GC: Hello everyone! We're here for another videocast, another video in this sequence. We have a playlist with several meetings in which Master Gualberto has already been willing to be here with us. And once again he is here! I thank you, Master, for your availability in bringing to us what the practice is – not the practice as something to be practiced, but the experience – of this Natural State, this State of Realization, this State of Spiritual Enlightenment. So, it’s a unique opportunity to be with you and I can only really thank you, Master, gratitude!
Well, today I'm going to bring you an excerpt from the book of Joel Goldsmith called “Consciousness Transformed,” where he states: “It is not easy to say to students: ‘Just strive yourself until Divine Grace purifies you and you can be reborn.’ Even Master Jesus was faced with these questions: ‘How can a man be reborn? Shall I return to my mother’s womb? Of course not! But how, then, would I be reborn?’ I know only two answers. First, read, study, and ponder, and live with whatever spiritual literature comes your way, until you find what feels right for you. So, stay with it and keep praying for the day the Light dawns. Second, if you can find a teacher who has received some measure of Enlightenment, do everything possible to receive whatever your teacher can awaken in you. Those are the only two ways I've witnessed.”
For those who don't know, as a matter of curiosity: during Joel Goldsmith’s journey, at one point where a Christian Science practitioner attended him, and, in that visit, in addition to having a cure, something internal happened. Just a day later, he was asked for healings and entered this healing ministry. So, as he comments, Master, about the importance of a teacher, of the master, on the journey, I would like you to talk a little about this. What is the importance of a teacher, a mentor, a master, to be able to experience That which is beyond words?
MG: Gilson, at first, our search or our quest is always a search based on the ideas we have. There is within each of us a certain emptiness; there is this existential emptiness, there is this need. For each one, this question of seeking or searching is very unique, but there will come a time when, either through some book or studying, looking, searching for it... there will come a time when Reality will, as Joel said, show itself, the Light will show itself.
Then, what Divine Grace has for you will reveal itself. And, here, the Presence of the Master or the Teacher is fundamental, because there comes a time when reading, studying, you learn many words, but something is missing. As time passes, you realize that despite everything you've read, everything you've studied, everything you've looked into books, every so-called “experience” you've had with books, there’s still something missing. That’s when the Presence of Grace takes the form of a Master and appears. And when it appears... then it is something else, then we are facing something completely unusual, something completely different.
The Teacher – the Master or Teacher, as we like to call – is the one who, with you, investigates this question from his own experience; it is one who is living the Reality of his Being and sharing with you the investigation of your beliefs. So, you come to him with your beliefs and they are questioned, they are investigated. In general, the Teacher, to be within this condition of Teacher, needs to be really Realized. If he is Realized, he will question your beliefs, he will investigate with you your beliefs, your doubts, everything you are trying to find out.
So, the Teacher’s Presence is something odd, it is something unique, it is something capable of giving you not only the possibility to investigate those beliefs that you have and all those experiences that you have gone through, but also carries within itself the Power of the Divine Grace. And we already talked about it here. There is something, in a Realized Being, that is far beyond teachings, words and even this matter of verbal investigation itself, of your questions, your doubts, your questions, and the answers you have for him: there is the Presence of Grace! It is something unique in the Presence of a Realized Being, he being your Teacher, he being your Master. That’s it.
GC: Look, Master, and it is something extraordinary, because, by Grace, that infinite Grace has brought your Presence into my life, and these last months I have been immersed in these meetings in which Master is available… in these intensive Satsangs and retreats, and it is really something that cannot be translated into words, because words… and Joel himself tells us to go beyond words, beyond thoughts, but that “little me,” the ego, by itself, meditating or reading, it self-sabotages so as not to feel this Reality. And through the encounters with Master, it becomes very evident how I receive from Master this State of Stillness, this empty mind, this State of Meditation, this Alert State... It is something that is without words, because it is really, like Joel himself testified, a Grace to be able to have a Guide, a Master, to be able to give us That which is beyond words.
