GC: Hello everyone! We are here for another videocast. Again, Master Gualberto is here with us. Thank you very much, Master, for your Presence.
Master, today I'm going to read an excerpt from Joel Goldsmith's book called: “The Thunder of Silence.” In this book, Master, Joel makes the following comment: “At any moment of our earthly experience, no matter whether it is at nine, nineteen, or ninety years old, we can undertake the return to the Father's house.” Master, how to proceed with this return to the Father's house? How to Spiritually Awaken?
MG: Very good! It is the only subject we discuss here with you. We are exactly pointing to this Place, to this Space. Here, complication arises when we believe that this Space is something that can be visualized on the screen of our mind. Here, when I say that we are pointing to this Place, the difficulty arises when you start to believe that this Place can be imagined by thought, as we generally do.
The idea of this encounter with God, or this Realization of God, or entering the Father's house, or returning to the Father's house, when thought begins to idealize This, we, naturally, get lost. In fact, we are already lost based on thinking. So, the truth of an approach to this Realization, this Awakening, this return to the Father's house, in Joel's language, here it is about becoming Aware of the Reality of What we are.
The first thing here is that This cannot be seen in the future. Here is the biggest obstacle, the biggest difficulty, because we are dealing with this instrument, which is the only instrument we have, which is the mind, and all it does is maintain itself within a continuity – I refer to this mind egoic. It remains in continuity, in this movement, always in time, in the idea of reaching, of becoming, of accomplishing, of becoming. So, it is implied here, always, to this egoic mind – which is how the thinking within us works – that this Realization is in the future.
Here, the first thing is to abandon this “future,” this idea, because it is an imagination produced by thought in this movement of “tomorrow or in the near future I will find God, I will realize God, I will get there.” So, all of this is nothing more than an imagination constructed by thought. Here, the work consists of becoming aware now, here, in this instant, of this movement that is the movement of the “I”; including, mainly, this movement that thought constructs around this idea of finding God, of reaching God. Reality is the one that finds you, Truth is what arrives, Truth is what takes over Its space; It's not about going to It, it's It that comes.
So, putting it in very religious, very simple language, you don't go to God, it's God who comes to you. You do not approach Grace, it is Grace that approaches you. The point is that when That approaches you, it is to nullify this idea of “someone” present. The point is that when the Reality of God arrives, it is to nullify the idea of “I.” The Reality of God nullifies the idea of the “I,” this sense of a present entity that separates itself. So, this separate “I” is part of a dream, of an imagination constructed by thought. From there, we can delve deeper, explore and discover Reality, but understand one thing: it is always from this moment on.
So, we dispense with the entire ordering movement based on a discipline designed and built by a system of what should be done, what should not be done, what I have to do, what I don't have to do, what I should practice, what I cannot practice, what is, what is not... This whole model in which thought has been established throughout life, in this movement of positive construction, that is, this construct to reach a purpose, is completely false here.
The detail is that, in a way that we receive within organized religion, in this so-called “search” or “search” for God, we are told what to do and what not to do, we are told what we need to do. So, we were given rules, we were given commandments, we were given meditation techniques, prayer techniques, all kinds of things were taught to us to have this encounter, as if the Reality of God, the Divine Reality, was in the future, and through this movement, which is the movement of the “I” itself, of the ego, we could reach Him. This is completely false! Now on, we can investigate the thing, So, let's go!
GC: Master, within this theme, we have a question here from subscriber to the channel. She asks the following question: “Master, is the spiritual seeker the ego?”
MG: Every search, Gilson, presupposes the notion of time. Search is only possible when there is time. There is a distance between what is here, what is here, what is present here, and what is there to be found. So, search presupposes movement in time. This is the first aspect: this movement takes place over time. Number two: it's the movement from here to there. This movement is from someone, who is the “I,” towards the Divine Reality. So, the Divine Reality is far away, it is distant. There is this “I” and this Reality, but It is far away, distant, and it takes work to get there, work that takes place over time. So, there are two completely fallacious things here. The first is that Reality is not here, It is somewhere and needs to be found there; this requires the presence of time. The second is someone, who is the “I,” in his own movement, to find It. And I didn't even include a third thing, which is the address. This “I,” this “me,” this ego, this person, has to know the address.
So, you see, this is not Reality. Reality is: God is the only Present Reality and this sense of “I” is an illusion, which, when investigated, when understood in a clear way, this illusion breaks down and this Reality Present shows itself. All this movement is, of course, a movement created by thought. It's as if it had an address, needed to move from here to there and could, in time, find it. Therefore, this is a creation, Gilson, of the egoic mind itself. So, to this question, the answer is: yes, the sense of the present “I” is what creates the seeker.
Divine Realization does not come by your search. It occurs despite the confusion of your search. It occurs through a mysterious action of Something that approaches and takes over the space that belongs to Itself. This whole search is the search of the ego. In fact, this search is present due to dissatisfaction, due to some level of discomfort or suffering. Note that it is only like this, with difficulty, that human beings are inclined towards this quest or this search, but this quest or this search is not the reality of the search for an encounter with the Truth. What human beings are looking for is relief from this pain and an end to this suffering. This makes them move, but where do they move? What is the movement of thought, if not within itself?
So, all the ego can do is search, and that search is still within the known. Yes, it's its move! This is not decisive for this Realization. See, what is decisive for this Realization is the presence of this Divine Grace, this movement of God here, and not any movement from here to there. I don't know if that... it seems to me that this is very clear! You cannot find Reality, Reality is what can realize itself and manifest itself, and make itself ready, and become real as, in fact, It is, in this space that is already Its, here and now. It is not the “I” that will do this, it is not the movement of the search that will determine this.
GC: Master, with myself, I searched a lot, I searched in religion, in doctrine, in philosophy, but restlessness and suffering were always present. Until I became exhausted from the search, because many practices, meditation practices, techniques of this, techniques of that, and still there was… although, occasionally, there was a comfort or something that seemed to be a peace, internally there remained a restlessness, a void. Until, by this Grace, the Master found me, and then I really felt the end of the search, but a work to be done, this work of being in that attention that the Master talks about so much. Can the Master tell us a little bit about this?
MG: This encounter with Reality, you see, is not an encounter in the sense of someone encountering Reality. It is an encounter of Reality in Itself with Itself, for the end of that “someone.” So, the work consists of becoming aware of this movement, which is the movement of this “someone,” this “me,” this “I,” this ego. It is work that takes place in this body and in this mind, and the instrument of approach for this work is the mind.
The mind needs to self-investigate, to get closer to itself within this direct observation, to become aware of its own movement, which is the movement of conditioned thought, within this model of society, culture, world, where there is this mistaken principle of separation, of duality, this illusion between someone present and God distant, between someone present and the separate world, someone present seeing people. It is the illusion of someone in a relationship with the world, as being the center, as being the one who is present, separate from the world; someone present in a relationship with another. So, there is this pattern of separation.
When the mind gets still, it discovers this art of getting closer to itself through Meditation. And Meditation, here, the basis for Meditation is the understanding of its own movement, which is Self-awareness. Then, when the mind approaches itself, it begins to become aware of its own illusory movement of beliefs, opinions, judgments, certainties, doubts. Then, this entire pattern of behavior begins to reveal itself in the mind, which is the behavior that supports this movement of separation, where there is – in this model of behavior, which is egoic behavior, in the mind – this sense of “someone” present: someone thinking, someone talking, someone acting, someone relating, someone wanting to get rid of fears, problems, difficulties...
The awareness of the movement of the “I,” which is the awareness of the movement of this ego… that is the work! This awareness occurs when we have an approach to the Truth of Self-knowledge. One important thing, Gilson, that I have been saying lately is that this Self-awareness is not self-awareness as I have heard people say. Here, I refer to a Self-awareness that reveals the Truth, not a self-awareness for personal development, for the improvement of the person, but for the realization of the illusion that constitutes the person.
This illusion of which the person is constituted is this conditioning model known to all of us, which is the conditioning of this egoistic, separate identity, which sees itself as an entity in time, in space, and desiring for itself, and seeking for itself something, due to a dissatisfaction that it brings, an internal confusion that it has, due to all this movement of thought, chatter, within the human being. So, one suffers from all kinds of conflict, of all types of psychological suffering, due to this model, which is the model of this egoic identity. Becoming aware of this is going beyond this condition, which is the illusory condition of being someone within this movement, which is the movement of life.
So, an approach to the movement of the mind requires that the mind discover a space in it capable of having a quiet and silent approach of this movement, which is the restless and disturbed movement of the “I,” the ego, this “me.” Therefore, Gilson, there is nothing better than having an approach in Satsang, because in Satsang there is a space that opens up within the human being, so that he can become aware of this disorder, this confusion, and this space opens up due to the Power of Presence, of the Power of Grace itself.
So, this is where the work takes place. It is a work of awareness of the reality of what is here, at this instant, at this moment. And I continue to say: it is not a movement of searching for something, but it is the awareness of realizing, here and now, what is present, configuring itself as this illusory identity that sees itself as separate, that feels separate, that moves in an egocentric and separatist way, and in suffering, of course, because that is the condition of egoic identity, that is the condition of the unobserved mind, when there is no work in oneself. That´s it.
