What is the objective of this meeting?

So, what is the objective of this meeting? You know this meeting is known as Satsang, which means “encounter with the Truth.” But what does Truth mean? If it is the Truth, then It is beyond every explanation, denomination and characteristic, including being aware of what represents the Void. If we are talking about Reality, we are dealing with Something beyond everything the mind can understand and explain.

The point of this meeting here is the Awakening of your True Nature, your Real Identity, this Reality, but how can we address That using words? If this Reality or Truth precedes every phenomenon, It cannot be described. So, this is the first point: you need to abandon what you know and try to not understand intellectually what we are addressing here. You cannot reach That intellectually, as It cannot be learned by the mind. Everything you know lies in the sphere of the phenomena. The very idea you have about yourself is imaginary: the idea of an imagined identity.

So, this space called Satsang is the real way to approach the encounter with the Truth. Something inside yourself knows that sensation of being present and aware, and that is your True Nature – This is what we are dealing with in Satsang. That is Reality but, for sure, beyond reason, explanation, the known; it is unknowable as an object; it is beyond the mind. In these meetings, we usually use the expression "Being", but Truth does not concern "being" or "not being" – it is unknowable, beyond all that!

Your problem here is the temptation to consider Truth as an idea – the idea of “Being,” of “Consciousness” or even of a more objective thing. For example, people look for peace, for the feeling of peace, but they are actually looking for their idea of peace as a state. That is also how it works with freedom or happiness. If you know this state of peace, freedom, consciousness, it is objective. Isn’t it? So that is the point: what you are looking for is still objective, known, and not what we are dealing with here. I am saying What You are is beyond what is known, and This is not a state of peace, of freedom, of consciousness you know, that is still part of the mind.

This is a very interesting aspect, since people practice meditation to find peace, but they end up finding the “peace of meditation,” which is only a known state and still part of the mind. Through some technique and emptying some mind’s content, a state of peace can be experienced and therefore people go after that desperately. Nevertheless, it is not a real state yet, since it is not the Truth; it is only a state. Truth is not a state.

The peace you know through meditation practices is a state that disappears when that meditation is not present. So, this meditation technique or practice benefits this state of peace or freedom, but that is not Reality, the Truth of your Being, your True Nature yet. What You are is beyond every state and experience, beyond everything the mind can catch, explain or experience. Something inside there precedes this known “peace” and “freedom,” as well as the so-called “being” or “not being.”

No matter how subtle and appreciable these states are, they are still part of the known, therefore still within the mind. These states are experiences that can be apprehended, understood or recognized, and that is not what we are talking about in Satsang. Here, we will “clean this land” completely, for we have to get rid of all this. Here, I am talking about non-conceptual, non-descriptive, non-experiential Consciousness, unknown by the mind; the Consciousness preceding that "awareness,” that "peace" or that "freedom," which are only states.

So, this Consciousness, synonymous with Truth or Reality, lies not within the experience. It is the basis of everything, but also beyond everything! You are beyond every experience as pure, absolute and supreme Consciousness. This primordial, non-conceptual Reality is not limited, conditioned, attached to time. It is that non-conceptual Consciousness, the pure and absolute Consciousness. You are Consciousness before being aware of, before knowing this “I Am”.

What I am talking to you comes from direct experience here. This is the Vision of Reality or Truth; it is not Ramana Maharshi’s, Nisargadatta’s, Buddha’s, Jesus or Gualberto’s vision. This is the Vision of Reality, of What You are, that precedes absolutely everything! The Reality or the Truth of your Essential Nature cannot be understood, explained, achieved nor lost. What You are never stops being, and what you are not, will never be!

When you wake up in the morning, “consciousness” woke up. In this "state of consciousness,” which is only a state of Consciousness, you perceive the mind, the body and the world, exactly in that order. You have first the perception of the “me;” followed by the perception of the body and of the world. However, the perception of “me, body and world” is only this awakened “consciousness” – consciousness as a state, as a mind-body-world experience. These states are only appearances, only credulous phenomena of the mind, in the mind, and not What You Are. None of this is What You Are!

