The Nature of Desire

There is a search present in each one, and I would like to start talking a little bit about this! So, what is this search for? In fact, a search with no results. It has already become clear to you is it a search for Peace, for Freedom, for Happiness ... What remains unclear is the true way to accomplish That. Some people are searching for It in relationships; others, in drugs, in material achievements, and so on, but everyone aims for Happiness and Peace. However, no one knows exactly what Happiness is. What results can you have by searching for something unknown? In other words, how can you search for and find what you do not know?

All you can see and acknowledge about yourself is that every day you live as a prisoner of desires and conflicts. Then, you strive to conquer this unknown "Thing" called Happiness through the desires – all desires aim for Happiness! However, when you accomplish a desire, you realize that Happiness is not there and so you have another desire. So, it seems that instead of staying in this desire-changing movement, you would be better off by ceasing that and investigating the nature of the desire itself. That would be way smarter!

What we do in Satsang is to investigate the nature of this inner dissatisfaction, that is the nature of the desire. If this investigation succeeds, you discover the nature or the real purpose behind all desires. Every desire aims for a state free from desires indeed, that is Happiness! Observe this attentively and see how simple and basic it is. Behind every wish, there is the intention of a desireless state indeed. This desireless state entails absolutely no demands, no desires! So, this can only be a State of Abundance, of Wholeness, of Completeness – that is how I call the desireless state! The mind does not know this, all the mind knows are desires. The mind only represents the world through objects, images and sensations. However, this State of Total Abundance and Completeness is the State of Being, the Nature of Happiness and Peace.

Now, you already know what you are searching for: the end of all searches! You search for relaxing in your own Being! This is outside of the mind! In the mind, you are not relaxed in your own Being, because the mind is a false being, a false "me," a false "you." Here lies the suffering, provided that you are not in your Natural State, but in your false “me,” in the mind. Fullness will be revealed as Happiness and Peace only when your True Nature is assumed.

Now that you have understood the ultimate goal, you realize that, in fact, it is not a goal, an outcome you can achieve through some effort ... Just relax in your own Being here and now. You need to surrender, to let go of this false "me." However, you will never do this, you will never give this up, you will never be able to solve it alone, without a mysterious action of God, without this action of Grace, and that is why you are in Satsang. If you knew how to solve this by yourself, you would have already solved it.

So, Liberation, Realization of God, Happiness, are not to be found through knowledge or mystical, spiritual practices, and so on. The state of duality will remain even if you do all this, even if you dedicate yourself, if you strive to overcame this. There is no self-taught in this path. This false "I" cannot end this false "me." This is like someone in a maximum-security prison: someone’s help from outside the prison is needed for the prisoner to escape. This is an illusory prison for an illusory prisoner, but paradoxically this is quite real to the prisoner, who therefore will never acknowledge the illusory prison of this illusory identity without a mysterious action of Grace, without a mysterious action from God.

This action of God, this action of Grace, from outside this prison, is the work of the Guru! Only the one outside the prison has the perfect plan to blow it up. To an illusory prison, only a real perception works! Real perception brings the Real plan, the plan of the Truth.

*Online meeting transcription originally held January 08th, 2018. First published in Portuguese on February 26, 2018. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

A Buddha in this world is a miracle...

Only by attending Satsang, before a Buddha, you are able to see how far away you have been from “home.” This is so with everyone! You need to give yourself time in Satsang to slightly approach the meaning of the word Happiness, the meaning a Buddha applies to the word Happiness, since happiness to you means the relief of a superficial and specific suffering you have at the moment. So, if you do not give yourself time to investigate this in Satsang, you have no chance to get out of maya, to go beyond samsara.

Do you get what I mean?

The state of unconsciousness is profound and the state of "loving this lie” is too strong. As a consequence, the ego is already satisfied with this superficial joy of worldly distractions, even because it provides for immediate relief to that specific and superficial suffering the egoic "mind" lives in. But what this egoic "mind" carries in depth, hidden behind this superficial suffering, is much bigger... This suffering is wider. As a matter of fact, the mind’s search for suffering is quite unconscious and intentional due to its miserable and illusory state of being: something constantly passing as you.

