The Art of Freedom and Happiness

Here we deal with what I consider to be fundamental, very important: the direct answer to this permanent pursuit of Happiness. What keeps you out from living It? What is the real impediment? Thoughts. They have held you stuck to this impediment.

Observe what thoughts produce inside your head: conflict, war, confusion, chaos, contradiction, madness... You, in your mind, are completely crazy! When you believe in thoughts, you are crazy, completely crazy! Thought is a sign of madness! You do not need thoughts, but when you think you need them, you are entangled with them. Here is the madness! It is not possible to realize happiness by thinking. This is the secret of the Sages, the secret of Wisdom. Can you see that?

So, what are we doing in Satsang? We are discovering the art of Being, the art of Happiness, which is the art of Freedom. I decided not to suffer anymore, so I stopped being busy with thoughts. No one forces you to suffer, just like no one forces you to drink, to smoke or to have some other practice. These are just habits, addictions. Therefore, it is you who decide: "I will not suffer anymore, I will not produce more suffering, I will not fight anymore, I will not create confusion anymore." The mind lives in confusion. It loves it! Confusion, war, trouble... you all love it!

Living in the ego is living in the mind, and there is no Love and Peace when you live in your mind. Do you get this? This is very simple. The mind is creating confusion all the time inside you. Imagination never ends: "He does not like me; she does not like me; the world is too cruel; I am never lucky in my life" Is that right? This way, there is no chance! You are addicted to thoughts, to comparisons... You compare yourself to those who have more in order to feel inferior and to those who have less in order to feel superior. That is the ego, that is the problem. Isn't it beautiful to see the truth of what is being said here?

Participant: Is gratitude also an illusion?

Marcos Gualberto: It is too! There is nothing to be thankful for and there is no one we should be grateful. There is only God doing everything! Who would feel grateful? And who would see oneself giving "thanks"? When the one, who expects to "receive" this gratefulness, does not receive it, he or she feels ingratitude and, therefore, injustice. So, expecting to "receive" gratefulness is as miserable as the illusion of the self-importance of trying to show that you are grateful to the other by giving "thanks."

When you add zero plus zero, do you have positive or negative value? Zero plus zero equals zero! When an ego feels grateful and gives thanks to another ego, it is only zero being added to zero. This has no value, because it does not go beyond the ego; both of them have not left the place of the illusion of ego identity. An ego that gives, feels happy for giving it, and another ego that receives, feels grateful, happy for receiving it. The one who gives it, feels important and worthy of being acknowledged and "receiving" gratefulness from the other, for having been so generous, so noble, so great, so special; and the other, who receives it, is grateful, but none of this has anything to do with Happiness! Happiness is beyond gratitude and ingratitude, beyond giving and receiving. Gratitude is in the realm of imagination; Happiness is in the realm of the Truth.

Happiness is the deepest center – a center without borders, without circumference – of your Being. At the deepest center of your Being lies Happiness. This work, in Satsang, intends to take you beyond the ego and its imagination, beyond all the beautiful things considered important by the ego, such as imaginary love, imaginary gratitude, imaginary goodness, imaginary freedom, imaginary happiness... You are full of beliefs and imaginations about what Love is, what Happiness is, what Truth is, what Peace is... Such a fantasy!

I am talking about this Realization, which means going beyond the dream, this dream of the mind, and living this direct experience of Being. You are this Consciousness, this Presence, this Reality, and That is the Happiness of your Being. Is this clear?

*Online meeting transcription originally held on December 15, 2017. First published in Portuguese on January 17, 2018. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Truth is Happiness

Once again, we are together, focusing on what is essential. Once again, we are with this focus, having a legitimate approach, this approach from the "heart." Our purpose in this meeting is to investigate this matter of Reality. This work is for those who have already perceived and clearly felt that life without this Realization is a life without meaning. This is for those who feel a real impulse and are willing to truly investigate this matter about Realization, that represents the Real Happiness.

Life without this real meaning, that is the realization of what we truly are, is a life far from the Reality, distant from the Truth, and Truth is Happiness. The basic subject in Satsang is always the matter about Happiness; not the search for a meaning to life, but the realization of Happiness, that is Life. The mind is constantly searching for its own meaning, that is, its projected meaning to what it sees as real. Here, we are not interested in the mind and its pursuits of meanings. Through these projections, the mind may be in search of peace, freedom, happiness or whatever it projects, but all mind’s projections belong to its desires and fears. Therefore, this cannot be real.

Happiness is the State of Being. It is not a state the mind can attain, since everything the mind can obtain is still part of itself. Enjoying the real Happiness of Being, what we are, requires the mind to return to the Source, to leave its usual excitement. Generally, the mind is restless, full of thoughts, feelings, desires, fears, imaginations, conclusions, goals, and all of this points to the outside, to what the mind knows. These activities of the mind are the cause of every annoyance, every confusion. So, these activities need to cease, and that is when you are disidentified with the mind.