When you identify with any of these appearances (mind, body and world), you give rise to that misconception of “person” – the illusion of an individual, separate identity, having “free will,” choices, wills and determination. The search for liberation itself is also another illusion to this entity. This search causes all suffering, all doubts and fears. All of this is simply the awareness of coming and going states and phenomena.

That state of consciousness disappears in deep sleep or under drug effect, so it is clearly a transitory state that comes and goes. At some point, it appears, and at another, it is no longer there, so that state is only an experience, and What You Are is beyond that. It should be clear to you: this is a state that creates the notion of time and space, of body, mind and world. Time, space, body, mind and world are linked to this phenomenon called “state of consciousness.” What You are, is beyond the mind, the body, the world and, therefore, beyond this “state of consciousness” that comes and goes, that disappears in deep sleep or under some heavy drug effect.

The wonder of these meetings called Satsang lies in dealing here with the Real Awakening, different from the awakening from a sleep state in the morning, when you become aware of the world, the body and the mind. The beauty of this Real Awakening is the direct experience of your Real Nature, which is the Reality, the Truth.

It is like the Sun... The Sun reflects nothing, but everything reflects the Sun; everything shines with it, but the Sun shines with nothing. Wherever you find light, there will be the Sun, but the Sun itself is always alone. You can see every object under the sunlight, but the Sun is its own light, its very own light. If an object appears, you notice its light, but the light of that object is the sunlight reflected in it. This object’s presence is provided by the Sun, yet nothing provides the presence of the Sun, but itself. So is your True Nature, God’s Nature in Yourself, the Nature of Reality, of Truth, which is in Itself self-effulgent, self-shining, self-resplendent and unnamable.

In this Real Awakening, this Intelligence, this Wisdom, this Vision of Truth is self-effulgent. In It, You now, as Consciousness, need no borrowed light; you do not need the light of experience, knowledge, practice or knowing, as you are like the Sun, you have your own light. When you Realize the Self, You are in your Unconditional, Original position. That is your Original State, your Natural State of Being! Your Nature is essentially pure, non-conceptual; You are the Truth or the absolute Reality!

*Online meeting transcription originally held on January 24th, 2020 - First published in Portuguese on October 20th, 2020. For further information about our meetings, please, click here.

Live in love with your Being

As long as you mistake yourself for the body, the illusion of the mind persists, but even though You remain unflappable. You do not repeat yourself, but the mind does! You have no problem, but the mind does!

You are in trouble because you mistake yourself for the body. As the mind repeats itself, it has been creating shapes all the time. It needs that. The body is a mind’s form, but the mind is not a form of Consciousness, of your Real Nature. The mind is a form of ego, of desire, creating the body to enjoy what it longs for. So, you are born because you are in a state of misery, the state of the egoic mind. You are entangled, mistaking yourself for that. When that ends, there is no reason for the form to appear again, since the egoic mind is no longer present.

Why do I always tell you in Satsang, "Do not trust in the experience!"? Because the illusion of a “someone” is present in the experience and therefore, you remain in slavery! Go beyond that! Go beyond everything and everyone! Go beyond the mind, the body, the idea of being someone! Go beyond this illusion!

Stop thinking in terms of people, of places, of things, of objects, because when you are looking for it, you are further focusing on time. For example, if you have a husband or a boyfriend and you are frequently thinking of him, you are stablishing yourself within time as a separate identity. Go beyond people, things and places! Keep yourself internally free from all this, as the mind will persist if desire is present: it will seek a new body, a new sensation, a new experience, and that never ends! Is this clear?

Dwell in your Being, live in your Being, marry your Being, live in Love with your Being! Everything else are forms created by the mind in the pursuit of stablishing itself within time, as a separate entity.

What I am telling you is the Core, the Heart of Vedas, of Upanishads, of Bible, of Koran and of all the sacred books of the world. They are pointing out the Divine, and That is present when you are not there.

The identification with the body, with the idea of being someone, makes you worried: "Should I go or not?"; "Do I continue or stop?"; "Do I get married or don’t?"; "Do I ask for the divorce or don’t?” ... It is like when I meet someone worried about what to eat: "I'm a vegetarian," "I'm macrobiotic." I am dealing with something else! You are concerned with what the body is going to eat; you are identified with the body, believing the body will reach some spiritual degree because of the food. What is a food-spiritualized body? It is the mind! The body is only the mind, and I am dealing with You, not with the body and the mind. I am not worried about what you eat, but I know you have learned this in spirituality, so you come here full of beliefs about what you can and cannot do, about what you should and should not do, about what to do and what not to do.

