The scent and the taste of Freedom

When you are on a pole, the other one is always present. If you are seeing one side, do not worry, the other one is there. It is just one side, but that side is hiding the other one. In the mind, what is known as joy is the opposite of sadness; what is known as love, which is a form of sentimental, emotional pleasure, is not real love. It is just the opposite of disappointment, pain, anger, hatred. All this is in the realm of the mind. All this lies under the mind's contents, which are beliefs.

The freedom of not being imprisoned, entangled, mixed, confused with the mind, is what we name as being disidentified – disidentified with stories, beliefs, thoughts, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, with the pleasure and pain caused by others or the world (which are only images).

There is no formula to keep disidentified. You need to find this out within yourself. You need to know when you are in this position, entangled with the mind, which means all these contents of images, thoughts and beliefs, and when you are not entangled with all that, are not mistaken for it. What I can tell you, although I cannot give you a formula for this, is that it has a completely different scent and taste. The scent of being identified is one thing, the scent of being disidentified is quite another.

Identified means being tangled with the mind and its contents, it means being circumstantially, sentimentally and emotionally involved, both at the level of thought and behavior. The flavor and the scent are quite peculiar when you are not identified. The flavor and the scent are freedom; freedom of stories, of beliefs – beliefs such as: "how beautiful my daughter is!"; "How can that be? I do everything for him but he doesn't see it." "How can that be? I give everything to her and she is not thankful." "How could she like him more than me?" Beliefs of this sort...

Thus, when this identification is present, the taste and the scent are very typical and well known already. When that is not present, the freedom of beliefs becomes clear, as well as how pointless are these worries regarding other's viewpoints and expectations towards you and how pointless are your expectations towards others.

Disidentification has no story and there is no you (you, with this image you have of yourself when entangled, identified). When disidentified, there is no you, "someone" or others. When you are disidentified, you are not a person, a relative, a friend… you are not a neighbor, a child, a mother, nor a father ... When you are disidentified, you are Freedom! When you are disidentified, you have no signs of judgments and opinions, therefore there are no conclusions. When you are disidentified, there is no conflict; no pleasure nor pain. It is not your story. It is just a story. Is it clear that way? When you are disidentified, there is no person, thereby, there is no personal frustration, no personal disappointment. When you are disidentified, there is no "someone" there waiting for something from others next to you. When you are disidentified, any thought about this supposed "you" doesn't even matter, because whatever the thought still believes to exist are still beliefs, but not beliefs of this "disidentified" one.

This is the scent and the flavor. Living like this is possible, but not for this self-image that you keep reinforcing, this image of being a mother, husband, son, boyfriend, girlfriend... To live like this is possible, but this does not reinforce pleasure. So, this is not possible for that illusive system dismembered by thought, which we call as "I," "me," "person."

Living like this is a life in the joy of Being, but a joy with no opposites. It is not the result of some thought-created pleasant excitement, in this euphoria named as happiness. It is not that. It is another joy. It is a causeless, reasonless joy, free from anyone, therefore being plain Joy. It is a joy with a definite article: "the Joy." If the Joy is present, then the smell, the flavor and the taste are different.

Say something from within and from that unlimited Presence that You are, and this talk will be born of this Natural State, free from this mix of emotions, sensations, feelings, images, stories, concepts, differences ... Say something now from this "place" where the person is not present. Whatever is said, it will be told from this Silence, this Emptiness, this Presence, which is pure Joy. A Joy that is not a smile, not a "small leap," not a "little excitement," which is not personal fulfillment, personal satisfaction, not a personal pleasure. Tell me from this disidentification ... look, smile, cry, eat, play and date from there. From there, everything is normal, everything is natural.

In the Natural State, there is no sadness, because sadness comes from images, imaginations, conditionings of a hurt, insulted, offended, annoyed, disappointed and frustrated "me." All these adjectives are attached to this imagined subject that thought has created and named as "me," "I."

As long as the mechanism (body) is there, there may be emotions. Anger, for example, is a neurological, psychological thing, an action of self-protection of this mechanism that has nothing to do with you. It is the natural state operating in the mechanism. If you ask a doctor, the doctor will say that an electric shock produces anger. You take an electric shock and it affects your central nervous system, which produces an emotion on the machine, a rage without story. Feelings need stories, but emotions don't. You should not mistake emotions for feelings.

Anger is an emotion, but the anger the ego knows is a feeling; a feeling that appropriates the machine. We're used to say this anger is an emotion, but it is another feeling, since it requires imagination. Anger is a very dangerous expression when there's a content story. Thus, it serves to some purpose. So, the anger present in this "I" is a very dangerous thing, because it will tell a story, and the story is: "Kill it," "kill him," "destroy what causes you anger." However, anger itself is a beautiful thing. A nerve irritation is anger, but when a story creates a feeling that creates a nerve irritation, which is the anger, this illusion of a present "me" is driven to kill or destroy what caused that anger. The anger itself will not do that.

