GC: Hello everyone! We are here for another videocast. Again, Master Gualberto here with us. Gratitude, Master, for being here once again.
Master, today I am going to read an excerpt from Joel Goldsmith’s book called “Consciousness Transformed.” In this excerpt, Master, Joel says the following: “In the Infinite Path lies the principle that there is neither good nor evil, because thought makes it so.” Master, what is thought?
MG: This is one of the questions with extraordinary value for all of us here. Understanding the structure and the nature of thought constitutes a great key to the end of this illusion, which is the illusion of the ego, of this sense of a present identity. When we say “illusion of the ego,” we are not saying that it ceases to appear all the time. Despite the illusion that it is, we are talking about the end of the apparition of this egocentric movement in us, this movement of restlessness, of suffering, of fear, and confusion present in us, which is the movement of the ego, of this illusory identity. Investigating the nature and structure of thought, Gilson, is something very important.
So, the question is: what is thought? Let's put it this way: how do you react to this moment? You only react to this moment because of a previous experience that you have, that you already bring. If, for example, I ask your name, there is a memory, there is a remembrance, which is the experience of repeating your name many times since childhood, and today you have this very clearly. The memory responds very quickly. So, your memory response is the result of a past experience.
So, what is thought? It's something, basically, very simple, but we never study it, we never look at it, how it processes within us. That's why we don't know the structure and nature of thought, although it is something very simple, verbally stated. Thought is simply the movement of memory, the result of a previous, past experience. So, that's thought. The problem with thought is that we are placing in thought the illusion of an identity present in this movement of memory, of remembrance, of experience, which is thought.
So, we need to learn to deal with thought, we need to learn to look at this movement in such a way that we do not place, within this movement, the illusion of an identity being confused with this thought. For example, when you say your name, the central idea behind the name being used is that there is this “I” with that name. This “I” is you as you imagine yourself to be. This is completely illusory! When you say the name, it is the memory record in that body-mind. So, this “I,” this “me,” this ego, this person, is an imagination present when the name is being expressed.
This is very important: to understand the movement of thought always linked, here in this mechanism, in this body-mind, to the illusion of a present identity. It is in this, Gilson, that the ego is made. So, understanding what thought is, is the end of this movement of the “I,” of the ego, and it is this movement of the ego, of the “I” in us, of this illusory entity that keeps differentiating, through the movement of thought, all this notion between good and evil, this whole notion between love and hate, between “I” and “not I.”
So, the sense of duality present, which is this “I,” which is the thinker and the thought, is present because we never observe the movement of thought without this “I.” So, for example, every thought that arises already carries an illusion behind it, in us: it is the idea of a thinker who is producing that thought, which is completely false. Thought in us is just a memory reaction, it is the brain that reacts to this present moment. When called upon, it presents a memory; that memory is a thought. This is an entirely mechanical movement of this biological mechanism, this body-mind.
So, no one is thinking about the name. There is the name being expressed by this brain, by this mechanism, by this body-mind, just as we are expressing, in this model of psychological conditioning, words, gestures, actions, and believing that there is a present identity moving in this choice, in this “doing,” in this movement. This is, in fact, a “truth” for this false center, which is the ego. Thus, our egocentric actions are actions that are born from this illusory center that we call “I,” “experiencer,” “thinker,” this person that thought says we are, which, in truth, represents an image that we have about ourselves.
The point, Gilson, is that without an understanding of the Truth about who we are – and that requires understanding how this movement of thought occurs, what this structure and nature of thought is – without a direct understanding of this, we will continue in the illusion of this sense of separation between “God and us” “life and us,” “the other and us,” and this is certainly confusion, it is certainly suffering. This is how human beings have lived for millennia here on planet Earth, because they do not understand the Truth about who they are, or what their Truth is, What represents this Being that we really are. We live in this being that we ideally believe in, that, in thought, we believe ourselves to be, and that is disorder, that is confusion, that is human madness.
So, as long as there is no Awakening of True Consciousness, of Real Consciousness – because the consciousness that we know is human consciousness, and this human consciousness is the consciousness that moves in this thought, in this model of conditioning and program, which for millennia... This was the story of our parents, our grandparents, great-grandparents and everyone who arrived before them here on the planet – as long as this continues, there will be ignorance.
The Awakening of Real Consciousness, which is the Flourishing of your Being, is the vision of something outside of this known model, which is the model of the mind in the ego, as this conditioned brain recognizes, knows, and is always situated within that condition. So, the work of the Awakening of the Truth of your Being is the Flourishing of Non-Duality, of the end of this sense of a present “I” and therefore the end of thought, of that model of thought that sustains the illusion of the ego, that sustains the illusion of this separation.
GC: Master, we have a question here about the topic “thought,” by Lucas Samuel Machado. He asks the following: “How to stop thinking? How can we silence this inner voice?”