What difference does it make to What You Are in your Real Nature? Before the body was born, You are That, and when the body disappears, You are That! I am pointing out What You Are, What is your Real Nature, beyond the body, beyond the mind, beyond the form, beyond the world, beyond being born and dying.

*Presential meeting transcription held on October, 2016 - First published in Portuguese on June 19, 2018. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Life is not what you believe to be

It is quite interesting to discover life is not what you believe to be. We are frequently observing in Satsang you have been imagining reality. What you call "life" is only an imagination about Reality, but the Truth about Reality is forgotten, as if it were lost. The paradox here is that the Reality is not lost, and even more paradoxical is to know It is not forgotten either. This is just a forgetful game, in which this Reality seems to be lost, and all this is due to ignorance. When you recognize the Truth, the Reality, for the first time you know you cannot forget nor lose That. The ignorance regarding who you are leads to this sensation.

What you call sadness and joy, peace and war, are symptoms of illusion. If at this current moment you feel peace, and in the following moment you see yourself in conflict, at war, there you have a classic sign of the presence of illusion. These are feelings happening due to ignorance. Thus, you are in a switching state between peace and war. This is the state of duality, of separation. You feel like a prisoner, suffering and seeking a solution to illusory problems due to ignorance. Whenever you feel unhappy and in trouble, you are accepting something imaginary concerning Life, concerning Reality, and so you have this fight. When there is ignorance, bad events are neither accepted nor understood. Those who have achieved this understanding just recognize this, so they have no surprises, since they know this is part of life game, of this game of duality.

So, there is no reason to be sad when bad things happen nor to be euphoric, imagining you have found happiness when good things happen. All of this is due to ignorance. The person who lives in ignorance is happy when good things happen and believes happiness will be eternal, but it is not so. If a good thing is going on, I have some bad news to give you: it will not last. That is because nothing lasts long, be it good or bad. All right? Can you hear this without being upset?

The egoic mind has a prospect of profit, of acquisition, of gain. The ego is always engaged in a big business, in something it cannot lose. All the time, the ego is striving for self-benefit! The ego must be loved, respected, praised and must win. That is how you had been trained to live; this is how you had been trained in this world. In every area and aspect, you will always long for good things to happen. I am not saying that longing for good things to happen is bad; I am saying that not accepting bad things can happen, when good things are also expected, is a bad thing. It is an illusion not to be ready for bad things, as you expect only good things.

I love Satsang, this encounter with Wisdom, where the words you receive are from pure Consciousness. They are not words for you to reflect, imagine, agree or disagree with, but rather only to hear and sleep with them, and preferably to wake up the next morning saying: "That is it and period.“ This is Wisdom! Satsang is the encounter with Wisdom. When you meet a living Master, you are faced with Consciousness Itself. Realized Beings are not abundant like bananas, easily found in the market where you can buy dozens, several bunches. Yet I tell you, even to find bananas you need to go to the right place, because if you look for them in a stationery store, for example, you will not find it.

This meeting we have here is the meeting with the Truth of Consciousness, with the Truth of Being. The one who has a clear understanding of That, knows that life always has two sides – sometimes you win, at others you lose. So, I recommend you to always investigate this matter of who is winning and losing and who is being affected. You believe you are a separate entity, and that is the reason for fear, for suffering. Actually, everyone in the planet is an appearance within that same Consciousness. There is only this unique Consciousness, in which everything appears.

We all know what it is like to start watching a movie and then saying it is a bad or a good film, but the interesting point is this is your own appraisal, not the screen’s. The screen does not care if the projection concerns a good or a bad movie; it makes no difference to the screen. The screen does not increase its feeling of being “alive” when the movie is being projected on it. Interesting, isn't it?

Therefore, if you understand you are neither the body, the mind, nor a separate entity and you abandon this entanglement, this inner confusion, which I call "identification with the mind," everything becomes fine. Everyone happens within that Consciousness, and if you embrace that, all limitation disappears.

