It is good to be here together. What we work together is the end of the belief in a separate existence. There is a Reality present, and It does not know separation. You need to forget completely all concepts and get rid of all forms of belief. This is something you experience directly. You live That in a straightforward way, as it is not a matter of believing in It or not. It is not a matter of belief or disbelief. That is why we call This “the end of illusion.” However, you need also to get rid of the concept of illusion, for it is still a belief.
If you are really tired of being identified with the story of an external world, from this moment on you are ready to Realize the Truth about your Self. So, that is the first step. While you are still so enchanted by the world – and here I mean this psychological world where your whole life is centred in a false identity – the conflict, the suffering and the illusion will remain.
So, if you forget that psychological world, you also forget all beliefs and disbeliefs, because that is what it represents. When we talk about the world, we are talking about cultural thinking, according which you were raised. Here, forgetting the world means being tired of the illusion. Forgetting illusion completely means nothing exists, and that is what we can call as Realization, the Realization of your Divine, Essential Nature. You need to become aware of your Essential Nature, not of this "you" that believes to be there listening to this speech. When one calls you by the name, you reply: "Yes, I am here." However, that is the illusion because You are present even before someone remembers the name given to this body, to this form. You are present there even before you know you are there. Notice how interesting this is: The Reality of your Being precedes the idea of being "someone," the idea of being present.
You believe you are there because you know how to answer “I am here.” When someone calls your name, the thought “me” comes up. Someone calls you and you say: “Yes, I am here,” but this thought “me” is the illusion, because You precede this idea of a “me”. I think it has become very clear to you now what I have called as “false identity,” “sense of “me.” Notice that the sense of “me” is the illusion of being present. Without this illusion, You are already this existent Presence, but not this “person” you call as “me.”
So, the investigation about yourself needs to follow this basis, this principle. It has to start from the standpoint of accepting what is beyond the mind’s ability to conclude, idealize, believe.
What is yours, for example, is just a belief – the belief on “someone” present there. By the way, this "I," the belief on "someone" present, is just confusion, it does not know Silence and Peace. So, when you say “I am here,” you are dealing with an illusion, that is, everything you think, see and perceive is not Reality. However, everything you think, perceive and see is due to the preceding Reality. It is simple and profound… Reality is the basis of all existing things!
This self-investigation is not the investigation of the “me”, but rather only self-investigation, the investigation of the “non-me” Reality. This self-investigation allows you to discover there is no present “me” within the experience of seeing, perceiving, feeling, listening, speaking, that is, in any and every experience. Our emphasis is on True Meditation, not on what most people take for meditation. You may even go through some preliminary phases of what you would call meditation until you get to this moment here.
We are addressing a very subtle thing. When this Truth blooms, there is no more room for ignorance or illusion. Here, you discard ignorance, illusion and, lo and behold, knowledge. In Reality, knowledge and ignorance come from a merely intellectual understanding principle, and this does not work here. It is hard to understand it, but if you really investigate and inquire it, you will achieve That, the stateless State. You experience your existence through objects and thoughts within this dream perception. You, in your Being, precedes these objects and thoughts, because You are the Reality in Itself.
To know yourself, you need a mirror. To see your face externally, to see how your face is and how you look like to others, you need a mirror. Then, you will know yourself by the appearance of your face and you will see what it represents to everyone around you. This mirror is just for that, for you to know how you will look like to others. So, these thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions going on inside yourself are just a “mirror” for you to know something about how you feel, how you look like to yourself and to the external world, but that is not the Truth. Truth precedes this “mirror,” this appearance.
You are here to find out What You are, prior to what thought says about you, the world and others, prior to what the mirror tells you about what you are or what you seem to be. That is the Awaken of Intelligence, only present when you have the Freedom to be outside the mind circuit, because mind is this limitation, this appearance, this “mirror.” So, your interest for the Truth must be to find out What is beyond what the “mirror” says, beyond what the mind says, beyond the appearances, beyond every idea you have about yourself, beyond all that you psychologically have and may have, because they are just ideas, concepts, beliefs.
I am going to repeat it for you: knowledge, ignorance and illusion disappear in this unconditioned State, which is free of all states. It is not about understanding that intellectually. You need to welcome That beyond the intellect. Real Freedom, Peace, Happiness and Intelligence are within Yourself, and not outside. So, you need to forget all the world experience you have and find out What is within Yourself. This is beyond the psychological experience of the world. Therefore, the point is to find out what is to live beyond the mind, beyond a known model, and to deal with all this with the Freedom of this Intelligence, which does not confront, does not come into conflict, does not fall with anything, does not fight with Life as It is.
