GC: Hello everyone! We're here for another videocast! Once again, Master Gualberto is here with us to answer your questions and also provide an in-depth understanding of what living in this Natural State, in this Awakened State, is all about. I'm going to read an excerpt from Joel Goldsmith's book called “Living between two worlds.” In this excerpt, Joel Goldsmith says the following: “If we are not careful, we will become trapped in the belief in temporal power, the power of numbers or the power of some human activity to do good, but, soon after, we will remember to open ourselves to Spiritual Grace instead of trying to figure out the rights and wrongs of any problem.” Can you tell us a little bit about this action?
MG: This issue of action is something that we also have to clearly investigate, what this pattern means, this model of action that we have. This is what we could call here “the activity of the ‘I’.” In general, our actions are these actions of this “I.” They are born from thought. Notice that our response to any situation that is appearing, to any challenge, this action is an activity, because it is being born from a reactive response of memory within us. Our actions are born from a reaction to this moment, based on this model of thinking that we have. Thus, our actions, before they happen, are present in this background of knowledge that we have, in this background of memory. So, in truth, our actions are born from thought.
The actions that are born from thought, because they are born from this background of memory reaction, are actions from a mistaken basis, which is the basis of that conditioned background that is the ego, that is the “I.” This explains why our actions are actions that produce problems, produce conflict, produce suffering. So, we are always acting from this illusory center, this false center, which is the “I,” the ego. There is an action of another order. So, let's look at this here.
Our action can be appropriate to the present moment or inappropriate to the present moment. What is an action inappropriate to the present moment? It is that action that will inevitably produce some type of suffering, some disorder. So, the confusion in the life of the “I,” the ego, arises from this quality of action. This quality of action is the activity of the “I.” This activity of the “I,” this activity of the ego in action, produces conflict. This action is an inappropriate action.
There is another quality of action that is present when there is the entire internal Order, Stillness, Peace, Silence, within each of us. It is that action that is born from this Awareness, this Consciousness, this Truth of Being. This is the appropriate action. In this quality of action, there is no conflict, there is no suffering, there is no problem! The type of action that we generally carry out in our model of life, in our pattern of living, which is based on this background of egoic identity, is the action that is all the time creating all kinds of confusion, all kinds of disorder in our lives; it is an inappropriate action.
Is an action free from this reaction possible, which is the conditioned reaction of the “I,” which is the conditioned reaction of the ego? An action that can simply appear in this moment as a perfectly adequate and complete response, without this background of conditioning? That's what we're interested in here. An ego-free life is a conflict-free life, because our action is not born from this conditioning.
We have all the time, Gilson, in our relationship with others, for example, an idea about who they are. We've been touching on this a lot: this idea that I have about you and that you have about me are ideas that I have as a projection about who you are and you have as a projection about who I am. When we are together in a relationship, this relationship shows itself, in this action, in this activity, as an inadequate action, an action that produces suffering.
So, for example, the fear that I have of you, the fear that the husband has of his wife, that the wife has of her husband, the fear that you have of your employees, the fear that you have of your boss, the fear that you have of the people around you, your relationship with yourself in fear – you are afraid of the past, you are afraid of the future, you have an internal, psychological life in fear –, this produces a quality of action in your relationship with others or with yourself that is inadequate. This is an example of ego action.
The actions that we know do not correspond, in a complete way, in an intelligent way, in a real way, at this moment, to this moment. So, we are always linked to this psychological condition of reaction, conditioned memory background; and here, in this example, what we have of the other, what we have of ourselves, which is producing this type of disorder and this life in fear, what we have are imaginary projections, created by thought and sustained by thought.
Our quality of life, in this model of action or activity, is that quality of egoic action that produces division, that produces contradiction, that produces, all the time, for us or for others, some form of problem, of conflict, of suffering. So, a free life, in this action, requires an action free from this background of conditioned memory, images, beliefs, and thoughts that are being constructed within this relationship.
So, our response, in sum, can be of two ways: either you have an action response, at this moment, for this moment, that is inadequate – which is the quality of action of the “I,” of ego, of this sense of being a present person, right now, separating yourself from life, separating yourself from the other, separating yourself from yourself – or we have an adequate action, free from this sense of egoic identity, the sense of separateness, this illusory sense, which is the “I,” the ego. Here, the invitation is for us to have an understanding of this internal movement within each one of us, which is the movement of memory, because, notice: our actions, because they are born from thought, are born from the past, which is memory. The problem with these actions that are born from the past, from thought, which is memory, is that they are just actions that are repeating themselves.