If you have the opportunity to be here as you have now, and you simply turn your back on This, you are prolonging the misery, you are missing This. Do not do such thing. Do not remain as the "master of yourself"! You are completely lost in this illusion.

What is the question?

Participant: I was wondering if it would be legitimate from our side to wish to stand before You in order to relieve the suffering, or if this would be another trick of the ego and the mind...

Master: You cannot do anything else at the moment. Any move you make out of this full Consciousness, under this egoic-state of unconsciousness, is still not the right thing to do.

You should not come to me to relief the suffering, but rather to investigate the illusory nature of the suffering. However, once you come here, you notice your suffering is relieved. It is better to be here in relieved suffering, even knowing it is temporary, investigating the real nature of the suffering’s illusion, rather than taking a glass of “cachaça” [Brazilian drink], filling yourself up with whiskey, drugs or night outs of orgies.

Here, you have a moment of Presence, of Grace, when you feel temporarily relieved of that burden of suffering, but together with that, you have the opportunity to investigate the illusory nature of suffering. So, this, here, is no longer an escape from your pain, but a door that opens up to show you pain is an illusion.

Now, you have to allow yourself to strengthen this together with me, because otherwise it may take a long time for you to stand on your own legs. If I, as a doctor, prescribe you a "medication," you should take it... You should not question anything. You have no authority to question my "medical knowledge," whether there is a better "medication," another kind of a more effective treatment... You may even do that, but you will be wasting your time.

This is like getting on a plane, getting into the cockpit and saying: "Can I talk to you? Did you drink today?" You need to trust in the airline company and in the pilot. Here, you need to trust in your "doctor," you need to trust in your Guru. If you do not trust in your doctor, the disease can evolve to a more severe condition. If you do not trust in your pilot, you will, for sure, miss the flight and be late to your appointment at your destination. If you do not trust in your Guru, you will continue to suffer miserably.

My words are wise, my Heart is noble and the atmosphere around me is of Freedom and Happiness. You either welcome or lose That! From the first day you meet me, you are facing a miracle. Wise ones are those who have not been far from my eyes since the day I met them. Blessed are those who have accepted, since that day, from the day of the miracle, this approach I have with them today.

Every time you are with me, forget about everything else. It is the moment of trust... it is the time to blindly accept these words. You have no way of knowing whether the pilot drank or not; all that your doubt can do is to make you miss the flight. All that your doubt can do for you is to aggravate your clinical condition, because you did not take the medication. All that your question can do in this contact with God – who came to you on a miraculous day – is to prevent you from receiving this Blessing. This expression "what is impossible," "what is only possible for God in your life," is what we call as a miracle. A Buddha in this world is a miracle... It is your miracle!

Do you think I spend many hours studying to bring these lines to you? Do you? Do you think this is second-hand knowledge? Is it knowledge I am dealing about? What am I dealing with here?

Participant: It seems to me it is the Truth, I have nowhere else to go.

Master: Yes, I am the Truth! Fresh, New, Spontaneous and Natural, and you are just like me... The same Freshness, the same Novelty, the same Freedom, the same Intelligence, the same Wisdom, the same "thing," but you have to be quiet here. You have to give yourself that! Give yourself Freedom... Give yourself Wisdom... Give yourself Happiness, Peace, Sanity. You do not have to go anywhere else anymore.

*Presential meeting transcription originally held on October, 2017. First published in Portuguese December 12, 2017. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

It is essential to give up on this identification with the mind and body

The only thing that matters is this encounter called Satsang, which is the encounter with the Truth, with Reality.

Here, we turn to the Silence, Consciousness, the Real Knowledge, what in India is called as Jnana. It does not concern knowledge where “someone” is the knower, where “someone” has the knowledge. It is not like that! Jnana is Pure Knowledge, in which there is neither the knower nor the known thing. This Knowledge is Consciousness.

