2nd - The happiness we seek

Nothing compares to What we are. Every human search for happiness and freedom, on these paths created by the thought, is just useless and unnecessary, because it is an escape from Reality.

Not looking directly to Life as It is or as It presents itself to each one of us, is pointless and carries an enormous burden of pain and suffering. It makes us keep spinning inside the usual circle of suffering, which keeps us in this endless search for happiness, in this search for something, for someone, or for a situation that could offer us what would make us happy.

Thus, we have mistaken a Real Encounter with Happiness for the pursuit of pleasure, fulfillment, and personal satisfaction, because we believe that Happiness is an achievement that we need to fight for.

In this search for people, things and situations, we find some comfort and fulfillment, but even so, we lack the simplest understanding that there is nothing that can make us fully and eternally happy, because there is nothing found that could not be lost. This is the ephemeral nature of desire and, therefore, of every form of seek or search.

So, we can enjoy pleasure for some time, but everything that appears in time does not have the mark of That which is truthfully Eternal and, therefore, will also disappear over time. We are continually in this “coming and going” of insecurity and frustration. Here is the pleasure of accomplishment that we illusorily call “happiness,” and soon we face the pain of losing this.

In these posts, we will talk about Real Happiness, which is not something to be achieved, conquered, acquired, but something that is born very naturally, without effort, without struggle, seek, or search, through the full Recognition of who we really are. This Real Happiness is something as eternal and immutable as the Nature of our Being.

* This text, written by Master Marcos Gualberto, shares the Sage's view about life, was published for the first time in Portuguese on October 2nd, 2010. It was the second original publication on the blog in Portuguese and is part of the collection related to the first years of this work, whose texts, after being kept offline, are now being translated to English and will be published in a series as a tribute to the Master. For further information, visit our website, click here.

What is immutable has never been born

The question is, where have you failed? Your failure is in the absence of the straightforward recognition of your own Being, in imagining yourself placed in the body and the mind. You have this belief in a very strong way! Thus, you believe you take part of these qualities of thoughts, feelings, images, and sensations. You believe that this is you, your reality, the reality of your life. You carry this conviction! Because of a feeling, of some emotional pain, you believe to be that pain. Because of the feeling of sadness, for example, you believe you are sad.

This also happens because of any sensation you have in your body. If you feel cold, warm or hungry, you do not attribute this to the body but to yourself, just like when the body is experiencing some illness problem such as a very intense pain. There is a psychological conviction that this pain, that cold, that heat or hunger is something that is happening to you. A feeling of sadness or unhappiness brings the same result.

In this way, there is a self-limiting conviction created by the forgetfulness of your True Nature. This is the main and the most powerful oblivion. You have forgotten your Essential Identity of Pure Consciousness, beyond all qualities and definitions. Most people live in this state of complete amnesia. This Consciousness about the Truth of Yourself is something eclipsed, hidden by the thoughts, feelings and sensations. That’s why you have imagined yourself as a "me," a separate and fragile entity, thinking, feeling, deciding, choosing.

The curious thing is that, although this is not truth, it is felt as being the only truth of yours. But that is just the mind’s point of view. So it is not the Truth! Your Essential Being has never been or will be obscured by the mind - thoughts, feelings, sensations or perceptions. However, this forgetfulness creates this feeling, this strong conviction. Since almost everybody spends part of his or her life, and in some cases even the whole life, without working directly on him or herself, people live within that forgetfulness. In Satsang, we are questioning all this. We are giving the opportunity for you to realize that everything is just appearances.

We live within the experience of appearances and disappearances of thoughts, perceptions, feelings and sensations in the body. This shows us that there is Something here that is immutable, that remains present as the Nature of these perceptions. It never appears or disappears. It is something that remains unchanged. So, when we are in Satsang, we have this opportunity to look at this body-mind experience as something that is changing all the time, while there is Something present that does not change.