It's very interesting, Gilson, to understand that this moment requires action, because, at this moment, we are always facing something new. Every challenge in life, at this moment, is new, but we enter with this background of memory, which is the past, to try to adjust this past to this new challenge, to the new challenge of this moment. So, it's interesting for us to say this to you here: when you meet your wife, your husband or your boss, what you are having in that meeting is an opportunity for something new, but this meeting is always being established within this particular vision of ego, in a culture of the past, in a model of the past, because the ego is present producing this image, bringing this memory, bringing this past.
So, we spend thirty years in a relationship with someone, or forty years, or fifty years, and, in fact, we never meet the other. Everything we have of him or her is a projection we have of ourselves – about who we are, at first, and about who the other is. And why is that, Gilson? Because if you don't know the Truth about yourself, if what you have about yourself is a set of beliefs, images, and memories, how can you have anything else from others? So, everything you have of the other, too, is still a set of images, memories...
So, our life in the ego is a life where it is not present, within this so-called “life,” a relationship in free action. In the ego, we are enslaved to this condition of egoic activity, of egocentric activity. We could even say this here: an adequate action is a real action; an inappropriate action is a mere egoic activity. See, these are issues that we need to understand: how we behave, how we act, what our actions are like, what really happens in our relationships. That's why the emphasis is always on understanding the Truth, first, of who we are.
Not understanding the Truth about who we are places us in life, in a dreamlike condition, in a dream condition, in a condition of illusion, in a fantasy, which is this fantasy common to everyone, which is the fantasy of being someone, which is the fantasy of being alive, living and walking towards death. We confuse this body-mind in this model of life and existence, in this dream context, with the Truth of That which we are, with the Truth of That which, in reality, in us, is beyond all this model, which is the model of thought.
The beauty of these encounters here is that you are shown the opportunity for ego-free action, for complete, adequate action and therefore an action that is born from a dimension outside the known and therefore outside the dream. This quality of action is not personal. It is beyond the person; it is outside the limit of the identity of the “I.” That's it!
GC: Master, and how to develop or be able to have this real action, free from a sense of a present “I”?
MG: Here, it is about becoming aware of the illusion of this quality of action or this illusory action, which we are calling here “the activity of the ‘I’.” We cannot have an approach of an action free from this “I,” this ego, without first investigating what an action in this “I,” this ego represents.
Your question is very interesting, because we idealize an action without the ego, but… where does this idealization come from? Every idealization, every idea, can only be born from thought. This thought is already part of its known project. Therefore, if it is within its known project, all ideas come from that same background, which is conditioned thought.
The truth about thought, Gilson, is that thought is conditioned, it is already within a model of limitation, belief, conclusion, idea, planning… conditioned! We cannot approach an action free from the “I” with a plan, with a project, with an idea, with planning. This action is not born in this way, this quality of action is not born in this “I,” therefore it cannot be born in this project, in this plan, in this idea. It is not something that is born from thought, because thought is limited, it is within this known model, which is the model of the “I.” This Truth of the action free from the “I,” the ego, is the action free from thought!
We need thought on a certain level. To build a house, we need thought; to make use, here, of speech... this language is a recognizable language within the model of thought. So, thought is a practical, objective tool, for very simple, very basic purposes! Driving a car is the result of knowledge, of previous experience and, therefore, it is something within the known, the result of something learned. So, notice: everything around us, being within the known, is part of thought. So, thinking is something practical and objective, for very direct matters. Your home address is a thought, your name is a thought, knowing how to access a computer, that requires knowledge, which is thought...
The problem is that action, in our relationship with others...we also want to place thought within this, and then we are within the conditioning, the model of this conflicting thought, this egoic thought. So, our action, then, is this inadequate, conflicting action. The question is: what does an action free from thought represent in a relationship? This is possible to realize, but it is not possible, Gilson, for someone to do this, based on a plan, a project.
