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 “Living the Infinite Way.” In an excerpt from this book Master, Joel makes the following comment: “The ultimate in meditation is a state of complete inner silence.” Master, can you give your vision of what meditation is?
MG: Very good. Meditation, Gilson, is the absence of the sense of an identity present in experience. Now, some clarifications are needed here. It cannot be the result, you see, of a practice. We momentarily achieve, through a technique or practice, a certain relaxation of the body and mind, a certain stillness of thoughts – and, naturally, the brain calms down –, and, in that moment, it is possible to experience a moment of peace, of silence, stillness. This type of technique that people use out there, practice, is exactly to obtain what we have just mentioned here
Here, when we talk to you about the matter of Meditation, we are not talking about that, because we can achieve a certain stillness, a certain relaxation. The mind becomes still, thoughts become still… So at a certain time, for ten minutes, fifteen or half an hour, [we] can get that. But soon we have to get out of that practice, because we have to take the child to school, we have to work, we have to take care of our husband, wife, children, family, we have to work... You can't live there in that state. So, this does not refer to the Truth of Meditation. This refers to a technique or practice that temporarily brings you into a state of relaxation. This is great, from a health point of view: it de-stresses, tranquilizes, calms…
However, Self-Realization or the Realization of Truth does not consist of something that is obtained through a technique or a practice, because when the ego becomes quiet or silent, it is only still and silent, but then it stirs again, soon after it gets agitated again and follows its course. The work of Realization of God, of Realization of Truth, is something that is revealed when there is awareness of Meditation, and not a meditation practice.
I have differentiated, Gilson, these moments where people practice meditation from the Natural State that reveals itself when, in this instant, in a practical way, Meditation takes over Its space, takes Its place. There is a difference between practicing meditation and being naturally in your Natural State, which is Meditation, in an experiential way, in the relationship with others, in the relationship with life, with work, with people, with family, with oneself thoughts that arise, the feelings that appear... This is the awareness of the Truth of Meditation in a practical way, in life, in everyday life.
So, Meditation is not this silence. This silence, Gilson, can be obtained – as people are obtaining in these techniques or practices – through a technique, a practice of silencing, of self-silencing, which consists of a state that is still hypnotic, that is, a state that is still asleep, in which the person still remains a little alert, a little conscious, with only the egoic mind appeased, quieted, but this state is something similar to a state of self-hypnosis. This does not bring Self-realization; this is a technical meditation that a person induces himself to achieve or obtain a certain state. But nothing you can get, you can hold. There is nothing, Gilson, that you can get that you won't lose. Everything we get is just a matter of time for it to go away. There is nothing in life you can get that you won't lose.
Divine Realization, God Realization, is not something that you obtain, it is something that you verify, that is already present. It is not something that someone achieves, that someone obtains and that someone sustains. Meditation techniques are to obtain something, they are always to obtain something: peace, tranquility, relaxation. Even to fulfill purposes and desires, people practice this so-called “meditation.” And here, the Truth of Meditation is the overflow of your Natural Divine State, where there is Presence, where there is Consciousness. This is something that only becomes possible when there is the presence of Self-awareness. And this Self-awareness is the contact with experience right now: talking, working, driving the car, dealing with family, business, people...
When there is an understanding of the truth, of the revelation of the present duality, which is this sense of an identity present in experience, the verification of this is Self-awareness. And when there is Self-knowledge as a basis, we have the possibility of seeing the Truth about Meditation revealing itself here, in this moment. So, Meditation is moment to moment, Meditation is in this moment, Meditation is now. Becoming aware of the truth of what is happening here, without the illusion of a present identity separating oneself from life, separating oneself from the other, separating oneself from oneself, separating oneself from God, is Self-awareness. When there is this vision of Self-awareness... This requires attention to this moment, which, in the ego, the human being is unaware of. This Attention is the basis, together with Self-awareness, for the revelation of what Meditation is, which is the revelation, I repeat, of your Natural State, which is present in this moment.
So, this is the real way of approaching Meditation. Anything else is technical, it is something therapeutic, it is something that helps, it is something that relaxes, calms, can give you some experiences, also extraphysical, so-called “spiritual” … These spiritual, extraphysical experiences are still experiences in the field of mind, are still within the model of the known, while the Truth of Meditation reveals that which is nameless, indescribable, unknown and, therefore, not part of any experience. It’s not something you can deal with by being “someone” within that moment and reserving that memory as an experience. Because experiences are like that: you go through them and you reserve, keep, have memories of something, that is, it is still within the known.
Meditation is present when the sense of “I,” of the ego, of everything that the mind constructs, is no longer there; or you can see it, or memorize it, or keep it as an experience, it is no longer there. So, Meditation is something indescribable, it is present and possible when the ego is not there. It is a fascinating subject, because the most important thing in life is the art of Being. The art of Being is the art of Life free from the sense of a present identity, which is this sense of an “I” present in living, in contact with everything around you. This is Meditation! So, you can achieve everything in life, but without the Realization of your Being, which is the Revelation of Meditation, which is the Realization of your Natural State of Meditation, you can achieve everything in life, but you remain lost in this so-called dream “life,” still centered on this “I,” on this ego and, therefore, still in complications, still in difficulties, still in suffering.