What does not change is That which is always present now, but it is not an experience. This is not like the body, with its changing sensations, or like the mind, which has perceptions that are also changing all the time. This is very important because it is the great key for this Realization - to know that there is Something present that does not change.

You see the change in all that knowledge of the mind and the body - the body with its sensations and the mind with its perceptions. All of this appears and soon disappears, but there is Something present able to perceive this change. You can see that time is something simply mental, which varies due to the movement of thoughts, for example. So, the notion of time is something that changes. It is just how the mind perceives it.

Thought imagines a series of images or events and thus creates this notion of time. The body experiences different sensations, and in this way, the mind creates the idea of being a "present entity." But notice that everything is changing: this multiplicity, this huge diversity of things, not only in perceptions sensations but also in experiences. Among all this, there is Something present capable of perceiving these changes, and that is what we call Consciousness, Presence, Reality. This is the Truth of your Being.

Meditation is what reveals very clearly That which is present and unchanging. Then, you observe closely that thoughts, feelings, sensations, images, memories and perceptions are not What You Are. They always happen to the body and mind. Your Being is What knows or becomes aware of these experiences. While all this changes, your Being, this Presence, Consciousness does not change. So, this series of sensations and perceptions experienced are not You. This Reality that You Are knows all these sensations and perceptions.

Five years ago, this Present Reality had its perceptions, sensations and experiences, just as it had fifteen years ago. The body has changed, the mind has changed, everything has changed, but there is Something present, always present, and It does not change. This is our Being, this Presence, Consciousness. This Consciousness was present and has always been present. When the body appeared and even prior to that appearance, this Consciousness was there. Now, here, there It is. In the forgetfulness, you see yourself as a “present entity” linked to the age of the body and the experiences of this moment, linked to the experiences of the mind, to those perceptions and sensations. This is just a belief, a thought.

So, you believe you were born and, for the same reason, you believe you will die someday. In fact, That which is immutable was never born. It may seem strange to hear that, but in reality (and now I am going to say something different from what I just said) you were never present at the birth of the body, nor will you be present at the death of it. This is a matter of the body. It is not a matter of your Essential Nature, of that Consciousness. This Consciousness is not in that dream state, only the mind is. And in it the idea is about birth and death.

Notice that these lines sound quite paradoxical. You cannot adjust it to an intellectual basis and afterwards end up saying “I understood everything.” It is not a subject for understanding, because This is outside the mind. In fact, all beliefs, which are only what the intellect can have, end up being responsible for the fear, because the intellect does not reach That which is outside of itself. All it knows is judgment, comparison, separation, division, that is, the intellect is still part of this principle of ego-identity.

You need to go beyond the intellect, to discover your Essential Nature! We are Pure Consciousness! What you are feeling, right now, in the body and in the mind, concerns to the body and mind. So, it is not true that you were born when the body was born or that you will die when the body stops breathing. Notice that when your body-mind disappears during sleep, there is Something that remains, but That is outside the known, outside the idea of "being born" and "dying."

So, what is This that does not disappear when the body, the world and the mind disappear? The idea that we are born and are changing, that we are growing, aging and that we are going to die, is simply a belief - the belief of the major part of mankind. It is something present within religion and culture. Usually, we think we are born, we change, we evolve, we grow, we get old and we will soon die. This belief is present for there is not the Realization of the Truth.

It is evident that the body and the mind appear and disappear, are born and die. Every experience is like that! This belief in death is a presumption. This fear of disappearing or dying is a very primary emotion, something deeply imaginary in this illusory entity, exclusively created by this association with the body, with the thought "I am the body."

Therefore, the Liberation from the illusion of this identification with the body and the mind is essential. Without this, there is no Liberation! This experiential, straightforward and non-intellectual understanding of our own Being is essential. Therefore, before we know anything, we need to know the Truth of our own Being. Any knowledge coming before this Knowledge is just ignorance, something completely useless. It may even have some use in this dream called "human life," but it is useless from the viewpoint of Happiness.

