
There is no truth in this spirituality. What is present, is the model of the "I," it is the model of thought, in this desire to reach God, to find God, to live with God. For the mind present within us, the idea of ??someone, of a person, is the idea of ??finding, is the idea of ??becoming spiritual. When we learn to observe the mind, it requires that we not look from behind the curtain, the curtain of evaluations, beliefs, concepts, teachings, and doctrines. We begin to become aware of how the mind works, of how this sense of the person, which is the present "I," the ego, acts. And so, yes, truly, we can disentangle ourselves from this egoic sense, from this sense of "I." Only then can we become aware of the true awareness of the Truth about Life.
When we strip ourselves of the "I" by stripping ourselves of the ego, this Real sense of Life is revealed. In this sense of Life, there is no entity separate from Life. It is this sense of Being, this Mystery revealing itself. This is Real Spirituality. Otherwise, we will continue living within a pattern of hypocrisy, in this so-called spirituality of spiritual practices, of following doctrines and teachings. This discovery, this revelation, is what is revealed here when we have eyes to see and ears to hear what is present, at this moment, within ourselves.
The foundation is always this gaze: a gaze without the past, a gaze without choices, without conclusions, without beliefs. When we become aware of envy, fear, anger, jealousy, possessions, the idea of ??possessing things, the idea of ??someone present having these things, the idea of ??someone present not only with what they have acquired externally, but with everything they have been acquiring internally, psychologically. The truth about this "I" is the comprehension of this idea, of this image that thought has constructed.
The whole work consists of becoming aware, of looking, of perceiving, therefore, this foundation is the basis for a work. It is the presence of this Divine power, of this very Divine Grace, that makes this work possible. So, truly, this contact with spirituality is not contact for the "I," for the ego. It is contact revealing itself when the "I" is not there, when the ego is not.
Life is to be comprehended, realized, verified in this observation, in this awareness of being. Expressions like "self-awareness," "awakening of consciousness," or "perception of divine reality" are expressions that we can use within theories, within concepts, or we can assume this in a real, experiential way, for a direct comprehension.
In this comprehension, there is no hypocrisy, no illusion, so there is no longer this "I" hiding, concealing itself behind expressions, expressions like "spiritual enlightenment" or "spirituality." This is what we are investing our time, our minds, and our hearts in. Here, I am referring to this investment of moments together, like the one we have here, to look at this.
Moments like the ones we have in online and in-person meetings to investigate the truth about the "I." Then, we can have the awareness of this Revelation, and, if It is present, illusion ends, ignorance dissolves. This is the Truth of Spirituality: It is not someone becoming spiritual, achieving spirituality, or attaining spirituality. It is this Spirituality taking over this space, taking over this Realization for this body and for this mind.
GC: Master, we have a question from a subscriber here on the channel, who made the following comment: "Master, how to deal with a wounded ego?"
MG: Gilson, the idea of ??a wounded ego, for most of us, is, in fact, just an idea. We are not aware of what this "I" is, of what this person is, the person that we are. So much so that, when we use the expression "ego," we have already separated ourselves. Because people, in general, say: "my ego." There is no such thing as this "my ego." That is an idea, the idea of ??someone who has an ego.
There is a Reality present here. This Reality is not the "I," it is not the ego. However, when thought takes over, when it is present, it separates itself as being the thinker, as being someone, someone who is having this thought. And immediately, it uses the pronoun, the pronoun "I" or the pronoun "my." So, we use expressions like "I," "myself," or "my house," "my family," "my name," "my ego." And now, we use expressions like "the wounded ego." But what is the truth about the ego? What is the truth about the "I"? We will never know what this "I" is, what this ego is, without an investigation of the very movement of thought.
The basic element that sustains the continuity of this sense of separation-which is the ego, which is this person, which is the "I"-the basic element is the presence of thought. And we don't know how to listen to thought. We don't know how to observe thought, to be aware of thought. Because, when thought arises, it immediately separates itself. It separates itself into liking or disliking. It separates itself into evaluating, judging, or comparing. This is the internal movement within each of us, in this mind, in this consciousness, in this "I."
Therefore, learning to listen, to observe the movement of thought, requires this gaze, requires this quality of approach to listen to what is happening to us, without interfering, without getting involved. This is the real form of approach, of comprehending this ego. And, when there is this comprehension, it becomes clear that all the movement of the "I," of the ego, is a movement of separation to feel hurt, to feel offended, to be wounded.
We carry within us, in this egoic sense, and this in an entirely unconscious way, the pursuit of pleasure and the escape from pain. It is the pursuit of the continuity of an identity that needs to continue: to continue in control and, therefore, in insecurity and fear. Where there is control, there is fear, there is insecurity. And yet, this control is a projection that thought has been constructed for this "I." Because, in fact, there is no control. It is the idea of ??someone who possesses things that gives us the illusion of the person who controls those things.
