The treasure map

In this approach to Satsang, you are encouraged to observe your experiences. Before, you had a way of trying to validate them through the conclusions of those around you. In other words, you used to see experiences in a common way, based on the idea of “me and the world,” “me and others.” It is so with the majority! People express their experiences from the standpoint of this formulation.

You are here being encouraged to doubt that, to abandon these conclusions. This way of trying to validate this amount of formulation is pure programming, conditioning. Here, we are trying to explore the Nature of Truth, of Consciousness, of What is present, here and now, as Experience. After all, what is Consciousness? What is this Experience here and now?

The Sages have realized this Understanding. They have come to this Discovery of the Nature of Truth, of the Nature of Consciousness. They have expressed This in many ways! In fact, the only thing that happens around Them is this internal movement of the expression of this Truth. In all great spiritual traditions, the essential discovery is the Nature of Consciousness, the Truth about the Real Experience, here and now.

Consciousness is everything! It is the Truth of What You Are, the Knowledge beyond the mind, something present in each Real and Authentic Experience. I do not speak of a mere experience, but of a Real and True Experience, which is without conditioning, programming, conclusion... It is the Truth, the most Pure and Crystalline Truth!

This is not an intellectual, theoretical, philosophical, or spiritualist speech. It explores What Is, What is the Nature of the Experience. This is the beauty of being in Satsang! So, these lines are like a treasure map. We are investigating and looking at the map, and the purpose is to discover the treasure. The meaning of the words is not in the words themselves, but in the Vision, in the Contemplation of Truth. I talk about this Space from which It is born…

In other words, it is necessary that the illusion be dismantled. You are learning how to look at the right direction, outside the mind, the convention, the common formulation. So, you are facing What is the closest, the most intimate thing. This Presence, this Consciousness, this Truth, this Treasure is the basis of everything! It is not necessary to add something new to It, because It is already complete! This Truth is present and everything is happening in It!

Truth is the content of every expression, manifestation or event, and nothing affects It! All the words spoken here are happening in this Truth, in this Consciousness, which remains unknown, but present and, therefore, available to everyone. This is something immensely clear, obvious, singular! It is so intimate, so real! This Presence is the Unconditional, Divine, Loving Truth, which contains everything within Itself! It is so beautiful, so perfect! This is something wide and open that welcomes everything!

God is full of Love! All possible things are contained within Him, unconditionally! This is the great Ocean of the Unknown! Intellectual understanding is useless here. A real plunge into It is necessary! Consciousness is this open Unknown! It is so open and intimate that every experience, whether tiny or vast, is full of that Presence!

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on March 9th, 2020. For further information about online meetings and how to participate please, click here.

Here is the secret of this Awakening

You have a programming, which is a biochemical process of the own brain, and that is why you are full of models, beliefs and concepts. You are living life from the standpoint of this programming, these different perspectives among many beliefs. All of this has to disappear, but this is not something easy.

All this process in the brain itself is part of the structure of the egoic mind. You are trapped in a routine, in a programming, in different habits, and thus you live as a “person,” as “someone.” This “person,” this “someone” is inside a “box,” thinking, rethinking, acting, reacting. So, living this model is like always repeating the same programming, the same personal motivation.

My speech to you is not about persuasion or beliefs. I only bring you a new perspective, a new vision. You come to me, you say you have lost “your car key” and ask me to help you find it. You have already looked for it in “the whole house.” You have already removed everything out of the place looking for this “key.” So, I give you a new alternative, when I ask: “Have you already looked for the ‘key’ inside the ‘car’?” You may keep insisting that it is impossible for this “key” to be there and do not accept my suggestion or, simply, you may trust this, in this possibility of looking at, of “opening the car” to check it. When you do this, you find out “the key was already in the ignition.” It was already there. You just have forgotten this and you were desperate for a long time, suffering for a “key” that was supposedly lost.

