The art of meditation is the art of Intelligence

Satsang is an invitation to Conscious Life, to Intelligent Life, free from all confusion. In the mind, the experience in life you know is confusion. In some aspect of your life, in some area, you are in confusion, which is the fruit of non-clarity. When there is not clarity, the present tree produces confusion – this is the tree of unconsciousness. The real Recognition of your True Nature, of your Divine Nature is the Awakening of this Intelligence, of this Intelligent Life, and this is what we are talking about in Satsang. Some call this Intelligent Life, which is free from confusion and suffering, as Enlightenment or Awakening.

Words about This are not so important, but the direct experience, yes! Knowing directly what This is about, this is indeed important! You can learn a lot about the theory and in a practice way be very far from experience it. Thus, confusion, the illusion and ignorance remain. There is not Intelligence!

Intelligence is the result of the Natural State of Meditation. It is not something you learn from your parents when you are born. Parents can teach you many things, including the model of their lives, but they cannot teach the Art of Meditation, which is the Art of Intelligence. When Meditation flourishes, Intelligence assumes the whole space. When there is Intelligence, there is no confusion, there is no disorder, there is no suffering.

Intelligence is the flourish of Consciousness, which is the Source of all manifestation, of all apparitions. So, it is very simple and natural to deal with any Life expression. Here I do not use the word “challenge, but the term “Life expression.” The one who breathes this natural atmosphere of the Art of Meditation lives in this Intelligence, which is Consciousness. For this one, there is no problem. Problems disappear because challenges disappear. Life is not challenging, it is mysterious – this is the vision of the Sage, of the Intelligent man.

The Intelligent man is not a man of intelligence, but the one who is free from the sense of separation. Then this is the man of Consciousness. It is the Consciousness itself in expression in this man shape. Your Real Nature is Consciousness and this is pure Intelligence. Therefore, I am not talking about the common and intelligent man, but about the one who is free from the mind: the Sage. This is Consciousness in its expression of Intelligence, and this is only possible in the Natural State of Meditation.

You do not learn this from your parents, from society, or by following the national politics. This Consciousness, which is Real Intelligence, is out of this culture, this society, this world model you know. What I am saying is that you, in your Being, in your Natural State of Pure Consciousness, are Intelligence and no society, no culture, or education can give you This. This Art is something you discover inside you.

This space is called Satsang: the encounter with the Truth. In it, it is possible this flourishing, this discovery, this clear vision of Life as It shows itself, as It presents itself. Then It appears as a great game. When there is this recognition of your True Divine Nature, Life is this Mystery and not this “challenge” the mind knows. A Mystery of great Beauty, Silence, Grace, something indescribable!

However, when you do not know that the game is like this, it is very complicated, very hard, because you believe you can play it, you believe you are in control. Then, you take all the roles that are presented, all demonstrations of Life, of this Mysterious Manifestation, in a very serious way. It is when drama, perplexity, adversity, difficulty, confusion arise.

Being in Satsang means being vulnerable, open to the flourishing of this Art of Intelligence, which is Meditation, Consciousness. Only This can show you all this game. Then, you discover that You are the game itself, not something separate from what You are. You are pure Consciousness expressing yourself in every manifestation! There is no existence separate from You!

When you discover that your Real Nature is beyond the game itself and that it is You, without any separation, you go beyond thought, beyond all this conceptual, imaginary story that happens to the body – a story that tells about birth, family, profession, and everything else. Now, you do not take it so seriously, you are deeply relaxed in your Essential Nature, because the game is yours, there is nothing to fear.

This identification with the “me” or this “psychological sense of being” is a merely apparition in this Consciousness, just an image. Realize the beauty of the Truth implicit in these words, the beauty of such simple and straightforward talk about what is this whole game. This is Enlightenment: resting in Life as it is, without resistance, without struggle, without fight, without confusion, without desires. Remember this: You are Consciousness!

You are identified with the story of a character named John, Mary, Joseph... This is just a name! A private imaginary identity! This is not you! Even spiritual life is based on the presumption that you are there, that there is individuality inside you. A body and a face appear, you see them at the mirror every morning, and then you think they are yours, they are you. You think you are a person behind the eyes that looks at the mirror. This is not true! It is not real!

Every search, every method and practice you have learned, all you have been doing until today, in this search for spirituality, are still part of this illusion. You are the Lord, the game is yours! When I say the game is yours, I am saying you are beyond the game, but you trust it too much.

You are trying to change, to modify, to fix, to improve it through this search for spirituality. You try to qualify, to technically prepare yourself to find this through spiritual practices. However, Meditation is not a practice!

Meditation is a discovery of something present as Consciousness; What You already are! No one can teach you what is Meditation, but in Satsang it is possible the Awakening of this present Natural State of Consciousness, which is Meditation. This is an action of Grace, this was the action of my Master, of my Guru. I did nothing! I just messed it up for a while. All of you are very good at doing this, at messing it up, just because you believe you are there to do something.

So, the person sits down on lotus position, visualizes a blue ball, full of light, breathes, imagines a sun on the chest, or a lotus flower on top of the head, with thousands of petals opening… This is so funny! It is what spiritual life imposes for you to reach the Divine.

Then, you start practicing ceremonies, diets, special sexual conduct, a fight to get to destroy, to slay the ego, all kind of thing like this. You have to become vegetarian, celibatarian. You have to practice tantric sexuality. You have to do transcendental meditation, to chant many mantras, to eat many vegetables… You have the day of the union with the full moon, the day of the violet flame, and so on. I cannot enumerate it, because there are many systems, many methods, many things. The ego loves to practice all of this, for it has the sensation that it is going somewhere, that it is progressing, evolving, getting closer to see this light on top of the head in the shape of a thousand-petaled flower… all nonsense!

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on July 29th, 2019 – First published in Portuguese on October 1st, 2019. For more information, please access: http://mestregualberto.com.

Consciousness is Love

The identity is present because it is supported and sustained by a basis, which is basically the thought. If you seek the Origin of thought, if you go to the Source of thought, if your look turns to find the Essential and Substantial Nature of thought, you find the Void. The Void is the end of this basis that sustains this illusory presence of someone.

Your Real Nature is the Void! In your Real Nature, there is no such basis; although thought may appear, it is only a phenomenon. What gives identity to this phenomenon called thought, is that inattention in which you were raised.

All of you are inattentive. Everyone is sleepy. You are not really awake. You all are sleeping. This sleepiness is this inattention that makes the thought be the basis that sustains this identity.

However, in fact, there is no such identity, all that exists is the Void, which is your Essential Nature, and which curiously functions as the basis of this identity... A divine game.... You are free from this game when you are not entangled in the midst of it, lost in the midst of it. This is called Consciousness. This Consciousness is Attention.

You need to "develop" this Attention! What people gave you since childhood was inattention; that is the modus operandi, which is this way of acting, of moving idealized, planned, calculated and executed by thought. We might call it unconscious, but this division between conscious and unconscious is such very arbitrary division – there is no division in thought. Every thought happens in this inattention – we could call it unconsciousness. When it is happening in this Attention, it is happening only in this Consciousness... then there is no unconsciousness.

When there is no unconsciousness, there is no mechanicality, there is no such thing calculated, idealized, planned and executed by that ego-identity, that person-identity.

You have to undress yourself of all conditioning, and this is only possible at the end of this inattention. When you come to Satsang, I give you fire to this bonfire – the bonfire of Consciousness – I give you fire by putting firewood. Firewood is the tip... It is what in India they call upadesa – the teaching. The quality of my teaching is not to teach you, it is to awaken you. It is to bring you to Consciousness by giving you Attention, feeding this flame. Then, in this bonfire of Consciousness, the flame is nourished by Attention, and what makes this fire of Attention burn are the tips I give you. This is my upadesa, my teaching...

My teaching, basically, is that there is nothing to learn. Being is not about learning! Being is like Love: it happens; you do not make it happen. It is something that explodes inside you in a natural and spontaneous way. Love is neither learned nor cultivated. It is not like a relationship cultivated by agreements, by dialogues, by this thing of discussing the relationship... In this way relationship is cultivated. Nevertheless, relationship is an ego thing, this is not Love.