Participant: Is it the same about fear?

Master Gualberto: This goes for fear too, because fear is an emotion, but fear as the ego knows is not an emotion. It is an illusion created by this thought-produced sense of imagination. So, fear in the ego is 99.9% of the time pure imagination. A fear that seems too real to the ego but has no truth at all.

There is a real fear, as an emotion, when facing some danger, when the body protects itself using defense mechanisms. An object comes towards your eyes and so you close them with fear. An escape movement, a flight. When in fear, you can move your legs or freeze, depending on the mechanism reaction when facing a danger, but this is a natural fear. However, there is a fear created by thought, by imagination; a fear with story. It is the fear of elevator rides, the fear of heights, airplanes, closed places, to marry, to relate, of public speaking, and so on ... All this is pure ego! All these are images that create this so-called fear.

Don't you see how absurd is the fear of death? You have to imagine a lot to be afraid of death, you have to make a huge effort. Right now, no one was afraid of death, but when I said "fear of death" you have started asking yourselves: "am I afraid of death?" You have to wonder to know if you have it. Only those with free time to think are able to picture and fear death.

When death comes, it comes suddenly, nobody fears it, there is no room for the fear of death, it is a fulminant thing. But if someone says: "You are dying," the mind will build a post-mortem scenario and will produce fear. But the fear of death is an absurd thing, like these fears of elevator rides, height, etc. Pure imagination!

We are still talking about the identification with the mind's contents, which has this scent and this very specific flavor. When this is present, there is no freedom. In this disidentification, this freedom, any emotion is possible, but without a story, it is natural. Anger can be something like that, fear can be something like that ... but you can count on the fingers what would be an emotion in the Natural State. However, you cannot count on the fingers what feelings and emotions means for this illusion of a present identity, which is this belief of being someone, this "me," this "I," this ego.

That is why when you are before the Sage, before the Guru, the Presence, you do not see this wave, you do not see this sea full of waves of emotions, feelings and sensations. You do not see these chaotic reactions. You see emotions, but you do not see this turbulent thing. This chaotic thing is a superficial thing, depthless, unreal, it is something created by thought.

The ego lives in this ups and downs of joy, sorrow and pain. With extraordinary speed, it goes from joy to sadness, from sadness to anger, anger to fear, from fear to despair, from despair to anxiety, anxiety to courage, from courage to daring... Isn't it just like that?

Identified with the ego, everything is circumstantial. The sense of a "me" moves circumstantially: a compliment makes you cheerful; a mean comment makes you sad, angry, offended or willing to kill, because the desire to kill the one who hurt you comes along with the anger.

In fact, it is all happening inside you. There is nothing going on outside. It is all within that same content, which is the mind's content. The mind teasing itself – being teased and reacting to it – searching for the ones to blame and living all these dramas. It is a hopeless case, without salvation. The ego is a miserable state of a useless complexity.

*In-person meeting transcription, originally held on May, 2016. First published in Portuguese on June 15, 2016. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Why do we look for relationships?

You are always complete as Consciousness! This need for egoic fulfillment is just a fantasy, an illusion. In these schools of psychology, esoterism, therapy, they say it is necessary to find self-esteem, a soul mate, to find the other, that this is a necessity. This is not a necessity! But talking about this need to have someone, to have a partner, to have a friend, to live in society, is a common thing, a social, educational thing, an egoic bias, a model of the world, affirmations of supposed knowers of human mind, of human ego.

Relations will always matter, but relationships, never. Zero importance! Relations are those you have with the baker, with the taxi driver. It's what you have with your son when you're not a plaything in his hand. When he manipulates you, it's not relation but a relationship.

So, relations will always happen. Life is pure relation. Life is in relation with everything! Life is in relation with air, trees, water, waiter, lawyer, doctor, baker, bank teller, boyfriend, girlfriend... but it is just that.

The affirmation of an identity in a relation is relationship. And that affirmation is a denial of your Real Nature, your True Identity, your Real Nature. This is a relationship affirmation between images, and there is no life in relationships like that. Between images, relationships are imagination, something like a world parallel to the world there is... The world that is and the parallel world, imagined by thought, by this movement of images – imagination. Here is all the conflict. Here lies the whole human misery, the whole human suffering.

I said the whole human suffering because, in Nature, this behavior model is entirely unknown. I would not say that this is unknown for the freedom present in Nature, but for unconsciousness in Nature. With the appearance of man, an unconscious consciousness appears, but even though, it is an unconsciousness present within this unique Presence. So, conflict does not appear – or not so evidently – as it does between these so-called human beings. These so-called human beings can realize their True Nature. That True Nature of yours is the Pure Presence. The same Presence behind all Nature.