When a glass is broken, space becomes unlimited. Before that, there was a limitation, but, after broken, the space is no longer confined into the diameter or limitation of the glass. As long as you believe you are the mind, the body and you see the world as your life’s reality, you are like the glass, believing this space you have inside yourself is the entire space of the universe. Notice there is no reason for fear. The glass cannot be afraid of losing space if it breaks, because if it does, it does not lose space, its space does not disappear.

When a glass you have at home is broken, others continue to serve the same way, and you throw the broken one in the trash. It is just like that in the Existence - everything disappears, but nothing disappears, nothing causes any loss. What goes through your head are just beliefs, false ideas about Existence, about Life, and you do not allow that limitation to break.

When Realization is present, there is no idea about Life. This is the simple and straightforward Vision, the Wise Vision. So, break the limitations you have created with your own thoughts, allow it to be broken.

Satsang is extraordinary, out of the ordinary, out of the common place, since here all these lies are broken. Your life is a lie, precisely because it is "your life" and not Life. In "your life" there is no Truth, Wisdom. Life is the "screen," but your “life” is the "movie," in which good things are happening at one time, and bad things at others. This is the "film," and this is what you call "life." This is the circuit of ignorance, since there are no good nor bad things, there are only things happening. To the "screen," things are just happening, but as you do not know who you are and mistake yourself for what you are not, you are seeing good and bad things.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on July 3rd, 2020. First published in Portuguese on October 1st, 2020. For further information about the meetings, please click here.

A Revelation of the Truth about Yourself

Welcome to Satsang! It is a great opportunity to have an encounter with the Reality, with the Truth. We are finding out this Absence here… Notice words are constantly contradictory; they are thought’s creations. In fact, word is thought. I am talking about this encounter with the Absence, an encounter with the Presence. This encounter is only a Revelation, a Revelation of the Truth about Yourself.

Everything in life is pointing out your very own Presence… or Absence. Even the most complicated thing happening or the most intense suffering is pointing out the absence of the one who suffers, which is the Presence of Reality. Everything will always point That out! It is not an intellectual understanding, but rather an inside-out vision. All that is mentioned here is already inside yourself, so it is only a matter of contemplation, of vision. Truth’s Beauty lies in not being neither old nor young, but rather timeless, beyond the mind and so, beyond all the knowledge the mind has been acquiring, creating and expressing throughout the years. The mind is both the author and the consumer of knowledge – that is the game.

First, the mind produces the knowledge, then it “collects” that knowledge as something new to later make use of it to acquire further knowledge – and so we have this “package,” this “bundle,” that is only fiction, thought’s fantasy. Truth is beyond this “package,” beyond the past, the present, the future, beyond what the mind has built and has collected, beyond its projections.

The point is nothing is real. Real is the absence of the one who suffers, which is the Presence of Happiness, Truth. We may call this Truth as Consciousness, Consciousness as Happiness and Happiness as Love… this Love we may call as Peace, the Peace beyond the “package,” beyond the mind. By finding That out within yourself, any illusion and any apparent “truth” disappear. This Discovery is Truth, Wisdom and Intelligence Awakening.

When there is Intelligence, there is no suffering. Suffering is only possible when there is a lie (here, lie in the sense of illusion). So, while there is illusion, there will be lie, and this is non-intelligence. Intelligence is the absence of the one who suffers or the Presence of Truth, and this is Wisdom. How does it sound to you?

When I say everything in your life is pointing out this very own Absence, it means anything going on inside yourself is not the Truth; but rather illusion, lie. To see this lie, this illusion, is to see the Truth. So, what you need is not to abandon the lie, not to abandon the illusion, but rather to realize the truth of it, the truth of the lie, of the illusion.

These talks in Satsang are very strange since they are not creating anything. As I told you here, the mind builds things and produces knowledge; then it becomes aware of the knowledge to accomplish something through it. Nothing is being produced here, nothing is being known, nothing is being accomplished. Here, you are not learning anything; you are discovering the eyes able to see the lie, the illusion, the false as false. If you can see the false as false, your eyes are seeing the Truth. That is the Presence of the Truth; This itself is already the absence of the one who suffers.

