GC: Hello, everyone! We are here for another videocast, and Master Gualberto is here with us again. Thank you, Master, for being here. Today I'm going to read an excerpt from Joel Goldsmith's book called "A Parenthesis in Eternity." In an excerpt from this book, Master, Joel makes the following comment: "Observing our inner thoughts and feelings, keeping our consciousness aligned through the continuous recognition of God." In this excerpt, Joel Goldsmith talks about observing our thoughts and feelings. Would Master share his vision of what self-investigation is, which Ramana Maharshi called Atma Vichara?
MG: Gilson, Atma Vichara, which is Ramana Maharshi's proposal, the expression "Atma Vichara" means investigating yourself, the direct observation of the Atma, which is this "I." Hence the expression "Atma Vichara." Getting closer to yourself requires looking at your reactions, at what is happening to you. The position of the human being in life is the position of the one who responds to the present moment, to the experience of the present moment, from a background of response and reaction of memory.
At every moment you are asked to give an answer to what is happening here, at this moment. And your way of approaching this moment is usually from thought and feeling, and you are not aware of this process while it is happening. The expression "Atma Vichara," which some translate as "self-inquiry" or "self-investigation" also, I prefer the close, more literal view of it, which is self-observation, which is observing, becoming aware of the "I," of the movement of the "I," at this moment.
So, we are not aware of what is happening to us while the process is present. Thus, every reaction, every response, every answer to this moment, in relation to events, situations, people, including the relation with ourselves, when a thought is present, or a feeling present, or a sensation. Self-inquiry, this self-observation, is becoming aware of yourself, becoming conscious of yourself, of what is happening to you, of what is happening to you at this moment, in this contact with the moment, in this contact with life.
As long as we are merely reacting or expressing a response to this moment in an unconscious and therefore automatic way, without this self-observation, we will maintain the continuity of this ignorance about who we are. This ignorance places us in the space, in the field, in the dimension of the illusion of separation. So, the sense of being someone present in life is to be someone present separate from life; this is the condition of ignorance, and in this condition we do not have the Awareness of God, the Awareness of Truth. And without Truth, we do not have this Freedom, we do not have this Love, this innate Happiness. Here, it is strange, paradoxical also, the fact that in an internal way, in an innate way, we already carry this Freedom, this Love and Happiness, but we do not realize it, because we lack Self-Awareness.
So, we lack this look at ourselves, this self-study, we lack the awareness of what is present at this moment in order to go beyond this unconsciousness, this mechanicalness, this way of acting in life based on the past. The problem with this is that life is happening at this moment and our actions are the actions of repetition, continuity, and permanence of the past. Thus, we never have a true answer for this moment in "my" relation, for example, with my wife, with my husband, with people around me, or "with myself," because there is this illusion of someone who is present, while, actually, I do not know who I am. See, I do not know this aspect of the sense of ego, of person, of personality, and I do not know this Divine Reality, beyond this person, beyond this "I," beyond this ego.
To approach life is to approach yourself, an approach that is possible when you become aware of life happening without the "I." However, to become aware of this life happening without the "I" requires that you first recognize the presence of this "I" through self-observation. This is when, through Self-Awareness, we are able to discard what is present within us, which is illusory, which is this way of thinking that we bring from the past. For example, your way of feeling about people, about events, about yourself, is a learned way of feeling - something from culture, something from society, something within this model of the world.
You don't have a real way of approaching the present moment because you are living within a plan, a program, a mental conditioning, a psychological conditioning. The final result of this is problems, the various difficulties we face and don't know how to deal with, and they end up becoming problems. So, our minds are full of problems. Every type of situation that arises, these situations cannot be dealt with as they need to be dealt with and they turn into problems, due to the absence of this vision of life, which is the vision that Intelligence brings. I refer to this intelligence that is born from Self-Awareness, I refer to this Intelligence for Wisdom, this Intelligence that gives you this vision of God.