Love is in the relation, not in the relationship. Love is not cultivable, and relationship is cultivable. You spend years in a relationship called love. I would call it a sleeping relationship, the agreements that are made to maintain the relationship, an asleep and non-loving relationship. Love does not know relationship and thereby it cannot be cultivated.

Just as Consciousness, as Attention, as this teaching, so also you cannot cultivate this. You can awaken to It, and you awaken to This in a natural and spontaneous way. It is a happening, just as Love is a non-cultivable happening. God is only recognized in this realization of Love, and this is not cultivable. You cannot “grow” in that direction. You can awaken to It. In the field of science, religion, philosophy, psychology, or any area of ​​the human knowledge, or of the so-called divine knowledge, of this so-called spirituality, in these fields, you can cultivate something, but not here.

Meditation is not cultivable. Meditation is Consciousness, which is the Attention that receives all fire material to smolder the flame of this teaching, of this upadesa, that is why Satsang is fundamental.

Satsang means being in good company, in the company of the sacred, of the divine. This has been known for thousands and thousands of years in the East, the importance of being near to a man or woman who is a bonfire – an incendiary bonfire on fire. In the East, they call it Guru.

To be in good company is to be with the Guru, the One who is out of the game, this game that is the whole  inattentive, unconscious, habitual, mechanical, planned, idealized and executed thought´s movement. Outside of the game, you are wise. Inside the game, you are stupid. Outside of the game, you are Bhagavan – an Indian term for the blessed one, that one who lives free from the misery of the ego mind. Bhagavan is the Sage. It is you in your Real Nature. It is to be out of the game, a bonfire on fire, heating everything, giving shine and warmth around.

Inside the game, you are a fool. No matter how much luxury you live surrounded, no matter how much health there is in your body, or how much wealth you have or believe you have, you remain a wretch.

This is only in inattention, in unconsciousness, not in the basis of the Reality present; this is still the periphery, the surface, the movement of the game, the movement of the unconsciousness of thought.

That is why my invitation to you is: Awaken! Take a leap out of the mind. Go beyond duality. This duality starts with the personal pronoun I, when you refer to yourself, pointing to the presence of the present body there. It is not about a mechanical, learned and unconscious matter. This is about awakening! This does not require time. In fact, this is the end of time. For deals and agreements, time is needed. Once again, we are seeing the fraud, the lie, the illusion, anything happening within time, this is assuming Happiness’ place. What happens in relationships: a contract, a settled thing, I give this to you and you give me that. It works that way.

You are already complete, you are not making an agreement with life, you are not in a relationship with it, you are not separate from it as Consciousness. Therefore, Consciousness is Love! There is no agreement there. You cannot have a relationship with God, you cannot make a deal with Him, you cannot enter into a contract, you cannot control this. It is so simple... you cannot do it in time, you cannot negotiate. Don’t fool yourself about it, you cannot negotiate with me. It is not an agreement but surrender, surrender in this awakening.

This is very uncomfortable: to get out of control. Everything you are in contact with, you transform it into a relationship, a possibility for you to trade, to bargain, basically to control. It is impossible to awaken like this. Awakening requires vulnerability, which implies having no power, no control, and this is very frightening. As if there was no fear in control, as if control was not exactly a need for safety that fear itself produces. You are conditioned to live in fear, so you have to control everything.

When you come to this space called Satsang, you only come here because you are tired of relationships. You are tired of all this game, then I can give you upadesa. You are tired of all this inattention, all this unconsciousness, all this control, all this sense of being someone. That’s when I can give you something to feed that flame, that flame of Attention, which is possible in this Consciousness. Then, your fire burns, and when it burns you are out of the limitation of time, space, an "I"... so Bhagavan is present, the blessed, the Buddha, the Awakened One!

*Presential meeting transcription, originally held in meeting held in João Pessoa city, Brazil, on August 2017. – First published in Portuguese on December 10, 2017. For more information, please access: http://mestregualberto.com.

The Essential Reality

It is always great we are together. What I consider important here is not the words, but the fact of your Own Presence. It is not a presence of a person, of a participant in a room where people get together, but it is the very own Presence of Reality.

Right now, you exist and you are conscious. That is the important thing! Without any thought, you are absolutely sure about your Being. You are sure of being conscious. This is the essential Reality which we are pointing out in these meetings. Just that! This is the Essential Reality: Consciousness. All Sages throughout all time, all Buddhas talked exactly about this, only about this. This is the core, the essence of the message of Buddha, Ramana, Jesus, all of them.

In Satsang, we are talking about this Consciousness, which is Presence. This is the unique Reality. Therefore, it is the only “thing” that matters. You cannot obtain nor lose This! This Consciousness is not an object. It is not a thought. It is not an idea. I may now say something that, intellectually, seems to be hard to follow, but this Consciousness is real despite you. It does not matter if you are in “sleep” state, “dreaming” state, imagination, or identification with thoughts. Consciousness remains as the unique Reality, That what You are in your Being.

The common state of the human being is “sleep state.” He/she is born, grows up, gets married, raises a family, gets old, gets sick, and dies. All this happens while he/she is “sleeping,” but even so this Reality remains always present. Then, what you call “life” is just a “dream” state of the mind in which you identify with and experience the world. In fact, this world of yours, the world of someone who dreams, is inside your own mind. However, this Consciousness You are is beyond all of this. It is full, total, complete, now, right here. You are prior to the mind. Your True Nature is the unique Reality and the only “thing” that matters.

People get involved with every kind of spiritual practices and religious exercises, and so they get fantastic skills in this so called “spiritual world.” It gives them much power. They become “differentiated,” “special” people, but what is behind it all is still the movement of the “dream,” the movement of the egoic mind. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Sage’s purpose, the One who is free, living in His/Her True Nature. I know that some of you here in the room are shocked by listening to it, because for many years you have been acquiring skills in this so called “spiritual world.”

Satsang has an entirely different purpose. It has nothing to do with the result of fantastic skills in the world of spirituality. A Realized man is not a spiritual being; He is just the Natural Being. People believe the contact with Divine is the contact with spirituality, but the contact with Divine is the contact with Reality. Reality is natural; it does not make anybody special. The Natural State is the end of the sense of an identity present in this so-called experience “human life.” It is the end of the ego, and therefore it cannot make you a special being.

The deepest understanding is the simplicity of your True Nature, the recognition of that Presence-Consciousness that You are. It is not about finding something through fantastic skills in the so called “spiritual world,” but just about recognizing the Reality of your own Home, your own True Nature. When This is present, imagination disappears, and then the imagined “person” disappears from the “movie,” from the “dream,” from this “life.” Notice that I did not say the “dream” or the “movie” disappears; the “movie” goes on, but there is not the “person” anymore. Thus, there are thoughts, but there is not the “thinker” anymore; actions, but not the “author;” choices, but not “the one who chooses.”

So, basically, there is not any difference, except this one: there is no more the sense of “person,” of the “character in the movie.” There is not the sense of separation anymore; it is gone. It is clear that when it is gone, there is no "someone" to psychologically suffer, fear, envy, control, and so on. Notice that it does not make you someone special. It is just the realization that You are Free, living in your Real Nature, without conflict, suffering, fear, and without the illusion of being in control, doing things. You are Pure Consciousness!

When you look at the sea, it is not possible to imagine that it is worried about its waves. Inside a small boat with a broken rudder, or with broken outboard motor, lost in the middle of the sea, at the mercy of the wind and the heavy storm, with huge waves coming up and down, someone worries about the waves, but the sea is not worried about its own waves.

You, as Consciousness, aware of Yourself, of your True Nature, are the Real Sea. In the illusion of the sense of separation, you are just a broken boat in the middle of the ocean under a heavy storm, heavy wind, rain, and before rough sea. This is the illusion of your “dream”! In this sea, which is the existence, “you,” as a separate entity, feel like that: afraid and lost. This sea, in which you are lost, is in your imagination. In the Real Sea, You are not separate from the waves. You are these waves and they are the Sea. Therefore, the Sea is You! In Consciousness there is no the sense of separation, and so there is nothing like a “lost little boat.”

In your imaginary world, your life turns around beliefs, concepts, ideas, thoughts, stories, of a past you believe you have lived, and a future you believe you will live, or you are afraid it will not happen, or yet it will happen differently from imagined. All of this is in your mental imaginary world, in which you are a small boat lost in this ocean of existence – an imaginary existence for a small imaginary boat. This is the sense of separation, the illusion of a false “me”.