GC: This vision that the Master brings about Meditation is also very revolutionary, like the Master’s other speeches. I remember the first time I had this approach to the video on the Master's YouTube channel, the Master bringing this innovative vision about Meditation every moment... I just know that I was perplexed like this: “Wow!”, because I, exactly, practiced. I would go there, sit in my little room, close my eyes, cross my legs and do a meditation practice. And, in fact, as the Master exemplifies, I had a stillness, I felt a peace, I had some experiences, but, in practice, on a daily basis, soon I was there with the wife, with the children – I have two small children – it was a bit stressful… I used to tell them: “Dad has to meditate!” and ran to the meditation room. And then, with this speech from the Master, it became very clear what an escape it was! There was no Meditation! I was in “therapeutic meditation,” because I wanted to escape life as it appeared, to stay in my little corner, quiet.
MG: Gilson, I even understand why people turn to meditation. They turn because they are really stressed, distressed, with problems, restless, with a chatty mind, loaded with various internal problems: anxiety, anguish, depression. So, a therapeutic technique helps to quiet the brain, calm the nervous system. In this sense, the therapeutic technique of meditation is quite reasonable, but this has nothing to do with what the Sages of ancient India, China and Japan, in the East, have been talking about for millennia. It has nothing to do with what we know here in the West as meditation practices.
Meditation is the revelation of your Being, which is non-dual, it is the awareness of a single present Reality, which is not separate from all manifestations. The awareness of this – because there is no such separation – is the end of human suffering, this is the end of illusion, it is the end of ignorance. So, the Truth of Meditation is the flourishing of Wisdom, Freedom, Real Love, Real Happiness. In general, I use the expression “Real” to differentiate from what thought has built around this idea of happiness, peace, love, because it has nothing to do with that.
The Truth of your Being, the Truth of What You Are, is Meditation, because it is the absence of that time that thought has constructed. So, there is a quality of Being present that is beyond anything that thought can construct, can imagine, can idealize. People have some moments of stillness and silence, in fact a silence and stillness that they impose on themselves through a technique, which they confuse with this Silence, because really, in that moment there, the person is de-stressed, they are calm, tranquil… They confuse this with Meditation, and it’s not! The point is this: it's not that!
Meditation is something that transcends everything that thought can construct, can imagine, idealize, or that thought can remember. The Reality of What we are, in our Natural State of Being, is Meditation. This is the absence of the known. So, it is not about this so-called “silence” that thought has constructed, or thinks about, or imagines. It's not about this peace, this tranquility, this de-stressed state. It's not that! It is your Natural State of Being, a State capable of dealing with life as it appears moment to moment, but without the illusion of an identity in control, as being the thinker, the experiencer, the manager of situations. All this dissolves, all this disappears, when your Natural ego-free State is present, which is Meditation. OK? That´s it.
GC: Master, that's exactly what happened. In meditation, I entered into a different state of consciousness, where there was a lightness, a “pseudo peace,” but, of course, I ended the meditation and then that was over. And then, this thought came: “I have to meditate to be in that experience again, to be in that peace.” And then, this vision that the Master brings destroys this matter of this practice. And about that, Master, we have a question here, from a subscriber to the channel. He makes the following comment: “Good evening. I think it is very important to record video with the practice of Real Meditation.”
MG: Gilson, all our statements point to a single thing: the Reality of this Being that is outside of what is known, this Divine Reality, which is the nature of each one of us, outside of the time that thought has been constructed. This is Meditation! So, our whole talk points to one thing: to the Natural State of Being, which is Meditation. We are only talking about the Divine Reality, the Reality of God. This Reality is present when Meditation flourishes. So, everything we have said in these videos, in these statements, points to something outside the known.
See, here we are dealing with you, dealing with you, signaling to you the illusion of the known, of what Meditation is not. I cannot describe to you the Reality of Meditation, because It is nameless, indescribable. I cannot describe to you the Reality of God, that is complete nonsense! A thought would try to do something about it, but the Reality of God is not a matter for thought. Here, what we are dealing with is the end of illusion. It is about illusion that we are dealing with, the discarding of illusion, because the Reality of God already shows itself when there is no longer any illusion. The Reality of Meditation shows itself when there is no longer the illusion of an identity that sees itself in time and space, doing its deeds and accomplishing its things and seeking what it wants.
The end to this continuity of the ego, to this continuity of the “I,” of all the illusion that this “I,” this “me,” represents, the discarding of this is Self-awareness, the discarding of this is already Meditation in practice. So, people ask for a technique, like now, here. There is no technique! You can find this technique when searching on YouTube – meditation techniques and practices –, but this does not give Realization, it does not bring Realization, it does not reveal Realization, it does not reveal the definitive end to suffering. The definitive end to suffering is the end of illusion, it is the end of an identity present in experience, separating itself through desires, reasons and motives, seeking things to complete itself. The end of the illusion of this identity is the end of desire, fear and complications that thought constructs for this supposed present entity.
So, this is the end of the contradiction of desires, this is the end of this illusion of an identity to safeguard itself, to get rid of something that could harm itself; this is the end of fear. See, it's the end of desire, it's the end of fear, it's the end of suffering, it's the end of illusion, it's the end of the idea of “someone” being there to achieve things or get rid of things. So, here we always deal with you about the truth of Meditation in a practical way, because we are talking, Gilson, about only one thing: the end of illusion, since we cannot describe that which is indescribable, unnamable.
Our work consists of discarding illusion, because we cannot bring God's Truth to this moment. See, we can't reach God in the future, we can't bring Him to this moment. All we can and need to do is become aware of the illusion of an identity that sees itself in time and space, within a conditioning model of human history of thought. To free yourself from this is to become aware of That which is already here. What is already here is the revelation of the only present Reality, which is God, which is Being, which is Consciousness, which is the Nameless – we can give it several names – which is the Natural State of Meditation. So, there are several names for this Natural State of Being, which is pure Consciousness, which is Meditation, and this is seen here at this moment, when the “I,” the ego, is not there.
So, our work here, Gilson, is to investigate the structure of illusion, the basis of illusion, the nature of illusion. This is already the discarding of this illusion, so that That, which is present, can show itself. So, Meditation is something natural, which is present when the “I,” the ego, is not.
GC: Master, in your speech you touched on the word “Self-awareness.” Could the Master talk a little more about this term “Self-awareness,” with this vision that the Master has… Because as I knew it, it is always this “knowing oneself” analyzing oneself, reflecting on it, and this vision that the Master brings is exactly this investigation of this illusion, but not wanting to analyze, reflect on it. Can the Master talk a little more about Self-awareness?
MG: Gilson, Self-awareness, the truth of Self-awareness... See, the truth of Self-awareness is not an entity, which is the “I,” knowing itself, it is the mind aware of its own movement. When the mind becomes aware of its own movement, something new arises. This something new is the end of this egoic mind and the emergence of a New Mind, a New State of Being outside the “I,” outside the ego. So, the Truth of Self-awareness is the discarding of this “I” to know itself. If you go deeply into the investigation of the nature of the “I,” do you know what you find? That this “I” is not real! A direct look at the movement of the “I” is to perceive this duality between this observer and what he is observing. The observer is this “I” wanting to do something with what he is seeing.
So, let's put this here quickly for you. When a thought arises, see, illusion... I'll just give you one example. We have to investigate, explore this a lot. When a thought arises, the idea we already carry is that this thought is being produced by someone. We do not realize that this thought is just a memory reaction to a stimulus, whether external or internal, but we place an identity, which is the illusory identity, which is the thinker, which is “someone.” So much so that we say: “I'm thinking about it.” The truth is that the thought is there, yes, about that, but it's not like anyone is thinking. That is a memory response, a reaction, that comes from the past.
What Self-awareness gives us is a look so that we perceive this game, which is this “I,” which is the thinker, separating itself from thought and thinking that it is in control of it. So, a look free from the observer is a gaze where you are free from what is being observed and from the observer. This look discards the sense of ego within the present moment. This is Self-awareness, this is the basis for True Meditation. So, we discard duality – the observer, who is the thinker, and the thing observed, which is thought – when we learn the art of looking: looking without “someone” seeing.
There is a difference between seeing and looking. None of this, Gilson, we learned in childhood. We need to investigate and learn this art of being Pure Consciousness, free from an identity present in this egoic consciousness. We need to discover what a look free from “someone” seeing is. When we say “I like,” “I don’t like,” we can only say it from a viewpoint of “someone”! I'm giving an example: “I like that thought”; “No, I do not like it”; “I don’t like these memories”; or “These memories are really good!” This is the presence exactly of the “I” separating itself from the experience, which, in this case, is the thought of liking or not liking. In this game, we are trapped in the illusion of a present identity.
Thought gives us the illusion that we are the thinkers and the controllers of thought experiences, or feelings, or emotions, or actions. And all of this is discarded when we learn to look without the observer, to perceive without the perceiver, to be in the experience without the experiencer. Then, we are faced with something new, indescribable, unnamable, that thought cannot capture. So, this is the awareness of Meditation, this is the awareness of Being, this is the awareness of Real Consciousness in us, free from this problematic, conflicting, complex, traumatized element, which moves in a time that thought constructs. I refer to this ego, always with the intention of achieving or getting rid of, of obtaining… which is always moving in this psychological condition, which is, basically, problems, suffering, dissatisfaction. That's it basically.
GC: Master, our time has already ended.
For those of you who are watching the videocast and what the Master is sharing makes sense, we invite you to come to the Satsangs. These are these intensive meetings with the Master, where, throughout the entire weekend, the Master is available, sharing this State of Presence, to lead us to this investigation of this illusory nature. And in addition to weekend online meetings, there are also in-person meetings, including retreats. So, here's the invitation. In the first comment, pinned, there will be the WhatsApp link for information about the meetings and, also, go ahead and leave a “like,” make a comment asking questions, and see you in Satsang and in the next videos.
Master, gratitude.
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