* Transcribed from a speech at an online meeting, on February 29, 2020 – For further information about our meetings, click here.

The importance of True Meditation

Some have the aptness with words, others do not, but that is something irrelevant in a meeting like this. In a conference room, someone who has speaking skills is important, because it is a room for explanation of ideas, concepts. What makes a meeting like this one here so distinctive is precisely no need for words.

Here, we are working on something other than speech, and if you can understand it is not the words that matter here but the Direct Vision, that is it! The work is done! These meetings resemble a bell, like the old ones from Gothic churches. You maybe find this kind of church bell in many churches, because it has always been a tradition for church to have an enormous bell ringing, indicating that something was going to happen. Thus, these meetings are like bells pointing out something. When you hear a church bell, you don't try to understand what it is saying, but what it is indicating. A ringing bell is not saying anything, but it might be pointing out something.

So, these speeches are like one of those enormous church bells ringing and pointing out something to you. The difficulty while listening is when you try to understand it. Here, you can find out What this sound is pointing out, but you cannot understand it. They are distinguished things, very different. This matter here is not for understanding. You may read a lot, hear a lot of speeches about this matter and keep just understanding it without realizing what it is indicating. It is like listening to the sound of the church bell and do not comprehend that it is not about understanding but of perceiving that this sound is pointing out something.

Wisdom is something like that. You do not learn about This. You Awake to This or not. Many people have a brilliant intellect, but it is useless here because there is no need for a great potential in understanding words, a skill to understand them very well, to keep the information, nothing like that. Before even trying to understand it – and here already goes the first indication of this “church bell” – You are already the Truth. You are That what you are looking for, what you are trying to find. This is already What You are!

The intellectual, conceptual, mental look only distances you from this Direct Vision. It is to this “Place” that we are pointing. What you can have is a deeper realization of this Direct Perception. It is not broader knowledge, a greater understanding but a more profound, more direct Perception. In the beginning, this is quite conceptual, theoretical, and verbal, because you get stuck only to the talk, to the words, trying to decipher something. That is the reason why you read, hear, and keep the words, but later on, this loses its importance. In the beginning, for many, it is quite conceptual.

Here, it is about the Awakening of Intelligence and not of intellectual apparatus. Intellectuality and Intelligence are very different things. Intellectual understanding, comprehension, and Wisdom are totally different things. So, the foremost thing here is: You Are What you look for, What you seek. You Are that Presence, that Consciousness. So, take a simple and straightforward approach to that. Understanding is something can be present or not, but this Consciousness is not something like that. Consciousness is something that is here and now, always present, and there is no way you can change that.

So, here we go! When we talk about the body and the mind, we are talking about an image that thought creates. The word “body” is just a thought about a collection of sensory perceptions, and we take the ideas about those perceptions as something present in that body. Thus, when we talk about “body” and “mind,” we are dealing with a collection of transitory perceptions, of labels, that is, we are labeling a mechanism of perception. The idea of being present in the body, of being someone in the body is a belief. You believe you are someone making choices, having personal thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. This is not real, because it is a transitory thing.

The Real is this Consciousness aware of this process. This experience of the body and the mind is just a transitory experience. It comes and goes. You are here to have this Direct Vision – not the intellectual understanding – of this Consciousness, which is your True Identity, which is not the body or the mind.

Are you with me or is it kind of confusing?

I am saying that “body” and “mind” just represent a transitory process of experience. Consciousness is That which is aware of this process. Consciousness is Real, while this transient process has no real identity. In other words, there is nobody there present in this “body-mind” experience.

So, I am pointing it out, the church bell is ringing. I am pointing out the possibility of this Direct Vision without the intermediation of intellect, without the understanding of words. I have called This as Meditation, which is this Seeing Directly, without these implications of the explanations of the intellect, and realizing that “body” and “mind” are labels for this mechanism of experience. So, the purpose is to recognize your Essential Nature, your Fundamental Nature. Body comes and goes. Mind comes and goes. Life’s experiences are changing, getting names and labels.