It does not matter what is happening in the world, in life, in your body or in the mind. Self-Realization is to find out and experience something beyond this limitation. So, Reality is the basis of everything. Then, from that point onwards, you are no longer impressed by objects, perceptions, thoughts, sensations, because You know that Reality is the basis of everything and there is no more fear! Fear remains along with the mind and all its beliefs, conflicts, imaginary future and past moments – always the psychological idea of time, of predicting what may or may not happen. The mind has no control over this; thought knows nothing about the future; as all it does is to create the imagination of the tomorrow.
Mind controls nothing, absolutely nothing! Nothing is safe, nothing is for sure , and that is the Beauty of Life! This Beauty is living and accepting this unpredictability; it is to exceed the boundary of the known, that psychological condition of life, that life of the mirror’s appearance, the idea of an existing experiencer, the idea of a self-important “someone”, in that illusion of being in control. All this causes and maintains fear. That is the illusion!
Notice that there is no reality within this illusion, this is ignorance! However, there is no reality within this ignorance either, because it is only confined into the mind’s imagination; the mind is producing it. As I said a moment ago: neither understanding, nor ignorance, nor illusion can stand before Reality. That dimension of existence is to live in Consciousness, not in the mind, and You are that Reality in Itself. There is nothing apart this Reality, only That! There is only Consciousness, Truth, God!
Do you know the lotus flower? It lives in the water, but it does not touch it…it floats on the surface. When the water drops on it, it flows away and it does not accumulate on it. So, it seems the flower cannot bear to live immerse into water; its petals always remain out of water. The water drops on it and rolls down… The flower does not allow to be touched by the water; it does not get immersed into the water. When you look at a lotus flower, you see its entire body submerged, but the flower itself floats over the water’s surface. Whenever the water level rises up, the flower grows up a little more so as not to get immersed. If the water level rises up a little, the flower also grows up a little more to keep pace with the lake, as it needs to be above the water’s surface.
Was it clear what I meant? To live in this world, without the illusion of being alive within it, is Wisdom, and This is Freedom, Happiness. However, to believe you are living in this world, that you belong to it and that only the world is the reality, is to forget your True Nature. It seems the lotus flower does not forget that: it is always out of the water, although still on the water.
If you are really tired of being identified with the story of an external world, from this moment on you are ready to Realize the Truth about your Self. So, that is the first step. While you are still so enchanted by the world – and here I mean this psychological world where your whole life is centred in a false identity – the conflict, the suffering and the illusion will remain.
So, if you forget that psychological world, you also forget all beliefs and disbeliefs, because that is what it represents. When we talk about the world, we are talking about cultural thinking, according which you were raised. Here, forgetting the world means being tired of the illusion. Forgetting illusion completely means nothing exists, and that is what we can call as Realization, the Realization of your Divine, Essential Nature. You need to become aware of your Essential Nature, not of this "you" that believes to be there listening to this speech. When one calls you by the name, you reply: "Yes, I am here." However, that is the illusion because You are present even before someone remembers the name given to this body, to this form. You are present there even before you know you are there. Notice how interesting this is: The Reality of your Being precedes the idea of being "someone," the idea of being present.
You believe you are there because you know how to answer “I am here.” When someone calls your name, the thought “me” comes up. Someone calls you and you say: “Yes, I am here,” but this thought “me” is the illusion, because You precede this idea of a “me”. I think it has become very clear to you now what I have called as “false identity,” “sense of “me.” Notice that the sense of “me” is the illusion of being present. Without this illusion, You are already this existent Presence, but not this “person” you call as “me.”
So, the investigation about yourself needs to follow this basis, this principle. It has to start from the standpoint of accepting what is beyond the mind’s ability to conclude, idealize, believe.
What is yours, for example, is just a belief – the belief on “someone” present there. By the way, this "I," the belief on "someone" present, is just confusion, it does not know Silence and Peace. So, when you say “I am here,” you are dealing with an illusion, that is, everything you think, see and perceive is not Reality. However, everything you think, perceive and see is due to the preceding Reality. It is simple and profound… Reality is the basis of all existing things!
This self-investigation is not the investigation of the “me”, but rather only self-investigation, the investigation of the “non-me” Reality. This self-investigation allows you to discover there is no present “me” within the experience of seeing, perceiving, feeling, listening, speaking, that is, in any and every experience. Our emphasis is on True Meditation, not on what most people take for meditation. You may even go through some preliminary phases of what you would call meditation until you get to this moment here.
