Gilson – How to practice True Meditation?
To answer that question, we have here today the presence of Master Gualberto. Gratitude, Master, for this opportunity to have you here with us again clarifying doubts for those who follow the channel and, also, helping us to put into practice – and experience – what Joel Goldsmith left us.
For those who don't know who Master Gualberto is, I'll quickly explain how I met him. I was on a spiritual quest for many years and in the last few years I was focused on Joel’s studies. Last year – in the middle of the last year – something internal warded me off from the activities of the channel and the study groups to stay inward and, by Grace, I ended up meeting Master Gualberto. I discovered his YouTube channel watching one of his videos and something in the video touched me. Something aroused curiosity. Something beyond words touched me.
Watching more videos on the channel, I was able to learn a little about the Master’s story and to perceive that, by the Grace of his Master Ramana [Maharshi], he had already “reached” this Spiritual Enlightenment, this Natural State of Being. When I saw this, this curiosity aroused even more to meet a Living Master and I could see they had online and face-to-face meetings – intensive weekend meetings. I attended a meeting and, during the (intensive) weekend, I was able to “see” beyond words and thoughts, because in the stillness and silence, looking at and focused on the Master’s eyes, I was able to enter the real and True Meditation – that silence, that stillness. So, from the first meeting to here, I’m very close to the meetings, both face-to-face and even retreats, because it’s a true Grace.
What Joel left with us from the teachings of meditation, in the presence of “someone” who is in his Natural State, as is the case with Master Gualberto, is something that flows wonderfully. And all the longing I had in this quest to find something to “satisfy” myself, I’m absolutely sure that the quest is over and the work stays. The work of this True Practical Meditation, as Gualberto brings us.
And speaking of that, I ask Master Gualberto to clarify for us how to practice this True Meditation. Before answering, Master, I'm going to read an excerpt here by Joel from the book “The Art of Meditation,” where he says: “Any meditation that has within itself a desire, however small, to obtain something from God or through God is no longer meditation.”
The word is with you, Master.
Master – Ok! Meditation is You in your Natural State of Pure Being, of Pure and Absolute Consciousness. Now, what’s this Pure Being or this Pure and Absolute Consciousness? It’s your Natural State. It’s the Truth about who You Are. So, Meditation is what puts you in touch with the Truth about yourself.
We have to approach Meditation, not as a practice, a goal, a purpose, or as something to be accomplished or done. It’s a different approach. Here, it’s about effortless attention to yourself, but true, legitimate attention to whatever is going on with you here and now. Thus, the principle of Meditation is self-observation.
Every single movement in this mental consciousness, this “me,” this “I,” needs to be seen, needs to be verified. The movement of thought in us, Gilson, is a completely chaotic, repetitive, continuous, chatty, invasive, manipulative movement. In us, the movement of thought is in control.
We live by thought. Feelings are based on a thought. Emotions have thoughts in the background. Decisions – our so-called choices – and acts occur because of a background that is based, all of it, on thought. Thought is in control of this mental consciousness in us. So, our consciousness is the consciousness of the “I,” of the ego.
Meditation is an approach to emptying all that content, which is the conditioning content that gave us or has given us this sense of separate identity. This feeling of a present “I” is something very strong in each one of us. It’s a feeling that basically has thought as its principle. It’s a structure of psychological conditioning in us. This structure needs to be undone and deconstructed. So, this egoic content, which is the content of mental consciousness, needs to be emptied. It’s emptied when it’s seen.
You become aware, aware of the movement of thought, feeling, emotion, and sensation that has in this background the illusion of a present “I.” By becoming aware of this, an entirely new and unknown element emerges, beyond this sense of a present “I.” That “I” is the one that separates itself from thought, so there’s a thought there. Then, the idea is that this thought has a thinker thinking this thought. There’s a feeling, then, there’s “someone” feeling it. In that feeling, there’s an emotion, thus, there’s “someone” in that emotion. That is the duality: the thinker and the thought, the “one” who feels and the feeling, the emotion and the “one” involved in the emotion. That model is the conditioning model of that mental consciousness, that egoic consciousness.