Identified with the mind, you are far from your Essential Nature. All the confusion lies in this identification with the mind. The true Happiness is something described as this Peace, as described, mentioned by the Scriptures, a Peace that excels the entire human comprehension – it is the Natural State of Being, where the mind ceases with all activities; it is the comprehension of your Real Nature. You spend the most part of your day mistaking yourself for thoughts, feelings and all the mind knows, having just a few moments of rest in your Self, of rest in this Presence, in this Consciousness, in the Truth of your Self, which is Happiness, Peace.

Do you get that? Notice that this is exactly how it happens!

So, all this activity creates the disorder, dragging you away from this simplicity and calmness of only Being. Happiness is already here and now, within us, and in fact, it is our True Essence, our True Nature. But the mind is constantly looking for sensations, seeking satisfactions and achievements of pleasure, and in addition to this, it is constantly running away from something, some pain, some fear, basically. This is the movement of this ego identity. When we say Happiness is essentially our Being, we mean this same Happiness is the nature of the Consciousness in ourselves. So, when there is Consciousness, there is Happiness.

If you carry some form of suffering, this is a sign of unconsciousness, of identification with the "egoic mind." It is impossible to be unhappy within Consciousness. Misery and suffering are possible within unconsciousness, but this is impossible within Consciousness, because Consciousness is full Happiness, full Freedom. Unhappiness is imprisonment. It does not matter the condition of the body nor of the psychosomatic structure itself, that is, it does not matter the condition of the body or the mind (here, mind is this mechanism of perception, movement of thoughts, memories, intellect, and so on...), when there is Consciousness, all this works in a very natural way, without any conflict, disorder, disturbance and suffering. The only strange element here is this "egoic mind," the illusion of an identity attached to this identification with stories, attached to imaginations of thought.

Usually, the sense of "person" is present within this unconsciousness, overwhelmed by beliefs, stories, desires, worries. Therefore, Happiness means Consciousness, and Consciousness means True Knowledge, without any delusion. In India, this True Knowledge is called as Jnana, that means the understanding of what is false, and this understanding is the end of the false, of the illusion; this is the Real Knowledge.

Is this clear?

When the false is seen as false, illusion loses all its power and disappears. So, what is present is Freedom, Consciousness, Happiness. Thus, the mind returns to the Source and disappears there. This is Silence, Intelligence and Truth. You cannot know what you really are while identified with the mind, its desires and fears. Unless you have this clear vision, the True Knowledge of who you truly are, you will be living in fear and desire; and by living in that way, there is no chance to attain the Real meaning of the word Happiness. What your Natural State is can only be seen within this Realization – when the mind ends – and so all the search ends, the material, spiritual seek ends.

All of this needs to be seen or verified internally, not externally. The word Satsang means encounter with the Reality of the Being – the Reality that You Are, internally, here and now. This is Being, Consciousness and Happiness – Sat-Chit-Ananda (this is the expression of Vedanta).

Okay. Let's stop now. Thanks for the meeting. Namaste.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on September 11th, 2017. First published in Portuguese November 22, 2017. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

You are not this character you believe to be

In these meetings, we approach the investigation of the Truth about ourselves. All our interest lies in the question: “Who am I?”

We cannot see the Truth the same way we see a tree. We cannot access the Truth through the senses. The senses are accessing the sense experiences; experiences are part of the senses. To hear belongs to the sense of hearing as well as to see belongs to the sense of seeing. Truth is not limited as a sensorial experience. Truth excels that, although It does not exclude the experience.

When we talk about the Truth, we talk about the experience of Acknowledging our True Nature, our own Being. Only so, we can access the Truth, ourselves, What we are; and This is beyond the body-mind sensorial perception.

Our Being is the Truth! Consciousness is present in this Being. This is the Consciousness of our Being, where the world appears and also disappears – not only the world of the senses, but also this psychological world, this internal world of thoughts, feelings and emotions.

If our job here is to access the Truth about ourselves, we need to go beyond this world – both the external sensorial world and the internal mental world. This way, we can go beyond duality, beyond this belief in a separate existence.

Every complication arises only to those who see themselves as a separate entity, who find themselves in conflict, with problems; and why? Because they are constantly mistaking themselves for a character they believe to be.

This would be similar to a theatrical actor trying to keep the character in his real life after leaving the stage. He played the role so well on the stage, he studied that character for so long, that he ended up forgetting who he truly was, his true identity. The stage curtains are closed, the theater lights are turned off, everybody went home, and now the actor is in the darkness of the theater. He forgot he also has a home. He forgot that was just a theatrical play. He forgot he has a family, a daughter waiting for him to come home, a wife…He forgot absolutely everything! He only remembers the character he believes to be. Do you see the whole mess?

Your life is exactly like that. The only difference is that the theater light is not turned off, people have not left the theater and those who were on stage are still there, playing their roles. Everything is a great theatrical play taking place, and everyone has forgotten who they are. Everyone around you is experiencing the same drama, the same problem. Everyone is sleeping, hypnotized, dreaming.

Thus, people are identified with the story of a character, with their beliefs, with political fictions, culture, education and religion – each one living one’s own character: one is the American president, the other is the North Korean president, and the other is the Brazilian president... everybody is messed up, but those are their roles! They have maids in their homes. The maids wash their clothes, clean their houses and make food for them... Only the characters are different. They seem to have more power than their employees, but from the Real viewpoint, they are just as messed up, confused and disoriented as the others.