A very common thing is also the desire to get rid of the mind. This is another trap of the own mind, because it would be like the desire to get rid of the body. The “body-mind” is just a transitory process. You do not need to get rid of anything, of any experience. You only need to be Conscious of your Essential Nature, Fundamental One. In this way, you notice that this body and mind movement is just a mechanism receiving labels of experiences. The acknowledgment of your Divine Nature, which is your Fundamental Nature, is the Direct Vision that mind comes and goes, that body comes and goes, experiences appear and disappear, are transitory, with names and labels, but You continue being this Presence of Pure Consciousness, which is, all the time, aware of this movement of the body, of the mind and everything else.

So, it is not a matter of overcoming the mind, of destroying it, for it would be like putting an end to the body. This is not about mind or body. Here, it is just about this real clarification about your True Identity, present and constant.

This is so beautiful! Your Being is not in the future in a way that you could reach It through intellectual understanding. Your Essential Nature will not be realized tomorrow. You are already That, here and now! That Presence, that Consciousness You already Are here and now is Everything! I have replaced the word Consciousness with Existence, Presence, Truth, God… The fact is that you do not have to do anything about it. This talk is not to lead you to Direct Knowledge, because it cannot do that. This “church bell” is pointing out the possibility of this Direct Vision, which is not an understanding or knowledge about It. This non-conceptual Truth is already present. Listen to this very clearly!

My emphasis is on the importance of True Meditation. It is what I have been indicating in these talks, what I have addressed in different words. Do not push This into the future or, in other words, do not imagine that This is no longer present! Meditation is the Direct Vision, an Immediate Vision. What you are looking for, seeking, is already here, so it is not about seeking. That is why you need to find out what Meditation is here and now, because, otherwise, you will always keep looking for what you have never lost.

Who will be in this seeking movement? It will be this very transitory repetitive process, this false entity, this eternal seeker who does not have an identity, a specific real true center. This false identity is this process of the construction of imagination, all the time.

For this process, which is the false “me,” Truth, which is simple yet subtle, seems very distant, inaccessible, difficult, because there is no answer for This in the mind. And why? Because You are prior to the mind, to this process. Can you truly put your heart on This? How is it? When you get in touch with This, can you sleep and wake up truly “burning” for This?

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on April 15th, 2020 - First published in Portuguese on June 15th, 2020. For further information about the meetings, click here.

God is the Reality of your Being

You have been conditioned to see a great multitude of phenomena around you, and something is escaping from you: the Reality of your own Being, your Direct Life.

So, you need to find out how to break this habit of mental confusion, of pure programming and conditioning. Your vision is erroneous, distorted. God is the Reality of your Being, but as you have never stopped to investigate the Truth about yourself, you are not aware of This. You can only, at most, believe in This, which is another form of conditioning, religious conditioning, but that does not solve absolutely anything either. It is useless to believe that God is your Reality, the Reality of your Being, because Truth is not a belief, a doctrine. You either see it directly or you keep not knowing what this is about.

This concept of “me” is a huge misunderstanding, the core of all this confusion, the base of this programming, of this conditioning. Realization is the destruction of this, the break with this model. When you come to Satsang, you should not expect anything. You need to be completely vulnerable in this space. You need to be surprised by something totally unknown. All you need is the ability to see things as they really are. You have a lot of beliefs, a lot of concepts, a lot of ideas, and all of this has to vanish, to disappear.

So, these meetings we have are singular, because something entirely new is happening here. I am not confirming your beliefs, convictions, and ideas. That is why you cannot expect anything from me. When there is this flexible vision, there lies Freedom. Freedom lies in this, in this ability to see things as they are – it is what we are doing together in Satsang.