You cannot solve it! I have said it is a maze that you have not entered, because there is no door, and therefore there is no way out either. Chinese and Japanese Sages in Zen use Koans, which are questions or enigma that cannot be answered or solved. So, notice it: I have told you here this Realization is not something special. It is Natural, but at no moment did I say it is something common, ordinary, something the mind can access. This is “something” beyond the mind, beyond religious and spiritual practices, beyond all kind of “gymnastics.”

You cannot find in the mind any answer to This we are talking about here, which is “something” Natural, simple, but not ordinary or easy. You may gather a great amount of information, read all the books that have ever been written about Self-Realization, Awakening, Enlightenment. You may watch all the current videos of the so called “gurus” talking about This. You may listen to all speeches, including this one here and other similar ones; however, none of this will make you Free. No technique, practice, discipline or exercise will be able to help you.

There is only one way, a direct path, which is not an easy one, but it is the most natural and the simplest one: Consciousness. You need to pay attention to the movement of this subjective, psychological world of yours. Moment by moment, you need to see yourself, become aware of yourself, of what goes on inside, of what are your thoughts, feelings, perceptions, emotions, imaginations, beliefs, fears, desires… You need to be aware of your story and not be identified with it. In other words, you have to be aware of this character you are identified with, but which is not you.

Thus, the only direct way is this self-investigation in this Consciousness, which is Meditation, and in this surrender, which is to abandon all this. You only awake from the dream when you become aware that to keep on sleeping is not worth. For the great majority, everything is fine, comfortable. If you are here in Satsang, it is because there is something already bothering you in this “dream” model, otherwise you would not be here, because the great majority has good friends, a beautiful family, a bright future ahead. They have already accomplished their goals or they believe that they will be able to achieve them in the future.

Actually, the dream is not exactly the problem, but not being aware it is just a dream, yes. So, there is a lack of Consciousness, and It comes from self-investigation. What we are doing together is to perceive the illusion of this character who has a name, a shape, a story and a world of relations. This self-investigation reinforces in you this sense of inadequacy, making you suspect of this "dreaming" state in which you live. When this is defined, the real Awakening work begins. That is what we are doing in all of our meetings.

Your family, your friends and all society are “sleeping.” When you start to question this “dream,” you are approaching the possibility of stopping dreaming. If you stop dreaming, the “dream” goes on, but no more to you. Thereby, in your Natural State, the world is seen as 3D movie, a great movie of ideas and thoughts, which now can no longer capture you.

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on July 22nd, 2019. First published in Portuguese on September 13th, 2019. For more information, please access: http://mestregualberto.com.

The communication of silence

People say that Ramana was in silence. His Upadesa, his teaching, was always through Silence; but you should not mistake Ramana's Silence for the silence of non-speech. He was in Silence and has communicated in silence. For us, communication is speech; for the Sage, communication is communication. He was giving a message in silence, but He was not in silence of not communicating. Even in our ordinary experience, we know that communication does not depend on speech.

The sound of the voice, the speech, is only a way of communication, but it is not the most important one. For the Sage, the greatest form of communication is Silence, but Silence does not imply absence of voice or speech... Ramana also spoke!

What we see in the mind is a speech that does not communicate and a sound that does not say anything. In our common day by day experience, we may notice that just a glance, a gesture, or a facial expression is sufficient for something to be communicated. When there is an anger face expression directed at you, you know the other is angry. When one opens a smile, you know he/she is happy to see you, that you make one fell well.

You are in Satsang to receive communication, to know what is being asked from you. You come to Satsang to find out how to Realize What You Are, and the primary premise is that you are in front of a Buddha, or it should be like that. You are here to find out how not to suffer anymore, how to make no mistake, how not to be unhappy. So, if that is the purpose in Satsang, you need to find out what to take and what to abandon, what is relevant and what is not relevant to you.

The question you have to formulate in Satsang is, "Who am I?" Then, you wait for communication, which may come by speech, by gesture, by look, by silence... If your willingness is to receive, to find out what you have to take and what you have to abandon, communication will come.

This picture for me [Master points to the picture of Sri Ramana Maharshi], during all these years, was not just an inert image, a facial expression. My Guru, the Master, was saying, through this picture, what was false and what was not, what was an illusion and what was real, what I had to take and what I had to abandon in order to realize Happiness. So, this image was never the same. It was always communicating this investigation.

It is no wonder at all, because life is all the time giving you signs of what are mere repetitions, habits and practices that mean absolutely nothing to you, to your Happiness, to your Realization, and you should let it go. In the same way, life is showing you what you should get, what is relevant and what is not relevant, what is important and what is not important.

In general, a person cannot see these signs of life, cannot see these expressions on the "face" of life. So, this person needs a living Master, a Guru, to see on the expression of a human face what is Real and what is not real, what is worth sustaining and what is not worth. Therefore, the Guru will always be important.

The Guru does not necessarily need to have a human form, but the Guru must have a face. If the Guru has a face, He/She is the Satguru, and if you can look at Guru’s face, He/She is your Master. Nevertheless, if you cannot look at his/her face, you are still blind. The ability to look at Guru’s face comes from a work of Grace, that mysterious power that provides you openness, intelligence and fervor... A Real Passion for That! I call It Grace, which is what gives you the possibility to approach This, so that you can see It.

I was blind, but now I see! You see, the face communicates, and then you have the intelligence, the fervor and the ability to "learn." You "learn" when you unlearn! When you unlearn your model, you "learn" what is Real. In a moment, this "face" will be smiling at you, and the next moment it will say, "You are holding what you should not hold, you are sustaining a misunderstanding, a mistake, a lie. Let it go!" In fact, this "face" is not Santa Claus’s communication - "Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas to everyone!" Santa Claus is an illusion and his bag of gifts too.

What are you sustaining that basically keeps you away from Realizing Happiness? What is your real impediment?

Participant I: Myself!

Master Gualberto: What is this "myself" which is the real impediment? If this "myself" is a fiction, how can it be a real impediment? How is this "I" configured? What is it made of?

Participant II: It is made of appreciation! When I value the thoughts that appear, when I give importance to it.

Master Gualberto: When you value your thoughts, what are you basically valuing?

Participant I: The illusion of someone separate, with his/her own life, who must have things the way he/she wants, who must have the desires achieved... It is conflict! It is to stand against life!

Master Gualberto: That´s it! Knowing what you want and what you do not want, the right and the wrong, what should be and what should not be. This is the impediment!

* Presential meeting transcription, originally held in meeting held in João Pessoa city, Brazil, on December 2017. - First published in Portuguese on May 21, 2018. For more information, please access: http://mestregualberto.com.

The immersion of the mind into the heart

Welcome to Satsang! We are once again together in this wonderful purpose, which is the approximation to the recognition of this moment. Our Natural State of Being is right now, at this moment, of absolute Happiness, and that is what has escaped from us. What obscures the flow or expression of this Happiness are these constant thoughts occurring inside the head, in a rapid succession.

Thoughts are like clouds obscuring our Natural State of Happiness. The habit of the mind is this restlessness... The "egoic mind" is extremely agitated. In this state, we are unable to experience this inherent Happiness.

Unhappiness is the agitation of the mind – too much occupation, preoccupation, anticipation – and all confusion is a consequence of that. The truth is that the mind is constantly being driven by its old habits and conditionings. So, this movement of identification with thoughts, which produces desires and fears, is something very constant.

So, mind is constantly encouraged to move outwards, always moving toward its externalities, always toward things that it imagines to be important for itself. You can observe it, the mind is always occupied with particular subjects, always involved with stories connected to the sense of personality, personal one. The purpose of the mind is to accomplish something for itself, for the sense of "person" is very important to it. The mind is basically this sense of "person." So, our Natural State of absolute Happiness, present in this instant, is being obscured by the constant movement of the mind and its thoughts. The greater is the activity of the mind, the more obscure this State becomes. The faster is this restless movement of the mind, the more is anxiety, stress, nervousness, preoccupation, and suffering.