Notice this is happening on a worldwide scale, and it has been happening for over thousands, thousands and thousands of years. In India, they name this as “Samsara,” which means the wheel of confusion, the wheel of disorder, the wheel of suffering. It happens to everyone! If you do not “awake,” you are still “sleeping,” and “sleeping” here means being in Samsara, within this confusion; it means not knowing the Truth about Yourself, not knowing who You are.

If you do not know the Truth about Yourself, you remain within that model, then you are born, grow up, get married, have children, become the president of the Republic, someone important and famous, but you are still miserable, disturbed, disoriented, unhappy.

You need to awake! Only then will you be able to return home, and then the theater ends, Samsara ends, the illusion of being someone ends, the illusion of that character's story ends. By ending this character, all suffering and fear as well as the mediocre and stupid attempt to fix the world also ceases.

Samsara is not of your business, but rather God’s business, so let Him in charge of all this, of this appearance, of this dream. This is quite paradoxical, since God has nothing to do with that, however it is God’s business. This is not of your business, but it is entirely your business! It is paradoxical... You must awake to see this! That theater has never existed, you have never existed as a character, but you must awake to know that.

When you awake, you find out that all of this is a great divine game, a great joke of God. Acknowledging that, is the Realization of the Truth about Yourself. That means being Consciousness, Happiness, to know Yourself! Paradoxically, to find out why you were born is to know that you were never born!

Online meeting transcription originally held on June 2nd, 2017 – First published in Portuguese on January 8th, 2021. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

The Real Meditation

In these meetings we are trying to share with you the real meaning of what everyone is looking for, the real meaning of everyone's search... What people are actually seeking is the real meaning of happiness.

The mind usually seeks the meaning for the things that happen. Ordinary life, human life, has been showed quite complicated because of this. By seeking or providing a meaning to what happens, the mind usually translates it according to its own limitations. Basically, there lies the sense of personal illusion.

Life has a dimension, an extension or a representation the intellect will never be able to define – the mind cannot achieve this. Life will never show itself to you... You cannot grasp the meaning of It, as Life will always remain unknown. No matter how much the thought tries to translate, interpret and feel at ease with this task, all that the mind can do here is to create an imagination – it will distort Reality!

When you come to Satsang, when we place ourselves in this willingness, where we are tonight, we have the opportunity to open ourselves to the unknown. Although you will never be able to capture This, although you will never be able to somehow capture the meaning of Life, the meaning of Truth or the meaning of Happiness, you can live This. To know intellectually, to explain intellectually, to translate intellectually... Never! But the Mystery, the Truth, the Unknown, Life, Happiness can be experienced.

Are you with me?

So, when we are in Satsang, I invite you to see That, it is a call for you to take a close look at this Reality, at this Realization, that is the Realization of your True Nature, because you are Life. However, This is not possible within this illusion of the ordinary thought, of this belief of "being someone." Awakening, Enlightenment, Realization of God, Truth, is to assume what You Are, and what You Are, in your Real Nature, is impersonality.

These "serious" human problems (because that is how problems are considered) are based on this illusion, the illusion of the ego identity. There is no Truth, Happiness, Peace, Love, Intelligence in that, nor the end of suffering. All this is possible when this illusion ends, is no longer there. That’s what you were born for! You were born to discover the Truth of God. You were born to recognize That or Who You are, and the recognition of this is the end of illusion – the illusion of being a separate entity from Life, from the Whole, from Truth, from God, from Happiness, from Intelligence and Freedom.

These talks are deeply challenging, as they challenge you to stop suffering, and this sounds completely absurd for the mind, inconceivable indeed. It is true! In the mind, the end of suffering is impossible, because the end of illusion, of the sense of separation, is impossible for the mind; however, this is the challenge!

To see the "mind" here means “knowing" it, that is, to see what, in fact, it represents: only imagination. It is a huge number of concepts, beliefs, thoughts and images you are confused with, entangled with, mixed up, filled with, and so you seem to be warding off from your Real Identity, from what you actually Are. Notice that these speeches are always saying something very basic and quite straightforward. We do not intend to beat about the bush. We always want to get right to the point, to what we are really interested in, and our interest here is to find out who you really are or What you are.

The Self is not "someone" you might discover, so This is not related to who “you are.” The Self is the Indefinable, Indescribable Reality, the Pure Unknown. Then, it is not related to who "you" are but to What you Are, What you really Are.

Everyone around you represents, within the field of mind, a part of this belief. To you, everyone surrounding you, from the mind’s viewpoint, is part of that same imagination. Everyone shares this same belief – common to everyone – and this means a huge obstacle. In other words: everyone around you represents what you believe to be; everyone looks like "people" and you see them like that, as you see yourself. To go beyond all this requires a deep, absolute, unreserved surrender.

It is very easy to get here and say to you: "You are That!" And afterwards it will be very easy for you to leave here quoting this. However, repeating this, verbally and intellectually affirming this, is not the Reality, but just another belief! So, you need a real work in that direction, and we are proposing that to you in these meetings. If we could handle it here at the Paltalk, in other words, if we could solve that here at the Paltalk, it would be great, just like by reading some books or watching some videos. However, I am sorry to inform you this is not possible.