Participant: Master, can the mind access limitless knowledge?

Marcos Gualberto: All knowledge is limited since it requires more knowledge. Once you know something new, there is always something to learn further, therefore proving how limited – and not unlimited – is the knowledge. If knowledge were unlimited, it would not be confined into time’s boundaries. Everything within time is limited! Knowledge can be acquired, increased, expanded, therefore is limited. Everything acquirable and improvable is limited as it is within time. Only Truth, that does not belong to knowledge, is Unlimited.

No matter what you learn, there will always be more to learn about it. No matter what you discover, there will always be more to discover about it. That proves the limitation! Only True Knowledge is unlimited, and That is the absence of temporal knowledge thought can make feasible, doable and explainable.

Before being interested in knowledge, which is limited, you should be interested in finding out who You are. The Real knowledge that really matters and cannot be improved nor impaired is the Truth about who You are. When that Knowledge is present, Timeless Truth, beyond-time Intelligence, which is Happiness, Peace, Love, God, is then present. God is this Consciousness, this Presence, this Truth, this Unlimited and Real Knowledge, and not what you call as "knowledge." So, the only "thing" worthy to known is What exceeds the known; the only "thing" worthy to realize is What cannot be realized by the mind.

Online meeting transcription originally held on August 18th, 2020 - First published in Portuguese on October 6th, 2020. For further information about our meetings, please click here

Life in the mind is a dream

Satsang is an opportunity to investigate the nature of Consciousness, the nature of experience, of the Self. After all, what is that experience happening here and now? What is that Consciousness appearing here and now? What is the Truth of this present moment?

We are in contact with the external world through the senses. In this way, our perception of the external world is sensory. This experience of the world is similar to the experience of the dream. This comparison is quite interesting; it is perfectly suitable for this sort of investigation. In the dream, you have a world and a body similar to this one and you have contact with the external world and objects through the senses, just like you are having at this very moment, in this so called “vigil state.”

So, your dreaming experience is similar to your experience in the waking state. Here I mean from the viewpoint of the sense of consciousness and of sensory experience. In the dream, you can hear, see, feel; all sensorial experience is present there and here. Just as during the dream you see yourself as the experiencer experiencing things, you also see yourself here as the experiencer experiencing things. In the dream, you are as separate from the experience as you are at this moment, in the waking state.

So, we ask, “What is the nature of that experience, what is the nature of that Consciousness present exactly in the same way in these two states? What is the nature of the Self, what is the Nature of your Being? Where in fact are you? What makes you so sure this waking state is more real than that sleep state? In what sense is it more real?”

When you leave the dream and wake up in the morning, you see the dream was not real. But throughout the dream it was quite real and there was no waking state, only the dreaming state. So, who assures you that you are awake at this moment? Who assures you this state in which you currently are is real, is the only and ultimate state of your Being? It cannot be the only one, because you know dreaming state presents itself as an experience in your life, just like deep sleep. Therefore, this can be neither your ultimate state nor your true state of Being, provided that you also have the experience of dreaming and deep sleep states.

OK! But why did I start talking like that to you? Because if you do not know your Real and True State in any of these three states – waking, dreaming and deep sleep – you are always incomplete. Incomplete because these states are not real, they are changeable, they appear and disappear. Deep sleep state is replaced by dreaming state, which is replaced by waking state, which is further replaced by deep sleep state again. So, what I am telling you is that these three states are not your Real and Definitive State, your Natural State. They are simple states experienced by the mind.

The mind is the one experiencing deep sleep in the absence of the world and of the experiencer. The mind is the one experiencing the waking state with the presence of the experiencer, of the experience as well as of the dream. The mind is constantly present in these three experiences, in these three states. In deep sleep, it plunges into the unknown; in waking state and dreaming state, it upholds the known. All these three states are happening in your Real Nature, in your True Nature.

We are naming your Real Nature as Being, Consciousness, Truth, Presence, but notice That is not part of waking, dreaming nor deep sleep state. We are saying the world is not real, the body is part of the world, the world and the body are part of the mind, and therefore the mind is not real either.

I am leading you along a path Ramana called as "self-inquiry." We are investigating the Nature of the Self, the Nature of Consciousness. All you can report, tell, remember, recall... none of this is part of your True Nature. It is only part of the mind’s dream, part of one of its manifestations.