Right now, in this room, you have an encounter with a speech born of this Natural State of Happiness. So, the Master is the one who shows us it is not possible to realize or to reach Happiness, because it is something already present here and now, in this instant. All we have to do is to turn ourselves to the right direction, which is not the exterior. The correct direction is the immersion of the mind into the "Heart," and this is the space or place of Happiness.

Perhaps, your question is: "How to lessen this agitation? The mind and its agitation, the mind and its thoughts, the mind and its plans, projects, worries, anticipation?" Maybe, that is your question, and this is why our emphasis is on Meditation.

The art of Happiness is the art of Meditation, but it is not what you mean by meditation, for Meditation is not quietening the mind temporarily, so it will get agitated again. This kind of meditation has been taught around the Planet.

What I understand by meditation is to be quiet, not to be physically quiet, nor to force the mind to stillness. In a certain way, with some exercise, some practice and time, you can do this, learning to focus the mind on one single point, to breathe in a certain way. There are several techniques that can give you this, in this format. Our emphasis here is completely different.

Basically, Meditation is the flowering of your Natural State, and the "soil" for the flowering of This, of this Meditation, your Natural State, is the careful, patient, applied observation of the movement of the mind, moment by moment. So this self-observation is the Real way of investigating the illusion of this false “I.” Therefore, self-investigation is self-observation.

If you are driving your car or walking somewhere or sitting watching TV, this is the time to observe this false "I." Just watch it! Observe the thoughts that come up, the concerns, the motivations, the memories of two hours ago, from a previous day. So, in front of the TV, driving the car, or walking, you are watching the story of a false “I" revealing itself. When that comes, it tries to capture you in time, which is created by thought, by that imagination, which is memory. Thought is always imagination, which is knowledge.

This knowledge, which is thought, imagines the past and the future. When you get lost in this time created by thought, you are identified with a character, with the story of that false “me.” As you drive the car, walk or watch television, it is not this moment that matters to the "ego-identity," but the story that arises at that moment. When you are captured by the story, you are in the illusion of the false “me” agitated by this "ego-identity," and there is no Freedom, Peace, Love, Happiness.

So, Happiness is not present in driving the car, walking or watching television. You are identified with a character, trapped in the story of the "I," of this false identity. This is the illusion of this character, its illusory state of being; it is the absence of your Natural State of Meditation. Therefore, Meditation begins when this space is completely free from mental agitation, memory, imagination, these thoughts.

You have to discover the Happiness of your Natural State, which is Meditation in that instant, in this present moment. This is Real Meditation: to completely disidentify from this illusory "I," this character. This fundamental Presence of our Being is pure Consciousness, pure Freedom, Truth, Happiness.

Notice that in our lines, we never separate "Being" from "Happiness," because Being is Happiness and Happiness is never separate from Meditation! This is the truth behind everything. When, by an action of the Grace, you are attracted to Satsang, when you come to Satsang, the only purpose of this encounter is the encounter with God, which is Being, Consciousness, Happiness. So, the Guru, or the Master, is the one who attracts us exactly to show us the irrelevance of the mind, the illusion of this character you believe you are.

It is quite interesting... Everyone is drawing your attention to exteriority. When the Master comes up, the Master captures your attention so that you turn inwards – here is the importance of the Guru.

The Guru is the one who tells you, "You are not the mind, you are not the body; you are not these feelings, nor these thoughts." My comprehension of this reveals you have no condition to discover this alone, otherwise you would already have done it. The Master is the one who points out, who highlights, who shows you this, because this work is already done in a true Master.

What I am talking about is that a true Master is the One who has already realized This. I am not talking about a teacher, a mentor, someone who still feels like a "person" but speaks theoretically of this "non-person." Therefore, sharing the Truth is sharing the Being, the Happiness, and This is Meditation!

OK? Let's stop now. Thanks for the meeting! Namaste!

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on September 20th, 2017 – First published in Portuguese on November 28, 2017. For more information, please access: http://mestregualberto.com.

The imaginary world of the mind

Until nowadays, you believed God would come, would appear in your life to save you. I am saying that when God comes into your life, it is to put an end to this illusion you need to be saved, rescued. When God comes into your life, it is for the end of this illusion you are here and God is there, that you were here waiting for and God just came to meet you. It is about the end of this illusion there are God and you.

Look at the people around you... What do they say? What do they deal with? They talk about the past, or their personal experiences, their desires, their fears, their beliefs, their disbelief, their hopes, their yearnings, concerns, dreads, their particularity... a constant search for self-fulfillment by sharing something with someone, just to be important, to be seen, to get the validation of the person they believe to be. They are using you, and all of you – as people you are – are using others. You all are playing the same game.

This conversation about nothing never ends! Pure stupidity! Only the “mechanisms,” the “machines” are changing, but it is just the mind talking to itself.

These “machines” see each other in an illusory way as separate entities, in a relationship based on reciprocity, fellowship, friendship. However, this is not real, because you are not real. If you are not real, the other is not real either; and since the other is not real, who are you talking to? Who are you? It is only the mind in its old and tireless "blah, blah, blah."

When you are with me, you are in Satsang, and that means being apart of the constant and feverish activity of this inner “blablablá,” of this chattering saying things to yourself and to others.

Being in Satsang means remaining in Silence, and that is the purpose of coming to me. You come to me to get silent, not to daydream. Do you know what “to daydream” means? This constant walk that takes place in this virtual world created by thought, like this 3D roller coaster, which we have just seen. You wear glasses and take a trip: you go up, go down, go through the loop... but, in fact, you have not left any place.

Ego works like this. It is as real as this 3D virtual trip with special glasses. You do not leave the place and however you travel... A journey that never ends, which is corroborated by everyone, that everybody helps you to make it. Everyone says it is like this anyway, this is the model, the formula, the format, that this is how it should be, and I come to Satsang to question it.

In Satsang, which means establishing yourself in Silence, entering, plunging into this Silence, I question this illusion – the illusion of someone in a trip. In my talk, in my silence, in my look, I am saying, "you are there, you do not have to take this trip. You do not have to daydream. You do not have to move into this illusory world of thought, belief, relationship, where you need people and things, where you need to be with others to vent, to unburden yourself... What to unburden? What to vent? With whom?

If you remain with the pain, you go beyond it. If you share it, it becomes stronger, maintaining its continuity in this illusion, which is the illusion of someone in it, of someone within that pain. There is no one in this pain! This pain will not kill you, because you were never born, so you cannot die. You cannot experience immortality or mortality.

So, keep that pain and find out it has no reality, except in this imaginary world of thought in which you take a trip on a roller coaster with 3D glasses.

*Online meeting transcription – First published in Portuguese on November 26th, 2016. For more information, please access: http://mestregualberto.com.

Thought decides absolutely nothing

Satsang highlights the present Truth. We are here always pointing out That which is never absent. Your job here is to investigate What remains immutable. It is to find out there is no “me,” no “person” present in this experience. This investigation itself happens as a mysterious phenomenon, for there is not “anybody” to investigate anything. However, the investigation is important and needs to happen. There is no “me,” there is no real sense of an entity present in this experience called “human life.” In other words, all the sense of limitation you experience in life is as false as the experiencer.

As time goes by, you formulate an idea about who you are, that is, you have an image, a picture, a mental concept. You have an image about yourself and you really believe how true is this image. So, all your reference about life is based on this image, the illusion of a present entity, and therefore of a centered ego, a sense of a central “entity,” in which experiences happen. So, when you believe you have done, felt, or lived something, it is just a thought arising to confirm the belief of this identity. Thinking is a practice, a habit.

This format of the thought, “I did,” “I felt,” “I thought about it,” this is a habit. These statements are just beliefs. So you have a feeling that you have not done anything right, that you could have done better, and in the future, you will be able to do differently than you believe you have done. Nevertheless, this is only self-image, a creation of the thought, a picture, a painting created by ideas. The ideas “I was not good enough,” “I am sad, because I did it wrong,” “I could be a better person,” these are just mental images and have no power. To investigate and see this trick in which the mind has been captured, this is our job in Satsang!

This ego, this “me,” this “I,” this “person” does not have any real substance, because its construction material is a fiction, is made of imaginative matter. Thought is the imaginative material of the construction of this identity. This notion of past, present and future is also part of it. Present is the idea “I am here.” Past is the idea “I was there.” Future is the idea “I will be in another place out of here.” However, I am here to tell you there is no “me,” there is nobody in this ingenious, mysterious, and magical project of the thought. Thought is just a phenomenon, like rain that appears for a while, makes a big fuss, gets everything wet, and then it stops.