I hope you are not here looking for spirituality. That is the wrong place to look for it. Here, we are not dealing with spirituality but investigating the nature of the Truth, the Truth about yourself. Only This can allow you the Happiness of Being, of purely Being. Our interest in Satsang is to find out this Reality outside time, imperishable, this Truth You are.

We have to start from a very clear principle here: there is nothing to be found on the outside. We are working on this encounter with the Truth You are, here and now. That is why we talk a lot about Self-investigation and Surrender, which are not separate from this immersion in the Truth we are, which is Meditation. Self-investigation, Surrender, and Meditation always come together. We cannot separate one from another. There is no Real Meditation without the Surrender of illusion, and this is only possible when there is a real, serious investigation going on. Self-investigation, Meditation, and Surrender are present when the mind stops going back to its usual paths, stops going outside towards objects, towards its world of imaginations, dreams, desires.

Mind in its programming lives inside images. It works with images. You spend much part of the day wandering on mental images, on objects, which can be places, people, situations that have already happened or that thought imagines that is going to happen, which is the same... All of this is imagination! Nothing is happening in the mind except the imagination of what has happened and of what is going to happen.

Participant: Do we have any control or choice in action?

Marcos Gualberto: No! Action happens as everything happens, and there is absolutely no one controlling this. Everything that happens is an action from Consciousness. It is the action of It, in It, by It, and to It. There is no “someone” involved in this! Illusion lies in the idea, which is just an image of the thought that there were authorship in the action, an individual, a character involved in it. Everything happens within the determination, the programming, or the will of Consciousness.

Here, Freedom, which is synonymous with Happiness, Peace, Truth, Love, means the awareness that all of this is a game without “someone” present determining the result. Even because the result of this game is not for pleasure, satisfaction, or fulfillment for “someone.” Everything is just a great Divine happening. When this becomes clear, the Truth about yourself will also be clear. Realization is basically this: the clear and direct view that everything is in its place.

What you call action, thought, and movement are just phenomena within this game. Your Natural State is pure Consciousness, free from the identification with the phenomenon of doing and thinking, the phenomenon of the movement. Mind knows nothing about This, because it is always interested in satisfaction, pleasure, and accomplishment. It is interested in the illusion of doing, of controlling, of manipulating. This is its movement, the movement of the illusion, and that is why it lives in confusion, disorder, suffering. The great Truth is that Life is complete in Itself just like It is.

Participant: So, is there any manifestation of reality from the mind, from the standpoint of the thought?

Marcos Gualberto: All the mind can manifest is part of itself. This cannot be the Reality but only part of its phenomenon. Actually, mind can manifest nothing, because it does not exist as a creator, a producer of reality. It is just a phenomenon in Consciousness.

The point here is that when you use the expression “mind,” you are usually linking it to a present entity. When I use this expression, I am addressing a universal, impersonal phenomenon, just a phenomenal energy, which is also the energy of the manifestation of Consciousness. Since everything is this Consciousness, this energy is also Its; it is Itself. There is no entity present. You are not a “thinker” behind these thoughts. You are not “someone” who has a mind. These thoughts are still manifestations of this phenomenon called “mind,” but the mind itself is not real. It is just a modulation, a form of manifestation of Consciousness.

Problem arises when this phenomenon is seen as the Reality. It is not Reality. Reality is That which is beyond and behind this phenomenon. When thought, in an imaginative way, individualizes and separates itself, the problem arises, the illusion of “me” arises, the illusion of separation arises. But it is such illusion that causes too much confusion, disorder, and suffering for the own illusory entity present.

In this Freedom of Being, of pure Consciousness, which is your Real Nature, Life is just a great game and mind is just a phenomenon, with no huge implications, without the ability to create disorder, suffering, and personal, particular confusions. This because, in your Being, You are beyond the mind; you are free from it, free from the confusion created by this identification with this phenomenon.

You rarely notice it, but all this here is a great “dream.” In some moments you have some glimpses of this, that here is too disordered to have an explanation.

