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.