When you say “I can hear it,” who is hearing? Are you hearing now? Or is this hearing just a mechanical phenomenon of this structure, of this biological living machine? The body is this: a biological machine. You swear you are hearing, seeing, feeling, but it is just an experience of this biological structure. What You are is beyond this experience. However, you do not know the Truth about yourself. Then you mistake yourself for the body among these experiences and two hours later you say, “I heard that,” “I saw that situation,” “I was there,” referring to the supposed past in which you believe you had lived as an entity that witnessed something.

All you are doing is just about sharing memory. What is a memory? It is basically an imagination present in this mechanism, in this organism, in this brain. So, you are reporting a supposed event that you believe you have lived. Notice: I am not denying what happens, I am just saying that there is nothing going on for "someone." That is exactly why you suffer: you take seriously the imagination of being someone in the experience to whom everything happens. So, there is the matter of desire, of choice, of illusion about the freedom of doing, of the fiction of the control, and this implicates future.

If you look closely at this, you will find out there is no future under your control, under your choice, under your desire. To believe in this control is to sustain the suffering. When you are thinking about something, this is only a phenomenon of the thought happening, there is no “you” in this experience. However, because you believe to be in this experience, you believe in loving and hating, in frustration, hope, and all kind of things. The truth is that you cannot think, because “you” do not exist. There is no way to think about the past or the future, because thought happens in this machine, in this mechanism, without "you."

You do not control your thoughts and yet you feel guilty. Notice the absurdity of this: there is the illusion of someone feeling guilty for simply believing that he/she should have thought and done differently than what he/she had thought or done. There is someone afraid of what might happen, just because he/she is imagining the future, as if he/she had any control over it, over what thought produces, or over what might happen. In fact, when the thought about future is happening, that is imagination happening now, without someone's control. So, trusting in thought is the dumbest thing on the part of a human being. Nothing is as stupid as that! All human stupidity and mediocrity start from this: confidence in thoughts.

Thought has no any power. It decides absolutely nothing! Some things happen in such a way that they seem to be confirming some idea that went on in your head, and based on that, you have been spending your years trusting it is the thought that happens. What happens is Life! Thought is also just a happening, but it determines nothing. As a matter of fact, it does, determines all the illusion of your life, all the confusion and disorder. Because you believe to be the thinker who can control, do or choose, you are in confusion with problems as imaginary as thought.

What is going wrong in your private life, or in the world, if thought cannot say anything about it? Tell me about your problem without the idea, the belief, the memory, the remembrance, therefore, without the imagination of a thought. Without thought, what is your story and what is wrong with you? What is out of place in your private life in the world? The moment you begin to understand that your thoughts are just mental concepts and that Life is just going on, giving no importance to whatever form of thought you have, you face the opportunity to discover that thought is illusion.

This makes all the difference for the end of this illusion of the sense of someone present, of this belief in a separate entity. This way, this body-mind, which you call "me," has the opportunity to live without conflict, effort, and suffering. What I am saying is that thoughts are phenomena that happen, but there is no one involved in it. Choices also happen, but there is no one in the choice. Control, choice, thinking, or whatever seems to happen, happens without someone. It is only the Existence working, the Consciousness, which is the only Truth present making everything happen spontaneously, effortlessly, without an author, without a doer, without a controller, without a thinker.

The unique Real Presence making all of this possible is this Intelligence, Energy, Presence, Truth, Consciousness. This is the Nature of all manifestation. It is your Identity, your Real Nature. This is Supreme Intelligence, with no need for this illusion of doing, thinking, feeling, controlling. Realization is this Verification. Everything else is happening as a mirage, which seems to be real, but it is not. It is just this false identity that feels under a very strong sun and stepping on hot sand. If this identity disappears, the mirage also disappears, and what remains present is this Intelligence, Energy, Consciousness, Truth, God. So, it is possible to live Love, Real Joy and Real Happiness!

To know God is to be God! I have just named God as this Intelligence, Energy, Consciousness, but if you do not like these words, you may eliminate them. God is not going to be bothered with that.

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on June 10th, 2019 – First published in Portuguese on August 2nd, 2019. For more information, please access: http://mestregualberto.com.

You know nothing about Your Self!

A meeting like this is an opportunity for you to see yourself. Your life in the mind is a big illusion. All the knowledge you have is part of this illusory state. To be able to see yourself, you need a mirror. You are not able to know anything about you if all you have is the old and former movement of the mind.

The mind is something that carries knowledge and ignorance. It is really hard for you to accept that you need a mirror, and that is the problem. There is not a single point where Reality is not present, but you do not know that. In order to see your face, you need a mirror. Happiness is inside you and not outside of you, but you need a mirror to see this. You know nothing about Your Self! So the belief you have about yourself is of the experience of an egoic identity present in the world. This is all because you do not see your face, you do not know the true Happiness that is inside you.

All your experience in the world is from the mind, from this false “me,” from this false identity, from this ego-identity. Because you do not contemplate Your Self in the mirror, because you do not know the Truth about Your Self, you are unhappy. You shoulder all kind of problem in this psychological world of yours, a world which you come across without having seen yourself in the mirror. Happiness is something present when this world is forgotten. You are looking for Love, Peace, Happiness, and Freedom. In fact, everybody is, but only 1% of humanity, or maybe even less, is looking for This in the right place, because they are looking for This outside, in desires, projects, and dreams of the mind.

You need to contemplate Your Self! When you contemplate your Real Nature, a feeling of love without cause overwhelms you, fills your whole Being, and that is the end of illusion. Illusion needs to disappear! As long as illusion is present, there will be no Peace, Happiness, and Freedom. Only when you are tired of the external world, you will yearn to be alone in your Being. You are afraid of being alone because you are not tired of lie and illusion. That is why you want a company, the projection, the desire, the dream imagined by the mind.

Your Real Being, your True Nature, is beyond pleasure and pain. Illusion cannot provide you a thing called Reality. Illusion cannot provide you a thing called Happiness, Peace, Freedom, and Love. It cannot! My question to you is, are you part of that 1% of people interested in Truth or part of the large crowd? You know how the large crowd lives, for your parents have lived this way, your grandparents and great grandparents too, as well as all people around you. There is not even one of your relationships that is truly happy, even among your accomplishments.

The complete abandonment of illusion means Self Realization. Truth is the basis of everything. Truth is the basis of Freedom, Peace, and Love… If there is no Truth, you have no Love, Peace and Happiness. If you love and cultivate lies, you will never know God, the Truth. So, you need some training. Satsang is the training for you to change your patterns, for this pattern of beliefs and fixation on the illusion to lose the enchantment. What I am saying is that you need to lose the excitement, the pleasure and the habit of living in lies. It will maybe take some time. It will maybe take a lifetime; but I think that some of you here in this room have already passed 15 years of age. So time has already passed and it is time to turn to This.

The point is: You are the Truth, but without a mirror you cannot know this. Otherwise, cultivation of lies predominates and prevails. There is no point where Reality is not present, no moment when It is not present. You are always under Its Face, but you cannot see It. The world itself is not a problem. When I say, “forget the world,” I am not saying the world is the problem. I am saying the mind is the problem, is the illusion. When you comprehend illusion is illusion, this can no longer affect you. The point is that without self-investigation, you do not have a mirror to know how your face looks, nor to know that illusion is illusion. That means you take illusion for Reality.

The person is always afraid, confused, and full of conflict. Conflicts are those contradictory desires you have. When there is Real Comprehension, there is nothing to gain or lose. When Truth is present, there is no conflict anymore. I have talked to you about the possibility of a State free from conflict, fear and confusion, but you do not pay attention to it. You do not have real interest in it!

Curiously, today you are here in this room. I talk to you about the simplest and highest Comprehension, and when It settles inside you, Truth becomes clear – the Truth of all Sages, throughout all time in the human history. The Truth of the Comprehension present in your True Nature is the Truth of Buda, of Christ, of Krishna.

You are right now listening [reading] to this speech, but this speech is not the Truth. When you have a thorn in your foot, you use another thorn to take that one out. You are not going to put a new thorn on top of the one that was already there, you are going to use the second one to take the first one out. So are these speeches. I do not want you to learn, to memorize, to save or to flounder about what you are listening to.