In the western world, the word Jnana does not make much sense. The literal meaning of the word is "knowledge," but in the western world it means "someone" knowing something. So, there is the knower and what is known, but not in the sense we are using the word "knowledge" here. We are talking about a Perception with no “perceiver”, about Knowledge without a “knower” and about a Consciousness without a “conscious person”.

In your contact with the world, in this relationship, there is a "someone." In fact, this "someone" is only an imagination and this world, a perception. Every object is apparent, but you are treating this body and mind (that are also objects) as if they were being experienced by "someone." That is, you are not treating the body, the mind or the world just as an experience of an object. This is the whole problem! You are dealing with the body, the mind and the world as if they were real to this "me," to this "I,” as if they were life itself, the "real life."

Your "real life" is seen in this way. You do not see these are just appearances and you believe this is your real life, the real life of this "I," of this "me." So, you are in this illusion: "I am in the body and this is my life". You consider as real, as your life whatever happens to the body or to the world.

Because of that, you are attaching yourself to this identification, to this idea of being someone living a human and personal story. All your stories are personal (in fact, they are only memories, remembrances, beliefs and thoughts), and that provides you the illusory sense of a present "me." So, everything happening in "your story" is happening in "your life," which represents the illusion of this present identity, of this "I" present inside the body.

You mistake yourself for the mind and body and say, "I!" Realization is the end of this illusion – the illusion "I am the body," "I am in the world" and this whole story is "my story."

Your True Nature is Consciousness, Pure Knowledge! Your Real Nature is beyond birth and death! Your Real Nature has no stories and is not attached to time! Your True Nature is Sat-Chit-Ananda! Your True Nature is Meditation! Meditation is You in the Natural State, that is Presence, impersonality, beyond time! It is essential to give up on these stories, this identification with the mind and the body, and to recognize yourself. In this recognition, there is only Pure Knowledge without a “someone” present in there. When That is present, there is only this Perception, this Pure Knowledge, and this is Freedom, Truth, Happiness, Love. At this point, you no longer mistake yourself for objects, such as the body, the mind or the world. You are aware of this Reality, of this Perception. Everything you see in the world is just an idea about it. Everything you see, every personal experience is just a thought about it, and as you mistake yourself for that thought, as you identify with that, you suffer.

I know that your house, your car, your children and your family seem very real, but they only appear when you remember them. When you remember them, they appear. In deep sleep, they do not appear, and when you do not talk about them, they disappear because they are only appearances thought brings as a remembrance. Right now, I mentioned the car and you remembered there is a car. Before that, you did not remember you had a car, it was not there... They are thought evoked appearances.

You are always and remain as Consciousness, and there is nothing, no one in It until thought evokes and says it is there. Your world is thought. Even the emotional pain of losing someone needs the memory to be felt. Without the remembrance, there is no pain, no suffering. This is your world, the world thought creates to this particular "I," this "me." The sufferer is always this “me” in its private story.

If someone steals your friend's car, it will not worry you, but if it is your car, it will worry you. In fact, until you know your car was stolen, you are not worried. You get concerned only when you learn about it. This is your interpretation of the world. So, your world, your story and your suffering are personal. This sense of "person" upholds suffering, the sense of separation, the sense of duality – "me and the world". Even the love you feel is related to this imagination. This love is not real! Everything you know, experience and feel is related to the story of this "you"... but this "you" is the illusion.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on April 17, 2017. First published in Portuguese on July 14, 2017. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

All this must end

Here, in this meeting, we are facing a real way to listen to this. You can approach this topic verbally and theoretically or you can have this opportunity here, where words are not our focal interest. We have nothing to add to you in terms of teachings, of knowledge. Therefore, this is not to be learned – not in this meeting, in this room. If your goal is to learn about this, I recommend you look for some book that can tell you about it. Books and lectures are important tools to learn about a particular topic or subject.

The subject of interest in this meeting is the investigation of the Real Nature, of the Truth about ourselves. Since Truth cannot be found in words, there is only one way to investigate it: to “listen correctly.” So, when you face, in this encounter, the Silence that comes from the inner observation, you face the Truth. So, there is nothing intellectual in here!