When you wake up in the morning, you know the dreaming world was within the mind, was only part of the mind, of the personal illusion, because it was a personal dream. Notice there were many people present during your dream, however they were not in a common world but just in "your" private world. Currently, in waking state, you think you are in a world common to everybody, so you believe people you see in this "your" world, in the waking state, are in a common world. However, this belongs to the dream. Your wife, husband, children, employer, your employee, your business... They all are only in the private and individual world of this "me."

So, first it comes this "I" and then comes the world of this "I,” which is not a world common to everybody, since there is no "everybody." First you appear and then your world appears... But, you are your world and your world is you – there are not "many ones!" Therefore, there is only the mind and not "many minds." Mind is the basis of this illusion, the illusion of the dream of this "me."

When you mistake yourself for the body, you make the world appear as something separate from the "body" you believe you are. Actually, all this belief is only the mind creating this illusion, this game. In India, they call this as the illusion of Maya. Once this “I” appears, others, objects, people and the world arise – this is duality, this is the illusion of the dual mind upholding the illusion of suffering. I just said this: "The illusion of suffering!" And now you know exactly why. There is no such thing as "suffering!" This concerns the experiencer’s illusion separating him or herself from the experience of pain. So, there is no psychological suffering, because there is not any psyche, there is no such mind as a separate thing from the experience, from what is happening here and now.

Physical pain is the pain of the body itself, there is no one in that experience. So, this is not suffering, but a neural, physiological experience. Whatever is happening to the body is happening within the dream, within one of the forms of mind´s manifestation, but this is not personal, there is no one to suffer. The body may be cold, hungry, hot or in pain, but this is a neurophysiologic, sensorial, absolutely natural experience. There is no one there! So, it is simple to say, "No one is born and no one dies... It is just the body that seems to appear and disappear!"

All you seek is to find out your Real Nature. This is the unique intense longing everybody carries within oneself: the wish to go beyond suffering and therefore the desire to go beyond the desire. The ultimate Nature of the desire is the end of the desire, is Happiness. It is interesting to say here that Happiness does not mean somebody’s "happiness" but the Happiness of Happiness, God in the pursuit of Himself; Happiness encountering Itself; the Being in search of the Being, in search of the very own Being; Consciousness becoming Consciousness. This is the Nature of God. This is your True Nature: Being, Consciousness, Happiness.

This is the time for you to realize That – the only thing you are here for! In India, the one who assumes one’s Real Identity, Real Nature is called as Bhagavan... a Jivamukti! If you do not assume That here and now, your life will remain similar to the life of a cockroach, of an ant, of a bird or of a tree. You appear on the scenery (in this so-called "birth"), grow up, work, get married, have kids, fall ill, age and die – just as it happens in the nature. Perhaps, you may suffer a bit more than a cockroach, a bird or a tree, just and simply because of this strong belief in an entity separate from Existence. We do not know how far this goes across nature as it does among human beings.

When you realize or acknowledge your True Nature of Being, of Consciousness, of Happiness, you are beyond these three states we have just spoken of. This is your Natural State! Ramana called this as the "Fourth State," "Turya," the State of Being, the state beyond the illusion of separateness. Then, there is no longer the illusion of the experiencer in the experience, and the entire sense of ego identity – only possible in the dualistic mind, in the dream of separation – is undone... Ok, let's stop now! Until the next meeting. Namaste!

*Online meeting transcription originally held on November 22, 2017 – First published in Portuguese on February 18, 2018. For further information about our meetings, please, click here.

Stay with That and You Will be the “owner of the game”

You say, “Master, listening to You is never too much.” Yeah! I also think like that, because you all listen to so much nonsense! All talks are nonsense, but at least the ones here point to something not stupid, to something out of this load of rubbish thought creates and produces. The speech born of the Natural State, which is Consciousness, is also Consciousness and, thus, dispels thought’s illusion. This speech is like a thorn you use to remove another thorn out of your foot. You use a very thin needle to remove a thorn from your foot, and the thinner it is, the more "surgical," the more precisely you reach and remove it. If you try to remove a thorn with a cotton swab, you will not succeed.