MG: See, Gilson, there’s not much to say about that. So, notice: we have nothing to say about it. Either you experience it directly or there is no way for us to put into words what it represents here. It’s a matter of intimacy, it’s a matter of self-discovery.
You have to find out what it is like to be in front of a Realized Being, to be in the atmosphere of a Realized Being, in front of the Consciousness of a Realized Being. He does not share words, he shares Presence, he shares Silence, he shares his Being, not words.
The thing about books is that books have this limitation: they're just there... black on white. They are letters! A Realized Being is the living Presence of Consciousness sharing with you something beyond words, something beyond ideas, thoughts, and beliefs. Even before meeting a Master, you have a lot of knowledge. From the moment you meet him, you realize that there is an emptying of psychological content in you and the feeling is very clear that you are no longer learning. There is something new now. This emptying of this psychological content is very clear. Every day you become more silent, less intellectual, less verbal, because that content disappears.
Here Realization is the result of the Master’s Grace. Ramana said: “More than teachings, meditation and any technique or practice, Realization is the result of Master’s Grace more than anything else.” So, contact with the Reality of your Being is something you experience in the Presence of the Realized Being. So, a Sage, a Realized Being, a Master, does not teach; he shares Consciousness, he Awakens. He is not a teacher in the usual way that we know him. He is not teaching you, he is sharing Consciousness, Presence.
And there is something mysterious in front of him, which each one will have to discover for himself, because, as I said a moment ago, it is something of an intimate nature, it is a contact at the heart-to-heart level and not head-to-head. And it has extraordinary power! This reveals itself as the Truth of your Being; It reveals itself as the Intelligence of this Consciousness that is already You. Then, your cup, as they say in Zen, is emptied. The cup needs to be empty, and it is emptied before the Presence of pure Consciousness in the form of a Master. This is something that everyone will have to discover for themselves, experience for themselves. You feel, you perceive, you are called, you are drawn by the Power of his Grace, into his Presence. And when you come before His Presence, something happens… without you. In reality, in spite of you.
All you do is try to get in the way. Not in a conscious way. In an unconscious way, all this content that you already bring, which is pure psychological conditioning, is to get in the way, to resist, fight, and defend yourself, in an unconscious way. That’s what the ego does. But in spite of that, your Master’s Power of Grace is greater than this resistance of that false center, that false “I,” when you stand before his Presence. So, Meditation happens in a natural way, everything happens in a natural way because of the Power of his Grace. This is something that everyone will have to figure out how it works. That’s it.
GC: Even while Master was commenting, flashes of memories came from the moment I started this approach with Master’s work, in Satsangs. It’s funny how the mind is a whirlwind of thoughts, of comparisons. Master would bring some speech and a memory of something of the knowledge, of this known, of this memory, would already come to mind, to compare, to see, to try to understand, to try to formulate something to say: “I understood!”; to say, “I don't understand!” And over the months, often being in your Presence, the mind is seen and the questions disappear, or that giant noise. It may even happen, but it is seen without having this identification. But it is very notorious, Master, that this is by your Grace. And being in the Presence of the Master, being in retreats, in online meetings, it is another atmosphere. This process of True Meditation, this process of self-observation, is much easier than being far away, where the mind, with this flow of thoughts, comes and, in a little while, in the blink of an eye, there is identification, and it goes far away. So, it’s Grace, that Grace that is beyond words…
MG: Your True Nature, Gilson, is Silence, it is pure Consciousness. And a Realized Being… and here we have to be clearer about that. One thing is a teacher who has learned and shares from what he has learned in books. So, he is sharing, sharing knowledge; but a Realized Being, this is the Real Teacher, which, in India, they call “guru,” the one who is sharing from his experience. He is sharing only one thing, which is the Silence of his Being. He is not giving or sharing knowledge with you. So, the beauty of standing in front of a Realized Being is that he is not going to teach you anything. It will help you “unlearn everything,” because all you need is not to be taught, but to discover what learning is.
Learn to unlearn. Unlearn what? Psychological conditioning, the sense of a present identity! Loaded with what? With envy, fear, jealousy, ambition, mental confusion, psychological noise, agitation of thoughts... All this has to be unlearned, because it is a psychological conditioning that we carry from childhood! And when you arrive before the Silence, the Presence of a Realized Being, it disappears, it collapses, it does not prevail, it cannot sustain itself. Before Divine Grace it falls. And it’s like you said, there’s no work on your part, your job is to give too much work. Your job is to resist. Even unconsciously, you are struggling to survive in the Presence of Grace, keeping your identity still untouched, keeping your identity still untouched.
So, the attempt of the “I” is one of survival. And when you come, you come in front of the death of that old “me,” the death of that old ego. So, a beautiful process happens, it happens in a natural way. That’s why Joel said that he only knows two ways: one way is to keep reading books and hope that at some point Grace will find you; and the other is, if you have the opportunity, to come across a Teacher. Here, there is a caveat: in reality, you are not the one who finds him; he is the one who finds you! This is an action of pure Grace. You in that search are not actually looking for God. You are projecting images, ideas, and beliefs of your quest. It is Grace that finds you, and when It finds you, you are already in front of the Truth of your Being.
Your search is not for God, your search is for the idea of what God is. When Grace finds you, then yes, it is That that reveals itself as the Truth of your Being.
For now, in the “I,” in the ego, we are hampered. We go from one book to another, from one study to another, from a theoretical, conceptual professor, who is still in the search, to another professor, until we come across the one for which the search has really ended, and he is sharing this Silence, this Presence, this Consciousness. And we come across him when he finds us. So, actually, it is the Master who finds us. We are not the ones who find him, he is the one who finds us. And when he finds us, it is to work with us.
GC: Master, there was another paragraph that I didn’t read, that I want to read too, that Joel says well like this, look: “The importance of what I am saying is the following: do not fool yourself into believing that, through studies and truths that you can express or think, only that is giving you the Kingdom of God. These are just steps, and it is really through the measure of your inner dedication, meditation and contemplation that you really, finally, come into contact with that Source within yourself or are led to a teacher who can help you.” You can see that he also highlights how this “staying studying, studying” really is… we can't be fooled by that; it’s just that the ego loves to fool itself with it.
I speak for myself. I really believed that if I kept reading, reading, and reading, something might happen. And something actually happened when I came across the Master, and now I can, in the Presence of the Master, receive that State of Meditation, that State of Stillness, that State of no-mind. In fact, Master, there is one more question here, which is about this aspect; including, something I also experienced in some way. Vânia Macedo asks: “But how to get mindfulness? I spent three years trying uninterruptedly to meditate, but I failed and gave up.” Master, can you tell us a little about it?
MG: As I just put to you: in reality, That finds you, that Truth reaches you. When I use the expression “That finds you,” I am touching something that is outside the mind, outside the known, therefore outside this projection that the mind makes, that the mind has. The Reality of your Being, which is this Consciousness, reaches you, It finds you. So, this Presence, which I called “That” … it is That which finds you, not what you project, not what you idealize. So, our job seems to be big. In fact, it is only producing one thing: tiredness. The time will come when you will get tired. When you are really tired, Grace will reveal itself. It will reveal itself in the form of a Realized Being, a living Master. It reveals itself as being your own Being, but this is what reaches you, it is this Divine Love that reaches you. So, you read, you study, you practice, you do, do, do, do, do… and there comes a moment when something, which is this Presence, this “That,” this Reality, which is Grace, comes to you. That arrives at the right time, and It only arrives when you are, in fact, already tired.