MG: Notice the question: “How to stop thinking? How can we silence this inner voice?” Our notion about what thought is and what the thinker is, is mistaken. Here's the proof! Our questions are always in this equivocation. This error here is in the idea that you are the one who thinks and that you are the one who… if you are the one who thinks, you are the one who can stop thinking; if you are the one who thinks, you are the one who can silence thought. This is not true; this is not real!
Thought – I have said this, and you just observe it in yourself – is just a reaction of memory, and it arises entirely apart and beyond your desire or will. A thought in us, notice, just arises. It is not you who brings thought, it is thought that appears, it is thought that emerges, it is thought that emerges. One thought appears, then another appears, then another appears... The illusion is that you are in this movement, producing thought. In fact, this is a reaction or a response of the brain to a stimulus, always external or internal... external, of which you are not even aware... When you, for example, see a scene, the brain immediately names or produces a thought related to that scene. This is a brain response, a mechanical response. There’s no “you” in it! The look appears in front of that thing and the brain, immediately, already has an intellectual, verbal, and neurological thought representation about it. There is no “I” inside the body. Thought is sprouting, thought is appearing, due to a response from the brain, due to a reaction of the brain mechanism itself.
So, we have remembrances that also come from internal stimuli that we are not aware of. The operation of the machine itself, the disposition of the body at a given moment, may be causing some form of stimulus and bringing some form of image or memory. There is no one, no thinker thinking. And it's very simple for us to observe this in ourselves, the invitation I'm going to make to you here and now: try to get rid of a thought! Notice that thought arises and you say, “I don’t want that!” When you say “I don’t want this,” thought reaffirms itself.
If, for example, I say to you: don't think about a blue rabbit... Don't think about a blue rabbit! Let's go! What is happening right now, in this instant, to you? Don't think about eight blue rabbits. Don't think about fifteen blue rabbits! Do not think! Do not think! Notice: your brain is responding to a stimulus. Now what is there? One, eight, fifteen or thirty blue rabbits? Have you decided to think? No, there was a stimulus! Your brain responded to that stimulus. And I'm saying: refuse this stimulus! Notice: can you refuse, can you stop thinking about blue rabbits? You cannot! Why can't you? Because the thinker doesn't exist, Gilson! This is an illusion, this is a belief, this is a fantasy given to us as a cultural inheritance: the idea that there is a thinker present. No, it doesn't exist, it's just thought!
Thought is there and you cannot get rid of thoughts. They stay as long as they want. Soon, they will disappear. For example, now the blue rabbits have not disappeared yet. I just said it, they're back! So, realize how fascinating it is for us to understand how the brain in us works, how this mechanism in us works.
We don't silence our minds; we don't stop our thoughts. All we can do is become aware of the thought. That's another thing... When you become aware... For example, right now, just start becoming aware of this thought that's coming up. Just notice, become aware of it. When you become aware of a thought that arises, that awareness without wanting to do something, without wanting to let go of, to hold onto, or to protect that thought, causes that thought to just shut down and let go. So, here it is not about silencing thought, but about discovering what it is to be quiet, so that thought silences, so that it does not have so much importance in this body, in this mechanism, when it arises. If it loses its value, Gilson, if it loses its importance, then, yes, it disappears. If it appears, it lasts for a short time and soon disappears, or it doesn't appear at all, because there is no longer this reactive memory conditioning model being stimulated.
So, we need to discover the art of Self-awareness, which is observing the movement of thought within us. This goes for feelings too, for emotions, for the way we perceive through our senses. Bringing awareness to yourself right now is something directly linked to the art of being Consciousness, which is True Meditation. So, you will not stop thought, you will not silence the mind. Thought disappears, it stops, but it is not you who stops it. It stops! The mind silences, but it is not you who silences it. It does in a natural way... When we place this energy of Attention, of Presence over this movement, the Truth of Meditation appears, and the Truth of Meditation is the end of this model of thought.
As we are here saying this in a very didactic way, I will continue playing with you, presenting this to you. Does this color of the shirt remind you of anything? Huh, Gilson? Does it remind you of anything? You see? Then, you'll remember the little blue rabbit again! That's how our heads work! The words “does this color remind you of anything?” enter, then the brain goes to look for its most recent memory, and the most recent memory is the blue bunny. Does this have anything to do with what you're thinking? No, it has to do with the movement of life happening, creating moments before your eyes, before your ears. And here, notice: this look is no longer your look, this listening is no longer your listening; It's the listening of the machine, of this mechanism, it's the brain listening, it's the eyes watching.
The “I” element present, Gilson, within the body, is a decoy, it is an illusion, it is a conditioning, it is a belief! If we can investigate this, we can go beyond this conditioned movement of the brain, of giving repeated and continuous responses to similar experiences. So, we can go beyond egoic conditioning. This is going beyond the conditioning of the “I” and therefore going beyond the mind.
The Realized Being… his brain works in a different way, because his Real Internal State is the Natural State of Meditation. So, at that moment, you are free from this illusory center, which is the ego, and the brain’s responses are functioning in a different way. This is why a fundamental change is necessary in this mechanism, in this body-mind, especially in this brain. This change is the Awakening of Consciousness, which is the Awakening of that Divine Energy that some call “Kundalini.” This requires work, this requires a true surrender to this Awareness of Self-Knowledge and the Truth of Meditation. That's it!