Here, it's about investigating the illusion of the image that I have about who you are and that I have about who I am. What I can do here is investigate myself and observe this movement of thought projecting itself towards this action in the relationship with the other or with myself, creating this separation: “I with myself,” “I with the other.” Becoming aware of this requires self-observation.
So, the real form of an approach to ego-free action, which is this action without conflict, which is the complete action, which is this adequate action, requires seeing oneself here and now, becoming aware of the movement of the “I,” of every word you use when you address someone, every gesture you make, what arises within, what quality of feeling arises when these words appear, what this background is, where it arises from... It is not about analyzing – listen! – it’s not about analyzing yourself. Here, it is about verifying the movement of thought, each and every thought, feeling, sensation, gestures, reactions, behavior... becoming aware of yourself in this moment, just becoming aware.
Here, it is not a matter – as we believe in the intellect – of imposing an action based on a principle of acquired knowledge. This has been a very common problem: doing good, doing what is right. But all this calculated, planned action, produced by thought, is still born from the ego, simply because it is born from this background, it is within this known, it is within this “I” programmed to do something.
The real action… in it, the “I” is not involved, the ego is not involved. It is an action free from this personal sense of the doer, the achiever, the one who is present making decisions to do this and not that other thing, or to get rid of doing that to do this other new thing. This whole model, see, Gilson, is still the model of the ego. This action arises spontaneously, naturally, when the ego is not there, and the ego is not there if it is observed. If this conditioning model is seen, the moment it is seen a real action already takes place, which is the action of breaking the continuity of this egoic identity, this illusory identity, then a new action, of a different order, appears, which is the action of Intelligence, which is the action of True Consciousness. There is no one involved in this.
The direct, experiential understanding of this is a fascinating subject. Theoretically, we cannot achieve what action without ideas is, because action without ideas is action free from thought. It is an action, Gilson, of a quality completely strange to the ego, because there is no objective, there is no purpose, there is no desire, there is no fear, there is no sense of winning or losing... This is the action of the quality of Love, of the Divine Presence, of the Truth of God.
GC: Master, within this topic, we have a question here from Ceci. She asks the following: “So, we don’t have to do anything?”
MG: Who is in this action? The “I,” the ego? That's it exactly! Because who is in this action? The truth about this, Gilson, is that there is an action, yes, but this action is the action free from the idea, free from belief, free from concept, free from opinion, free from will or determination of the discipline that the ego imposes on itself even to do something or not do something. There is an action, yes, here. Life requires action, action is necessary. The question is: who is this person who will be involved in this action? The action occurs in a free way, in a real way, when the sense of an “I,” of a present identity, in its self-interest, in its egocentrism, in its model of desire, will and fear, is not present.
So, here it is about getting closer to the truth of what is happening here and now. Becoming aware of this conditioning model – where an action happens from this center, which is the “I,” the ego –, becoming aware of this already brings, naturally, the Truth of action, so there is no separation in action. So, it’s not about this “I” doing it, there’s action happening.
This moment, Gilson, is so unique that an adequate response to this moment requires the presence of the action of Consciousness itself, and, in this quality of action, there is no “I” that does, there is no doer doing something. The whole difficulty here – notice – is that we have a conditioned model of thinking about action. For us, there has to be someone involved in the action. And it's true! For this ego sense, every action it takes is the reaction of this background, which is based on an experiencer always strengthening his experience. It's the ego maintaining its continuity!
Here, we are signaling something else, Gilson. We are talking about an ego-free life, and, therefore, free from this author of actions; a life that represents a whole action! There is this action, but there is no one in that action. History records the lives of sages as a life of full action. However, no sense of egoic identity is present in this movement of action, because it is only the action free from the author of actions. The Divine Truth is the Truth of your Being. So, there is an action, but there is no “I,” the ego, the author of actions. This is the Freedom of Being, Consciousness, Bliss… and Action!
GC: Master, gratitude, gratitude. We have come to the end. Thank you for this videocast. For those of you watching the video: leave a comment, leave a “like” ... this helps YouTube recognize that the content is relevant. And here's the invitation: in the first comment, pinned, is the link to the WhatsApp group with information about the Satsangs, which are the intensive weekend meetings with Master Gualberto, where it is possible to investigate this real action in depth. And, in this sharing of the Master's Presence, receiving, experiencing, and understanding what this really is. Gratitude, Master.
MG: Okay, guys. See you soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment