GC: Hello everyone! We are here for another videocast. Once again, Master Gualberto has kindly joined us. Gratitude, Master, for this opportunity. Master, I'm going to read an excerpt from Joel Goldsmith's book, the book called “The Thunder of Silence,” which, in fact, was one of Joel's books that had the highest number of copies sold. And in a small excerpt here in the book, Joel says the following: “The conditioned mind generates our problems and sometimes this same mind can create the answer to the problem, but that is not what we are looking for.” Can you speak about it, Master?
MG: Problems. What is a problem? A problem is something that you come across and you don't know how to deal with that given thing. The question here, Gilson, is: what are problems? We have countless problems. Yes, we have countless problems, but it is this sense of someone, this movement of coming across something without understanding what it represents that turns that into a problem.
So, we have different problems as human beings: we have envy, we have fear, we have jealousy, we have ambition, we have different forms of suffering. These are all problems, but problems to whom? For a present entity, which is this “person I believe I am,” this “I,” which, when faced with this or that situation without understanding what it represents, gets in conflict with it. In this conflict, we have the problem.
If, for example, you are a mechanic and your car has a problem, that is not a problem. Yes, you have a situation to resolve, but you have the knowledge, the expertise. So, you can deal with it, and it doesn't actually constitute a problem. A difficulty, yes, not a problem. Thus, dealing with life requires an Understanding of Life. Here we are faced with a great difficulty, Gilson: we do not understand this Totality of Life as It is, what It represents, what It means.
Since we were children, we have been always dealing with situations in life without knowing what these situations represent. So, we grow old having problems, we spend a lifetime with problems, and these problems exist, exactly, in this sense of someone who wants to solve something they don't understand yet. So, we don't understand fear, we don't understand envy, we don't understand jealousy, we don't understand ambition, we don't understand suffering. So, we spend our entire lives in this absence of understanding what this represents and therefore suffering; and therefore, having problems.
Here, I want to say that a problem-free life is possible, but this requires a Vision of the Totality of Life, in which a new brain is present, not this conditioned brain, not this conditioned intellect, which we have had since childhood. What I want to say, Gilson, in other words, is: we can assume the Truth about who we are. This Truth about us is the Reality of God, and God carries no problems. This element in us that carries problems, that has problems, that sees itself in these dilemmas, coming into conflict with these different situations that arise – jealousy, envy, fear, ambition and every form of problem – this element is the “I” element, the ego element, is a false identity present.
So, all the problems in us consist of the illusion of a present identity, which is the “I.” The “I” lives in this psychological condition of being someone separating itself from life and asking something from life, demanding something from life, expecting something from life and, therefore, getting into conflict. That's why we carry fear, desire, jealousy, and envy, because this “I” lives in this model of separation and in conflict with life. It is never happy with what is shown here. So, it is typical, Gilson, of the nature of the ego, of the nature of the “I,” which is the conditioned mind, this conditioned brain, this conditioned intellect, to live with problems. When you embrace the Truth of your own Being, this sense of “I” falls away, so the problems also fall away, they are not present.
If you are free from envy, you cannot suffer from envy; if you are free from attachment to people, objects, situations, positions, social status, etc., if you are free from attachment, you cannot suffer from jealousy, you cannot suffer from envy, you cannot suffer from fear. The point is that, in the ego, all that this “I,” this “ego,” represents is this: it is attachment, it is desire, it is possession, it is control. This is fear, this is problem, this is suffering.
So, our work here, Gilson, consists of discovering the Truth about who we are. Assuming this Truth is putting an end to this sense of an “I” that is always wanting, seeking, demanding something from life and, therefore, suffering. Liberation in this life is possible... a Life in Love, a Life in Freedom, a Life in Peace, a Life where there is the Awareness of God's Truth. This Life is no longer the life of the “I,” it is no longer the life of the ego. This is the Life free from problems. It is the Life of the Sage. It is the Life of the Realized Being. It is the Life of one who, truly – and here I use the word with great emphasis –, has truly attained the Awakening of Consciousness. Not what some call out there “the awakening of consciousness,” I’m talking about something else. I'm talking about the end of the sense of an ego-identity, the sense of an identity present in experience, separating itself from life and carrying, naturally, suffering and problems. Then that's it! Clear?
GC: Master, it's funny how, in this proximity to the Master, we – I'm talking about myself, I don't even have an exact perception... but how, through this Grace, through this sharing of the Master's Consciousness, things are happening. Like, for example, I had a recent experience. Yesterday, I was with some friends, and they were talking about missing someone, about feeling the absence, and I was surprised because that issue, which used to cause suffering, no longer exists for me. I no longer feel the need to be with people or have that sense of longing or nostalgia for something. And then, to a small extent, I realize how liberating this State of the Master, this Natural State, is, because, in this proximity, in this immersion in Satsang, these situations are being investigated, and there are things that we don't notice and, when we realize, as I realized it yesterday, there is no longer this suffering that existed here, of longing, of wanting to be with some people. This is liberating!