This action, this activity implies the absence of any preconceived idea. We are not here striving to reach an imagined goal – Wisdom is not the result of it. You do not realize the Truth of your Being by striving for it. That way you can neither imagine nor fight. Therefore, the imagination, the effort and the basis of a preconceived idea are totally false. You cannot count on this in Satsang.

Satsang means the encounter with the Self – with your own Being – the nature of the Truth. So, this is not a subject to study. Here, you investigate the nature of illusion, since the nature of the Truth cannot be attained. Thus, you attain a perception of illusion. Once illusion is seen, there is no longer any illusion there. Therefore, when the false is perceived as false, the Truth is already present. So, we will not bring your Being from anywhere else, we will not reach It and pull It with a rope. It is not a matter of acquiring or reaching the Truth, but of the simple realization of Its presence when illusion ends. When illusion is seen, it disappears... so it ends. That is the greatness, the excellence, the beauty of Satsang.

You cannot get That from a teacher; all a teacher can share with you is knowledge. All that a book, a lecture or a teacher can provide you are new instructions. Only Truth expresses, shares the Truth. Truth is the very own Self, Consciousness itself... So, that is why the true Guru is important. This is the true Guru, when you are fortunate to face this Presence externally. This external Presence is the Sage, the Truth! A Sage, the One living in the Natural State, is not a teacher.

So, can you see how worthy it is the opportunity to directly listen to this? Listening to this is to stand before the Truth, while knowing about it is to stand before a teacher.

Presently, this knowledge is spread out everywhere! You have easy access to this knowledge! However, listening to this for real is quite rare... real Satsang is to stand before the Guru. And here, the Guru is the very own Being, Consciousness, the Grace, the Truth. So, your own Being is this Presence. This moment is unique to you. We are not teaching you anything, we are only facing the Silence. The answer to the question “Who Am I?” comes from this Silence. This is a result of Meditation, and not of knowledge, of experience, of specialization, of the ability to communicate, to understand it.

Truth cannot be achieved, as we have already stated, It can only awaken! When everything is completely ready, when all obstacles, beliefs, conclusions, opinions, judgments, imaginations are gone... when all desires end, then Truth expresses Itself.

The mind’s movement happens inside you like this: "When I look at myself, I clearly observe this... I am forced to admit that every day I am a prisoner of hundreds of desires!" So, there is no Happiness, there is no Freedom, there is no Peace! If the investigation of what we are is the end of all illusion, then there is this awakening – the Awakening of Truth. All this must end; this is the condition for this revelation, for this Real manifestation.

There is no number of studies that can be done, of books that can be read, nor of lectures that can be listened for This to happen. What I am saying it is necessary to plunge into Yourself, beyond the mind. A work of complete renunciation of this false “me” is needed. That is why I recommend everyone be directly in touch with the Truth! In this sense, the Guru is of utmost importance, and the work of surrender is the core, since there is no real work happening without it.

You can spend a lifetime studying this subject, reading all the books that have already been or that might be still written about it, listening to all the talks, learning all this, mastering the subject, and even making speeches about it. You might even become a great teacher, worldwide known, as we see in our present days! However, all you may have is just an instructed, educated person... My invitation is for you to disappear! It is the end of this person, the end of all knowledge. This is the Realization of what I could call as the Unknown. The Realization of the Unknown! This is the Real Knowledge.

Realization is the recognition of the knowledge that will never be known. Therefore, It can never be taught or learned. This is the Art of Happiness, which is Meditation, Being and Wisdom. This is present when you are not present, when the whole sense of person evaporates.

*Presential meeting transcription originally held on October 25, 2017. First published in Portuguese on January 05, 2018. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Awakening is the result of a work

You see a pianist playing with all the resourcefulness, ability, spontaneity, and you say: "How beautiful this is. The pianist is so natural doing it! I wish I could do it." So, the first time you sit down before the piano, you see how complicated this is, but it seems quite simple to the pianist... When the pianist does it, there is so much grace, so much beauty, so much naturalness on it!