GC: Master, it's incredible how strong this idea, this belief, is that I am the thinker. And even, Master, within the so-called “self-awareness,” of which there are so many videos on the internet, something that is often mentioned is replacing bad thoughts with good thoughts. And then, one has the very strong idea that “a bad thought came, but I want to replace it with a good one.” But now, in the Master's speech, it became very clear how, for example, I acquired this knowledge that I need to replace a bad feeling with a good one. So, soon, when there is a response, a stimulus from a thought that this “I” considers bad, memory comes up to replace it with a good one. So, it ends up that it's always this automatic brain response. It's impressive!
MG: The energy of thought, the energy present in thought, is the energy of that Consciousness. The point is that when this Consciousness is this so-called “human” “consciousness,” which is the illusion of this individual consciousness – which is always moving in this pattern of conditioning, where the brain is always reacting within these categories of good and evil, of right and wrong, of positive and negative, of true and false – as long as the brain is reacting or responding within a still-conditioned movement, which is the conditioned movement of this so-called “human consciousness,” this energy of Consciousness will still be in this egoic movement.
When you bring awareness to the Truth about who you are, look at this movement, which is the movement of this egoic consciousness – [you need to] figure out how to look at this by bringing Mindfulness to it – this energy, which is still the energy of Consciousness, operates a change in this structure, in this body-mind, and this energy is now available to something new present, What I have called Real Consciousness in us, New Consciousness in us. It is no longer this human consciousness, it is no longer this “I” consciousness, it is no longer this ego consciousness. And when that happens, this notion, Gilson, between positive and negative thoughts, between good thoughts and bad thoughts, all of this disappears!
I'll give you an example, Gilson: this internal chatter within the human being, this unnecessary talking that we have, this internal chatter that we bring, these internal states of pain, sadness, remembrances... Notice: all of this is present because of this so-called “human consciousness,” which is the consciousness conditioned within this model of inattention, ignorance, and illusion about the Truth of our Being. A true approach of what Self-awareness is, is not the replacement of bad thoughts with good thoughts, of sad emotions for joyful emotions, from pain to pleasure. The Truth of Self-awareness is the end of the illusion of that illusory center that is the “I.”
So, knowing yourself is knowing that this “yourself” does not exist! The only Reality present is the Divine Reality! This Divine Reality is beyond this egoic consciousness, this separation, this “I and not I,” this “good” and this “evil,” this so-called “right and wrong,” what we know as “pleasure and pain,” “love and hate” … These are aspects of the “coin,” let’s put it that way. If you look at a coin, you see that it has two sides, but you can never see both sides simultaneously. If one is present, you don't see the other. You look at a coin, you see heads or tails. So, if one feeling is present in you, the other cannot be; one thought in you, one quality of thought, the other cannot be. But the truth is that we are dealing with the same coin. If it's the same coin, if we have one, we have the other too! You see?
The problem is that we are not aware of it, because we do not bring Presence, we do not bring Attention to this internal movement within us. So, we don't notice the game of the ego in this so-called, for example, “love.” We don't know what Love is!
Our so-called “love,” Gilson, for example, is full of possession, envy, jealousy, control, fear of losing, fear of not controlling… The so-called “love” is satisfaction, it is pleasure, It's desire... That's what we call love! We fail to realize that this side of the coin, called “love,” contains its opposite. Is this the Truth of Love? Does the Truth of Love have an opposite, which is indifference, hatred, jealousy, and envy? So, we don't know, Gilson, as human beings, living in this egoic identification of this human consciousness, what Love is!
The Truth of Love flourishes when there is no longer the ego element, “I,” when that coin is no longer present. When there is not this so-called “love,” we have the Truth of Love, but It is something unknown, because it is outside the ego. It is present in your Being, as your Real Nature, and that is the invitation in this work: recognize That, go beyond this duality! Go beyond this possession, this control, this envy, this jealousy, this emotional dependency that you call “love.” Go beyond this coin, go beyond this duality. So, Gilson, this is what we are dealing with here, showing you that a life free from the “I” is a life where there is no longer the illusion of this egoic mind with its model patterns well known to all of us.
GC: Master, gratitude! Thank you for this videocast. It makes total sense! And for you who are watching this video: if it makes sense, leave a “like,” leave a comment, this helps YouTube recognize that the content is relevant and distribute it to more people. And, mainly: if it makes sense, here in the first comment, pinned, there will be the link of the WhatsApp group with information about the intensive weekend meetings with Master Gualberto. In these weekend meetings, it is a whole weekend in this self-investigation, where the Master leads us and shares this energy of Presence, giving us the chance to investigate and see this madness of being someone, the madness of this idea of an “I” present. So, gratitude, Master. We stop here.
MG: Okay, see you soon!
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