I would be very happy if everyone joining this room could awaken after just a few meetings here. But Awakening does not happen that way. Awakening has a way of happening and we cannot have a secret path to guide you. I confess that if I knew a secret path, I would point out this path to you. Heaven is a very desirable thing – everyone wants to go to Heaven. So, if I knew a secret hatch, I would try to help everyone in this room to enter that hatch and reach Heaven faster.

Realization is not what you read in books, on Facebook pages, nor the videos you watch on Youtube. Realization is the State of Buddha, the State of Christ, the State of Ramana Maharshi, of Jiddu Krishnamurti, of Anandamayi Ma. Realization is You in your Natural State, but that State is the end of this "you" as you see yourself in this social context, at this very moment.

Some people are prescribing several sorts of spiritual practices, and currently one of the most common is the famous practice of meditation. I need to tell you: the practice of meditation will not solve this. The practice of meditation can, at first, make you realize that you are not the body, the mind, the thought and therefore, not a separate entity from the world. However, meditation as a practice only provides you with glimpses of That. Meditation, as Pure and Direct Realization, is not a practice; it is you established in your Natural State! This requires self-annulment – the annulment of this false "me," in a total, complete and radical way.

In Satsang, we are dealing with Real Meditation, especially in presential meetings. Real Meditation is the end of the identification with the illusion of an experiencer, here and now. This is not a practice – half an hour, an hour a day, half an hour in the morning, half an hour in the afternoon or half an hour in the evening. None of this! You need to surrender all fears, all choices, decisions, wills and beliefs. Then, we find out Real Meditation, which is no longer a practice, no longer a "secret hatch" or a "fast" and "safe" path.

Actually, Realization is an adventure beyond the known, which implies the end of everything the mind knows. The mind will create innumerable strategies, several ways to flee. The mind is going to disguise itself in several ways, it is going to even spiritualize itself and will also be able to "enlighten" itself. In this way, the "person" soon becomes an "enlightened" person, but this still does not mean the Truth of the end of fear, of the end of the sense of separation and all this illusion – it is still there. It might be sublimated, it has become quite subtle, but it is still there.

Do you get this? Can you really listen to this? Are not you shocked or angry at me?

Currently people are talking about a collective "awakening" of the mankind. I do not see it like this! In my viewpoint, the mankind is just what it has always been and will be what it is today already. Enlightenment is not a matter for the masses. You cannot see Realization as a movement of the masses; this is just another fantasy! Realization of God, the Realization of Truth is for you, here and now, and not for the mankind. It is for you, who is being called by this Grace, by this Presence, by this Truth, because it is your moment. This is not the moment of mankind, but rather your moment. It is not the moment of the masses, but rather your moment.

We find this idea of a collective mankind’s awakening very pleasant, as it is quite "romantic" and "encouraging.” It is a very enthusiastic life view, as "everyone is awakening." This is not true! You are in the process of Awakening... not the mankind! Awakening is the end of the illusion of the individual, and not the end of the illusion of human consciousness, of mankind’s consciousness. You, who are standing here before this talk, at this moment, this is your moment! Do not imagine the collective in this, because there is no collective in this. You are alone to Awaken, to recognize What it Is, the Truth about yourself!

Any questions?

OK people! Let's stop here. Thanks for the meeting. I wait for you to come here in person. Namaste.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on December 20th, 2017. First published in Portuguese on January 30, 2018. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Find the Freedom of “being nobody”

When you stop daydreaming, projecting yourself psychologically, You are here, then this Space opens up... It is present! This is how Truth, Consciousness, God, that cannot be absent, is always present, but you do not give your heart to That. Here, when we meet each other, it seems something opens up internally, and you find this Freedom of “being nobody.” So, be here, do not go anywhere else.

However, the ego is moving constantly, and this is a vicious movement. When you believe you will have another day, you already begin to imagine the Sun rising. That's how it works. So, what is this “Thing” called Awakening? It is to be in that Space, that is Silence, the Freedom of Intelligence, the absence of this false identity, of this character you always present before your "voters" to see if you win "votes" and manage to be "elected." Similarly to what happens to one of these candidates (we are in the election period, right?), your ego moves, wanting to be very important, to receive “votes,” to be acknowledged, and that is the problem.

When there is Love, Freedom, Intelligence, Truth, you do not search for appreciation. If you are Real in your Being, you are Happy, but you are Happy in Yourself, and not expecting to “win the elections,” waiting for others approval “votes.” This psychological dependence on living measured by applauses, wishing to be beautiful to be appreciated is typical of the egoic mind. I gave up on that! There is a moment when you have to give up these fantasies since this is pure fantasy! The ego always lives in the fantasy of "being someone," being important, beautiful, famous, and this is all too childish.

Remain in your Being, remain in Consciousness, in this Silence, and This is possible when there is Meditation. Thus, God reveals himself! Only then, God is present, not when you are chanting mantras or quoting the words of Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha or Ramana.

What am I recommending you do? I am recommending you to put your heart into That! Put your life in That! Actually, you only have this life, or rather, just this moment to focus your Life on That! So, abandon the illusion of the future, the illusion of time. “Ah! I want to achieve Awakening, I want to achieve Enlightenment.” – this is also a fantasy; one more image of yours.