Your relation with the mind and body must be like the relation of yours with people and the world: a relation in the sense of this Consciousness disidentified with the experience of living. When This is present, there is no conflict, there is no suffering, because there is no such psychological element that is constantly asserting and reaffirming itself through images.

Participant: Either denying, rejecting things or as very euphoric because things happen the way you want so. The mind has also this: either it is very happy or complaining because it is not the way it wants.

Marcos Gualberto: Imagination. Notice it is always a relationship between images. Thus, egoic mind behaves, works and is in a relationship with the body, mind, people and the world: under that imagination. And this is suffering. This is conflict.

I am telling you in Satsang that this idea of the need to be in this movement of relationship with life, with the body, with the mind, with people and with the world is a belief. All that is needed is the relation. Life is under relations, because everything is in a state of relation with something else. But, more important than the meaning of the word "relation" or "relationship," it is the meaning of it, the present Consciousness free of images. Present image-free Consciousness is what I call as relation.

You transform the object that appears in the relation when a subject appears. Or rather, you create an object in the relationship when a subject appears to you. Then, this is transformed into a relationship and the whole burden of the relationship is implied in that moment. Fear is also implied in this movement. This speech is to make clear to you that if there is no relationship at this instant, at this moment, there is no object and no subject. This is the death of a psychological identity, the collapse of this illusion of an identity in this experience. This is the end of "I," the end of "me". If the "I" ends, "others" end. If the "me" ends, "mine" ends: my boyfriend, my husband, my son, my mother, my grandparents, my house, my car... The end of the "me" is the end of "mine." The end of the "I" is the end of "others." Other than that, anything else is just a movement of thought creating a story in this parallel world, in this supposed real world, which is the world of imagination, the world of misery, the world of dukkha, as they say in Buddhism – the world of suffering.

Death is present only when something ends. In the ego, you never know death. Ego represents continuity. If ego doesn't continue in that mechanism there, it continues in other mechanisms. There is no thought in death. I speak of this death where there is no imagination, I speak of this death of the movement of thought and imagination. If this death is present, the movement of thought does not take place. And when it doesn't happen, images don't move, and so there is no imagination – the actions of images. And when that is not there, there is only What Is, and in What is, there is no conflict, there is no suffering.

Follow that?

We are talking about Life without "you." I call this as "leaving the world alone." If you leave the world alone, the world doesn't disturb you. The only world that can disturb is the world of imagination, the world thought creates and you, in this illusion of being somebody, sustain. Sustaining this is a huge heavy effort. What I am saying is that there is no effort to live disidentified with the ego. But there is a lot of effort to uphold the imagination of being someone in an imaginary world created by thought.

In other words, Happiness takes no effort, unhappiness takes a lot of work. To be happy, Happiness is enough. To be unhappy, it is enough to desire, to seek, to search happiness. Here is the effort, the imagination of something to be found by someone who believes is able find it. As long as this belief remains, what is present in that moment – and which is never absent – will never be seen. So, what is now, here, is put within time, thrown into a future imagined by thought itself. It's so patently clear, it's undeniable, present, verifiable, here and now... but it goes into a dimension in this imaginary world of thought that will never be witnessed, will never be demonstrated, will never be recognized.

Did you hear that?

You don't take a leap outside the mind; you don't step into the present moment. You simply disidentify with thinking. And the future, that unreachable, unattainable future that will never come true, all of this ends immediately, in the totality of that instant. This is where all relationships end. In this Consciousness, there are no relationships. This is your real, timeless, nameless, non-conceptual Nature, the only expression.

Your Real Nature is the expression of the Silence that is fullness. Nothing lacks, nothing is needed, nothing is recognizable apart from That. This is my song! Some are listening to my music! Are you listening?

Listen to this symphony of Silence, discover here that there is nothing there! That's it!

*In-person meeting transcription, originally held on April 2016. First published in Portuguese on May 4, 2016. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Abandon the illusion of being someone in the world

Ramana said, "It is easier for a breadwinner family man to realize the Truth than a Sannyasin, a renunciant."

The renunciant carries the idea that he or she has renounced the world, while the world is all inside. His or her mind carries the idea of having left the world, and a breadwinner family man, doesn't. All the breadwinner family man has to do is to renounce the illusion of being a separate entity from the world. And that's all I ask of you.

Let go of the illusion of being someone in the world, someone to others, someone to yourself. You just must let go of the idea you are a person with duties and obligations. These duties and obligations are of the Whole, not of the person you believe you are. God takes care of his appearances. They are unique appearances in Him. God takes care of them.

