GC: Hello, everyone! We're here for another videocast. Master Gualberto is with us again. Thank you, Master, for being here. Today, I'm going to read an excerpt from Joel Goldsmith's book "A Parenthesis in Eternity." In an excerpt from that book, Master, Joel makes the following comment: "No image that can be conceived in the mind will ever be God." Regarding this subject of images created in the mind, can you share your perspective on what self-image is?
MG: Gilson, basically, fundamentally, the mind works with images. The thought within us is the basis for these images. When you have a thought, you have a mental picture. The presence of this thought is the presence of an image that thought is establishing within you about that given thing. Here, your question is about the image of God and self-image. Every idea we have about God can be nothing other than an image. This image is not reality, just as no image you have of something is actually that thing, the thing itself.
So, here we are faced with something fundamental to comprehend. In general, we live in the realm of ideas. Ideas are basically abstractions. When you remember your husband, your wife, your children, your family, what you have is a photograph, a mental picture, an image; the presence of this family in this picture is an abstraction. What you see and reproduce is an image. Otherwise, there would be no thought, no idea.
Thus, we are stuck in this old movement of mental abstraction when we are dealing only with thoughts. Your thought about God is the particular thought you have. Now, we need to comprehend, first, before this awareness of the Reality of God, which we are seeing here and now that we do not have, that what we have is an abstraction, it is an image, and this image is not God; this image is a mental concept. Therefore, before having real contact with Reality, with Truth, with this awareness of God, we must first discover who this element is within each of us, the one that forms images, develops thoughts, and deals with mental pictures. This element is the "I."
And what is this "I"? This "I" is also an image. Every thought you have about yourself is an image. Self-image is what thought constructs about itself. The presence of this "I" is the presence of thought in this self-image. You are not this self-image, just as God is not the image that thought has, that this own self-image, which is this "I," has constructed. We need to free ourselves from this self-image, just as we need to free ourselves from this image of God.
The God constructed by thought is the image thought has, the abstraction thought creates. We spend our entire lives immersed in belief in God. Belief in God, like non-belief in God, is something that depends on the "I," which depends on this self-image. If I want to believe, I believe. If I don't want to believe, I don't believe. This wanting or not wanting is a volitional act of the "I" itself: if it has the willingness to believe, it believes; if it doesn't have the willingness, it doesn't believe. In the realm of belief, we are dealing with images. In this realm of beliefs, what is present are abstractions. We are not dealing with Reality; we are merely engaged with thought.
And what is thought? This is a fundamental question. Thought within us is the presence of a memory, a recollection, a remembrance; it is merely a mental representational frame that comes from the past. Any image you have - whether about God, or about yourself, or about others, or about life, or situations, events, incidents, accidents - is something that arises due to the presence of thought, and this thought is merely memory, remembrance, recollection. Therefore, you have the reference of your wife's or husband's face because you have already encountered him or her. The presence of this memory is the presence of this image that comes from the past. But what about the remembrance of God? Who has ever seen the face of God? Is it an image? Is it a mental representation? Is it an idea? Is it a thought? Can all of this show us Reality, the Truth about God? Or are we faced with what thought is imagining, shaping?
There is a present Reality, but this Reality is beyond thought, beyond image. What we have emphasized here is that you, as this self-image, cannot be aware of the Reality of God. Unless you free yourself from your own self-image, you
will never be aware of the Reality of God, which is not an image. The nature of the Truth about You is not an image; the nature of the Truth about God is not a thought. Can we, in this life, assume the Reality of That which we truly are, when there is no such self-image? Can we be fully aware of the Reality of God, without the vision that thought constructs, the imagination it establishes? That is the question.
Contact with life is contact with God, but a self-image, which is the person, this "me," this ego, which is the idea you have of yourself, cannot have this contact. The presence of this contact is communion: there is no separation in it. Your contact with life, your contact with God, is the Reality of God revealing itself. It reveals itself when self-image is gone, when the "I" disappears, when thought ceases, when the past no longer exists.
This is what we are seeing here: the possibility of this Realization of the Truth about God, the end of this image, of this self-image. We have several videos on the channel talking about this self-image, about you and self-image; there is a playlist here on the channel. Okay?
GC: Master, we have a question from a subscriber here on the channel. Neuza made the following comment and asked: "Master, this idea that I am someone is so strong. How to let go of the image I have of myself?"
MG: Your question is: "How to let go of this image?" This image you form of yourself, that you have of yourself. This image is the presence of thought. Let go of thought! Each and every thought you have. Here, the first point is to clearly comprehend what thought is. We cannot, theoretically, intellectually, have an idea about it; we need to be aware of it, in this moment, of how thought happens, how it occurs. So, what is thought here? The image that thought has created about you, is creating about you, is establishing about you, here and now.
When you are offended, there is an element present that makes you angry, upset, frustrated, disappointed with the other: this element is self-image. You ask, "How can I get rid of self-image?" Be aware! Have, in this moment, the clarity of this experience; don't place the experiencer within the experience.
As you approach this moment, you see the irritation, the anger, the annoyance, the revolt. Be with this, look! Look without self-defense, look without reaction. Look at this state, now, here, present. It's a state!
In this moment, the self-image is being wounded, pricked, touched. Become aware of this reaction. Look at this reaction, without reacting, without getting involved. When this is present, when this is done, we have the end of self-image. It is not by a positive movement of the mind that you free yourself from the mind, but by becoming aware of the movement of the mind itself in this moment.