When you place yourself into that image, you are missing the opportunity to observe what is happening to you, now, here, at this moment. Your mind is playing a trick on you, deceiving you again. You have everything to this discovery, now! There is nothing to do tomorrow or to do in half an hour, since everything is now! It is either now or never! Time is an illusion. So, you are doing the wrong thing: you are busy trying to do something after this moment, and there is this concern, just another idea, of getting somewhere, of "attaining that State."

You worry: “Ah! I want to live in that State. I want to live in this state of Marcos Gualberto.” Folks, this “Marcos Gualberto’s State” is not a state, much less of “Marcos Gualberto;” it is the absence of a state and the absence of Marcos Gualberto. This puts you on an equal footing, since You are not a "person" either, just as there is no state for You since You are Consciousness. So, do not take the future as a real factor. Work at this now! Observe your reactions now, these internal states of conflict, of fear, all created by thought, by the rejection of Life as it shows itself, as it presents itself.

So, this is not the moment to change things. It is the moment to find out everything is in the right place! Truth does not show Itself in changes. Truth shows Itself in the acknowledgment that everything is in the right place, that God is complete, the Presence, Consciousness is complete. You need to understand this with your heart, not your head.

So, this moment, when we are together, is not the moment to worry about changes, but rather to find out this Space is complete and Truth lies in the absence of this illusion of "someone to change." Truth lies in the understanding of this illusion of the “presence of someone to change.” So, it is not the moment to change anything. It is the moment to stay with Life, with Grace, with the beauty of God... It is the moment to stay in Silence.

My job is to show you how simple it is to live in your Being and how complicated it is to remain under this illusory state, thinking like everyone else – like people think – and to depend on infinite beliefs, trying to adjust, to mold yourself to everything you expect from yourself, to everything you demand from yourself and to what others expect from you. All of this is a big joke, a big fantasy that only reinforces fear. Look at you: you are afraid of what others say and think; afraid of what you think about what you did or what you will not be able to do, to “be someone better,” “someone happy.” So, there is always fear behind.

My job is to show you how to live in God, in Consciousness, in Intelligence, in Love; how to be Real and live a full Life, which means not having the illusion of a better future or of a frustrating, disappointing past – this is fantasy. Everything is in the right place, everything worked out, it has always been right. Your mind was interpreting everything there and it is doing this here and now, again, and when future comes, the mind will keep on interpreting everything in the same way.

In the future, you will still feel yourself unsuccessful, just like you feel today when you recall the past as a sad, unsuccessful one. You will do the same when projecting the future that it is in your head. This is all imagination: the mind is producing all these fantasies. So, what do you do? Get rid of all this, abandon the mind, abandon this sense of "me," awake and leave that condition.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on October 15th, 2020 – First published in Portuguese on December 26th, 2020. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Desire is suffering

What are we going to deal here? What is the right thing here, if there is nothing to be taught, explained or learned? What is communicated in a meeting like this?

Nothing can be shared at this meeting, except for the Presence of this Space. We have many words, such as "freedom," "truth," "consciousness," "presence," "God," but nothing can be communicated in this Space; what you can do is to become aware of the Presence of this Space. Only Silence makes it possible, and the revelation of Silence is the only thing that matters to your life. This is the language of Ramana, Christ, Buddha, of your Essential Nature, of your Divine Nature. In Buddha's viewpoint, suffering is present whenever excitement is present, and desire creates excitement. Desire creates and upholds this excitement. So, desire is suffering; two sides of the same coin.

What did Christ find out in the desert? What was that encounter in the desert? What was Buddha's encounter under the Bodhi tree? What does this encounter here mean? There is nothing outside this Silence, this Space, this Presence we may call as God, Truth, Consciousness and also Freedom. For Christ, This is the entrance into God’s Realm, into Heaven’s Realm. For Buddha, it is the end of Maya power, of illusion, the end of Samsara. This is the end, and you do not need and cannot study about This. I repeat: you do not have to and you cannot, since you will not find out this Revelation of Silence on the outside.

All the mind can do is to daydream and ward yourself off the principle of this Presence, this Space, this Silence. So, it is not about learning or studying That. So, what do we do here, since it is not about learning or studying That? What you learn and study becomes just a new belief, just that. A belief works only on the intellectual level, it does not reach you actually. Notice that everything you have in your intellect has not provided you any real change, transformation, alteration. Therefore, we are not interested in that, and if you are going to learn and study, you will never know Liberation.

You need to see the importance of going beyond the mind, which is synonymous with belief, memory, knowledge and experiences. You are always thinking about yourself, and that thought frequently spins around a memory. Thought is memory and this is a form of knowledge. The experiences you have gone through became a sort of present knowledge, now. You are always thinking about yourself as an entity present only because you value this knowledge, this memory, that upholds the idea, the belief of “being someone.”

You never talk about what will happen, since you do not know anything about it, you can only imagine it. You always tell me what happened, you just do not realize what happened is just an idea here and now; just a belief, an imagination about who you were in the past. Likewise, you can imagine who you will be in the future. So, notice: this is constantly revolving around this fictional, imaginary subject, who you believe to be.