When you give this attention to yourself, as I’ve just said, when you look at this movement, you can, at that moment, become aware of the movement itself without giving an identity to this experience, which, in this case, is a thought, a feeling, or an emotion.
When faced with a thought, it’s [only] a thought, don’t put “someone” agreeing or disagreeing with the thought. Some thoughts are good and when they come, we identify with them. When we do this, we are within that egoic consciousness. This is unconsciousness. Egoic consciousness is unconsciousness. This is the common state of human beings.
When a bad thought arrives, we reject it, we don't want it, we want to get rid of it. When you do this, you resist the thought and when you resist it, you appear, separating yourself from the bad or unpleasant thought. Here is the identity of the “I,” of the ego. When a feeling arises, the same happens. If the feeling is pleasant, you mistake yourself for it, you identify with the body, the sensation and the feeling, and put an identity present in that experience of feeling, which, in general, is always accompanied by thoughts, remembrances, and memories. At that moment, the “I,” the ego, is present. With emotion, the same thing happens.
We've been doing this, Gilson, for decades, but humanity has been doing this for millennia. When you do this – and this is the condition of the egoic consciousness, which is unconsciousness – it’s the state of insanity common to everyone, of neurosis, dream, illusion, separateness, because that “center,” that “I,” is false. It separates itself from life as a whole, it centers itself deceptively in the body giving that body an identity, separating itself from Reality, from God.
This unconsciousness is broken and ruptured when you pay attention to this movement, observe and perceive the game. When you realize it, that duality vanishes. And when it’s dissolved because of this Presence, this True Consciousness that is now present, the sense of “I,” of the ego is dissolved. Then, the experience can no longer prevail for an identity. That’s when thinking, feeling, emotion, and sensation lose importance because the ego has lost importance.
The whole thing, Gilson, is that the conditioning in us – the programming – doesn't allow us to see the beauty of remaining in this True Consciousness, free of this mental consciousness. This sense of “I,” of ego, is very strong, a very convincing thing. So, investigating this is possible when there’s this approach. That’s the approach of knowing the Truth about who You Are. This is Self-awareness, Real Self-awareness, which is possible when there’s this self-observation. Then, self-observation, Self-awareness, here and now, is the basis for Real Meditation. Detail: it’s not a practice of meditation – a practice is something mechanical.
If you sit down to meditate, the mind, as a matter of habit, begins to settle down over time. At first, it fights a lot, but over time it starts to settle down and then you have an illusory sensation of a stillness forged by thought itself, because it’s in this conditioned process to settle down when you sit down to meditate. There’s “someone” meditating. It is thought itself quieting down for a moment. At that moment, there is, in that stillness, a certain peace that is soon ruptured, broken in living. Thus, this is something mechanical.
True Meditation is the one in which here and now, regardless of the position of the body, or even an intellectual activity, such as writing something, at that moment, you are just aware of yourself. Aware without separateness, without putting an identity into that pattern of thought that arises, of feeling, emotion, a physical sensation, or action like driving a car or talking to someone. When that happens, at that instant, the whole background of psychological conditioning begins to have the freedom to appear and vanish. It’s the emptying of this egoic content, this mental content.
So, you don't have to stop somewhere and sit down to do this. In fact, if you do it in a mechanical, artificial way, as I’ve just put it, after a while thought itself knows that it’s time to be quiet. It’s like when you have a “pet” and you show it a cookie and it sits. You showed the cookie and it sits down because it knows it’s going to get the cookie. Thought in us – the egoic sense – is very cunning. If you show it a cookie, it quiets down too. Then, it has – it has and it is you there – this sensation that it has found silence, the truth of meditation. No, this is not meditation.
Meditation is the emptying of this “I” content when it’s seen here and now, moment by moment: this is True Practical Meditation. It’s not the practice of meditation. It’s True Meditation in practice, in your living, moment by moment, instant by instant. You are aware of this “me,” this “I.” The envy, the fear, the jealousy, the spite, the indifference, the anger, the boredom, the pain of loneliness, whatever is showing up here and now, okay, it’s for being seen, for being looked at.