MG: The reference, Gilson, the reference that the ego has, that the “I” has, is the reference of memory. What we haven't realized yet is that we are, in the ego, in the “I,” just a set of remembrances, of memories. The end of this condition of identity that identifies with memory is the end of suffering! See, it's not about losing your memory. You can have an accident and lose your memory; you can have an illness and lose your memory. This does not free you from this sense of an “I,” of a separate identity, and, therefore, of conflict and suffering. That's not what sets you free. What frees you from suffering, from conflict, is disidentification with memory.
Memory is a very natural functioning of the brain itself. It records and keeps memories. The whole point, Gilson, that I have said in these meetings, is that it is possible, yes, a life where you have your memory in its correct place. Memory in its correct place is the objective memory, not the subjective memory, the psychological memory. This psychological memory, this subjective memory, is one in which there is the illusion of an identity extracting, from this memory, life, egoic life.
Attachment consists of this. Attachment to memories consists of an identity clinging to a source of pleasure, vitality and life in that memory. This quality of memory can disappear and needs to disappear, because this quality of memory is the one that establishes the sense of an ego, of a separate entity and, therefore, of suffering. Pleasure and suffering go hand in hand. I would say that pleasure and pain, fear and pleasure go hand in hand. All of this is part of this psychological memory, and this is what disappears when you begin to become aware of a Reality that is your Being outside of the egoic mind, outside of this subjective memory, this memory of the “I.”
So, we make use of a functional, objective, practical memory, but not a subjective, psychological, egoic memory. Do you understand it? That's what we need to find out. Right now, we are making use of speech. This is remembrance, this is memory. Why having an ego, an entity, involved in this here and now? This is completely stupid! So, the “I,” the ego, is nothing other than this set of subjective, psychological memories to which it is clinging, surviving from these memories, carrying guilt, remorse, longing, and all kinds of feelings so particular that the ego has, that the ego knows. That's why, Gilson, people suffer from boredom, the pain of loneliness, anguish, depression, and anxiety. People live in this subjective memory, in this memory that is the memory of the “I.” That's exactly what happens. This is the point.
GC: Today I see how funny that is, Master, because these people that I had a great desire to be with, I know who they are, there is information about who they are. Now, this psychological background of the desire to be together, the longing, which generates suffering when you are not together, that is no longer there, it has disappeared! And it is pure Grace to truly free oneself from this prison, which is this psychological prison of thoughts, of ideas.
MG: This is a fascinating subject, Gilson, because... people suffer because they are people. And what does it mean to be, basically, a person? It is to be a set of memories, of remembrances, of responses that react based on the past. Life is something happening here and now, but if the sense of an “I,” of an entity, which is the ego, is present, one is not in that contact with Life as It is here and now, one is projecting, here and now, something one brings from the past. In other words, one is not in direct contact with this instant, one is someone in a time that thought has produced, what I have called psychological time. So it's here…
So, the ego lives like this, in this idea “I was,” “I am” and “I will be.” This is completely false, because there is no such thing as “I was,” “I am” and “I will be,” there is only this instant, and in this instant the ego does not enter. When it enters, it is to construct an imaginary illusion of a present entity, in what it calls “today,” “I am.” There is nothing like that!
So, Liberation, which is the Awareness of the Truth of your Being, is the Truth of That which is outside of time, and, outside of time, memory has no room. Memory outside of time is not necessary. We need memory to establish ourselves in time as a separate entity, as an “I” within experience, or, simply, we use memory in an intelligent, functional, practical way, but without this psychological prison of the ego. Your home address is a memory. Your name is also a memory. All of these are memories registered in the brain, but this does not create an entity, it does not create an “I,” it does not produce psychological suffering. But the image you have of someone is something else. The image you have of someone is an imaginary fantasy about that given person. It's just a very particular photograph of your ego, in this relationship with him or her, and that produces suffering. This quality of memory is the ego's quality of memory, what I just called subjective memory. Do you understand this?
Life as It is, you can live It without the sense of someone living in It. So, it is Life itself in this contact with him, with her, without image, without this psychological formulation of an identity, which is the ego. This is a Free Life, a Happy Life, it is a Life in Peace, it is a Life where the present is not a doorway to obtain something. In the ego, the present is just a door for you to go through and get to the future, to be someone gaining something from it. When there is this Reality of Being, Freedom is here and now, Happiness is here and now. So, you don't need a door to find Happiness, to be happy walking through that door. Then, this whole notion of time disappears: being happy tomorrow, having peace tomorrow, having love tomorrow, getting rid of guilt, the past... and there is no past, there is no future, there is only Beauty, Truth, Consciousness. This is now! A life free from the “I.”