Notice that when you dream at night, despite you cannot explain what is happening and see absurd things, you take that as something very normal. But when you wake up, you say: “How could that be possible?” So, in some moments, even during the dream at night, you accept that everything is in its place and is really confusing like that, that is just the way it is.

Here, the same thing happens. Sometimes you have a glimpse that things are out of your control and that they are just the way they are. However, when the mind, which is dualistic, separatist, and logical, comes up, it tries to explain things, to put things in order in its own way. And there comes confusion, doubt, fear, perplexity. But when all this is not present, you are relaxed, welcoming what presents itself.

Life is what It is, a great game, a great divine joke, without “someone” in control, without “someone” to put things right. Things are already in their places! It is just this conditioning you have that says things are out of place and they should go to the right place. It is this conditioning that is rejecting things, seeing them as bad, hard, complicated. It is the conditioning that refuses all this, which wants the good, but not the bad; which wants health, but not disease; which wants life, but not death; which wants the right, but not the wrong.

So observe... These are conditioning, programmed models of thinking, feeling, and doing, while, in fact, there is no one thinking, feeling, doing. Life is only happening in this Freedom It has. If You are in your Being, you are free from coming into conflict with Life, of acting in this aspect of rejection, conflict, suffering, fear.

Here, our work together is for you to find out This. Actually, there is no real parameter in the mind about what Love, Truth, Happiness, Peace is. The purpose of this work is to show you This directly, which is the Truth about Yourself, the Truth about Life, about the world… the Truth about God!

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on January 13th, 2020 - First published in Portuguese on May 28th, 2020 - For further information about our meetings, click here.

The Real Understanding

Here, we investigate imagination. There is only the Truth, this unique Reality, although an illusion of differentiation happens, which we call “sense of separation.” Since illusion is very persuasive, convincing, you can be careless about it and spend a lifetime like that within this illusion, within this appearance of separation between Reality and you, God and you, others and you, the world and you. This is the differentiation that the illusion creates or the illusion of differentiation.

This work, in Satsang, is singular, because it invites you to investigate this, to find out there is only one Truth present, which is the Truth of Being, of Consciousness, your Divine Truth. Some are ready to see This, in the sense that they have already perceived that something is wrong or out of place in this way they see themselves and the world around. However, others are completely apathetic, indifferent, cold about This. To be in these meetings is something that keeps you close to that “heat” of investigation. In the mind, you tend to be absorbed by your impressions, which are impressions within this illusion.

Satsang is the encounter with Reality, with the Truth. The Truth is that there is only this Real Substance, this singular Presence, singular Reality. You cannot get warm apart from the fire. You need eyes to see what some have called “the sleep,” “the sleep of separation,” “the sleep of separateness.” You cannot go beyond this “sleep” and this “dream” if you keep on not investigating it. This confidence of yours in the “mirage” makes you continue to believe that you are in the “desert.” You have a perception of the “mirage,” but this is a perception from the illusion. It makes you believe that you are in a “desert,” in this “desert” of the world, of the dream, of separation.

It is necessary to investigate this. Just like you cannot keep yourself warm separate from the fire, so also you fail to realize the Truth about What You are by separating yourself from this “heat” of self-inquiry. You are not what you believe to be. You are not in a “desert” seeing “mirages” and you are not in a “dream” inside a “sleep.”

In India, there is a metaphorical expression: “The world is being seen through the eyes of Shiva. Only Shiva has eyes to see the world.” So, the only possibility you have to see the “mirage,” to see it is an illusion, as well as the “desert” where it is appearing, is through the eyes of Shiva. So, if you have Shiva’s eyes, you can see the illusion of the “mirage,” of the “dream” and the sense of separation in this idea of a world separate from this “me.” There is a lot of conflict, fear, suffering in imagination, in the "mirage," in the "dream," in the world; and only Shiva's eyes can see it. These talks and meetings are meant to make you see the world through Shiva's eyes.