It’s not to be analyzed. It’s not up for debate. It’s not something to fight about. It’s to observe yourself, and when you observe in this way, as I’m putting it to you, you are bringing Consciousness to this unconsciousness that is this egoic mind, this egoic consciousness. When that happens, there’s an emptying of this “I” content. So, it’s possible for you, at that moment, to access the Reality of this Being Consciousness, this Pure Being, this Reality that Is God.
Meditation, Gilson, is something Natural, something Natural. We all know what it’s like to be in front of the sea looking at the waves crashing on the rocks and, for a few seconds, complete silence, complete stillness, the complete emptying of all the content of the “I.” The office, the consultation room, and the workshop are gone, the scalpel – if you're a surgeon – is gone. Everything disappears, the whole level of worry, when at that instant the sense of “I” is not present. It’s the look and the waves or the waves “Is” the look. The rocks, the waves, and the look at that beach. There’s no sense of “me,” so it’s something Natural.
We all know what moments without the “me” are, which we cherish so much that we love to travel, we love alpinism, mountaineering, and skydiving. Activities of this type are fascinating because at that moment the sense of “I” has no room to move with this memory background, producing thought and creating an identity. At least for a few seconds, this disappears in a free fall, in the contemplation of a mountain or hiking. You have a few moments and we cherish those moments so much. And why do we appreciate it? Because in it, we’re not present. We only appreciate it because we don't exist. These are moments when you don't exist. How can you appreciate something where you are not? What’s the truth of it? The truth is that there, for the first time, You are. It’s just the sense of “me,” the ego, that’s not present.
So, Meditation is something Natural. We need to discover the art of Meditation. Then, our job’s purpose for those who approach – and this is our invitation – is to simply allow themselves to Be. Without the thinking, the feeling, the emotion of “someone,” without doing the action of “someone.” Simply Being. So, at that moment, everything Is just what It Is.
Ah, you might ask: “But what about the activities of the body?” They are not of the egoic mind, not now. If your Natural State assumes this mechanism, this body-mind, your speech, your look, doing, thinking, or feeling, is no longer yours. There’s no longer the idea of an “I.” It’s something totally new, unknown. You can live This, but never say This to anyone, because your Natural State is unspeakable, indescribable, where the “I” is not, where the reality of Meditation, which is that Absolute Consciousness, that Pure Consciousness, has taken over the body and the mind.
In India, they call it “Jivamukti”: the one who is liberated in Life. In the language of the Gospel, it’s the one who is saved or the one in whom only Christ is alive. Paul even uses the expression “I no longer live, there’s not the I anymore, now it’s the Christ” in Galatians 2:20. It’s there: “It is no longer me, now it’s Christ who lives in me”.
“I and the Father Are One.” Joel Goldsmith talks a lot about this [expression] “I and the Father Are One.” He uses the expression “Conscious Union with God.” I have put it my way. I say: the Consciousness of God assuming that Truth of that body and mind. So, “I and the Father are One,” there’s only One, so there’s neither “I” nor the Father. It’s that Consciousness.
Christ said: “I don’t do the work, it’s the Father in me.” That is, it’s not this body that does, it’s this Reality of this I Am, which is the Father who does. The difficulty here, Gilson, is language. We have a language, Joel has another language, Jesus has another language, and Ramana Maharshi had another language. Language is also irrelevant because they are words. Here, what matters is that you assume This here and now, within this True Meditation. Becoming aware of this movement of the “I,” it vanishes because this “I” has no reality. It’s a set of memories, remembrances, conditioning, a bundle of images, a bundle of images, of stories linked to an illusory identity called Gualberto, called Gilson, called Marlene or any other name. This has no reality. The only reality is the Reality that Is God. There’s only God. And Liberation is the end of that psychological conditioning, the end of that sense of an “I” present in this experience of living. This is True Meditation.