Do not reflect on this, for it is not wise! It is wise to accept that this thorn takes out the thorn therein. What I am saying is that the false can be removed by the false; a thorn can take another thorn out. However, if you only learn this speech, thinking it is beautiful, it is going to be just another thorn with the first one. So, this speech (which is not real, but it could work like a thorn to take out another thorn that was there) is going to be useless. In other words, you need to accept that everything that goes on in your mind is illusion. All knowledge and all ignorance that are present there, are part of illusion. The Real Medicine that brings healing is Real Knowledge, but Real Knowledge is beyond words. It is born from the Comprehension that comes with the welcoming of Truth. Something that is only possible in the Silence. That is my speech!

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on July 15th, 2019 - First published in Portuguese on August 19, 2019. For more information about how to participate, please access: http://mestregualberto.com.

The real answer is revealed in the Silence

Here, in these meetings, we talk about the Real Nature, and this is something beyond words. No matter the amount of facts we investigate here, the purpose of these meetings is to be able to go beyond words.

Truth is not an accumulation of facts. It is something without a cause... So, this I Am - which we talk about here - is not something abstract. It is not a concept or an idea. Teaching the Truth is not about sharing concepts. The real answer is revealed in the Silence. It appears in this Silence. It requires you to be open to this; that is, you need to allow yourself to be touched by the Truth, and this is something that requires real sensitivity to the Silence. Silence carries the fragrance of Truth!

When you listen to a song and care about the meaning of the lyrics, you stop listening to the melody. When you are going to listen to music, you cannot worry too much about the meaning of words. Truth is not revealed in the words but in the Silence. Therefore, my recommendation to you is: remain with the music, immerse yourself in this music, do not worry about the lyrics. When that happens, this openness to the music itself, to the Silence itself underneath the words, can bring you back home. Your home is your Real and True Nature.

When you say, "I am a mother" or "I am a son," you are not saying anything about yourself. When you say "I am an American" or "I am a Brazilian," you continue saying nothing about yourself. Therefore, the words within this meeting, with this song, are pointing out something prior to all this. This is the new kind of knowledge... It is not knowledge born from the accumulation of information, experience, and perception of facts, but the direct knowledge of your own Being, of your own Real Nature - the knowledge of who You are.

All knowledge of experiences, facts, and concepts is external to what You are. Nevertheless, this knowledge of which we are speaking here is something straightforward. So, when you say, "I am a mother" or "I am a son," or "I am American," or "I am Brazilian," it means absolutely nothing. This is the kind of knowledge the mind has, the mind seeks, the mind desires... There is no Truth in this kind of knowledge! This True Knowledge we speak in Satsang is the knowledge of your Real Nature, and it is non-objective, non-spatial.

The purpose of this meeting is to go back home, or to discover home Here and Now. This knowledge is the Real Knowledge of your Self. You need to investigate yourself; not what is outside, but what You are, Here and Now, inside you. Most part of the time, you are living in a reactive way, that is, giving answers to exteriorities.

I want to invite you to observe, to observe your reactions, to observe where this movement is taking place. You will soon realize it is only in the exteriority, and thereby they are mere reactive actions. Mind lives reactively, while your Real Being never reacts. The mind is reacting all the time, while your Being remains unattainable, Pure Consciousness... your Being is not bound to this knowledge of facts, of experiences – the objective knowledge. Your Being is pure Freedom, and in that Freedom, there is Peace, the Bliss of your True Nature, of your Real Nature.

So, you cannot discover the Truth about yourself externally through knowledge or objective experience. Real knowledge about you is the liberation of all conditioning and therefore of all knowledge that mind, experience and observation produce, which can be demonstrated or explained through facts.

We must discover the music; the music can reveal the Being, while the word can only point to This. We are using this expression “word and music” within that context, within that speech, exclusively. The emphasis on this speech is always about pointing out what is beyond speech and, in these words, pointing out the music itself.

So, the most important thing in this meeting is Silence, and not the word. It is the dive, the immersion in the music itself. Thus, you have to discover how to observe yourself, how to observe what goes on internally, what your purposes, intentions, reasons, and reactions are. Start doing it, Here and Now, right now. This provides this structure with the sensitivity and vulnerability for this encounter with you. This is Real Meditation!

* Online meeting transcription, originally held on November 06th, 2017- For more information about how to participate, please access: mestregualberto.com

What is to Realize God?

Basically, you are conditioned to rely on ideas, thoughts, and here our investigation is about this conditioning.

Mind works in this movement of memory, of thought. If you have a real interest in the Truth, you need to go beyond memory, beyond thought. Thought functions as repetitive and continuous programming. You, for example, never talk without memory. In a conversation, people are just exchanging memories and remembrances. What we call “communication” is the exchange of memories, images, remembrances, of the past.

This is interesting because you do not know what past is. What you call “past” is just memory, remembrance, images, and thoughts. You do not know the past or the future, but you can imagine it. You imagine the past as something that happened to you. It's like taking a trip to the past. Something totally impossible that exists only in imagination, only in science fiction movies. You can imagine it, but you cannot go back to the past. You might say you were there, but in fact you were never there. You believe you are here... There is something present here, but it is not this imaginary "I" you believe to be. So, you are not here either, in what you call the present moment. Notice that this is basically what we are dealing with in Satsang.

If your interest is in the Truth, you need to let go of the illusion, the thought, the imagination. Basically, in Satsang, we deal with the end of imagination, the end of this imaginary world thought creates. It is in this imaginary world that you "have lived" the past or remember it. In fact, you have not lived the past, just like you are not living this present moment.

You are here today with me to investigate this matter of the Truth about You. You are not this movement of the mind, this imaginary movement of thought. This is a running program. Just as the heart is programmed to beat, just as the organs of the body work within a programming, the brain also has a programming in that mechanism. Thus, the mind has this movement of memories, remembrances, images, imaginations.

Basically, in Satsang, we investigate the nature of the Truth about ourselves. What is this Truth? The Truth is that this imagination is not you. All that you are looking for in this life is the Truth about yourself, and This is the only Real thing you can find. Apart from that, there is this movement of the mind, of images, memories, remembrances. You cannot live any moment in the past or future. What the mind does is to imagine it all.

The only Real "thing" you can find is yourself. To find yourself means being out of this movement of the mind. So, everything you can find in the mind is part of the illusion. In fact, nothing is being found, this is just an imaginary projection of thought; so is your world, so is your history.

Everything you know about yourself and can report by using the thought has nothing to do with who You truly are. Everything you can tell someone about yourself, or you can imagine about the world, about life, about the other, is false.

So what do we do in Satsang? We leave the imagination, we leave the history, we leave the imaginary movement of the “me,” this sense of the person. This is called Meditation, Satsang, the Encounter with Reality, the Encounter with Truth. That’s why I have said: what you are looking for is indeed Yourself!

It is pretty funny to me today, because I see you in this movement to find something, but you don't realize this is not a natural movement; it is a movement of the mind. So, it is not a movement to the Realization of Happiness. It is a movement to mediocrity, to misery, to confusion, to suffering. This is the whole movement of search that mind knows. That’s why the search must stop. The search is not part of this Reality, this Consciousness, this Presence that You are. The search is of interest to the mind.

Mind has an interest in search, philosophy, religion, esoteric practices, studies of holy books, and all sorts of spiritual practices. The mind is always in search of knowledge, experience, fulfillment, that is, it is in search of continuity. Not You! You are Consciousness. You Are Truth. You Are Supreme Reality! This is outside this dimension of what is known as "time." This is something out of the past, out of the future, out of what we call the present moment.

So, what is to Realize God? It is Realizing What is present outside the mind. So, This is present, but it is outside of this "present moment," outside of this "past" and this "future" the mind knows. This is why only Meditation reveals God. Only the absence of the mind reveals That which is out of time, out of the known. You have to throw it all away in order to be who You Are.

I'll repeat: everything must disappear so That, which is out of time, reveals Itself as the only Reality that floats above this ocean of apparitions and impermanence - past, present and future.

You cannot find anything other than Reality. Anything else you believe you have found other than what You Are is not real. The only Reality is what You Are, and That is out of everything you can find.