Your duty is to let go of the illusion you are there, carrying that burden, carrying fear, obligation, duty. You only have one thing to do: to surrender everything to God! You surrender everything to God when you give up this illusion of wanting to control, resolve and do everything. And that's what you do in the ego. You want to solve everything by yourself. Then, you are overburdened with concerns that are none of your business, that are not yours, that should not be yours.

There is a Power that governs everything, manages, takes care, controls, puts and disposes in His way. This Presence does and undoes in its own way! This is the Grace of Baba Loknath [the Guru mentioned by one participant of the meeting], this is the Grace of Ramana Maharshi, this is the Grace of the Guru.

You go to the Master and say, "Chop my head off!" The Guru will find a way to chop your head off, but you can't be like the turtle (hiding in the shell). The problem I see is that, in the mind, you can't take these steps. These are steps of faith! These are steps outside mind! In the mind, you will add, divide, subtract, assess what you can lose, what you have to negotiate, what are the consequences...

A mirror reflects images because that is the nature of the mirror. The world is like that, it works like the mind: it is always inviting us to time, to the future, to the past. The nature of the mirror is to reflect only what is presented in front of it. It neither increases nor decreases the apparent image that appears there. It's just an apparent image. You cannot take an apple inside the mirror, nor can you take a fork from a plate inside the mirror.

That image is just the reflected appearance of a three-dimensional object within time and space, but that object in the mirror has no reality. It's just an appearance. The original three-dimensional object is also just an appearance. The Real Nature of the object in the mirror and of that three-dimensional object is the Void. The nature of the mirror is the same as the object in the mirror and the three-dimensional object, of which their images are borrowed by the mirror.

Truth is outside the past, future, history, outside that three-dimensional object called "me," which appears as mind, body and world.

Your Real Nature is Consciousness! This is the only reality! Other than that, everything is leaving... it's already going away! There's no way for anyone to hold it back. So, let it go. Leave the appearances. Let them all go! If you don't try to hold onto them, they will still be there, like appearances, and they will be taken care of in a much better way than this illusion would do, which is the illusion you believe to be, managing, taking care of, handling it.

I want to save you another 30, 35, 40 years of meditation practice, spirituality practice. I want to save your life! I want to give you the Zen, Buddha, Baba Loknath, Christ! I want to show you where They are. So far you are looking at an object reflected in the mirror, which is as unreal as this three-dimensional object within time and space, where that object borrows its image. I want to break this mirror, undo this image! Without a mirror, there is no such image. I want to end this three-dimensional object! I want you to have the Void! It is the Void of Baba Loknath, the Void Buddha, the Void of Christ, the Void of Sat-Chit-Ananda. [a cellphone of one of a participant rings, interrupting the talk]

This is an example of what the world will do with you for another 10 million lives. The world will never let you hear the call to take a leap beyond itself. The world will always be like this, inviting you to come back again.

Participant: The world here is two sons and one daughter. They've already called three times!

Master: No, the world isn't them. I wish they were! The world is your idea of yourself, believing that you have children, that you have a family, that you are a person. This is the world! It's this world I want to free you up! It's not your kids, not your house, not your work, not your outside world. It is about that illusory inner world, in which you believe you are someone – someone who is a father, who tomorrow will be a grandfather and then a great-great-grandfather. I speak of this world in which you believe you are a person.

*In-person meeting transcription, originally held in Fortaleza city, Brazil, on March 19, 2016. First published in Portuguese on April 13, 2016. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

The Joy of freedom, peace, silence and this beatitude

The egoic mind will never give up its movement. You need a new element taking place internally. This new element is a greater joy than this pleasure. The difference between pleasure and joy is that pleasure makes a fuss, whereas the joy, we are talking about, is not this euphoric happiness, which is still from the "pleasurable" mind and the egoic mind. The element that makes possible for your heart to lean toward this silent joy is the element of the own Consciousness. Grace is this element of Consciousness.

While not touched by Grace, you do not have any condition to go beyond the egoic mind. It is possible that this mechanism of pain, conflict and suffering make this attainable, when your heart, that is driven by Grace, turns toward this Consciousness. So, Grace is the element that makes possible for you to abdicate, to abandon the egoic mind in its pursuit for pleasure. This element, which is Grace, is the element of Consciousness within consciousness.

The nature of the Self is to lean toward what brings greater happiness. The Self constantly leans toward what brings greater happiness, and this is what reminds us What It is – its Real Nature. The Self leans to what resembles Its Real Nature! This silent joy, without bustle, natural, the joy of Freedom, of Peace, of Silence and of this Beatitude is what reminds the Self of what It is: Happiness.

Since the ego is very gross, the difficulty one has leaning towards this joy is because this is not the pleasure the ego knows. Everything it knows is this grossness of pleasure – the gross pleasure of the senses. Eating gives pleasure, sleeping gives pleasure, sensory enjoyment gives pleasure, having sex gives pleasure, and all that the ego greatly appreciates is the gross pleasure of such satisfaction of that supposed separate entity.