Gilson – Master, I remember – and I highlight here that on Master’s channel (“Master Gualberto”), a playlist with several videos talking about this True Practical Meditation – the first time I watched the playlist [The True Meditation and the Practical Meditation] was something very innovative. Joel brings us this issue of the contemplative life a lot, of living [in] meditation, but how the Master brings this practice, at every moment, without separating from the experience is something impressive. Because I had a regular practice of stopping early in the morning, midday, at night, stopping for a few minutes for meditation and I realized now, in these last months, in this work with the Master, how those minutes of meditation ended up being an escape.
As I already reported in another videocast, sometimes [I] was with the children – I have two children, a wife – and the kids were screaming, having fun, the wife was complaining and I would react: “Dad needs to meditate!” I used to run to my little room, lock myself in, cross my legs, and go into “silence.” It’s pure, pure deceit.
The ego – that illusory identity the mind identifies with – masks itself in this “spirituality” to keep itself present, alive as “the meditator,” as “the seeker of truth” and, in reality, speaking of myself, it was an escape. I escaped to meditate and in those months with Master, by Grace, this practice of sitting and meditating was removed.
I no longer meditate sitting down, stopping, and it is now so light. It’s like there’s a bag full of rocks and I let go of it, a backpack. Now it’s a lightness because at every instant, every moment – as the Master says – not separating from the experience, perceiving that “I” that wants to be, to be covered with spirituality, that “I” that liked it, that didn't like it, that “I” that liked that feeling and wants more of it or didn't like it and wants to reject it. It’s Grace.
Master – Gilson, the contact with the reality of God is nothing spiritual, nothing spiritual. Contact with the reality of God is contact with the Natural State of Pure Consciousness. So, this thing of spirituality is still an outfit we can wear. But we need to go beyond that because this outfit is still what sets you apart and makes you special. It gives you a “specialism.” It makes you someone different from your relatives and friends because you meditate and they don't. You have contact with God, you are a spiritual or spiritualized person and they are not. Folks, all this is within the principle of the ego. It’s the ego that sees itself separate. It’s the ego that sees itself as special. It’s the ego that has God as its god. It’s the ego that spiritualizes itself, that delights itself in practices where “it” is differentiated, “it” is “someone.”
All of this disappears, Gilson. When there’s Real contact with Spirituality, no one spiritual remains. In Real contact with God, “someone” doesn’t remain, only God remains, and God, certainly, is not spiritual, God Is Natural. God Is the Reality that causes His rain to come down in the harvest of the “good man” and the “bad man,” the “sinner” and the “saint.” God is Natural. When there’s contact with this reality of God, all sense of separateness disappears. So, the good ones are not good and the bad ones are not bad. What is profane is not profane. What is Divine is also not so sacred. The only present Reality Is God.
Real Spirituality, Gilson, is the absence of all spiritualism and all the so-called “spirituality.” The truly Spiritual man is Natural. He carries the shine of that Consciousness of God that doesn't discriminate, doesn't separate, doesn't divide, doesn't see himself special, and doesn’t feel special, because there isn't “someone” there to feel any of that anymore. This is the Real Vision of Spirituality. In Spirituality, nobody remains. In Spirituality, there’s no “someone” and this Spirituality is not something that antagonizes or fights with materiality or materialism.
These languages of ours are very confusing. We need to get rid of all that and find this simplicity of Being, of Christ, Consciousness, and Truth. That’s really living a profoundly religious life, without any idea of “someone religious.” That’s living a Life of Sanity, Sanctity, Purity, and Beauty, without any illusion of being special, seeing sinners, seeing people who are not holy, not pure, divine, or spiritualized like us. This is all vanity. This is all nonsense. This all disappears, Gilson, when your Being, which is God, is present.
Gilson – Gratitude! Gratitude, Master! Time is over. Gratitude! Thanks for this meeting.
For those who are following the video, leave your “like,” make comments, and ask questions. And whoever “feels” that something more – which is not in words, not in thoughts or concepts – when looking into Marcos Gualberto’s eyes, come closer.
There are online meetings and face-to-face Satsangs, because this True Meditation in practice, in the Presence of “someone” Realized as the Master, is something that happens and it’s speechless.
Just gratitude! Gratitude, Master!
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