You need to understand the beauty of the Void, of That which is beyond this veil of separation, which is the “mirage,” the “dream,” this mistaken view of the world, of life. Then, you need to investigate and explore these matters with me. Notice that fear is something present within this context of “mirage,” of “dream,” of separateness, of duality. There is a lot of fear everywhere, but this is something of the mind. That is why the best you can do is to be present in Satsang.

You are not what can die or disappear. You need to go beyond this mistaken view that the mind has produced about life, about death, about existence; beyond what mind has been producing within this “dream of human life.” That is why is very important this Real Understanding, which comes from the Discovery of who You are. Your identification with the body is producing all this confusion, all this fright, terror and fear. If illusion is removed, nothing remains.

This “Nothing” is the essence of “Everything.” It is the base of all manifestation, of all universe. The “bricks” of this Universe, of this manifestation, are the Nothing. In the mind, you have been captured by the illusion of separateness, and it sustains this fear of death. So, when you talk about yourself, use the expression “me,” but you do not know what this means, fear is sustained, remains. This way, this imaginary “me” remains for a lifetime producing all form of conflict.

Our interest here is in this “me,” in investigating it. You are not it! The investigation of illusion puts an end to the “mirage” and also to the “desert.” It puts an end to the “dream” and also to the “sleep.” That is, this investigation of the illusion puts an end to the illusion of the world as being a separate reality from What You are in essence. This investigation lies in this Shiva’s look, in this way Shiva sees the world. You are not a “person”! This profound Self-Understanding is the Truth of Wisdom!

The whole Universe is built with these “bricks.” The Nothing is these “bricks” of the construction of all manifestation, and only Shiva can see the structure of this construction. Only Shiva has eyes for the Nothing, which we may call Consciousness, which is not that “consciousness” we commonly refers to, that is, the perception of the world through the senses, for this is something that is within the mind, which is part of the “dream,” of the “desert.”

To conclude, I want to make you a recommendation here: turn yourself to Silence, to this Consciousness; turn yourself with all your heart to this work.

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on March 20th, 2020 - First published in Portuguese on June 7th, 2020. For further information about the meetings, clique aqui.

An Invitation to this State of Pure Consciousness

The essence of our work is Consciousness, which is also known as the Being, the Reality of the ‘I Am,’ Love, Life, the Divine, God. That is all you need to realize. After all, what is This in you that is aware of this moment? This is always present. That is what we are exploring together.

The thought you have about yourself is of limitation, because you think of yourself as being the body and the mind. You cannot imagine yourself as that unlimited Consciousness, something beyond time and space, and naturally something beyond body and mind. Mind cannot reach that Reality. It cannot even imagine This. Therefore, you are not prepared for This.

Satsang is a very interesting thing, because in it you have to face this possibility of seeing yourself beyond the body and the mind. The point here is to break this paradigm of limitation that mind imposes on itself. In fact, this is an impossible feat for the mind, because its consideration of life is based on the experience it has, which is of time and space. So, it cannot visualize or consider that there is something outside time and space. This is very hard, very difficult for the mind.

Every belief is based on the imaginary experience of the mind, which requires material, images. Notice how important this matter is! This is outside of all experience, outside of imagination and, therefore, out of mind´s reach. So, in general, people are not prepared for This. They need a mysterious touch, something beyond the mind, and that touch is the possibility of a glimpse of Meditation.

Mind loves adventures but within the known, something it can deal with, imagine. In Satsang, the invitation is for this state of pure Consciousness, where there is nothing physical or material, no images, only Consciousness. This is an unknown state for the mind, which I call "Intelligence," the Natural State of Intelligence. There is no Intelligence in the mind, because it deals with the known, with what is imaginary. It deals with time. Mind is time, and this State is outside of it, outside of the known. This may sound incredible to you, because everything mind does, takes place within time. The five senses are within time... or the six senses (some consider the mind as another sense). Therefore, the senses are not proof of Reality but of experience.