The egoic mind's attachment to this is very strong, it has been there internally for millennia. The ego will never abandon this, since it is where it stands as "someone." As being aware of itself, of being an entity, of being "someone," the ego will not abandon this.

While you have immaturity for This, there is no possibility, no chance. You are in Satsang because you already have the maturity to perceive the illusion of living in this duality – pleasure and pain, pleasure and pain – in this gross thing, which is the euphoric happiness the ego knows within its achievements.

Due to this maturity, a call from Grace has happened, and that call has placed you in Satsang. When you arrive in Satsang, you realize how much it makes sense. It does not make sense for the egoic mind, but rather for your heart... How much that all makes sense! That silent and gracious joy, outside the mind, outside pleasure and pain, outside this duality... How much that makes sense in this thing called Satsang! So, the Joy of Meditation, of self-inquiry takes place; the Joy of devotion takes place, of turning yourself to God, to the Truth, Happiness, Freedom and Love.

You are going beyond duality, beyond this gross thing that is the constant pursuit of sensory pleasure. Taking a sea bath, a sunbathing, eating, all of these are physical, sensory pleasures. So, once the body begins to be not so important, the matter of pleasure or pain becomes not so important either.

The body is too much important at unconsciousness, to this ego-identity and supposed idea: "I am the body." So, in such idea "I am the body," the body is important, and when it is important, then to be on a beach is better than to be somewhere else, or some other place is better than to be on the beach, or to be with someone is better than to be with somebody else.

These differences begin to appear: It is better to be with so-and-so than with another. To be in one place over another. In this illusion of "being the body," the ego greatly values satisfaction of the body and having specific fulfilments. So, the body is constantly in search of sensations.

Sensation is the egoic life, whether it is sentimental, emotional or physiological, but in Consciousness, in the Self, it does not matter, it is just one more thing. This is like several dishes, different types of food on a table, and all of them have the same importance for you; there is no special one. Thus, the sensory experiences, all of them, become important, but they do not take on this immeasurable importance the ego used to give them – one thing to the detriment to another thing.

Wherefore, after pretty much insistence, this continuity of ego in pursuit of pleasure, carrying this pleasure with an inbuilt pain (a pain that always accompanies this consistent thing of "pleasure and pain"... "pleasure and pain"... "pleasure and pain"...), it so remains until, by an action of Grace, of this Presence, you are touched by an entirely new element, which is this subtle and silent joy.

It is not a gross thing with this burden of pain on the other side – pleasure and pain. Internally touched by this joy, the heart leans, since this is the Self remembering its Real Nature. Thus, there is a possibility for a Divine Call to take place for this Realization of God.

*Presential meeting transcription, originally held in João Pessoa, Brazil. First published in Portuguese on July 05th, 2016. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Disidentify from the body and the mind

In these meetings, our major goal, our major purpose is to turn to the Heart, to turn inwards. We are dealing with Something that is already present as our own Being. It is not a thing to come, but rather Something present already. Therefore, our purpose is to get in direct contact with What we are, right now, right here, at this moment. When we talk about the Nature of Consciousness, about the Nature of Being, we are dealing with Something ever present. The mind is continually looking for new experiences, new sensations, but your Being is not a new experience, nor is it a new sensation. Your Being is that present Reality!

We spend a lifetime reinforcing and upholding this false identity, that is continually seeking, looking for, trying to find something new. The mind does this because of its dissatisfaction. The nature of the mind is to ward itself off from the Heart, from What is present now, here, at this moment. All our interest in Satsang is to verify What we are, to get directly in touch with What we are at this moment, at this present moment. The mind has created the time. The mind moves within time. So, the mind is constantly looking for experiences and sensations. When you do this, you identify with the body and the mind.

All the human misery is based on this identification with the body, on the illusion of an identity present inside the body. If you are someone inside the body, you are attached to the notion of time and space, living in search of experiences and sensations. Your whole life spins around this central idea: the idea you are a person.

One morning a man stood before Ramana Maharshi. He was a missionary and also an English teacher. Upon entering and prostrating himself before the Master, he was in great sadness, as he had lost his son in the war. At that moment, he asked the Master, "After all, what is the way to achieve pain liberation?" Ramana looked at him, remained silent for a few minutes, and then answered, "All your sadness is only in your mind." Ramana told him that all that pain was being created by thought. The Master told him, "Your sadness is only your thought; your True Nature is Peace." And He continued: "Your remedy is to investigate, within your own Nature, who you are. You feel sad because the thoughts say your child no longer exists. If you still believed in the thought that he was alive, you would not feel any sadness."