Thus, we constantly live in this illusory center that is the ego, being hurt, in this feeling of fear, of insecurity, like aggressive, possessive creatures, burdened with anxiety, with all forms of despair. Is it possible to break free from this, for a Real Life free from this "I"? Then, there will be no more wounded ego. There will no longer be someone having control or believing they have control of things.
The point is that you were born for Freedom, but freedom for you is not the presence of someone free; it is the Reality of this Being, which is You, who knows no prisons. Exactly the prisons created by thought, built by this structure of psychological conditioning, which we receive from the world and establish in ourselves as being our real life. We establish it in ourselves as being the life of this "me."
Therefore, this "you" that you know is an illusion. We are talking about this Freedom of Being. This is You in your Real Nature. This is the Awareness of God. This is the Awareness of Life. There is no wounded ego. It is the presence of Love, the presence of Happiness, when illusion ends, when that idea of ??someone is no longer there.
GC: Master, we have another question from another subscriber here on the channel, who made the following comment: "How do I know if I am acting in ego or if I am acting freely?"
MG: Your question is: How do I know if I am acting in the ego or not? Who is the element present in this? Observe your question. What do we know? Everything we know is something we bring from a recognition of the past. All the knowledge you have-the reference is the experience you have lived-is therefore something that comes from the past.
The element that recognizes the past is the presence of thought. It is the presence of thought that creates this orientation of knowing, of understanding. When this is present, what is present is the person. It is this me, this "I."
Therefore, when you ask, "How can I know?", who is this who will know? Isn't he part of thought, of experience, of memory and, therefore, of the past? Isn't that the conclusion of belief? Therefore, this idea of ??someone to know is something present in the "I," in the ego itself. So, this needs to be clear.
The awareness of Truth reveals itself in a quality of action, of feeling, of thinking, of acting in life. However, there is no one present to comprehend.
The presence of comprehension is the real discernment of a quality of action free from the "I," free from the ego. However, there is no one as a sensor, as an experiencer, as someone for this discernment.
Thus, here we face something outside the "I," outside the mind. Therefore, never worry about the idea of ??someone to know. Your job is to become aware of this "someone." Just be aware of this movement of the "I." Just become aware of it. Be aware of the movements of thought, feelings, sensations, and also actions.
When you bring awareness to this instant, attention to this moment, there is a quality of listening, of perceiving, of feeling Life happening, which is beyond the person, beyond the ego, beyond the experiencer, beyond the past.
When Reality reveals itself, no one remains to know anything. This very Reality is in expression, and this expression is in line with Life, in line with the Inner State of Love, of Beauty, of Intelligence, of Presence, of Comprehension.
Therefore, we do not need the idea of ??someone to know, to control, to understand whether what they are doing is being done in the "I" or in the ego. That is still part of illusion. That is still part of the past. This contact you have with life is not contact with someone to know, to control, to understand. This contact you have with life is Life revealing itself at this moment. It is the only Truth present at this moment. So, this quality of action is not the action of intention, of motive, of egocentric reason. It is the quality of action that is free from thought, free from the past. It is something natural.
When Divine Reality is present, that Truth is expressed. That Truth is the nature of God. It is the nature of the Self. It is You, without the idea of ??someone present, of that present You. So, it is natural! All action that arises from this natural State of Being is based on the Freedom of Love, the Bliss of Grace, the Freedom of this Real Consciousness, which is pure Intelligence. There is no one left to know. There is no one left to try to get it right.
In this nature of Truth, which is the Reality of Love, there is no mistake, no deception, no illusion, no idea of ??someone who separates themselves to feel, to speak, to act, to think. Thus, in this doing, in this acting, there is no longer the "I," there is no longer the idea of ??someone who separates oneself and, from the impulse of the past, from the impulse of memory, seeks to adjust oneself to their beliefs so as not to err. All of this dissolves when the Natural Comprehension of Being flourishes here and now. Okay?
GC: Gratitude, gratitude, Master. Our time is over. Gratitude for this videocast.
And for those of you who are watching the videocast to the end and truly wish to experience these truths, you are invited to participate in the meetings that Master Gualberto provides.
These meetings are much deeper than these videos here on YouTube. First, because the Master answers our questions live. And second, and more impactful, is that, because the Master already lives in this Awakened State of Consciousness, He shares an Energy field around Him, a field of Presence, Power, and Grace.
In these meetings, we end up being carried by this field of Presence of the Master. And by being carried by the Master, spontaneously, without any effort, we enter a meditative state, silence our minds, and can have a vision, a real comprehension of these matters.
So, the invitation is extended! In the first pinned comment, there is a WhatsApp link to participate in these meetings. Also, please "like" the video, subscribe to the channel, and Master, once again, thank you for the videocast.