Are you really interest in that, here? Why are you interested in that? Have you ever seen how boring, tedious, tiring and nostalgic it is to live in this movement of being a “person”? Can you see the "person" is not in this Space, in this Silence? A person is constantly making these nostalgic flights of fancy to an imaginary past or future, switching between depressing and artificially and momentaneous “joyful” moments. Do you see how tiring it is to live confined into the sense of "me"? That is what my Guru, Ramana Maharshi, showed me.

In the mind, you are always thinking today was like this, but tomorrow will be different, or yesterday was worse or better. This is completely false, there is no truth in it, except as an idealization, a belief, created by the thought. For Marcos Gualberto, this is over. Your future will not be different because, perhaps, you will have a new marriage or two, three, five or six children. Then, you believe your present, now, is different from what was your past. The ego is this constant movement within time, the illusion of a present entity repeating itself within time. Time is an illusion!

This false identity assumes to be real, repeating itself and creating new representations of its own story, therefore believing to be living a different life. However, there is nothing different happening now, nor has anything different happened in the past, nor will it happen in the future; it is just a repetition, a story, memory. So, your past, your present and your future are thoughts of a supposed “person,” who believes to be present. In other words, there is no one there, there is no one here, they are just ideas. You, as a "person," live attached to these ideas; without them, there is no person! These are the ideas that make you happy and sad, excited and depressed.

You need to go beyond the mind, beyond these ideas, this set of beliefs. You are constantly setting yourself up as a computer expert, who builds a machine, a computer and set it up. You are constantly placing yourself in time, in the illusion of a time that thought imagines to exist as a present entity saying that yesterday was like this, but tomorrow it will be different, or that something could have been different. When you do that, you are reaffirming yourself as a fraud, an illusion, as a suffering entity. Your joy is so brief and your suffering is so long!

It would be an interesting experiment if you could write down your internal states on a blank sheet of paper. By doing this experiment, you will discover how much your sadness is linked to the disappointments of this entity you believe you are since you have done something wrong in the past. You will also find out your concerns are based on situations that may not come out right in the future. Also write down your moments of tranquility, relaxation and joy, moments of stress, tension, worry and suffering at some level, that is, of some form of present conflict. You will discover later, looking at this sheet of paper, that most of your psychological time – a time created exactly by the thoughts – is to uphold through suffering this illusory "identity" you believe you are.

You have a few moments to be a relaxed, calm person, confident in Existence, in Life, since most of your time is to self-harm, to punish yourself and to suffer. That is how you set psychologically up that time for this supposed entity you believe you are. “Tomorrow will be different. I could not get it so far, but I will get it!” – this is tension, worry, conflict, and this movement is the ego. You expect and demand a lot from yourself, and you cannot do this without involving the world in your story, in your imagination. This is tension, conflict, suffering. You cannot be happy being "someone." Being happy means only Being, pure Being, pure Consciousness! There cannot be "someone present" in this Experience of Being.

Things can go right or wrong to "someone,” and this alone is already the cause for stress and incredible internal suffering, but deep down, these are all thoughts, and the mind needs them. Actually, you, as a separate entity, are not real without the thoughts; it is "real" because you think – and you think a lot! – in losses and gains, profits and losses. So, I began telling you that the most important thing in this meeting is this Space where Silence is revealed, and that there is nothing to learn or study. Wasn't that how I began? When there is Silence, there is no future, no memory, no imagination, nor is there anything to gain and lose. Silence is a word for Consciousness or Meditation. In India, they have an expression: "Samadhi," the Natural State of Pure Consciousness, out of time, that is, outside the egoic mind, this so well-known movement, the movement of the mind.

Do you get this? Indeed... The "person" is just a set of remembrance, memories, and all this is a huge burden.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on October 15th, 2020. First published in Portuguese on December 22nd, 2020. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

It is essential to remain in the Source

In the mind, you are moving in an imaginary realm, in the realm of phenomena, as an imaginary entity. However, there is something about you that precedes imagination, precedes the mind. It is completely false to consider the Truth of Being as a sensation, as an idea of consciousness or vitality, or even as this objective thing called a "state of peace." What You Are, is beyond all of that.

At some point, it may become clear to you that something internally is realizing these states of joy, peace and freedom the mind knows are all conditioned. You even have a sense of Being, but you are too entangled with beliefs about who you are. So, even the idea "I am" is unreliable, because your True Nature excels the experience of an idea, a state, a sensation.

In your mind, something creates this sense of consciousness, yet as only an appearance, a phenomenal, limited state, attached to a notion of time and space. The Truth, the Reality, What the Real Being is, is not conceptual, not a state, an experience, nor an idea. Making it simpler: You are What is aware of being conscious, you are That which is aware of the thinking process and of any state that appears and disappears.

Some people talk about this "observer" matter, but it appears along with what is being observed, therefore still just another phenomenon. If they appear and disappear together, they are just phenomena. What You are is beyond the observer and the observed thing; that is, the observer is not separate from what is being observed.

Participant: What is this present thing, independent from subject and object, from observer and observed thing, from consciousness or absence of consciousness?