We are talking about Consciousness, about Something prior to the this. Physical space is measured in time, that is, from one object to another there is a distance, and this is time. This physical space is full of separate objects, perceptible to the senses, and this is always being perceived in the mind. There is something in you that is beyond the mind and, therefore, beyond experience, beyond these objects, beyond all this multiplicity of appearances.

Consciousness is all that exists, all that there is. Nothing exists outside of It. So, the mind, in which these objects appear, is within this Consciousness.

Ask yourself: what is time? The whole notion of time is always linked to the movement of memory. Memory speaks of time, reports its existence. Without it, there is no time. The notion of space is the distance between one object and another, and this measurement is only possible within time. These are all experiences in the mind, experiences of knowledge. Without knowledge, without memory, without measurement, there is no notion of space; without objects, there is no sense of space or time; without memory and knowledge, there is no notion of objects, and all this is part of the mind.

So, what is time? It is just imagination, a movement of images, a space between images. Isn't that so? How do you know if 30 minutes or one hour has passed without the timekeeping object, which is knowledge based on the hands changing in that object that you call a clock? So, knowledge is necessary for the notion of time, and thought is necessary for the notion of object. So, what is time? What is space? This is a very radical question! In fact, this notion of timelessness, of Reality outside time and space, outside material, outside perception, is not a new thing, since every religious tradition in human history has dealt with this. Buddha, Jesus, the Sages of all times spoke of this eternal Now, this Reality, which is Consciousness.

To be there, this is the absolute perfection, is omniscience, immortality! Consciousness is What makes everything perfect, complete, everything free of limitation, and You are That, now! You are that timeless immortality, that timeless perfection, the Divine, the Truth, God! Such discovery lies in the recognition of your Natural State, which is Meditation. So, these are no longer words but a direct realization of "Enlightenment." That is what we are talking about in Satsang.

This timeless Reality, which is pure Consciousness, is the absence of the illusion of separation. You are really pure, you are free, you are the Truth in this present moment. Your Life is free. It is timeless. So, your Being is immutable! Hearing all this is very strange for you, because you have been trying to improve yourself throughout all your life, you want to be different from what you are. You see yourself as a limited being and, therefore, with the possibility of going through a process of improvement, expansion, of development.

You want to be different than what you are, and I am saying something else. I am saying this is not necessary. It is just an imagination, a belief, something you have learned. Besides not being necessary, this is not possible, because What You Are is immutable! It is this timeless Reality, That which is already complete without change, which is pure Consciousness, infallible, unlimited, indescribable Absolute Intelligence.

This may sound very abstract and profound, but nothing is so unique and simple. The Reality of your Being is the manifestation of this Natural State, which is Meditation, and nothing is as simple as That. So, please, be patient, relax, look within yourself and go beyond the body and the mind, go to the Heart, to this timeless Space, to this “non-space,” this “non-localizable place”. Move yourself to the “non- movement”!

Until now you have always moved horizontally in the world of ideas, beliefs, thoughts, images, projects, desires, dreams, that is, you have always been in a movement of experiencing, of perceiving, of feeling. Now, the invitation is for What is outside the mind, the unknown. Do you see the beauty of this?

So, the invitation here is to your Natural State, which is Meditation! That is the supreme Truth, the infinite Reality. There is nothing but Consciousness! Consciousness is the only Reality of yours! So, everything you assume as “the world,” apart from that Reality, is an illusion! This Consciousness is infinite, without border, without description. What becomes so obvious to the Sage is, in fact, a great shock to the whole cognitive process of the mind. Humankind has been missing This, because it is identifying with the body. Person lives in this identification with the body, and what we call "person" is just a projection, a set of beliefs, an illusion.

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on September 11, 2019 - First published in Portuguese on January 22, 2020. For further information about our meetings, click here.