We have this beautiful opportunity to be together in this meeting, in this Presence, in this Vision, in this Necessary Foundation, where all things take place, both the absence and the presence of Conscience, both the waking up and the sleeping and dreaming. The Foundation of every experience is your True Nature, which is the Divine Nature of all manifestation.
We are here before this unique, real and necessary Foundation, which some call Consciousness, where Freedom resides. In the mind, there is the prison of a false identity, of an illusory character - a prisoner of a prison, which is also imaginary. However, there is the Foundation of everything, and in It resides that Freedom. Your Real Nature is Consciousness! That is the Foundation!
You are not this appearance, for example, a 5.4-feet-tall one, a 5.7-feet-tall one, 5.96 feet, 4.92 feet, etc. You are the One to whom appearances appear, and it is fascinating to look at this closely! Once seeing this, you can let go of all those labels that you make of yourself as a "good or a bad person," a "traumatized person," an "unhappy or an intelligent person," among others. So, seeing that, you can let go of all these labels, which are ideas, images, beliefs, concepts. The mind is full of concepts! You are That where it all appears! This term "Consciousness" is a beautiful indicator of your Natural State. However, as we have addressing in our meetings, you should not confuse Consciousness with being conscious.
Sometimes you can be conscious, sometimes you cannot, so you should not mistake this state for Consciousness. Sometimes you mistake being conscious for being identified with images that thought produces, and that is being in a subtle form of "dream," in a daydream, which means being very far from Consciousness. When you are daydreaming, you are in this fluctuation of the imagination, in a subtle "dream state," in which the body is awake, but the mind is producing this "dream." These are all states of the mind, which we call "states of consciousness," but the real Consciousness knows no state.
This Consciousness is sometimes called as "I." So, when we use the expression "I Am," we may be referring to that Presence. However, when you make that statement, you may be confusing it with a state of mind. It is also like this when you say: "I am sleeping," "I am dreaming," "I am imagining," "I am feeling this." So, this reality of Consciousness, which is the real "I Am," and the ego, which is the sense of "person," are not the same.
Ego is this notion of being a person, an entity based on the personal identification with the body and the mind, or with a personality and its several labels (“good or bad person,” “unhappy or happy person"). However, this "I Am" - your Real, Natural Condition - precedes this imagination of being "someone.”
Deep inside, you know that you can witness what goes on in your head without necessarily identifying with it. Therefore, this identification is not a necessary condition. It is just a habit, an addiction resulting from the repetitive practice of identifying with mental stories, with thoughts. You can disidentify from an image, but the ego is very subtle and clings on to another image, that is, it only swaps one image for another. There is no need to live under this condition of identification with the mind's creations - this is unnecessary. You can find out how to push aside this identification with a false identity. The objective of these meetings is to work on this.
Your Natural Condition is of Love, Peace, Freedom and Supreme Intelligence. This means not mistaking yourself for mental states, for images that thought produces, for an identity that thought creates based on those images. However, for that, you need to be aware of these mental states, these movements of the mind, the movement of these images. For thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty years, you have been trapped within this movement, and now is the time to start not to trust anymore in what thought produces, to doubt what you feel, think and speak, because all of this is produced by a reaction of the thought. The movement of the mind, of thinking is basically unconsciousness. You need to take a step back. Once captured by this movement, it is not that it is difficult to observe the thought, it is impossible! All the mind knows is its own movement, which is unconsciousness. That is why the base, the foundation of this Liberation is simple. However, to welcome this Liberation, a work of surrender, of Meditation is necessary.
The Reality of this Consciousness, of this Presence is absolute, unconditioned, indefinable, indescribable. However, this world of experiences, these mental states on your daily life are well known by the mind, able to deal with that easily and habitually. Therefore, this absolute, unconditioned and indefinable Reality is unattainable, unachievable for the mind since it is uncommon to daily experiences. Notice that the real difficulty is the impossibility for the mind to reach What is outside.
So, it is you yourself who need to take this “step back.” I want to remind you that you are this Absolute Consciousness. However, despite that, this movement of the mind needs to be verified. Getting tangled up with this movement is what I have called “being identified” - identified with thoughts, sensations, feelings, images, beliefs and everything else, which is part of this well-known environment of the mind. Therefore, you need to find out how to live in your Natural State, without this identification with what the thought produces. This work must happen now, here. How many thoughts, feelings or experiences could you have without that Presence, that Real Consciousness, which You are?