Marcos Gualberto: This is an important question, since it points out the Truth about Yourself, and This is completely free from what you call "conscious state" or "objective consciousness." Notice that, all over the world, every experience arises within that objective consciousness. You are aware of the world due to that consciousness that is still part of that world, of that observation of the world. When we speak of Self-realization, we are pointing out What is outside of time, space, the world and any state. This is what remains free from all experience, as your Essential Nature, the Divine Nature, the Nature of the Truth, the pure Reality.

Notice that the well-known meditation practice provides you only a state, present only during the practice. When you stop meditating, you return to your ordinary state, your ordinary state of separation, of duality, of the observer and the observed thing, of the “I am” experience. Actually, this "I am" is the basis of all experiences, including the meditation experience. Without this "I am," there cannot be any experience. What I am saying in these meetings is that You are beyond every experience, even that “I am” experience.

This state of "being conscious" comes with the body and the mind, naturally limited by time, place and space. Then, consciousness ends up appearing as an ephemeral state, depending on the condition of the mind and body. In this consciousness, human experiences are taking place. What you take for "consciousness" appears along with the presence of body and mind. Therefore, the presence of body and mind is a requirement for this consciousness to manifest. So, this consciousness is limited, present in experiences, and without them, it is not present.

When I point out Self-Realization for you, I am talking about Real Consciousness, that does not depend on the body, mind and objective experiences. This Real Consciousness is beyond that sense or feeling “I am," therefore, it is not stuck to time and space. This is the Truth of your Being, of your Natural Being, What is immutable, timeless, not born, does not die and, therefore, is beyond the body and mind, beyond all objective experience.

Naturally, this Consciousness is beyond every sensation, perception, experience and states people are constantly looking for, such as the states of "peace," "happiness" and "freedom." What You are is not a state. Real Freedom, Happiness, Real Consciousness, is not a state and does not require the presence of the body and the mind; this is not necessary. In reality, this body-mind notion disappears completely in this Real State, in this Natural State, which is pure Consciousness.

When you look at the Sun, you have no doubt its light stands on its own; the Sun is not borrowing it from anyone. If you get a hard hit on the head and faint, your consciousness of the world disappears with the belief "I am the body." The same happens in the case of general anesthesia or deep sleep – there is no such idea "I am," "the world" or the body. However, Something remains completely free of any idea – of being alive or dead, of being conscious or unconscious, of experience or non-experience – and This is the Light of Being, of Real Consciousness.

I am telling you the body, the mind, the world, the states, the experiences, all of this receives a light borrowed from this Reality. Only this Reality has its own Light and remains unaltered, unchanged. Self-realization is to establish yourself in your Essential Nature, and This is the Light itself, the Real Love, Freedom, Truth. When This is present, Intelligence and Wisdom are also present. The Sun can shine without any help of objects. Whether they are present or absent, the Sun goes on with its own light. You, in your Being, are this singular Light: Your Presence that does not depend on objects to be reflected or objectively confirmed.

All this world experience, every day, consists only of this interaction of the senses with external objects and the presence of the mind making this link, and that is what you have called as "consciousness." The same applies to this internal world of thoughts, feelings and sensations in the body – the mind makes this link between them – and this is what you call as "consciousness." We are eliminating that in this speech. I am saying and showing you that mind’s world and the body also appear only as an object, still within what you call as "consciousness." So, this is not real, it is not you, none of this has an independent existence, none of this has its own light. Essentially, the body, the mind and the world have no real substance.

You are the One where all this appears. To turn to the Source, to this Real Substance, your Fundamental Identity, which is not what you call as "consciousness," "state" or "experience": this is what we are working on here. Our Essential Identity, which precedes this consciousness, is the Source. Thus, it is essential to remain in that Source. That is all That is, the Unique Truth! That is all that exists, which remains in Yourself as True. This absolute and unconditional Reality is the Source, the Supreme Source of reasonless Joy, of Truth without cause, of Reality without beginning or end. This is the ultimate and absolute State, beyond all states.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on January 27th, 2020 – First published in Portuguese on December 19th, 2020. For further information about our meetings, please click here. clique aqui.

A Great Miracle

Satsang is a great miracle! To have a heart turned to this meeting, to this moment is a great miracle! In the mind, you are constantly restless and unhappy, so the opportunity to investigate the nature of the Truth about yourself is a great miracle!

You have never paid attention to yourself, and now you have that opportunity. Your mind is always attached to people, ideas, things, images... So, this opportunity to focus on yourself and to give up the mind is a miracle! Observe how you act, how your reactions, purposes, intentions, memories, remembrances, images are... They are attached to external and imaginary situations, linked to thoughts. This is how the mind works. This is not your Natural, Real State. This is not the Truth about yourself. In India, there is a name for this Truth about yourself: Samadhi. This is not a state actually, but rather your Being, beyond every known states of the mind. In these talks, I call This as Meditation. Meditation is your Natural State.