It is exactly the same when you face a Sage, a Self-realized One, and you say: "How beautiful This is! Why cannot I be this way? This is so spontaneous, so natural... Why does not my piano play, make a song like that?"

However, you should not feel that way, since that pianist started training at the age of five. By the age of 2, the mom was already making that child sit before the piano to play with the keys, grabbing the child’s delicate little fingers and making them tap on the keys… The pianist started very young and has been working on it for many years.

The realized Sage is the result of many hours of "piano" practice. A man like Ramana, who was never captured by the veil of illusion, was born with many hours of "piano" already. So, you should not feel this way... You need to "sit at the piano" and get started. Since your fingers have no ability yet, the brain "does not work well with the hands," there is no motor memory in the fingers, in the mechanism, in the "machine" [body], and then you do not reach the "notes"... There is a lot of effort and no results... After several Satsangs, you look and say: "Nothing is happening. I still cannot see life, the world, not even the people that way," or "I am still offended and hurt, I feel rejected," or "The 'sheet music' is in front of me, I know the notes are there, but I cannot get it right..."

Do you get what I mean? I know the whole theory; I have heard it for thousands of times. Trust in what I am telling you. Do not give up! You still have difficulties because you do not know how this egoic mechanism works. You cannot understand the whole trick, you are easily distracted. You do not realize what is clearly happening there, the old tricks of the mind, and the mind has been doing that for quite a long time. When we meet each other here, I say to you: "Do not give up!" After everything is settled, there are no more problems, and then the music is easily played. But, at this moment, you need to give yourself time. Truth is not limited by the time, but illusion is the time itself!

Some Advaita teachers are already "playing the piano" with skill, with easiness, aware of the simplicity of all this, so they may say to you: "You do not have to practice... It is all clear enough! There is nothing you can do or need to do." This is the current Neo-advaita speech, but this is not my experience with my Master.

Once I heard a speech from Jiddu Krishnamurti in which he was asked: "Sir, this seems so simple when you speak, but I cannot live it." Do you know what Krishnamurti's answer was? "Get out of here and live this. You do not live this because you have no interest." There was so much power in his argument, so much Wisdom in his speech that no one could really argue with a Buddha, but this does not work, because the person goes out from there and everything remains the same.

I was fortunate to have never heard anyone talking about this "Thing." In the year of 2007, when “This” happened here, when the "bomb exploded," I did not realize what happened, because I had never heard anything about It. I had contact with Ramana, my Guru, but through the heart. I had never read about It, I did not know who He was, who He had been.

I learned Ramana’s story years later and only recently, not long ago, I started reading about him. I did not know anything about This, so I was very lucky. I was guided through the “heart” for 21 years, from 1986 to 2007, when the "bomb exploded," and I did not know what had happened: "What is this? Why is everything this way? Why am I everywhere? Why am I him, her, every object? Why is there only Me?... Why is this 'thing' I call now as Joy? Why is everything so nonsense? Everything is so funny!”

For 21 years, there was fear, doubt, sadness, troubles, but there was His guidance… Ramana was alive here, far different from any imagination about this thing happening today around me. So, from my experience, you have to be patient with it, to trust in your Master. At some point in your life, the Grace of God will touch and draw you – that is when the Guru assumes a human form to you.

Therefore, it is not like the Neo-advaita ones say. Perhaps, some were already born "playing the piano" and others are pretending to play (much more common), but this is not my experience, because I was not born "playing the piano." In my case, it was not at the age of 16, nor at the age of 8 (as in the case of Papaji, who could only settle all this and establish the State at the age of 34, in front of Ramana). So, in my case, it was not at the age of 16, nor at the age of 8, but rather at the age of 45.

Yesterday, we had a birthday cake: 55 years old... And I have been here for 10 years, in my Natural State. I am 10 years old! I am a child! You should not remember my chronological, biological age, because I do not care about that age. Since you like to remember things, remember when the Guru was born, when your Master was born. When the Guru was born, He was born because of you, to find you. The Guru was born to love you, to be the only Love of your life, the only real Life. So, you must be patient with yourself and you need to trust in the One who "came" before you.