Consciousness is the basis, is the Foundation of these thoughts, feelings and experiences. So, go to that Foundation, turn yourself to It, to that Base. Awake! To awake is to get out of this condition of identification with everything the mind produces. So, to experience any of these things Consciousness is required, because It is the Foundation, the Base.
This is a simple, basic point, but it is often forgotten. You forget that You Are Consciousness and you mistake yourself for what the thought is producing, for the stories it is producing about who you are, about what the other is, about what the world is. Nevertheless, the other, the mind and the world are only apparitions. However, when you identify with the body, you become afraid of being "killed" by Coronavirus, because the mind produces stories about death. In fact, it will only touch you if you are destined to go through it, but the mind does not deal with reality but, yes, with fiction, imagination. So, it produces what it knows how to produce well: imaginations, mainly imaginations of pain, suffering, losses, conflicts, since it is specialized in that, in being miserable. So, this simple point is always neglected, forgotten. The simple point is this: You are Something prior to the body, the mind, the world, the thoughts, feelings, experiences and objects!
When you were fifteen years old, you were surrounded by objects different than those currently in your living room or bedroom, or wherever you are, and you had a completely different body from the one you have presently. So, "your world" when fifteen compared to present are completely different, but you have always remained as Consciousness witnessing everything. This Consciousness witnessed the world when you were fifteen just as it is currently witnessing the world.
Psychologically, it is all the same thing. The fifteen-year-old person has different thoughts and psychological experiences than a thirty-five-year-old adult or a middle-aged person in his or her fifties or sixties. Thus, the configuration of a psychological world entirely based on thoughts is quite different. So, both your external and your internal, psychological world change, but you always remain as a witness, as Consciousness. This is the only factor ever present at every experience.
World, mind, body, everything changes, and ignoring this reality of being Pure Consciousness is your whole problem. When you ignore this real place of the Truth about Yourself, you mistake yourself for a story produced by the thought about this thirty-five, forty or fifty-years-old body. You are What You Are, and This is not the body, nor the mind, nor is it in the world. This was not born and will not die. It has no son or grandson. It was not yesterday and it will not be tomorrow. It is not today. Your external world now is one, when you were fifteen it was another. The models of thoughts and beliefs were one in the past and today they are different. All that are illusions, fleeting appearances, without any substance - they have no Truth.
We are here before this unique, real and necessary Foundation, which some call Consciousness, where Freedom resides. In the mind, there is the prison of a false identity, of an illusory character - a prisoner of a prison, which is also imaginary. However, there is the Foundation of everything, and in It resides that Freedom. Your Real Nature is Consciousness! That is the Foundation!
You are not this appearance, for example, a 5.4-feet-tall one, a 5.7-feet-tall one, 5.96 feet, 4.92 feet, etc. You are the One to whom appearances appear, and it is fascinating to look at this closely! Once seeing this, you can let go of all those labels that you make of yourself as a "good or a bad person," a "traumatized person," an "unhappy or an intelligent person," among others. So, seeing that, you can let go of all these labels, which are ideas, images, beliefs, concepts. The mind is full of concepts! You are That where it all appears! This term "Consciousness" is a beautiful indicator of your Natural State. However, as we have addressing in our meetings, you should not confuse Consciousness with being conscious.
Sometimes you can be conscious, sometimes you cannot, so you should not mistake this state for Consciousness. Sometimes you mistake being conscious for being identified with images that thought produces, and that is being in a subtle form of "dream," in a daydream, which means being very far from Consciousness. When you are daydreaming, you are in this fluctuation of the imagination, in a subtle "dream state," in which the body is awake, but the mind is producing this "dream." These are all states of the mind, which we call "states of consciousness," but the real Consciousness knows no state.
This Consciousness is sometimes called as "I." So, when we use the expression "I Am," we may be referring to that Presence. However, when you make that statement, you may be confusing it with a state of mind. It is also like this when you say: "I am sleeping," "I am dreaming," "I am imagining," "I am feeling this." So, this reality of Consciousness, which is the real "I Am," and the ego, which is the sense of "person," are not the same.
Ego is this notion of being a person, an entity based on the personal identification with the body and the mind, or with a personality and its several labels (“good or bad person,” “unhappy or happy person"). However, this "I Am" - your Real, Natural Condition - precedes this imagination of being "someone.”