We are addressing a very subtle thing. When this Truth blooms, there is no more room for ignorance or illusion. Here, you discard ignorance, illusion and, lo and behold, knowledge. In Reality, knowledge and ignorance come from a merely intellectual understanding principle, and this does not work here. It is hard to understand it, but if you really investigate and inquire it, you will achieve That, the stateless State. You experience your existence through objects and thoughts within this dream perception. You, in your Being, precedes these objects and thoughts, because You are the Reality in Itself.
To know yourself, you need a mirror. To see your face externally, to see how your face is and how you look like to others, you need a mirror. Then, you will know yourself by the appearance of your face and you will see what it represents to everyone around you. This mirror is just for that, for you to know how you will look like to others. So, these thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions going on inside yourself are just a “mirror” for you to know something about how you feel, how you look like to yourself and to the external world, but that is not the Truth. Truth precedes this “mirror,” this appearance.
You are here to find out What You are, prior to what thought says about you, the world and others, prior to what the mirror tells you about what you are or what you seem to be. That is the Awaken of Intelligence, only present when you have the Freedom to be outside the mind circuit, because mind is this limitation, this appearance, this “mirror.” So, your interest for the Truth must be to find out What is beyond what the “mirror” says, beyond what the mind says, beyond the appearances, beyond every idea you have about yourself, beyond all that you psychologically have and may have, because they are just ideas, concepts, beliefs.
I am going to repeat it for you: knowledge, ignorance and illusion disappear in this unconditioned State, which is free of all states. It is not about understanding that intellectually. You need to welcome That beyond the intellect. Real Freedom, Peace, Happiness and Intelligence are within Yourself, and not outside. So, you need to forget all the world experience you have and find out What is within Yourself. This is beyond the psychological experience of the world. Therefore, the point is to find out what is to live beyond the mind, beyond a known model, and to deal with all this with the Freedom of this Intelligence, which does not confront, does not come into conflict, does not fall with anything, does not fight with Life as It is.
It does not matter what is happening in the world, in life, in your body or in the mind. Self-Realization is to find out and experience something beyond this limitation. So, Reality is the basis of everything. Then, from that point onwards, you are no longer impressed by objects, perceptions, thoughts, sensations, because You know that Reality is the basis of everything and there is no more fear! Fear remains along with the mind and all its beliefs, conflicts, imaginary future and past moments – always the psychological idea of time, of predicting what may or may not happen. The mind has no control over this; thought knows nothing about the future; as all it does is to create the imagination of the tomorrow.
Mind controls nothing, absolutely nothing! Nothing is safe, nothing is for sure , and that is the Beauty of Life! This Beauty is living and accepting this unpredictability; it is to exceed the boundary of the known, that psychological condition of life, that life of the mirror’s appearance, the idea of an existing experiencer, the idea of a self-important “someone”, in that illusion of being in control. All this causes and maintains fear. That is the illusion!
Notice that there is no reality within this illusion, this is ignorance! However, there is no reality within this ignorance either, because it is only confined into the mind’s imagination; the mind is producing it. As I said a moment ago: neither understanding, nor ignorance, nor illusion can stand before Reality. That dimension of existence is to live in Consciousness, not in the mind, and You are that Reality in Itself. There is nothing apart this Reality, only That! There is only Consciousness, Truth, God!
Do you know the lotus flower? It lives in the water, but it does not touch it…it floats on the surface. When the water drops on it, it flows away and it does not accumulate on it. So, it seems the flower cannot bear to live immerse into water; its petals always remain out of water. The water drops on it and rolls down… The flower does not allow to be touched by the water; it does not get immersed into the water. When you look at a lotus flower, you see its entire body submerged, but the flower itself floats over the water’s surface. Whenever the water level rises up, the flower grows up a little more so as not to get immersed. If the water level rises up a little, the flower also grows up a little more to keep pace with the lake, as it needs to be above the water’s surface.
Was it clear what I meant? To live in this world, without the illusion of being alive within it, is Wisdom, and This is Freedom, Happiness. However, to believe you are living in this world, that you belong to it and that only the world is the reality, is to forget your True Nature. It seems the lotus flower does not forget that: it is always out of the water, although still on the water.
*Online meeting transcription, originally held on May 20th, 2020 - First published in Portuguese on August 19th, 2020. For further information about the meetings, click here.
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