You feel something coming, but it doesn't come until it does. In fact, Gilson, we are not looking for God, it is God who is looking for us. This so-called “search” or “search for God” is a mental mess inside your head, but it carries something inside, which is God Himself in search of Himself. So, we idealize this encounter and this is part of this search, which is a projection of our own mind. This search is only real when we are found. When we are found, that search ends. And we are found by Grace which is looking for Itself. All this is very paradoxical.
We have no inclination towards God unless God has that inclination towards Himself in us, because the Truth in us is the Truth of God. So, it is God in search of Himself, but from the psychological, mental point of view, still confused, disoriented, reading books, studying, practicing all kinds of things, until the ego gets tired and God reveals Himself, this Presence shows itself. And when It shows itself, the work happens, and it happens by Grace. I want to repeat that here: you don't do anything; you just get in the way. Grace is what wins every fight, every resistance, and puts you in a disposition for surrender to take place, so that the work takes place. This is pure God’s Love, this is pure Divine Grace. This wonderful and irresistible Grace, when That arrives, everything is resolved. That’s exactly how it happens.
GC: Master, it’s really just by that Grace. And I see it in my situation too. I had been focused here on Joel for years, studying, studying… and in the month before I met Master, something was on fire inside, with a lot of energy, but… exhaustion! Tired of searching! The mind already… Until I got away from everything and then this Grace was revealed through Master. And really, it’s just
Grace, because this “little I,” this false identity “I” wants to distance itself from this, it wants to maintain itself. Now, this Grace reveals itself, right?
MG: There comes a time, Gilson, when you say a prayer. Among all the prayers you've made until today, there comes a time when you say a prayer, and it’s the prayer of the answer. You say, in your own way: “Look, it’s not possible! Reveal yourself to me! Oh God, reveal yourself to me!” You say a prayer! A cry comes out from within you, from God himself, and He comes and shows Himself. It’s that simple. It was like that in my case, when I was twenty-four years old, praying to Christ, going up the hill, reading the Bible a lot… and my Master appeared! And when he appears, he has a look, he has a Silence, he has something that reverberates inside you, very intimately... It is something so intimate that there is no doubt that you are really in front of your Master, because you are in front of the Reality of your Being!
This is very complicated for the intellect, but very simple for the heart. When the heart is touched, however much the intellect fights with it, argues and resists, it will not work. Divine Grace is this irresistible Love of God, and that’s why you prayed, and that’s why you clamored, cried and begged. The answer has arrived. How can your Being neglect this? How can your Being turn its back on this call? There’s no way, it’s your moment!
GC: Master, well…it’s exactly like that, Master. My situation was exactly that, it was a cry: “Reveal yourself to me! Reveal yourself!” And then Grace manifests itself in a video on Youtube. And I watched that video of Master, something different touches the heart and the ego resists, thoughts come: “No, what is this Master thing?” As I already commented on another videocast… but it is something that, inside the heart, is irresistible, so… But the ego fights, the ego wants to run away, wants to label, wants to distance itself.
MG: Yes.
GC: But it’s something that we...being in that disposition, Grace opens the doors of Itself so that we can go beyond this unhappiness, this illusion of being someone. So, it’s really indescribable, without words, it’s pure Grace, right, Master?
MG: Yes.
GC: Master, speaking of Grace, another videocast is coming to an end, we are already running out of time. So, gratitude! Gratitude for this infinite Grace, Master.
For those who are watching the video, if it makes sense to you, leave a “like,” make a comment… This helps YouTube to see that the content is valuable and distribute it to more people.
And anyone who feels something – not through the intellect, because the intellect is nothing – but feels something beyond, something in the heart, when looking into the eyes of Master Gualberto, allow yourself to that flow of Grace, to participate in the intensive meetings at the weekends and face-to-face meetings as well. By the way, in July we will have a 10-day retreat together with the Master, of self-investigation, in depth. So, it’s Grace, Master. I don't even have words. It is just to live it, live it! And do the work, that work needs to be done. Gratitude, Master!
MG: Okay. Thanks guys! See you at the next one!
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