We do not know how to respond to life due to the absence of this Intelligence, and if it is not present, our psychological condition is one of confusion, it is the condition of suffering, it is the condition of this illusion of someone present, separate from God, without the Awareness of this Truth, which is the Divine Truth. Here, getting closer to oneself is through Atma Vichara, through this looking, through this observing, through this becoming aware of these present reactions. Note, it is not to correct this, it is just to verify it. Then, a new quality of action arises in this realization - this is when this liberation from the ego, this liberation from the "I" occurs. The vision of Truth is the portal to this Freedom, to this Awareness of the Reality of Love, of Happiness, to the Awareness of this present State, which is here and now, which is the Reality of your Being, which is the Reality of God.
GC: Master, we have a question from a subscriber here on the channel, César, who asks the following question: "How can I discover who I am?"
MG: Gilson, that is exactly what we are discussing here with you. We are, with you, approaching, through this self-investigation, through this self-observation, the answer to this question "Who am I?" So, when you ask: "How do I know who I am?" . By becoming aware of who you are, at this moment! Learning to look at this moment, at what is happening, at what is processing, at each and every reaction, response, inclination, tendency, feeling, emotion, and sensation present; learning to look at this. There is nothing in life as important as this art of self-observation. Self-observation is discovering what it is to look at this "I," learning about it, learning how to deal with thoughts, feelings, and emotions; it is not learning what to do with them. Learning here to deal with this means learning to observe without getting involved with them. The moment you learn to observe your reactions, without getting involved with them, you are beyond them, you transcend them. You in your true nature reveal yourself as something beyond these reactions.
So, the basis for Self-Awareness is this learning about ourselves; this is what reveals this "I," this "Who am I?" There is something present here to be verified. It is something similar to watching a movie. When you're going to watch a movie, you're not going to get involved with the movie, with the scenes, with the episodes, with the events; this is something for the actors, this is something for the characters. All of this is within the movie, all of this is happening because of the presence of the director's idea. You have nothing to do with what happens in the movie, your place is that of a spectator. You are watching the movie, you will watch, you will be a spectator of the movie. Here, there is something to reveal - this something is this movie.
We are the human movie, the movie of humanity; everything that is present in humanity is present in us, everything exactly. Everything that you see in a movie, that is present there, is what we have in humanity, and what we have in humanity is present in each one of us. And we need to look, observe, be a spectator of this, without getting involved. That is when, in fact, we break with the movie, we break with the content of this human movie. Then, there is the flowering of something new, outside of this history of humanity; this is the Awakening of Consciousness, this is the Awakening of God.
The Divine Nature, the Nature of God, the Truth of your Being, is something that is outside of this context of movie. The production of this movie, everything that it contains, is within a context of the human mind, of the egoic mind, of consciousness of separation, of consciousness of duality. The beauty of an encounter with Truth is that Truth liberates, and you encounter Truth when you learn to be a spectator, when you learn to watch, when you discover that everything in the movie is within a dream, an imagination, a creation of thought - of ordinary thought, of human thought, of mental conditioning.
Then, this encounter with Divine Reality is the end of this story, it is the end of this memory, it is the end of this movie, or it is the clear vision of what the film represents. So, at that moment we have the awareness of the truth about this "I." Comprehending the truth of this "I" is becoming aware of something that is beyond the "I," which is this Divine Reality. Some call this "Spiritual Awakening" or "Spiritual Enlightenment," it is when life is present without the history of thought, without the history that thought has constructed. Then, our contact with this moment is a revealing contact. Thus, if your question is how to become aware, how to know, how to have clarity about who "I am": by looking, being a spectator, discovering what this encounter with Meditation is.
