What is the “me”?

Participant: Is there any proof that we are puppets, that we do not have the power of choice and free will?

Marcos Gualberto: This work requires serious investigation. You need to understand all this in a direct way. You may ask a lot of questions and get a lot of answers, but none of this will matter at all, experientially, in a practical way. Thus, you have just theoretical and verbal explanations. After all, who is this one who asks for proofs? And to whom is this “me” asking for proofs?

All these questions are for this “me,” who carries all these dilemmas and problems, but you do not investigate its nature. So, you may have many answers, but this will only be in the intellectual level and will not solve the fundamental question: what is this “me”? It is this “me” that says you are happy or sad, you know or you do not, you had something and lost, you were born, you are going to die, you are fine or bad… It is always this “me”! These are only a few examples of thoughts centered on this “me.”

As you can perceive in yourself, thoughts are always centered on this “me,” revolving around this sense of “me.” That is, all the problems revolve around this “me” and you never wonder what it is. Is it real or an idea? For you, this “me” has free will, choice, and it can do things or not. We can keep theorizing and philosophizing about this; however, here I am inviting you to a direct investigation of the real meaning of the word “me.” What does it represent?

So, the question is: Who are you? What is this “me”? What are you being happy or sad? What are you knowing or not? What are you having something or losing it? What are you? What are you, who were born and will die? What are you feeling good or bad? You are constantly, all day long, saying “I”: “I was there,” “I came back,” “I arrived yesterday,” “I will go tomorrow,” “I was fine,” “I was sick...” all the time, every day! You use this pronoun many times!

However, what “I” are we talking about? You are identified with the body and with the experience that it is living, mistaking yourself for feelings, emotions and thoughts. That is why you use the pronoun “I,” but this is just a belief. You believe you are inside this body and there is a “me” living the experience. You may say, “It is me, because I feel it and the others do not.” So, once again you are mistaking the experience of feeling for a real entity present in it.

It is evident that this feeling is present in this organism and not in another one. However, this does not prove that you are a real entity in this experience. The only thing it proves is that this mechanism has the ability to feel, in particular, a sensation, an emotion, an experience.

So, you are constantly using this expression “me” without knowing what is the Truth about yourself. Thus, you may carry for many years or for a lifetime the idea that you are “someone,” because there is the feeling, the thinking, the sensation and the perception in this organism, in a particular way. To trust in this is to trust in illusion! This is not real! I am not saying the experience is not real; I am saying the “experiencer” is not real, which is different. I am not denying your experience. I am questioning the truth of “someone” present in it, the existence of a separate entity in it. That is what we investigate in Satsang.

From the moment I question this “me,” this “me” questions itself, it doubts itself. Then it allows room for doubts and it frees you up to Real Intelligence, above  the ordinary movement of the intellect, of the  beliefs, deductions, conclusions and logic. When it happens, you can discover the Truth of this Freedom, beyond the problems linked to this sense of “me.” So, all this suffering, questions and dilemmas linked to this sense of “person” may disappear.

You are not going to find the answer about Who You are. You are going to discover the illusion of the question, of the dilemma, of the problem linked to this illusory center, to this false center of the experience. This is what I called “to discover the Truth about you.” I do not tell people they will find the answer, because, actually, you can never find an answer in your mind, for this would be completely useless. An answer for the mind is its own answer, so it cannot be Real either.

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on January 10th, 2020 - First published in Portuguese on March 16th, 2020. For more information, click here.