Ramana also told him a story I will tell you here. It is the story of two young men who went on a pilgrimage together. They arrived at a village in northern India and one of them died. The one alive got a job and started working. After a while, he decided to return to his city, but in the meantime, he met someone, another pilgrim who was going back to his city before him. Then, he asked the pilgrim to tell his friend's family that he had died. So, the pilgrim spread the news, but in doing so he changed the boys' names. As a result, the deceased's relatives and friends were happy since they believed he was alive, while the living pilgrim's people were grieving and depressed, crying, believing that he was dead. The news was mixed up!

So, Ramana told him that, and this is what we are talking about in this meeting here in Satsang. As long as you identify with the idea of the person you believe to be, your whole world revolves around thoughts. Identified with the body and mind, you are a person in the world – a world of beliefs, concepts, conclusions, opinions. This is the sense of slavery, of an ego-identity.

Enlightenment, Awakening, or God's Realization, is the ultimate break with that "I am someone" belief – someone who has a family, relatives and friends. In the mind, you always live in fear of losing what you have, and what you have only exists in your head. This is your world! What I am saying in Satsang every day is that You are already Peace, Freedom, Happiness, but only when you have nothing. When you have nothing, You are Happiness! When you have something, you are miserable.

Your sense of person is so miserable that it projects misery beyond body's life. You hope to die and go to "the other side," to meet your fears, desires and attachments, to meet some people who are "on the other side." Fear is the basis of the mind. Due to fear, the mind has created all sorts of attachments to things, people, places... This is the miserable state of the person, of this "me," of this ego.

You need to "die" to all of this, to the person you believe to be and to "die" to all the things you believe you have, which means stopping looking for experiences and sensations. Peace, Freedom, Love, Happiness is present here and now when you are not present, when your mind is not present, when those images in your head are no longer present. Then, in fact, you "die," your world disappears. Now You are beyond life and death, beyond the illusion that one day you were born and one day you will die. You are that Space that is never disturbed, that Space that does not move.

Here you are in a room and you can move the furniture inside it. You can move the objects inside this room, but the room space does not move. When you Realize the Truth about Yourself, You are that Space that does not move. All your relatives will die one day. One day, you will lose all the things you have. When you lose your own body, you lose everything! When, physically, your body goes to the grave, you lose everything, instantly, immediately, all at once. But now you know you are not the body; and since you are not the body, you do not lose anything. This is Realization! Jesus called This "to be born into God's Kingdom." One day He said, "One who believes in my words will never die!" If you also trust my words, at that moment, you can go beyond the illusion of this "person." In this Awakening, in this Realization, you are born again!

*Online meeting transcription originally held on June 28th, 2017. First published in Portuguese on February 5th, 2021. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Awakening is beyond effort or no effort

Truth cannot necessarily be achieved through effort. For you, this is the model, the pattern, since everything you have in life was achieved through your effort. Everything you managed to gain was through effort, but even what you strive to get, you end up losing someday. Realization is different from that. Generally, you think you have to do something about it, but the movement must be completely different from that.

You have this strong idea of authorship and autonomy to accomplish things, and you believe this also applies to the Realization of the Truth about yourself. Thus, you are occupied with a course of action to obtain a certain result, and you miss the point that this action is not possible. Therefore, you cannot Realize the Self you already are, just as you cannot do anything to destroy What you already are. I repeat: you cannot build or destroy What you already are. Actually, This has always been there, it has always been with You, being You, and You cannot be separated from What You are! You have never been able to do this and you never will!

So, what is the job proposal in Satsang after all, since we cannot build This? Our work is not to construct, but rather to acknowledge, to become aware of It. However, notice the difficulty: you cannot leave the dream just because you want to stop dreaming. At night, when you are sleeping and having a dream, it is not so simple to leave it since while the dream happens, you do not know you are dreaming. Only when you wake up, your mind realizes that it was all a dream. Therefore, while the dream is happening, you have no consciousness to wake up, you do not know it is a dream and you only leave it when you wake up.

How can you want to stop dreaming if you do not know you are dreaming? That's the difficulty! In the egoic state, the ordinary state of the mind, you are lost in this identification and do not know you are "dreaming." For you, life is what you are living. So, as long as you see yourself as a "person within the dream," not aware it is a "dream," there is no way to escape from it.

Someone may say you are dreaming, but this "someone" is also in your "dream." This "someone," who is only a character in your "dream," ends up giving you precepts, techniques and spiritual practices to end the "dream." However, the whole point is that this someone is also "sleeping," although telling you how to wake up; this someone is in the "dream" telling you how to leave the "dream." So, this someone tells you to work hard, to follow this or that doctrine, to do this or that, and that is exactly what the clerics, priests and gurus do.