*Presential meeting transcription originally held on October 25, 2017. First published in Portuguese on November 24, 2017. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

This is your Real Nature

There is a real and ultimate Natural State of Being. You cannot remain deluded about it, even because you were born to that Realization. Life has an impersonal representation, that is, It does not care about the ideas you have.

The egoic mind, by its nature, is frequently concerned with any and every thought related to the external world or the inner world. The mind does that in its pursuit of fulfillment and satisfaction, and this is quite frequent for every person.

The illusion of the impermanence of your Natural State causes you to constantly mistake yourself for what is not real, since you know nothing about "who you are." You have a so vast and strong illusion about yourself: you see yourself as an impermanent being, completely identified with what happens externally or internally. To mistake yourself for that is what I call as "identification with the egoic mind." Yes, there is something impermanent, but this is not real, it is not You in your Being, in your True Nature.

For many and many years, you have been mistaking yourself for the egoic mind and thus mistaking yourself for states that come and go; so are your internal states and their external representations. So, you have been mistaking yourself for emotions, thoughts, physical sensations and sensory perceptions. You believe this is you, and as you have noticed how impermanent this is, how it comes and goes, you believe this is your real state.

When you come to Satsang, I invite you to see that all this is an illusion. You are mistaking yourself for illusory states that come and go and therefore you are assigning an identity to what has no identity – that is the sense of duality, the well-known sense of separateness.

Sensations come and go, as well as thoughts, emotions, the body... only in this sense there is nothing permanent in this world. Impermanence is the sign of what appears and disappears. This is the sign that marks all appearances. While you remain in this way, taking it as real to yourself, as if it were "you," you remain in the illusion of duality, no matter how great you can say and teach about it, neither how much you talk about love, peace, freedom, happiness and consciousness.

Self-realization has an infallible mark, just as illusion has a seal that can be easily identified. When we speak of Self-realization, we are talking about God's Realization, God's Consciousness, non-dual Consciousness, and This is not what comes and goes. Therefore, you cannot speak of Enlightenment or Self-realization if this "mark" (of appearing and disappearing) is still present and if you still identify with states that come and go.

As the mind is very skilled at rationalizing, it will do so. If it is an educated, trained mind, that has studied this matter of enlightenment for a long time, that has seen many speeches, visited many gurus, studied many books, watched many videos, it will infallibly rationalize it, and at that moment you may fall into a trap – the trap of being "enlightened," without being Enlightened; of being "realized" without being Realized at all.

Your Natural State is unchangeable. You are Consciousness. This is your True Nature. So, if you are going through states with this “mark” of appearing and disappearing, it is a sign you are still mistaking yourself for the egoic mind; in this or that aspect, you are still trapped to the illusion. So, it is important to investigate this, what cannot be done intellectually. It is necessary to surrender this false “me.” You have to give up on that personal identity that causes you different moods from moment to moment.

The difference between a movie screen and the films projected there is that the films come and go, but the screen remains the same; one same screen for many films. Some films are romantic, others are horror, thriller films, and so on, but the screen remains the same. So is your Natural State, different from these images that come and go, because your Self remains unchanged, untouched by any experience, sensation, emotion and thought.

However, if you are experiencing the experience of thought, sensation, emotion, perception, but entangled with it, it is useless rationalizing it, saying "this is not real, it comes and goes," although it is a fact. It really comes and goes, but you are also coming and going with that – this is the illusion of "being someone" – and it is so for everybody. So, if you feel enlightened, this is the quality test, the fireproof. If you are Real, then you are That all the time – you are a Jivamukti, a freed Being in Life (free from these identifications, from the illusion of the "experiencer"). Do you get that?

I started by saying that Life does not care about you, because It carries the "mark" of impersonality, of naturalness, of reality, of immutability. Everything that appears in Life changes, but Life itself is What It Is. Life can express itself through changes but remains immutable in its nature. Such is your Real Nature, your Real Identity. That is what we are dealing with, when you come to Satsang (different from what people have been calling as satsang out there).