All you can really find is yourself, which is when everything disappears: your history, your world, your imagination, your past, your future, and your present. This is all imaginary, none of this has Reality! So, what is the cause of all your problems? What is the cause, the root, behind all this pursuit, all this unhappiness, misery and dissatisfaction?

When you look at it closely, you find out that all this takes place in this world of thought. Without thoughts, you have no problem. Without history, you do not exist. When you exist, you have problem.

Realization is the Truth that You are Real, but you do not exist. I will repeat: the Reality of Being is the Truth of not existing. This is to Realize That, which is ready, which is already here, which is timeless, which is out of mind, out of history, out of imagination, out of all that “blah blah blah” of mind. That is the Truth!

In India, they have an expression for this illusion: "maya." All this imaginary world, all these stories, memories, experiences, perceptions, sensations... all this is maya. They use the word "God" as a synonym for Consciousness, Truth. In that sense, it is That that sustains and is hidden behind all these apparent phenomena that arise and disappear, such as body, mind, world, stories, thoughts, past, future, and present. That is Absolute Intelligence, Truth, Consciousness, God; What it is unspeakable, indescribable, timeless, unknown.

So what is to Realize God? In the language of my Guru, it is to be God. Ramana said, “To realize God is to be God; to see God is to be God!” God is That which is present outside the time, which is here without a position in space.

This is something the mind cannot access. This is achievable in your Being, as your True Nature, in an easy, simple, straightforward and objective Realization. When the illusion of mind, of history, of memory fades away… Meditation! Is not that simple? I think so!

When thought comes, it creates stories, which is imagination about the past. If this imagination of the past vanishes, thought disappears.

So, That, which stands on its own, out of memory, time, history, mind, is the Absolute Intelligence. God, the Supreme Reality, your Self, your True and Divine Nature.

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on May 3th, 2019. For more information about how to participate, please access: mestregualberto.com

Surrender and trust

It is evident that these meetings here via Paltalk are not a substitute for the presential meeting. Here is the invitation for a real work in this proximity. These meetings here via Paltalk are like a long-distance dating, in which you cannot get married ... It has to be face-to-face. Only this way, a direct work is possible.

In these meetings, we are talking about this Intelligence, about this Reality. It is important that you stop thinking about it, because when you think about it, you destroy this thing. I advise you against thinking about what you hear here as well as retaining those words, because this can create the false illusion of realization, or the real illusion of a merely conceptual realization. What we are saying in Satsang is not for you to retain it! What we are saying is for you to observe and discover it directly. You hear these words like, "You are this Consciousness!; You are this Intelligence; You are this Absolute Reality." Nevertheless, do not think about It. In fact, do not think anything about It.

Awakening is not thinking about it, because “thinking about it” is to dream. You need to Awake! When you are Awakened, you are in Your True State and there is no thought about It! When you are Awakened, you are seeing It. So, it is not a matter of thinking about this... It is a matter of Awakening! It is about seeing it directly, without theories and beliefs. I am inviting you to go beyond problems, conflicts, suffering; to go to your Natural State! Forget your problems! In your Natural State, there is a Power that takes care of everything! Did you hear that?

You have to be open, to allow this, to allow yourself to this surrender! You must surrender your ego, your concepts, your opinions, your questions, your answers, your power too... everything... surrender your ego. That is exactly what happens. This abandonment, this surrender, this total involvement is the possibility you have to go beyond the ego, the egoic mind.

So, what do you do? Nothing! Then, you become your own Being. You leave the world alone and remain in that abandonment, in that surrender. You remain in this total involvement with Reality, and then you go beyond the body and mind. Here is the cure, the Liberation. There you are in your Divine State, in your Natural State.

Then, you will fully understand you are not that one who does, you are not the doer, you are not the one who accomplishes things! There is a Power taking care of it! Stop fighting! Stop trying to make things happen! Surrender yourself! Turn yourself inwards! Here is the beauty of this Reality, the Truth, the Liberation! So, you are simply the Being, this Reality! There is absolutely nothing you can do, you need to do, or you can do about it!

Put your heart and mind in the Self, in your Real Being... Your heart in the Heart. This Being is your Heart! Your Real Being is your Heart. So, you put your mind and heart into the Heart, into the Real Heart! Your Heart is God! Keep your mind in God! God in your Heart! Confidence, surrender, total surrender to this Absolute Reality, to this Real Presence, to this real Heart! Turn yourself to This... Go beyond this world imagined by the thought.

In other words, do not allow thoughts to turn outwardly, nor does the mind. Bring these thoughts, which were going to the outside, to the Heart. Find the Peace, the Happiness in yourself, therein... Stop going outside.

This mysterious Power knows everything... Everything we need, everything you need! We do not need to know how this Power takes care of us. We just need to allow this Power to take care of everything! This mysterious Power, which is this Real Presence, this Divine Presence, this Truth, is here tonight... It is Here! Open yourself to this... Allow this Power to take care of everything! We have to allow this Power!

Do not ask me why each one of these speeches goes in a certain direction. I do not know either!

You may ask if you have this ability to allow yourself... I answer: Totally! You all have it! That is because you are already this Presence, this Power. You are Sat-Chit-Ananda! You are not the body, the mind, the world! The world, the body and the mind appear, but they are not You.

How does this whole thing sound to you? It is a matter of surrender and trust! It is a matter of faith! It is a matter of giving up your ego, your control, your choice, your answers, your personal concepts. Give this all up! Abandon yourself to the Divine... Surrender to God, to the Truth. Then, when "you" are not present, God is. You will never understand this Presence, this Grace, this Power, this Truth and the way It acts. You will never understand and you do not even need to understand it... Just be receptive, allow yourself, be Empty! Remember that this “Empty” is not emptiness, it is the True Blessing, the True Grace!

Namaste everyone! See you next meeting!

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on November 30th, 2016 - First published in Portuguese on March 10th, 2017. For more information about how to participate, please access:mestregualberto.com.

Meditation is a leap in the Unknown

In Satsang, we talk about That, which is always present and is radiantly clear, undeniable as our True Nature. The common experience is to see and experience changes all the time because of the thoughts and the circumstances arising. This is the experience of the sense of personal limitation.

The common experience of human being is suffering, fear, doubt, anxiety and confusion. This because there is not the understanding of What is present here and surpasses the mind, which is beyond and curiously prior to the mind itself. This is the nature of the Being, the nature of Consciousness. This room for suffering, anxiety and confusion is not your Natural space of Being. It is your mental space of human experience. In your Being, you do not experience this confusion, this suffering, this fear, this frustration. Curiously, in the mind, you never stop experiencing this.

These encounters are revealing: they reveal your intimate Being, your Essential Nature, which is Freedom, Happiness. This is not your experience. It is your Real Nature. People look for an experience of Happiness and Freedom, but whatever experience they live will always be within the limitation of the mind. Your Being does not live in the experience, while the mind lives on experiences that are limited. Your Being, your True Nature is this undeniable Presence of Freedom, of Love and Happiness, but you cannot experience This. All you can experience is within the mind.

The Truth of your Being, which is this Freedom, Happiness, is not something you achieve or accomplish. Here, you find out what means to give up the mind, what means to stop giving credibility to it, to not trust in it. Your job is to discard what is false. Truth is already present. Thus, it is not about an experience that you are going to have, but rather the liberation of the illusion of the mind with all its apparatus of beliefs, perceptions, sensations, experiences. Do you follow this?

Meditation is a discard of illusion. You discard beliefs, concepts, hopes, doubts and desires. You do this through observation, through not trusting in any experience arising there inside your head, in any idea and formulation of story arising therein. You do not need to read books to learn how to do this. You need to observe and see that every thought is part of memory, of an imaginary story – the Sages always highlight this. The mind is a bundle of remembrances, of memories, of images... You need to break this up.

You are not going to Realize the Self by studying, reading books or trying to learn This from others. You are going to Realize your Self by observation, discovery, and self-investigation. You investigate patiently, carefully, lovingly, what is going on therein, and this is the basis for Real Meditation. Meditation has nothing to do with a practice, because from a practice you extract an experience. You have some experience because of a meditative practice, but it is still in the field of the mind.