On the one hand, you are told to work hard to "get there," to this Realization. On the other hand, you are told that all this is just a dream and so you need to do nothing. So, on the one hand, you have those who say: "Follow spirituality"; and on the other hand, those who say, "You are Buddha already, you do not need anything." So, you end up believing that you have to do something or absolutely nothing, and you have been trying to get That, the Realization of the Self, positively through action or negatively through non-action.

I remember some time ago someone told me that he had found out he did not need to do anything. He told me, "Enlightenment is like a lightning bolt that falls on your head." I asked him, "How long are you going to wait for this lightning bolt, without doing anything?"

So, notice what I am saying to you: there is a tremendous illusion in all the knowledge you acquire. Knowledge is not enough, as this element of separation, which we call "me," is much older than you. That brain of yours is only 35, 40 or 50 years old, but mind is much older than you. Scientists say there are about nine million species on planet Earth. We, human beings, are just one out of nine million species, and you consider yourself very smart – you are only 50 years old and you feel yourself smarter than the mind, that has millions of years. After all, what do you know? How far does your knowledge go?

What I am saying to you is: do not postpone the moment of this Realization. Your time is very short and you have no way to Realize the Self using the brain's capability. Only a very small percentage of the brain works; the millions of neurons you have are very useful for this structure's functioning, for this biological mechanism, for the human body, but they do not provide you any intelligence to excel the mind, which will always be much smarter than you.

The point here is that you need to go beyond the mind, but you do not know you are "dreaming." You do not even know how identified you are with the illusion of this "dream," this belief that you are a "person." All this is the very own mind in control. You are mistaking yourself for the body and you do not even realize how mistaken you are for this belief of being someone inside the body. Everything is a "dream," in which you are not even aware of what is happening, not aware this "dream" is happening.

Realization is possible here and now, and fortunately, It does not depend on your intelligence. Here, it is about recognizing your Real Nature, which is not the body, not the mind, does not live in this structure, in this base created by thought. Realization is the end of the illusion of "someone" within that "dream;" and neither effort nor non-effort can provide you That. A new Element that is not in the "dream," which is not "dreaming," comes into that "dream," and by His Grace, a work becomes possible. God comes, takes the form of a character within the "dream" and Awakens you. All of this is God's work, Grace's work, but you need to Awaken. Then, the "dream" ends and the "dreamer" disappears, not through hard effort or no effort, but rather through the Grace's work!

*Online meeting transcription originally held on August 9th, 2017. First published in Portuguese on January 19th, 2021. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

To know God is to be God

These meetings, in Satsang, are the greatest opportunities you have to approach What You are. Everyone lives completely in sleeping state. Freedom is not possible; Happiness is not possible when we do not know who we are. Everything the mind knows is part of the time, and thought creates time. Your whole story is what thought can report; therefore being part of time. What is part of time is not eternal, is not beyond itself. You need to find out What is beyond time. What is beyond time is your True Nature, the Source of permanent Happiness, of unconditional Freedom.

Satsang means "to encounter the Truth," and Truth is What is beyond the dream. All that everyone seeks is Happiness. The pursuit of Love is the pursuit of Happiness. The pursuit of Freedom is the pursuit of Happiness. The pursuit of Peace is the pursuit of Happiness. Peace, Love and Freedom: this is the Nature of Being, the Nature of Consciousness, your True Nature. It does not matter what you accomplish, since without the Realization of what You are, you live in misery. It does not matter if you are famous, wealthy, if you have beautiful children, a beautiful wife, a beautiful husband, if you live in a beautiful house, if you have a beach house, drive an expensive car… All of this is very comfortable and quite desirable. However, if you do not know who You are, if you still believe you are going to die, you are going to leave it all behind, you are quite miserable.

Only when you recognize your True Nature, when you recognize you were never born and cannot die, you are before Happiness, before What is Eternal, What is timeless. Truth is your Being, and That is God! God is not in heaven, in mosques, in temples, in churches. God is here and now as your Real Nature, as your own Heart. This is His temple. The only church God attends. Everything the mind has created, the huge cathedrals, the huge churches, beautiful places where sacred images are placed, means nothing to Him. The only Place where God lives, visits, all the time, from where He never leaves, is your Heart. If you do not know who You are, you do not know God. You can go to all these places, but you do not know God.

To know God is to be God! When you can see Him in Yourself, being What You are, without any separation, then you can look at everywhere and see God is everywhere; you will see all places are God's abode.

So, God lives in churches and cathedrals, but God also lives in a small house and in a cave. God is this Presence everywhere, but you can only know that, experience that, when you know Yourself, when you are apart from the mind, from the sense of separation, from the ego, from this miserable state of conflict that thought produces, creating every kind of division, every kind of enmity, since along with the sense of separation, there is conflict and war.