*Presential meeting transcription originally held on in December 2017. First published in Portuguese on April 16, 2018. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Love is Wisdom, Intelligence, Freedom and Happiness!

Here, in this meeting, we are discovering how to go beyond the illusion, uncovering a life free from this sense of separation and, naturally, free from conflicts.

You know the basis of conflict always lies in the division, the separation between the "world and I," between “others and I,” "life and I.” There comes the day you may find out your Natural State – I have called It as the blossoming of Awakening, the flourishing of God’s realization – and when you find That out, there is no more division, there is no more conflict.

Your question is if this state is possible, however, this is a totally wrong statement. Realization of the Truth is not a state. Truth, Realization, You as Consciousness, as what I take for the Natural State, is not a state. So, the question should not be this one. You must indeed question and doubt this ordinary state of division, of separation and conflict, in which suffering is present. In other words, you must question what you take for life – confused, disoriented, unhappy, problematic... This is what you must question! What you take for life is just a secondary value. Real Life is You in your Real State, and this is not a secondary state, but a simple, natural, primary state.

Therefore, in Satsang, we are dealing with something very simple, very basic, quite primary! We are dealing with Life as it is, without the interference of the mind, of the thought, of this supposed experiencer. In an instant of Silence, in which thoughts totally disappear, you recognize Life as it is! Life is just this Consciousness, this original Consciousness.

Here, we are always in touch with our Real Nature, that is ever present, this unique Reality. This is your Real Nature: Love, God, Silence, Life. This is Satsang! What you call as the "world of names and forms" is only a consequence of the thoughts, of the activity of the mind. That is why our emphasis is on Meditation.

Is that clear?

So, Consciousness is our real place! You have to avoid this identification with the body, with the mind and all the objects the mind projects. This way, you have the possibility to remain in your Being, in your Consciousness, in your Real Life, in what is Natural!

That is the Truth about yourself, the Truth about what You are. Ignorance begins when thought starts to name things, separating them from Reality. When thought names something, the mind takes possession of that knowledge, separating itself from it. The mind acts like that to remain as a controlling entity. Choice, power and control: the egoic mind cannot live without it. This is total ignorance. Knowledge is the basis of ignorance. You have to go beyond thought and its knowledge.

We have heard a lot that knowledge is power, but power is ignorance! Everything the mind knows is confined to the boundaries of its own limitations. Knowledge is always limited and therefore carries the burden of ignorance. Truth lies in Wisdom, and Wisdom is Love – but it is not that "love" the mind knows. The Love we are dealing with here has nothing to do with power, with knowledge, with thought! Love is Wisdom, Intelligence, Freedom, Happiness!

What people know by "life" (which is not real) is a thought, knowledge, choice and power centered life – that is ignorance, what I have just called as a secondary movement. This is the artificial life the mind knows, whereas Real Life is this primary natural action of Consciousness, which is Love, Wisdom, Intelligence, Freedom, the Real and True Happiness! This is the Nature of the Truth about yourself. This is your Real Nature.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on September 22, 2017 – First published in Portuguese on January 19, 2018. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Leave the driver’s seat!

Your primary desire is for the world to not be a burden and hostile. You want the world to understand you, to live surrounded by people who understand you, and it seems their job is to be nice to you, to make you happy. You behave like a driver at the steering wheel, as if you were driving a car; you apply that to life and it does not work. The drivers must drive the car, otherwise they will not reach their destination. You feel like that in existence – sitting before the “steering wheel” and making use of your knowledge to “drive the car.” Is it so?

Then, you come to Satsang and I say, “Leave the driver's seat! Take any seat in the car, but leave the driver's seat!” You believe the car will not move that way or if it does, you will have an accident, provided that you are not the one driving it. However, when you come to me, the first thing I try to show you is the importance of not trusting in yourself, and that is the opposite of everything you have learned and still learn out there, since everybody stimulates you, gives you self-esteem. I do not give you self-esteem, my speech does not have this purpose, it does not give you confidence, certainty, security, nor does it say that you are in control. So, what are you doing there in front of the "steering wheel?"