Your Being does not know experiences. It does not live experiences, for every experience is part of the time. Your Being is the unknown Truth, which is not detected by the mind, while the mind can detect, nominate, remember and assume every experience as part of itself.

Meditation is a leap in the unknown, outside the world of the mind, which is this world of experiences, perceptions, beliefs, sensations, and so on. Then, when there is Real Meditation, there is no mind. You start by attention, this observation and then the Unknown is revealed; But you are not there. The experiencer and his/her experience are not there. Your Being is This, prior to the mind, for which we use the expression Natural State. Why Natural State? Because it is a state without effort, something spontaneous and available.

Truth is something like this, for it is always available. Truth does not hide Itself, but It is not achievable, conquerable. This implies something real, natural, here and now; something out of all limitation, influence, restriction... It is your Being, your Natural State. To me, “natural” has this implication, it is not a product of the experience. That is why meditation as a practice, as it is known, cannot give you This. What it can give you, as I have just said, is an achievable and attainable experience but not your Being. Your Being is not a product of the experience. It is something present and natural, although outside the time.

We are facing Something direct, intimate, natural, present, although out of time. You are This! You have always been and you will always be This! Thus, you are not going to be Enlightened tomorrow, because “tomorrow” is in time, is an imaginary experience. You always exist now. This is prior to the mind, prior to future, to past and present. This is just like saying that you never travel, that you never leave home. All the ego has been creating as a story, in this so-called “your life,” is only a fantastic extraordinary ability to imagine; it is a result of a fantastic imaginary enterprise: the thought!

You should not keep my speech, but you should go deep to live it directly. I did not say “direct experience,” I said “to live it directly,” that your Being is out of the experience. Thus, you have an intimate contact with your Natural State, which is Meditation.

That is why we have this space here called Ramanashram: it is for us to look closely at This. To those who have not been here, I recommend coming here soon. After all, this is the story you call "life." You can keep on living with a huge range of so-called “human” experiences and leave this world without knowing anything about your Self, without the slightest notion of what we are really meaning here in this speech.

Basically, there is no difference between you and me unless the sense of separation. You are afraid because you see yourself as a separate entity living a huge range of experiences, within an extraordinary and fantastic story created by imagination, by this imaginary mind, which says that you are what, in fact, you are not. That is the tiny difference.

My message in these encounters is for you to discover your imperishable, unchangeable Nature, which is free from fear, because it is free from the sense of duality and separateness. So, there is no difference between us, you just believe things that thought says and I remain in the Unknown.

Doubt, confusion, suffering, and fear fill every nook and cranny of this imaginary mental world in which you believe you exist as "someone." I am here telling you that there is only one Present Reality, and It is timeless, is out of these measures of thought, out of the past, present and future.

Then, are you going to keep on reading books and visiting people that seem to know more than you? This is going to be useless! The whole Truth is present in What You are, and this intimate and direct contact with this Truth is something available here and now when the mind is discarded. Here, the only thing is Meditation... This is the only thing!

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on June 14th, 2019 - First published in Portuguese on July 20th, 2019. Online meetings every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10 pm (Local Time: Brazil BRT), except during Retreat periods. For more information about Paltalk app and how to participate, please click here.

Meditation is Being!

I am not what you aren't! Therefore, I am not the Guru and you are not the disciple. I know it is not comfortable... There is something in you that does not want the Happiness you seek. I will repeat this: you are seeking Peace, but there is something in you that does not want Peace. You are seeking Freedom, but there is something in you that does not want Freedom. You are seeking Happiness, but there is something in you that does not want Happiness. You are seeking Real Love, but there is something in you that does not want Real Love.

You want substitute and fleeting things such as this "joy," or this egoic fulfillment present in the satisfaction of accomplishing something or seeing things coming true, because "you" are there being "someone" doing something. This is so and there is no way out of this labyrinth, because it is an illusion. This "someone" in this labyrinth is also an illusion.

Do not try to find solution for what has no solution. Relax and allow yourself to assume the Truth that you are not the body, are not the mind, are not the agent, are not "someone." While this illusion is present, in some moments you will be fulfilled by something; in other moments, not.

Thus, you will always live in this duality between pleasure and pain, between joy and sadness. The personal interest will always be present in this fulfillment of being someone to others and of "making a difference" in their lives... It is always the idea of ​​someone present, and this is not Love. This is not Freedom. This is not Happiness. This is not Truth. This is not Real Joy.

Realizing what you are is not to lose your life but to assume Life with all that represents, with all the completeness that Love and Wisdom represent.

I am inviting you to Meditation, which is the absence of the "sense of me" in any given experience, whatever it is, whether the most sublime or the most insignificant one. I am inviting you to Meditation, which is the absence of the mind in this chaotic and unsatisfactory movement of time, in this movement of knowledge and experience.

So, Meditation is Being! It is not a practice in which you "have" moments in the Self, but soon the mind returns and, with it, culture and knowledge. The "person" with his or her story comes back, and then conflict appears, because That cannot be obtained, accomplished or conquered by a practice. Nevertheless, the mind wants to conquer enlightenment, wants to obtain it in order to own it.

People come here and want That, but they want It in their time, because they do not want to give themselves enough time to go beyond time. They do not want to provide themselves – patiently, consciously, lovingly – time to go beyond time. This is not something to be solved in a workshop, in a 48-hour lesson plan. That is for your life! You have to put your life in this! You were born to realize That. You have this "your" life to realize That!

There is something paradoxical here, because That is not going to be realized in life. It is now that, in your Real Nature, This will be realized, learned, or understood, because It is not within time. It is the body that is within time, imposes limits, has a certain period to expire... The body is set like a sand hourglass, and there will come the day when "the last grain of sand will fall" and will stop. That is determined! Your body has a time, but your Life has not.

There is no this matter of Guru and disciple. We just sit together as One investigating a Thing that is common to both. That is not, in fact, strange to you, because it is your Real Nature. That does not make you right or the only one right. There is no anyone! There is no certainty of anything! There is only one certainty, and this certainty is not what I am, it is what You Are!

The only certainty you have is that You Are when nothing else is. For example, now, where is your home? I say "home" and then you remember it. Where is your son? I say "son," so you remember him. Where is your history? I say "history," so you remember it. When I say it, you remember it and the mind searches for the history. They are images, memories, thoughts, imaginations. However, the only real certainty is that You Are when there is no more world. Everything is only in your head, passing for "reality."

Listen to this clearly: your Being is the only Reality. It has no history! History is on the surface, not in the Depth, in the Center, in Reality, in the Core. In the Core, You Are What I Am. Concerns, afflictions, desires, fears and conflicts are on the periphery, on the surface.

In this contact with you, what I always say to one, I say to everyone, because I do not deal with people, but, yes, with the egoic mind. Curiously, paradoxically, I have nothing to do with the egoic mind... I deal with You. So, what I say is valid for everyone here!

You have this life to realize That; and that means your surrender is not negotiable. I will not negotiate with you! You are here to realize what You are; and to do this, you have maybe 40, 50, 60 years more, or two months more, or two weeks, or two hours, or twenty minutes more to stop fighting with yourself and to assume the Truth of your Real Nature, in order to get rid of all this junk. I call junk all this structure of beliefs, opinions, conclusions, and theories.

What society gave you is trash. Look at the "wonderful person" you have become with all society has given you, is not it? Is not it true? There is no conflict, there is no suffering, there is no... So, are you relaxed, resting? Don't you have to live trying to do, to accomplish and to obtain? Society gave it to you. Look at everything society has given to you… See how this is precious!

Society has taught you to "love," to be "happy," hasn't it? It has taught you everything, hasn't it? Look at how you are happy, aren't you?

When you were a child, they ask you what you would like to be when you grow up. Then, someone says to you, "Study for you to become a person!" Look at you... Now you are a "person!".

Everyone has said you would be happy after college, and now look at you... with postgraduate degree... How happy you are! See how everything culture has given you made you "relax" in your "inner happiness." Look at this! Isn't it? So, what did society give you? So, my invitation is for you to let it go, to go back inward and to realize your Divine Nature. This is the end of the illusion. The collapse of illusion!

* Originally published in Portuguese on December 26th, 201 ** Excerpt from a in-person meeting in Fortaleza – CE, Brazil, on October, 2016. For further information about our meetings, please click here.