The mind, which deals with ideas, people, things and images, is an imaginary and fictitious prison you have built around yourself. As long as you are a prisoner in this imaginary prison, you will not be in your Self, in your Natural State. One thing is sure: What is Real is not imaginary, but so is everything you experience in the mind. So, these things, people, ideas, images and activities in the mind are all imaginary. You need to go beyond the tendencies of this false “me,” the mind in its own movement. Thus, to be here to investigate, to inquire, to observe, to doubt this movement, the old and well-known movement of the mind, is a true miracle.

There is nothing singular in this present moment, because, basically, it is not different from the past or from what the future will bring. However, there is "something" present beyond this present moment, beyond the past and the future. This is the Beauty, the Miracle, the Grace of Satsang! We are talking about this Presence! “I Am” is always now! It is not about what happens.

Things happened in the past, are happening in the present and will happen in the future, but what makes all the difference is the “I am”! This "I Am" is this Unchanging Presence, not bound to body, mind, nor events in time. So, what makes this present moment so different? Obviously, my Presence, my Being, my True Nature. You need to be aware of That, otherwise you will continue in time, in the present, in the past, going to the future, attached to situations, to circumstances and events, mistaking yourself for the body and mind. When that happens, you get stuck to that imaginary prison of the mind. Past is placed in remembrances, in memories; Future, in imaginations, desires and dreams; and between the past and the future, there is the present fear, the present anxiety.

Therefore, this present moment is loaded with the past (remorse, guilt, regret...) and with the future (desire, dream, imagination...). This is the imprisonment of this imaginary character, of this false “me.” Then, you end up giving reality to temporary situations, such as feelings, thoughts, emotions, sensations and perceptions. All of this is tied to the body and to the experiences of the mind. They are not You, the Truth about Yourself! The more you do this, the more you strengthen the illusion of being a separate entity within time and space, living a human story. This way, you are always bound to this limitation of time and space. Time created by the mind and space created by the sensations and perceptions of the senses, by the idea of a present body. All this is the result of the ignorance regarding the Truth about yourself.

There is no specific cause for events, everything is just happening. The “specificity” is imaginary. The mind creates a cause-and-effect relation in the attempt to explain what happens to a supposed particular entity present in time and space. In fact, time is unreal, space is unreal, the “specificity” is unreal, and so are the events.

So, our invitation in Satsang is for you to go beyond what the mind is creating. Mind has been producing all this, all this notion of reality, body, mind, world, time, space, person, story... This is the illusion of that separate identity. Therefore, remain with the inner gratitude for this miracle called Satsang, for the opportunity to be present in this investigation.

Namaste.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on March 19, 2018. First published in Portuguese on April 18, 2018. For further information, please, click here.

What is Self-Realization?

In Satsang, we are investigating the illusory nature of the "me." You never question the truth of this person you believe to be, of this "me." You believe this person has a name and a form. But what basically is this "me"? When thoughts appear, you never question their truth or to whom these thoughts are happening. You never care about seeking the source of these thoughts, finding their source. You never, or almost never, ask yourself: "What is this inner movement of thoughts? Afterall, what does it mean? To whom does it occur?" The idea is that this "me" is the one to whom this occurs, so you refer to yourself as this "I" – this is the first pronoun you learn.

Notice that very young children do not refer themselves as "me"; they call the body by their own name. They say, for example: "Manuela likes that," "Manuela does not want that…" as if they had a clear perception they are dealing with a third person while referring to themselves. All children are like this! Then they grow up and discover – or rather, come to believe – that they are a "me," a present entity, a separate entity with a body and a name. So, they begin to refer to themselves as "me," not referring to themselves in the third person anymore. You can observe this in any child; you were also like that.

So, in fact, seeing yourself as a separate entity, as a person, as a "me," is a conditioning. After you see yourself as this "me," you learn everything that happens to it: every feeling, emotion, sadness, illness, the "good moods” and the "bad moods …" So, you always say: "I feel sad," "I feel happy," "I feel bad," "I feel good," "I am in pain," "My head aches," "My leg aches," "My heart hurts," "I am depressed," "I am happy …" Notice it is always this present "me."

If you find out to whom this happens, you discover the illusory nature of this sense of someone present in the experience. Then, you become aware of this Freedom, your Divine Nature, your Real Nature. You will never say again, "I am sad," "I am happy," "I am sick," "I am poor," "I am rich," "I am dying."

Therefore, if the illusion of this present "me" in the experience disappears, only the experience itself remains, taking place in absolute Freedom. There is no conflict in the experience! Conflict lies in the existing duality between this sense of a present "me" and the experience itself, the very own event, the incident, the accident itself, in the very emotion, the very feeling, the very own thought.

Duality is the cause of conflict, that is the cause of suffering, that is the cause of fear. Self-Realization is to acknowledge the illusory nature of an existing someone in this experience of living. Life is what happens, and Life is not happening to someone. That is Liberation! When this Liberation is present, then God, Truth, Happiness, Love, Freedom and Wisdom are present too, because there is no illusion anymore. So, find out to whom this is happening; find out if this "me" really exists. You will make a great discovery! You will discover this "me" has never existed; that you, in fact, have never existed; that there is no such thing as "you," "he" or "she." "He," "she" and "you" were never born! And since one was never been born, one cannot die!

*Online meeting transcription originally held on August 26, 2016. First published in Portuguese on March 23, 2018. For further information about our meetings, please click here.