Truth Liberates. The comprehension of the Truth present here, in this moment, without separation between this "I" that wants to protect oneself, that wants to defend oneself, that wants to safeguard oneself. The presence of this awareness, this perception, without the "I" itself, is the end of self-image. The real comprehension of thought occurs the moment it is seen, and it can only be seen without the observer, without the thinker, without this experiencer, without this "I." But the way we deal with experience, in general, is always from the perspective of the observer, the thinker, the experiencer, this element that is defending and protecting this self-image.
This is why we have emphasized here the importance of attention over our reactions. The presence of attention brings the vision of Self-awareness: this vision of Self-awareness liberates. Becoming aware of these reactions is the end of this movement that is always coming from the past to maintain its continuity in this self-defense. It is the presence of Self-awareness that brings the awareness of Meditation. This is how we approach Wisdom, Liberation, Freedom, the end of the "I," the end of the ego. However, this requires a new look at these reactions when they arise, due to the challenge that is emerging at this moment.
When someone praises you, you love, you appreciate that. Because of this inattention, we are constantly cultivating self-image for pleasure. We want to rid ourselves of this self-image when it produces pain, but we are, in fact, facing the same game. Free yourself from pleasure, free yourself from pain, free yourself from this psychological condition of defending your self-image, or of the pleasure and comfort one feels, the comfort one gets when one is loved, accepted, and praised. Free yourself from the "I," free yourself from the ego. That's what we're exploring together here.
I invite you to participate in online meetings. There's something within online meetings that you don't experience in these videos: the presence of something much greater for this contact with the Truth of this Being, this Divine Reality. So, participate, come closer. Okay?
GC: Master, we have another question from another subscriber here on the channel. João Alberto asks the following question: "Master, how does the ego hide in spirituality?"
MG: The ego hides in spirituality maintaining the continuity of the values of its beliefs, theories, concepts, and conclusions. When we have a set of words, we have a basis for this or that idea. Something this ego does, this self-image does, is protect this idea or set of ideas. It hides behind words, conclusions, and beliefs. Divine Reality, Real Spirituality is not in spirituality as thought imagines spirituality to be, the idea or set of ideas about spirituality. There is nothing truly spiritual about this. We are faced with merely a movement of beliefs.
Divine Reality is not in the realm of beliefs, thoughts, and ideas. Divine Reality, that which is truly spiritual, is outside the known; the mind cannot grasp it. Everything we have been taught about spirituality, we learned because we intellectually stored words, thoughts, beliefs, and ideas about it. We know nothing about what is spiritual. And the point is that the presence of the "I," of the ego, will never reach the Reality of That which is Divine, of That which is Real, of That which is Spiritual.
Most people spend their entire lives involved in religious practices, within organized religions, without the slightest notion of what they are doing. They are merely maintaining the continuity of the "I," the ego itself, in their beliefs, in their studies, in their learning. There is an exaggeration, an excessive valuing of the intellect, in this format of intellect conditioned for studies, and the more you read, the more you study, the more intellectual you become. Behind this intellectuality lies a pride, an unconsciousness: the unconscious pride to know, of understanding. The feeling in the "I," the feeling in the ego, is that you have information. No, no... More than that: you have knowledge. The presence of this knowledge brings you, unconsciously, a pride in knowing what others don't know, or in knowing a little more than others understand very little.
Here we are faced with a game of the "I" itself, of the ego itself in its pride, vanity, and presumption. We have no awareness of this game because there is no separation between this game and ourselves. There is no separation between the one who experiences and what they experience. There is no Real consciousness, no Real vision, no Real presence for the awareness of what is happening. Thus, life in the ego is a life of lies. The mind within us unconsciously carries all this behavior, creating the illusion of a feeling that it is going somewhere, that we are evolving, growing, expanding, deepening. What we are witnessing is the formation of an intellect increasingly conditioned, more imprisoned by its beliefs, evaluations, and conclusions. And the reality of this is intellectual presumption, pride of knowing, vanity.
Looking at our reactions, going beyond this psychological condition of the "I," does not require theoretical study of books. You need to learn to look at what is present, at what is shown here. It is your book that you need to read. It's the vision of the mind, the awareness of how it happens within you, the comprehension of ourselves, the reality of what we are. It's the end of this psychological condition of ego-identity. So, yes, we are facing something indescribable, which is the Presence of Reality, which is beyond the ego, which is beyond the "I."
We will never have a vision of Wisdom from intellectual studies, books, or mystical or so-called "spiritual" or "esoteric" experiences. The Awakening of Intelligence that arises with the Truth about this comprehension of ourselves, which is Self-awareness, is the door that opens up to Wisdom, to the Real Vision of God. It's the presence of Self-awareness, the awareness of this emptying of all this psychological content, the comprehension of this book, the end of this image of someone present - even the end of this illusion of someone spiritual or spiritualized. It's the presence of Meditation that makes this possible.
GC: Thank you, Master, we've already reached the end of our time. Thank you for this videocast. And for those of you who are following along and truly desire to experience these truths, we invite you to participate in the meetings that Master Gualberto offers. These are intensive weekend meetings that take place online. There are also in-person meetings, including retreats. In these meetings, besides the Master answering our questions directly, something much more powerful and profound happens: because the Master already lives in this Awakened State of Consciousness, He shares a field of Presence that is pure Power, Energy, and Grace. And in these meetings, we are carried by Master's energy field; and by taking this ride, in this Master's presence, we spontaneously enter a meditative state, silence our minds, and can have insight and comprehension beyond all intellectual limitations.
So, here is the invitation! In the first pinned comment, you'll find the WhatsApp link to participate in these meetings. And Master, once again, thank you for the videocast.