Deep inside, you know that you can witness what goes on in your head without necessarily identifying with it. Therefore, this identification is not a necessary condition. It is just a habit, an addiction resulting from the repetitive practice of identifying with mental stories, with thoughts. You can disidentify from an image, but the ego is very subtle and clings on to another image, that is, it only swaps one image for another. There is no need to live under this condition of identification with the mind's creations - this is unnecessary. You can find out how to push aside this identification with a false identity. The objective of these meetings is to work on this.
Your Natural Condition is of Love, Peace, Freedom and Supreme Intelligence. This means not mistaking yourself for mental states, for images that thought produces, for an identity that thought creates based on those images. However, for that, you need to be aware of these mental states, these movements of the mind, the movement of these images. For thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty years, you have been trapped within this movement, and now is the time to start not to trust anymore in what thought produces, to doubt what you feel, think and speak, because all of this is produced by a reaction of the thought. The movement of the mind, of thinking is basically unconsciousness. You need to take a step back. Once captured by this movement, it is not that it is difficult to observe the thought, it is impossible! All the mind knows is its own movement, which is unconsciousness. That is why the base, the foundation of this Liberation is simple. However, to welcome this Liberation, a work of surrender, of Meditation is necessary.
The Reality of this Consciousness, of this Presence is absolute, unconditioned, indefinable, indescribable. However, this world of experiences, these mental states on your daily life are well known by the mind, able to deal with that easily and habitually. Therefore, this absolute, unconditioned and indefinable Reality is unattainable, unachievable for the mind since it is uncommon to daily experiences. Notice that the real difficulty is the impossibility for the mind to reach What is outside.
So, it is you yourself who need to take this “step back.” I want to remind you that you are this Absolute Consciousness. However, despite that, this movement of the mind needs to be verified. Getting tangled up with this movement is what I have called “being identified” - identified with thoughts, sensations, feelings, images, beliefs and everything else, which is part of this well-known environment of the mind. Therefore, you need to find out how to live in your Natural State, without this identification with what the thought produces. This work must happen now, here. How many thoughts, feelings or experiences could you have without that Presence, that Real Consciousness, which You are?
Consciousness is the basis, is the Foundation of these thoughts, feelings and experiences. So, go to that Foundation, turn yourself to It, to that Base. Awake! To awake is to get out of this condition of identification with everything the mind produces. So, to experience any of these things Consciousness is required, because It is the Foundation, the Base.
This is a simple, basic point, but it is often forgotten. You forget that You Are Consciousness and you mistake yourself for what the thought is producing, for the stories it is producing about who you are, about what the other is, about what the world is. Nevertheless, the other, the mind and the world are only apparitions. However, when you identify with the body, you become afraid of being "killed" by Coronavirus, because the mind produces stories about death. In fact, it will only touch you if you are destined to go through it, but the mind does not deal with reality but, yes, with fiction, imagination. So, it produces what it knows how to produce well: imaginations, mainly imaginations of pain, suffering, losses, conflicts, since it is specialized in that, in being miserable. So, this simple point is always neglected, forgotten. The simple point is this: You are Something prior to the body, the mind, the world, the thoughts, feelings, experiences and objects!
When you were fifteen years old, you were surrounded by objects different than those currently in your living room or bedroom, or wherever you are, and you had a completely different body from the one you have presently. So, "your world" when fifteen compared to present are completely different, but you have always remained as Consciousness witnessing everything. This Consciousness witnessed the world when you were fifteen just as it is currently witnessing the world.
Psychologically, it is all the same thing. The fifteen-year-old person has different thoughts and psychological experiences than a thirty-five-year-old adult or a middle-aged person in his or her fifties or sixties. Thus, the configuration of a psychological world entirely based on thoughts is quite different. So, both your external and your internal, psychological world change, but you always remain as a witness, as Consciousness. This is the only factor ever present at every experience.
World, mind, body, everything changes, and ignoring this reality of being Pure Consciousness is your whole problem. When you ignore this real place of the Truth about Yourself, you mistake yourself for a story produced by the thought about this thirty-five, forty or fifty-years-old body. You are What You Are, and This is not the body, nor the mind, nor is it in the world. This was not born and will not die. It has no son or grandson. It was not yesterday and it will not be tomorrow. It is not today. Your external world now is one, when you were fifteen it was another. The models of thoughts and beliefs were one in the past and today they are different. All that are illusions, fleeting appearances, without any substance - they have no Truth.
*Online meeting transcription, originally held on May 1st, 2020. First published in Portuguese on July 1st, 2020. For further information, :click here.
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