You may listen to many speeches, read a lot of books, listen to many speakers, panelists, lecturers, including gurus talking about Advaita, about non-duality but, it is just like a “cotton swab” being offered to remove "the thorn from the foot." I think this will not work since you need a thinner needle, a perfect view of where the thorn is located and the ability to reach it in order to remove it. So, put your attention into this speech, as it is not a nonsense. I have been saying my talks are nonsense along all these years, but now I am saying something completely different: they are powerful as they are pervaded of Presence, of Consciousness; they are born of this dimension. They are "needles" that remove "thorns."

So, get your ears ready and your heart open, so that Reality, which is Consciousness, can get there and remove that "thorn." Do you know why illusion is persistent? Because the nature of the egoic mind is to be stubborn, and that stubbornness cannot be easily avoided or stopped. The mind cannot solve this issue as it is not interested in that, as it will not "commit suicide." So, no matter how many words you hear, books you read, how hard you study – since all these things are from the mind’s nature – you will only end up further strengthening the mind. You need to stand before Silence, this Presence, this Consciousness. Only then, you will have a real "needle" to remove this "thorn." The "thorn" is stubborn, difficult to be removed, since to start, it is hard to be detected, found, so that it can be later removed.

The point is that when I say you are not who you believe you are, there inside your head another voice says: “You are wrong. It is me, and I am here listening to you.” However, this is not true since you are not listening to anything; nothing is being said to you. Here is Consciousness dealing with the Consciousness, and trying to fully understand That is another effort of the mind itself, that is, the mind striving for itself. A Sage, who is Consciousness, says this world is an illusion, while in the mind, the idea about that comes from inside your head. How is it for you to hear the world is an illusion? The mind is so limited in its perception that it does not say good things are also part of the illusion.

In the card game, the king and the queen have huge power depending on the kind of the game you are playing. There are several kinds of games where king and queen have great power, but the Ace is even a more powerful card. Something similar happens to your life, as there is always a more powerful thing, but you should not forget everything is nothing but a “game.”

After the "playing cards are kept" inside the "box of the world," where everything is happening, all power disappears, like the power of the playing cards in the deck (king, queen and ace). So, do not mistake yourself for the experience you are seeing in the "game." Life is this Mystery, this Beauty, this Grace – keep That and You will be the “owner of the game.”

*Online meeting transcription originally held on February 4th, 2020 – First published in Portuguese on October 3rd, 2020. For further information about our meetings,, click here.

Real Knowledge is experiential

We are facing something we cannot say anything about it. Satsang is surprisingly inexplicable. The Truth Is – it is just like that! Nothing can be said about That. So, this meeting is inexplicable; it is a Truth, Silence revealing moment. That is the greatness, the simplicity and the uniqueness of Satsang. What you hear here may seem very strange, but I can assure you the more you strive to know the Truth, the more you keep It away and entangle yourself in this “sleeping state.”

This is the time to live, to fell this Presence, to be provided by the revelation of this Presence and not by some explanation about it. I am not a philosopher, a teacher nor a preacher you are listening to. There is no way, no formula, no method nor system for you to know That, for That to be revealed to you. You can disappear in That, but you cannot understand It. In other words, this is not an objective thing, that “you," as a subject, could know. You cannot hold It into your hands and say, "I got it! I have it here with me, now it is mine!"– that is not possible!

An Advaita-Vedanta teacher will give you explanations, will speak about the non-dual nature of Existence, the nature of the Truth... Then, the teacher will tell you everything is already what it is, that Truth is present, and your true nature is this Truth. Anyway, the teacher will tell you many things, will give you many explanations, and in this way, you will end up learning about it.

What you do here, in these meetings, is to investigate the nature of the Truth about yourself: it is not a matter of acquiring knowledge about It. This kind of knowledge is also some kind of ignorance, because it is merely theoretical; just accumulated words through which you create new knowledge. In reality, Consciousness is Knowledge, but another kind of knowledge. It is not the knowledge from words, but rather the Knowledge from the Being. This is the real Truth’s Knowledge, the pure Knowledge, the Being, Consciousness, that is a non-verbal, non-intellectual knowledge. This way, you may know words such as love, truth or freedom. However, knowing the word “love” does not mean knowing Love; knowing the word “truth” does not mean knowing the Truth; knowing the word “freedom” does not mean knowing Freedom as well as knowing the word “God” does not mean knowing God. Therefore, words are not the point.