GC: Master, and within this topic, we have a question here from Raymundo Fábio Alves. He asked the following on the Master's channel: “Your words and ideas convey clarity and Divine Light. Would you like to talk about how to deal with problems whose torments affect us now and tomorrow?”
MG: We just talked about this here. You only have a problem now when, right now, you are reacting with a background from the past. Here, I am referring to these problems that... it seems to me that you are clearly touching on these problems of psychological nature. Envy is something like that, jealousy, fear... All the internal states of conflict and contradiction present now reveal themselves here when this is not understood, when this is not seen as, in fact, what it is. So, let's calmly clarify this for you here.
The whole problem lies in the fact that, when faced with what is here, you bring a background of the past to, in the face of what is shown, do something. So, when you bring this past, which is this internal conflict, to deal with what is showing itself here and now, you have a problem, you are in conflict. We don't know, Gilson, how to deal with what is emerging here and now, which we call a problem.
I'll give you an example: if there is fear here and now, there is some form of fear, I need to observe that this fear is something that thought is bringing into this moment. It is always thought bringing into this moment an image of something it doesn't want, of something it wants to get rid of, of something it wants to resist, and that is fear. This fear is present because of the presence of thought. It is the thought present in this format of resistance, of trying to free oneself, of trying to fight against this remembrance, this memory, that is sustaining fear. Fear, basically, is thought.
So, thought is present and there is this movement of resistance, of struggle, of trying to free oneself. So, faced with thought and that response, there comes conflict, you have problem, you have fear. We don't know how to deal with the experience of thought because we are always bringing the idea of someone to do something with that thought: getting rid of it, resolving it, attacking in a certain way, defending ourselves, protecting ourselves. This movement is a movement of separation, where there is this “I” and this memory and this thought. In this separation, there is conflict.
So, Gilson, we don't know how to deal with the experience, which here at the moment is fear, because we are always adding someone to experience it – to experience it in this way: resisting, fighting, struggling, wanting to do something –, then problem establishes itself, suffering establishes itself. Is there another way to approach this experience, which is thought, without placing this “I” in it? This “I” is the one who comes to experience this, is the one who comes to judge, try to get rid of it, do something with it. Is it possible to deal with this memory without putting someone inside it? This thing being seen without someone seeing it? This experience without placing an experiencer?
This way, Gilson, we eliminate separation. And when we eliminate the element “I” – which is the observer, which is the experiencer, which is the one that comes with this background – when we eliminate this from this image that appears, from this remembrance, from this memory, what happens with it? We have to look at this, we have to learn this art of simply observing what is shown here, without putting someone in that observation, seeing what is here without someone seeing it, observing without an observer.
I know this may seem very strange to you at first, but it's just a matter of a skillful approach. You know when you acquire a skill you didn't have and now you're able to do something you couldn't do? This approach to Meditation is a skill. The difference here is that in this skill you are not the one doing it. The very attention to this movement makes it natural. So, it's not a mechanical thing, it's not a technical thing, it's a natural thing to learn the art of not getting confused with the experience, of not putting the experiencer in the experience.
This is an extraordinary subject, Gilson, because here we have already touched on this aspect of True Meditation. Looking at this movement of the “I” when it arises to intervene, to interfere, to fight with experience, is Self-Awareness. This Self-Awareness is the real basis for True Meditation. In this True Meditation, there is no one meditating, there is the flow of Meditation, Meditation itself, which is this Consciousness taking its place. This is possible when there is this presence of Attention on this given situation that arises. That’s when the so-called “problem” falls apart, dissolves, because there is no possibility for fear without the fearful, for suffering without the sufferer. With the end of one, the other falls apart.
So, for the first time, we are discovering what it is to look without the “I”; For the first time, we are discovering that these problems, so-called “problems in us,” are present because there is this “I” element fighting, resisting, separating itself from and therefore continuing this element, which is the ego, this “me.” Is this clear?
GC: So great, Master, so great! Gratitude, gratitude. It's really like I've already said in several videocasts: the Master's speeches are truly revolutionary, they're indescribable. And, really, only by going beyond what the Master says, being in the presence of the Master to receive this State of True Meditation, is it possible to have some idea of what the Master says in practice, in this experience.
We're done here, our time is over. Guys, you who are watching the video, leave a “like,” make comments, make questions for us to bring to the next videocasts, and, also, I renew the invitation to those who really want it, who burn inside, who burn in the heart, this desire to know God, who really wants to look at oneself, as the Master shows to us in this Self-investigation, this Real Meditation, so come to Satsang, come to the intensive weekend meetings, both online and also, with greater intensity, in person in Pernambuco, in the city of Gravatá (Brazil). So, here's the invitation. In the first comment, there will be a link to the WhatsApp group with information about the meetings. Master, gratitude for this videocast.
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