So, this programming of the egoic mind is a matter of oblivion. You have not lost your Real Nature. You have just forgotten It. You are trapped, identified with the illusion of the sense of “someone,” of a “me,” of a “person.” So, all your suffering and despair are in the illusion of not knowing who, in fact, You Are, of believing that “you have lost the car key,” the Truth about Your Self.

Self-investigation, Real Meditation and surrender are the work toward the end of the illusion about “yourself,” of the sense of separation. They break down all this brain conditioning model. The end of all this is the simple and direct perception of the Truth that the “key” has always been in the same place, it has never been lost! That what You are has never ceased Being! The Truth of God, of Consciousness is not something you achieve. It is something you verify here and now! It is not something that is lost, but it has been, apparently, forgotten. If your look is in the opposite direction, you cannot see it directly. You have to look at it directly, so you can see!

In Satsang, I just say to you: “Look at the right direction! Look at yourself! Look inside! Open the ‘door of the car’ and see if the ‘key’ is inside it!” However, as long as you keep on mistaking yourself for this movement of the egoic mind, for this brain apparition, for these thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, for this story of the character and keep on sustaining this, this search will go on and things will be shown more and more out of place. This way, not only will you not find what you are looking for, but you will keep on messing with your entire environment. You are going to the outside, you are looking at outside! This "home" of yours, where you look for that "key,” is the world - the world of things, people, places, ideas, beliefs, spiritual and religious practices - and this is only creating more confusion, more mess.

However, the “key” is in its place, the place from where it has never left! Here is the secret of this Awakening, of this Divine Realization! Turning to this Consciousness is turning to the Realization of God! This implies that you will not keep on looking at outside, searching externally and getting involved with the egoic mind, with this subjective world, with this illusion. That is why the invitation on Satsang is always for Meditation, for self-investigation and for surrender!

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on February 4th, 2020 - First published in Portuguese on April 6th, 2020. For more information about how to participate, please click here:click here.

What is the meaning of devotion?

Devotion is the alliance with Truth, with Reality. You all, sometimes, say to me: “I don´t have devotion.” Your problem is not the lack of devotion, of this alliance with the Truth. Your problem is about not looking the presence of illusion in yourself. Forget this thing of “alliance with Truth,” of “devotion,” and see in yourself what is false, what is assuming the place of this “alliance with the Truth.”

The devotion is not something that is reached by climbing a ladder. If you start observing how dishonest you are about “being happy,” you will discover what is missing. “Ah, I do not love God, I have no alliance with Truth, devotion.. what do I do Master?” See what thoughts are producing in your head to sustain, in a dishonest way, this matter of being happy.

You are following your thoughts, seeking what thought wants. You are not observing it will not make any good to you. This is the base of this unhappy person you are. This “unhappy person” is moving for something, and this movement is being made by unhappiness. So, observe it!

The first thing related to devotion is stop being unhappy. Remember: devotion is alliance with Truth, and you are not being true to yourself. You are following the thoughts. Your contact with yourself is the contact with devotion. Do not worry about this matter of loving God, of making Him happy… God is not worried about it!

People write to me: “Make me a great devotee!” It is something that bothers God a lot, to meet “great devotees.” Religions are full of “great devotees,” who even dispute to see who will be the greatest one among them! God does not want you to be a great devotee, but to be honest with yourself, to look at life from the standpoint of an intelligent vision. And you can only do this when you observe how crazy your thoughts are, that what they are producing in your life is just suffering.

In this sense, before asking what devotion is, you need first to discover what is false in yourself and discard it. Discard your desires, your dreams, your personal objectives… Observe and discard this! You will be left with nothing internally and you will discover a Joy that does not need anything outside! This is the devotion God appreciates! When you are happy, you are a devotee! If you are afflicted, afraid, worried, desirous, you do not know what devotion is. If there is illusion, there is no devotion. If there are attachments to the “sense of person,” with desires, wishes, objectives, projects and fears, there is not devotion.

You can go to a temple, bring flowers, pray, do charity, make many good things, but if internally you are unhappy, it is a signal that you are not a devotee, because the devotee is not unhappy. The real devote is happy in God, so, he/she has no desires, he/she is not looking for anything outside.