Here, if you get out of the driver's seat, if you leave the steering wheel, you are no longer the “guide” of your experiences, of your existence, no longer the one who drives and knows where to go. Being out of the "driver's seat," you find out what I have called Meditation. Meditation is no longer guiding, leading, giving direction to your "vehicle," to your experiences, to your comforts and discomforts, projects, dreams and no longer trying to get away from misfortune, vicissitudes and adversities. If you believe you are driving this "vehicle," this life, this existence, all you will experience will be disappointment, since things will never happen as you expect, desire, project, yearn.

You will not reach the destination, since it is an ideological projection, that is, ideas behind this "your destination." Only when you leave the “driver's seat” you find out that Life does not need you. It is absurd, I know... You come to Satsang and in my speeches you find out the opportunity to be fearless, that means confronting yourself without fear, confront with what appears even noticing all that insecurity. A voice comes and says: “Leave the 'driver’s seat,’ you can’t drive this 'your car'."

I know this sounds crazy since it is the opposite of everything you have heard until today, but when you abandon the "driver's seat," you find out Life can drive Itself. Actually, Life has always been on the steering wheel, Life has never left the steering wheel in your hands. Your hands have never been on the steering wheel indeed. You have never been seated in this place you believe you are, driving, leading and controlling.

Welcome to Satsang! This is the encounter with Love! Yes, it is the encounter with Love, and Love has no agenda, does not know if it is September, October, November... Love has nothing else to do but to "burn" everything! You know fire burns everything, but it does not burn itself – it is Love. You are afraid to take on this Natural State of Wisdom that represents not being in control, not trying to drive the experiences. You are frightened just by hearing the possibility of not controlling anything else. However, this fear is just a lack of investigation, since deep down, you have never controlled anything at all! So, this thing of "shifting gears, turning corners, looking at the rearview mirror and ahead" never really existed. You were never there! So, you should not be frightened of embracing the Truth, the Wisdom; you should not be scared when someone says to you, "Leave that imaginary steering wheel."

What really matters to me is not if you are hearing this, but rather if you are living It! Life is what happens by itself, nobody is at the steering wheel. Life is comprised in this Love that burns everything but does not burn Itself, like the fire. When you are open to Love, willing to no longer mistake yourself for this absurd belief of being in control, of having the ability to drive and lead, then Life becomes Magical.

However, I do not mean magic like when an elephant disappears from the stage or when the hidden card is revealed. I mean the Magic not related to any illusion’s strategy, to any illusionism trick.

Life becomes Magical in that Extraordinary Love, in that Fire of Divine Consciousness. Life becomes Magical in a such a way that the mind would never be able to dream about and the greatest illusionists would never be able to create. Life is not a trick. Life is a Mystery where there is a present Magic. Life is flowing, and you do not know and will never know where Life will lead you, since Life leads Itself.

You are Life, not a uniformed driver, driving oneself or others to somewhere. The fact is that people put so much attention on these worldly beliefs – like this ordinary belief of being able to lead, to drive, to control – that they are overwhelmed by fears and caring measures, instead of striving themselves to find Life’s Magic, the Beauty of this Mystery, of this Fire that burns everything but itself. So, there is no Wisdom, since there is no Truth, and there is no Truth since you do not abandon this belief of being able to control.

Not being in the steering wheel, in control, in this condition of illusory control, is what I have called as Real Meditation. Meditation means not controlling, driving or leading your experiences. This false interpretation people have may seem like a misunderstanding and quite innocent, but it entails a severe consequence there. All your burdens, all your lack of lightness lies in this impossible attempt of driving, leading and controlling. The safe measure for this is the end of the futile, useless and unnecessary attempt to make things work out. This is the cause of fear, this is non-trust, non-surrender, non-Meditation. The right action to That is to live without thinking, to live without past and future – that is what thought produces – and to live without these characters surrounding you, that you keep trying to please.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on October 19th, 2020 – First published in Portuguese on December 15th, 2020. For further information about our meetings, please click here.