GC: Master, you mentioned Satsang... As soon as I met the Master and started participating in these weekend meetings, these intensive meetings that are called Satsang, I had a complete identification with thought. And as I was undergoing a religious, spiritual study, I was always reinforcing spiritual thoughts: “I and the father are one,” etc. And upon arriving in Satsang with the Master, in the first meetings I participated in, it became very clear how I had this complete identification with these thoughts that I brought as “spiritual.” And there was no Silence, there was chatter wrapped in spiritual thoughts: “I am what I am,” etc. Can the Master talk a little about this?
MG: Yes, Gilson, we all went through that. In this search, in the mind, in the ego, all that we managed to do was accumulate theoretical, bookish information, this so-called “spiritual life,” this aspiration for spirituality. And, of course, this gives us a wealth of information, knowledge, naturally, of thoughts about it. So, in fact, the mind is agitated. People in the world, or who do not have an inclination to seek, have their minds agitated by worldly matters, by worldly thoughts, while religious people have their minds agitated, and very agitated, but what prevails are religious thoughts, thoughts so-called “spiritual.” But, see, it's the same thing, because, theoretically, you can understand all that, but they're just thoughts. As a thought, this takes you, in the “I,” in the ego, to this imaginary world, of a future spiritual realization, in this search, but you continue searching and with your mind agitated.
The Truth of your Being is Divine Awareness, and there is no thought in this Divine Awareness, there is only Wisdom. It is exactly the absence of the movement of restlessness that thought sustains. So, what happens is that, when we approach work like this, something new begins to happen internally, within each of us. It's like troubled waters calming down. The human being – I will put it again – is inclined towards worldliness. When he becomes a spiritual seeker, his inclination is to read sacred books, listen to speeches, lectures, teachings. He collects all of this and it becomes a set of images, memories, concepts and beliefs within him. And when he learns to make affirmations, using these words, this may even bring a certain tranquility at times, within his so-called “search” or “spiritual practice,” but this does not solve it.
We need to have access to the Silence of this Being that is present in this moment. However, the Silence of this Being reveals itself when this “me,” this “I,” this ego, the conditioned mind, especially within religiosity, is removed. As long as this conditioned mind is present, this movement of restlessness is present, there is no awareness of Reality, there is no way to have an approach to the Truth of Meditation. It is Meditation that reveals this Silence of Being, which is the Divine Reality, but this chattering mind, with religious thoughts or without religious thoughts, this chattering mind needs to disappear, do you understand?
It seems to me that this is what happens when we approach the work of investigating the movement of the “I,” the ego. Then, it starts to become clear that all of this is still part of this movement of the egoic mind. All the information, all the knowledge, all this learning, this remains at the level of conditioned intellect, it does not cause any real impact of change, of transformation that is necessary. Do you see? This is the point.
GC: Master, at this point, within the studies I have had, it is often said that, at an intellectual level, there is no change, but when there is a feeling of what is being studied, there would be a change. Can the Master bring the Master's view on this point?
MG: This model of feeling is linked to an already-known model of thought, notice, it still has a background of conditioning. If what you feel is explained or justified by an intellectual model of knowledge that you bring, what you are feeling is something still induced by that learned model.
See, this is very delicate, Gilson! Each person, within their knowledge program and, therefore, conditioning, has specific experiences of this background of knowledge. This only shows us one thing: that what we are having here is a dream. Note that when you dream, you dream within the sphere of the known or that which is recognized. If it is recognized, it is because it is already known.
Divine Reality is not revealed by thought or feeling. It is something that is beyond thought and beyond feeling. And It does not reveal itself to someone. This “someone” is the one who identifies the revelation. If revelation is identified, that revelation is just a recognition of his background. So, this is still part of what is known. Divine Reality is a breaking of the known. So, when It reveals itself, it doesn't reveal itself to someone; it is the end of “someone” present. Therefore, it is not something that someone catches, someone understands, someone perceives or someone feels. We are still within a model that is the model of the known, of the mind that recognizes. See, it's so simple! That which is Real cannot be within that which is not. The movement of thought has no reality other than the reality of time. It only deals with what is known. It does not have access to or cannot recognize that which is outside of itself.
So, all experience is within the experiencer, still part of time, still part of the “I.” It's not that! It's not that! Truth cannot be within the known! If it can be known or recognized, experienced or felt, it is by someone. This “someone” cannot be Reality, this “someone” cannot be in the experience of Reality. Reality is outside this “someone,” it is exactly the end of this “someone” with all one’s experiences. OK?
GC: Master, our time has ended. So, gratitude for this videocast. And for those of you watching the video, leave a “like” and leave a comment with questions for us to bring to future videocasts. And for those of you that what the Master is saying makes sense, we invite you to participate in the Satsangs, which are these intensive weekend meetings. In the first comment, pinned, there is the WhatsApp link to participate in these meetings.
Master, gratitude, for this videocast.