Devotee: But, in this case, he/she is no longer a devotee, he/she is a self-Realized.

Marcos Gualberto: The real devotee is the Sage. This is the point! What I am saying, Ramana also said.

Devotee: Is it possible to have some level of devotion before being Sage?

Marcos Gualberto: To begin at a lower level, start by yourself. Abandon your projects, dreams, desires, thoughts, beliefs in sensations, emotions, experiences… The lowest level to devotion is to abandon the mind, the sense of “I.”

Devotee: When we do this, a simple Joy arises and we do not need anything else.

Marcos Gualberto: The movement of mind is confusion. When there is no such movement, you take the first and last step to comprehend what devotion is.

* Open online meeting transcription, originally held on April 04, 2020. For more information about our meetings, click here.

The Direct Understanding

We have only this moment for the Real Understanding of Awakening. The mind is always creating the future and also reproducing the past. All these are just ideas, imaginations! The fundamental aspect of these meetings is the possibility of the Direct Understanding (something experiential) that this Presence we are has no limits nor is it located in space. This is not a special kind of knowledge; therefore, you are not going to perceive This through training or special education.

We are facing something that is prior to the mind, to the knowledge of the intellect. Truth is something quite obvious and internal, and naturally of a direct access to everyone. Truth is not something the mind can know or not. Mind can know or not know its things. Your Divine Nature is not part of the mind. It is not its thing. So, it is not possible for the mind to know or not know about This. Thus, Truth is about a direct experience or direct experiential knowledge. It is not something that depends on this intelligence or the ability of the intellect.

Another aspect is that Truth is independent of the condition of the body (whether it is young or old, whether it is healthy or ill). This is indeed fascinating! This “me” you believe to be seems to know a lot of things. However, everything it knows is part of the body and the mind, of its experiences in the world. Everything this “me” knows is within the known. In other words, everything it knows is itself, which is just an idea, a self-projection. This “me” cannot know another thing but itself, and what it knows is what the mind imagines about the body and the world, that is, about itself.

Therefore, That what You are requires no special knowledge, training, imagination, idea, belief, and no mental, physical or emotional experience. No knowledge of the mind can get us closer or move us away from That what we are in our own Being! What happens is that the mind, through imagination, feelings, emotions and sensation of the body, seems to hide This, this Vision, this direct and experiential Understanding. This is because, for a long time, you have invested in thinking, as if it was the most important thing! You have been giving too much importance to it!

Notice that without thought, you have no reference, knowledge or memory. This means you have no idea of the limit of the shape nor of an identity present. You need the thought to think in terms of age, nationality, gender and history. So, the own thought creates this illusory sensation that makes you see yourself as an identity, possessing good and bad qualities, virtues and vices, being good or bad. This is a limiting vision! However, you do not have such qualities or limitations, for your desires and fears, your virtues and vices, your intelligence or the lack of it, all this is pure imagination! The mind attributes these qualities and defects to itself, and it considers them as real, but there is no reality in this! Mind loves producing all this!

The beauty of Satsang is to discover this, the Truth about all this! Here have we the key of this Liberation! In your Being, you are Happiness, you are God! This Awakening, this Realization is to find out in yourself what this sense of “me” is, where it is located. If you investigate this, you will find out it is nowhere, it is just an idea, a concept, imagination. You have all the energy for this Awakening, for this Discovery! You have all potential! I am always talking about the Truth, about the Reality of your Being, everyday!

All you need is to discover the Truth about Yourself! The mind is mechanical and repetitive. There is not Real Intelligence in it! Ramana is Intelligent! Buddha is Intelligent! Jesus is Intelligent! Your Consciousness is Intelligent! If you are working all the time through this mechanical mind, you cannot be Intelligent.

This world of the mind is not real, that is, the world you see is not real. What is Real is beyond the mind, the body and the world. Your True Nature is Love, Peace, Bliss, Joy! You must abandon this “me” idea, this sense of separation, for this is what sustains suffering, the illusion of “someone suffering.” I have been emphasizing so much something to you, which is Meditation. Surrendering to the Truth through self-investigation is the basis of Meditation.

This is the direct way to Realize God, to know Him, which means to go beyond this illusion, beyond the sense of duality, of separation. This is Satsang! Notice that without the reference of thought, we have no idea about time, space, location, identity. So there is not time or space! Without thought, we cannot imagine two events happening – something that happened and something that will happen. In fact, this “me” needs the thought, because the “me” is not prior to thought.

Turning to This, plunging into the Heart, is to Acknowledge This! When you are present, You are Consciousness! When you are lost in the world of the mind, you are illusion. You have been wasting your life trusting in thought, that is why in your mind, you are always experiencing the illusion of the projection of a world, of a separate existence. In this Awakening, this “dream” disappears, because the “dreamer” goes away. There are not thoughts anymore, because there are not “dreams” anymore. This is Life, the beautiful Life!

*Online meeting transcription originally held on March 2nd, 2020, on an open online meeting - First published in Portuguese on April 19th, 2020. For more information about the meetings and how to participate click here.

What is the truth about time?

Devotee: Master, what is the truth about time?

Marcos Gualberto: Time is something present in the world of the mind. The mind always lives within time: either it is in the past, in the future or believes to be in the present. This time is a fictional distance created by the imagination that something happened in the morning or something will happen after lunch. In order to approach this “something that happened in the morning” or this “something that will possibly happen after lunch,” you need an element: imagination. Without imagination, without thought; without thought, without time. Without imagination, there is no image, there is no object, there is no thought, and therefore there is no time.

So, what is time? Time is this fictional movement that imagination sustains as reality through the thought. Here, we are only dealing with a phenomenon called “thought.” Actually, there is not this psychological time! Psychologically speaking, there is no time! The only time we have is chronological, time for practical purposes in this world of dream we call “human life.” This time is also determined by the distance between objects.

When you look at the skyline in the morning, at some point the Sun appears. The impression one gets is that the Sun will start to rise and then it will set. From sunrise to sunset, everything is happening. Everything is happening between distances in space, in the movement among objects. This is the time we know: the time of the clock, the chronological time. But there is also this fictional time sustained and maintained by the thought. This is what imagination does! This psychological time is the time of the “person.” You, in your Natural State, give no importance to imagination.

Devotee: Does imagination still appear in the Natural State?

Marcos Gualberto: The vitality of the image thought creates, needs this movement. This is called “to imagine.” This completely loses the purpose when you are in your Natural State. Only the Now is enough! Just the Now is Real! This is always like this! So, this movement of past and future, as well as the ideas about the present, is typical of this vitality that imagination gives to unobserved thought. Every thought is just an object.

Devotee: What is the basic difference between imagination and thought?

Marcos Gualberto: Imagination is the vitality of the thought. Thought is just an object.

Devotee: Can we say time and space are in imagination and not in the thought?

Marcos Gualberto: Yes. Thought is just a phenomenon of the presentation of the object. Imagination is the movement of this object in a fictional space. Here is the vitality of imagination.

Your question was, “Is there imagination in the Natural State?” In the Natural State, what matters is what is practical, what has reality, and this is out of the subjective movement of imagination, of thought. Although thought, as something practical, can appear as an object, it is no longer an element to sustain an identity present in that experience, which is what imagination does.

The egoic mind lives in constant movement. Notice your inclination during each hour of the day: either you are remembering something or anticipating something (psychologically speaking). This is the unnatural state of being. It is the mental state of existing. This is the movement of this false identity. It lives and perpetuates itself in time. So, it is always in the past, which is memory, or in the future, which is anticipation, which is desire. It always expects something, and therefore it is always anticipating what is good by desiring and what is bad by fearing. It lives on a subjective world. The “person” is nothing but a belief you have about yourself. And who is this one who has this belief about oneself? We are only talking about thought! There is not any element having anything about itself, for there is not an element imagining!

When we talk about imagination, we are not talking about a special energy that comes from an entity. We are not saying there is an entity that consciously or unconsciously imagines. We are talking about the own natural movement of the unobserved thought. If thought can be observed, it is a sign it is not You, then its movement can be stopped. In other words, imagination can be broken; and when this happens, there is no room for this movement of “me,” because this false identity only lives in imagination.

Therefore, thought is not the problem! It is an “enemy” only when it is at the service of imagination. But, if there is no imagination, thought is just thought. Thus, it loses importance, and so it is natural that it disappears.

Life happens now! There is no Life in the past or in the future. Everything is happening now! Breakfast is happening now; dinner too. You ask: “And why do not I see it?” Who can see it? Who can see breakfast or dinner? Who can see morning or night? “Me!” Imagination! And together with imagination, breakfast, dinner, morning, or night. However, Life is not in this imaginary movement! Life is now, so everything is now!

When were you born? “In 1900 and something...” What are you talking about? You are using the same thread of imagination you use to talk about that breakfast, to talk about dinner at night. But, where is all this?

The nature of the egoic mind is movement. When we talk about egoic mind, we are talking about the movement of thought that sustains the sense of time and space and, therefore, of separation. The egoic mind naturally has this movement of psychological continuity or, in other words, the element “imagination.” In order to be able to stay in this movement, it gives itself a name, which is the main and primordial object of this process. It calls itself “me” and tells that it was born in 1900 and something. It tells it had breakfast. It tells it is going to have dinner in the evening. It tells it is going to die… This is within this imaginary process we call “egoic mind,” which is nothing but a simple movement of thought that here we call “imagination.”

So, what is time? An idea, a concept, a belief, a thought. Does imagination happen in the Natural State? No! Natural State is the Freedom of Being what, in fact, You are, and this can only be Now. Therefore, imagination is dispensable. But, for that “me,” which imagines itself as the primordial object in this process of imagination and needs to create time and space, imagination is everything! Without it, the “I” is not there.

Thus, we come to a point: as long as the sense of “me” – which is nothing but this idea of being “someone” – is present, illusion of time will be present. We are talking about the psychological time, in which “you” are a supposed entity that moves itself in an imaginary world sustaining suffering. Suffering presupposes to come into conflict with what is, with what is present here and now.

So, this element needs imagination to sustain conflict, which is suffering. Once this psychological imaginary movement ends, suffering also ends. As long as this element “me” is present, this movement of going away from this moment (imaginary, psychologically) will be present, and therefore suffering will continue to be present.

*Face-to-face meeting transcription, originally held on a Carnival Retreat, on Itamaracá Island/PE, Brazil, on February 25th, 2020. First published in Portuguese on March 2nd, 2020. For more information about how to participate:click here.

Is effort necessary or not?

Some people may say that no effort is needed for the Realization of Truth, because you are already what you seek. It seems quite logical! If you are already what you are looking for, your search is not necessary.

Others say the search is necessary, and therefore effort is necessary. For those, the seeker must be dedicated, needs to qualify for this Achievement. In my view, both sides are correct.

There is an illusory appearance of an "I," but it is suffering and looking for a way out of the end of suffering. In this Realization, you know that this is not real, but this apparent "I," this apparent sufferer does not feel that way. It feels that everything is very real!

There is only the idea of an “I” suffering, of a “person” present suffering, but for those who feel that way, to believe they are not a person, although they feel themselves like one, does not solve anything. So, in my perspective, the work of investigating the nature of the mind is important. When this work exists, there is the possibility of discovering the illusion of that identity. However, without this work, there is no possibility of this acknowledgment.

In this sense, effort is important and necessary. This is not the work of a “me." It is the investigation of the illusion of a “me." This is the work of Grace, of Consciousness itself. It is Consciousness revealing Itself, discovering Itself. This is something that sounds paradoxical, for It is not hidden from Itself, although It does realize Itself, It does discover Itself.

The Truth is already present, but until It is seen, this apparent seeker must do something. This includes self-investigation, surrender, meditation, and thousands of other things, until one finds that no effort is needed. However, until this is found out, effort is quite important and necessary. That is because, in fact, you always carry the idea of "someone" who suffers, who needs something. So, until that idea is removed, every movement has its place.

However, the moment will come when you will discover Truth is present and has never ceased to be. The only thing that disappears is the illusion! But if it was never there, how could it have disappeared? You are already that Truth, you are already free, and this Freedom is to be Nothing!

Some people search through philosophy. For others, it happens through religious experience. There are also those who seek fulfillment in different experiences of the world. In any case, there is always an internal search.

If you are here, there is a seeker there, looking for something outside of this common life condition. There is thirst, dissatisfaction, restlessness. So, your work is to discover the Truth! If you are in this meeting, it is because, somehow, something has already hit you, you have been touched by the need to discover the Truth about Yourself.

You have already studied, read, heard, learned. You now have a keen intellect. You have already explored philosophy, religion, worldly life... When my Master appeared to me it was like hitting on a stone wall! I had read the Bible a lot, learned various church rituals, various doctrines, and when I came across the image of the Sage, the Guru, it was like hitting my head on a stone wall!

When that happens, you stand up bleeding, semi-conscious, and see that all the knickknacks you carried, all these toys of spirituality’s practice, suddenly do not make any sense! So, the whole search turns out to be meaningless, something even shameful! You are faced with something entirely different from all of this! You were looking at the future, looking for a change, looking for something special, but all of a sudden you discover it is nothing like that!

Some of you are experiencing exactly that kind of feeling in these meetings called Satsang. All your belief and search, all your vision of a future, your search for something safe, this search of "someone" for something, is no longer making any sense! These trinkets, beliefs, ideas about life, about yourself, about God and everything, they are not making any sense! That is because you are now facing the Truth that what you are looking for is already here: Yourself! You are not in the future, so there is nothing to be achieved there! All you are, is nothing! Here is Realization: discovering the Truth about Yourself, about this Absolute Nothingness that is Consciousness, which is the absence of the seeker.

This Recognition of the Truth about Yourself is what I have called Intelligence. It is not your intelligence. It is not the intelligence of a "person." It is only Intelligence! In fact, this Real Intelligence is the end of this "person," the end of this seeker and all these religious, philosophical or worldly beliefs. It is not about the content of “knowing”: “I know this” or “I know that,” because this is something acquired, and therefore it is still part of ignorance, is still conceptual. All this subject is still part of the trinkets, of this conditioning basis, of beliefs, ideas that are learned, which are just words.

I am talking about Intelligence that is Pure Recognition, and not about accumulation of ideas, information, beliefs. It is not a greater “knowing,” it is the Intelligence in Intelligence, it is the Consciousness free from content, free from the burden of memory, ideas, imaginations, of spiritualistic, philosophical, worldly beliefs, of all kinds! You are Consciousness, and Consciousness is Nothingness! This is the end of identification with body and mind. It is the end of this completely false assumption that there was an entity separate from Life. It is the end of the belief in a "person," in a "me" imprisoned inside a body and a mind.

To recognize this, not intellectually, not verbally, but as a fact, is Intelligence! This is seeing without any filter that creates a kind of fog made up of assumptions, theories, ideas, concepts. So, you open yourself up to the Truth, and every belief falls apart in this. When all the fog vanishes in this openness, there is complete Intelligence. This is the end of the search!

Thus, it gets clear it is not a matter of achieving or becoming something, nor of an intellectual understanding. It is only about the Intelligence of recognizing the Truth, which is Freedom, Love, Peace, the end of conflict and suffering.

Then, the search ends, clearly and unequivocally, not because all the answers are found or discovered, but because the "seeker" is seen as false, a fiction, an imagination, a non-existent "me." So, you remain with the perception that "someone" was never present in this or that experience. We are talking about the end of the illusion, of the ego, of the "person,” of the sense of "I." This is liberation!

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on January 30, 2020. For further information about online meetings and how to participate, click here.