When you are Here, in this unique Place, that is God's Place, everything is in the right place, since there is no conflict, so there is no war, no suffering, no attachment. Your Natural State is Pure Consciousness, which is Meditation. Meditation is not what you do for a few moments when you are seated, removing thoughts from your head, and breathing in a certain way... All of this can be good for you – there are studies proving the importance of meditation practice, as it calms down, relaxes, brings physical, emotional well-being; but that is not what we are talking about. We are talking about Real Meditation, which is to be here and now, without conflict, without ego, without fear, without desire, without suffering, without choice. Meditation is God's Vision, with eyes open or closed, walking, eating, talking, reading... It has nothing to do with the body posture, but with the heart posture. It is your heart that has to be "seated," not your body.

For example, right now, even speaking, this State is Natural. This is Real Meditation, Realization, Enlightenment, Awakening. You do not separate them! If you go to a Zen Master and ask if there is any separation, the Master is very clear about it: walking is Meditation, talking is Meditation, eating is Meditation, sleeping is Meditation...

When you are identified with the egoic mind, you are not in Meditation; you are in a state of sleep, of identification with what is temporal. You are identified with thoughts, with emotions, with sensations, with this "person's story" you believe you are. Your name and all the story that comes along with that until now, none of this is You. Your mind is not You, the body is not You. All of this is borrowed – Nature has lent you all of this, and you are mistaken yourself for them.

Liberation, that is Meditation, is Wisdom. When there is Wisdom, there is no illusion. So, this identification with body and mind, and also with the world, with experiences, all of this "vanishes," since none of this is Real, none of this is Wisdom. Truth, Unconditional Freedom, Love, Consciousness, Presence: This is Wisdom! You are a Sage because God is the Sage. There is no difference between You and God!

The Bible says that God made human beings in His image and likeness. When you mistake yourself for the body, you lose this "God's image and likeness." This has nothing to do with the body! Your body was made in the image and likeness of your parents. The image of God, the likeness of God, is this Consciousness. Some call This as "Spirit." I do not use this expression since the word "spirit" in our culture is linked to the idea of identity within the body, and that is not real. There is no one inside or outside the body.

The Only Reality causing all these multiple appearances is God's Reality. There is only God! Differences are all produced by the mind. So, you see a lot of spirits, a lot of bodies, materialized and dematerialized ones, but these are all creations of the mind, they are not real. The Only Reality is What is immutable, It is Where everything appears, assumes a provisory shape and disappears. What appears and disappears is not Real. God is the Only Reality and everything is His abode. God lives in every appearance – that's the joke. It is like a movie screen. Imagine a movie screen without any film... It is not funny! God is the screen and also the images on the screen, this world and the other world, but the other world is as unreal as this one.

People ask me about this issue of death and I have been telling them that only those who are alive can die. Who assures you are alive? Who guarantees you were born? Every night you have a dream. On the first night, you dream you are married and have several children. The next night, you dream you are single and do not care about girlfriends. On the third night, you dream you are a monkey. Every night you dream about a story and a different character. There is an interesting thing about all these 3 nights or every night you dream: you never have any doubt that you are there. The story may be different, the body may be different, but the only thing you are sure about is that you are present. The "I am" does not change, but rather the stories: "I am" a gorilla, single, married, a man, a woman, a monkey, a butterfly… "I Am" points out What is Immutable.

Your only problem – and this is the cause of all the suffering, all the misery – is that you leave this "I Am," then you start crying because of the story. A son dies and you cry, the woman leaves you for another man and you cry. You mistake yourself for the story. If you are rich, you worry about losing what you think you have. If you are poor, you want to have what you think you can get. So, when you mistake yourself for the story, no matter if you have or lack something, you are always worried. When you have something, you have to keep it, to protect it. If you have a woman, you cannot let anyone take her from you, so this gives you huge worries.

Story means constant suffering, in this illusion "I am the body," in this world with the things that "I have or would like to have." You have been constantly mistaken yourself for the body. Why? Because you do not know yourself. You do not remain in this "I Am." You want something else and are not Happy. You do not rely on the Existence. You want to do it your own way. You already have too much, but you want to change what you have; you are not happy yet with what you have. Some people marry 5 times! You have a husband, you have a wife, you have something, but that is not enough, you want to change.

So, it is a pretty complicated story, it is quite unfortunate to live in this story. Notice what I am going to say: Being Happy does not require anything! You do not need anything to Be Happy, but everything you believe you have, you are afraid of losing or wishing to have is causing you a problem. I recommend you leave everything, abandon everything, be left with nothing. When I say "nothing," I mean psychologically, being poor inwardly. When you have nothing, then you are a millionaire! Is that clear? True Fullness, True Freedom, True Happiness, is in just Being, Pure Being!

*Online meeting transcription originally held on May 19th, 2017. First published in Portuguese on January 26th, 2021. For further information about our meetings, please click here.