Truth is existential, whereas mind’s knowledge is non-existential, verbal, theoretical, conceptual. Therefore, what the mind knows as truth, freedom, God and love are only words. So, either you Are That or you talk about It. Do you notice the difference? If you Are That, then you are not a teacher, you are not “someone” talking about It – you are living That! If you are a teacher, you are just talking about It. So, this is the clear difference between the Sage and the philosopher, between Being and merely knowing.

When there is Love, there is no need for words such as "I love you." When there is Truth, there is no need for huge, logical, conceptual explanations about It. Truth can be felt, experienced; It cannot be known nor explained. In fact, Truth can be explained, but by doing so, It is already destroyed, It is not there anymore as It is not present on the explanation, on the talking. When I say you can feel It, you can live It, I mean you can be present in That, That is present in yourself as You! In these meetings, as well as in the retreats, we have the opportunity to direct “feel,” to experience pure Being – This is the Truth, Love, Freedom! This is God!

This is the true work of Realization. You cannot examine It as if it were on the outside. This "feeling" is the only possible Knowledge, for you cannot examine That – present only internally – as if it were present externally, in the outside. This "feeling," this Being is the only possible Knowledge, which I call as Real Knowledge, Consciousness.

So, this Real Knowledge, that is Being, is Wisdom! The knowledge based on understanding and on word’s comprehension is pure ignorance, but not the beautiful Ignorance of the Sage; it is mere intellectualism and verbal, theoretical understanding. So, this knowledge is the real ignorance and does not represent Realization, since it does not represent Consciousness.

When there is Consciousness, true Knowledge is present, and then Truth cannot be ignored. In this regard, to know God is to be God, as the point is not learning about God, moreover, the point is not learning about Love, Truth, Freedom, but rather being that Love, that Freedom, that Truth. Truth is in this Silence, in this Consciousness, in this Love, in this Freedom; Truth is not in these words.

So, this experience is Consciousness happening inside yourself. You will not hear, read nor learn about That. There is only one straightforward way of experiencing That: through devotion and Awakening through self-inquiry – self-inquiry brings the Awakening of this direct experience, and devotion makes It possible. You cannot read It on the scriptures, neither hear It from anyone.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on February 5th, 2018. First published in Portuguese on April 04, 2018. For further information about our meetings, please, click here.

Self-inquiry

The mind is repetitive... a repetition. When there is no mind, there is no repetition. That’s when everything is always new, fresh. God is all that is happening! You should not run away from anything, but you should not look for anything either. When you run away or search for, you mean that life, right now, is not as good as it is. This is the movement of the dual, separate and egoic mind. Whether escaping or seeking, you do not remain there where the Grace can find you. You "go" with the mind, keeping that old model of ignorance, of suffering, of distance from God, of separation from What it Is, from what is being presented, from the Truth of this moment.

You consider the thought and the feeling as guiding elements for this false egoic life. You do not practice self-investigation in order to be someone in this "doing," but to discover there is no one doing, as self-investigation itself is a God’s, Grace’s event. Self-inquiry is God in the search of Himself; God looking at a "ghost specter.” When God sees the specter, this ghost does not scare Him and so it disappears. When there is no fear, there is no ghost; when there is a ghost, fear is present. However, if the ghost does not scare you, it stops being a ghost and disappears. Such is the sense of ego. When it is seen by this Presence, This Presence sees there is no ego.

Therefore, I repeat: self-inquiry does not mean there is someone seeing, but rather there is nobody seeing nor anything to be seen. It is a "tool" to show you there is no tool for this work to happen. A "tool" is used to find out there is no tool. One uses this “tool” to know there is nobody using a tool. Self-inquiry is a "technology," a "technique," a "practice" to discover there is no technology, technique nor practice ... It is used only to discover there is no reality in this.

*Presential meeting transcription, originally held in Campos do Jordão city, Brazil, on June, 2017. First published in Portuguese on May 07, 2018. For further information about our meetings, please, click here.