That is why we have emphasized the importance of Meditation. We need to discover, in life, what Meditation is. You reach 50, 70, 80 years of age, without approaching this study of yourself, mistaking yourself for the illusion of a present identity, which is the identity of the "I," which is situated in the mental life, which is this life of thought, which is this whole structure of dreams, of films, of human history. So, human beings live in ignorance because they live in illusion, because they lack the art of Meditation, the awareness of this encounter with the Divine Truth. And, here, Meditation is nothing like what people say out there about meditation; here we put the expression Meditation in a new way, too. That is why I have called it "Real Meditation in practice." This is what the presence of Self-Awareness is, of looking at yourself, discovering how you function - this is a real approach to Meditation.
GC: Master, we have another question from another subscriber here on the channel, Leandro makes the following comment and asks: "Master, after activating Kundalini energy, will it repeat itself or does it only happen once?"
MG: Gilson, this is a question - notice the concern people have. We were told about this energy, about this presence that we have within us, and that is dormant. They told us a lot about this so-called "Kundalini," and they told us about this Kundalini Awakening, and the idea people have about this Awakening is that it is an experience. So, we have the idea of Kundalini Awakening as being an experience, an experience that we will have one day. And then questions arise: "And when this experience happens, what will it be like?"
You see, we are here studying with you the Truth of the Awakening of Consciousness, this Awakening of Consciousness - I mean this Divine Consciousness, this Real Consciousness - this Awakening is in itself the Awakening of Kundalini. It is not an experience, it is not something that will happen once and for all, like an experience that someone will have. The flowering of your Natural Divine State is Kundalini Awakening, but it is not an experience for someone. It is exactly when the illusion of that someone, which is this personal consciousness, which is this consciousness of the person, vanishes. That is, the illusion of this present, active, thinking, feeling, acting consciousness ends.
We have, then, the awareness of this illusion. The awareness of this illusion is the end of this illusion, and this is the flowering of Kundalini. This requires a complete emptying, a total emptying of this egoic sense, this sense of separation, this sense of "I." This requires the presence of Self-Awareness, this requires a true approach to Meditation, this requires work. But I say again: it is not an experience, it is not something that is obtained, it is not something that is achieved, it is not something that is conquered, there is no one in it; it is exactly the end of this idea of being someone. This is the Divine Awakening, this is the Awakening of God.
The expression "Kundalini" points to this Presence, to this Real Consciousness, to this Divine Energy available. An Energy that, by the way, in this sense of the ego, of the "I," of this someone, we are constantly wasting in this mental world, in this world of the "I," in this egoic consciousness. Once a work happens - and this work is the work of approaching self-investigation, self-observation -, this brings you closer to Meditation. This reveals to you the power of Meditation, the presence of this Silence, this inner Stillness of the mind and heart. It allows, yes, this power of Divine Presence, which is the Real power of True Meditation, to emerge, to happen.
So, yes, there comes the Awakening of God, the Real Kundalini Awakening, but talking about Kundalini as an experience or as something that a person has to go through, or needs to go through, is an illusion. That which is Real Consciousness is True Kundalini, because Kundalini is synonymous with Real Consciousness. In turn, this is synonymous with Spiritual Awakening, with Spiritual Enlightenment. We have, Gilson, here on the channel, a playlist about this, about the Kundalini Awakening. Becoming Aware of the Truth about yourself is assuming the Truth of what this Awareness of God is, this is Kundalini Awakening. When this happens, the sense of separation, of egoic identity, vanishes, then suffering ends, because the illusion of this sense of separation is no longer present. Then, we have the Reality of God, we have the Divine Reality. This is what we are working on here with you, deepening here, with you.
GC: Thank you, Master, our time is now up; thank you for this videocast. And for those of you who are watching the videocast until the end and want to delve deeper into this knowledge, we invite you to participate in the meetings that Master Gualberto offers. These are online weekend meetings; there are also in-person meetings, including retreats. These meetings are much more profound than the videos here on YouTube, because in the meetings the Master answers our questions directly, and much more than that: the Master shares this state of Presence in which he lives, and in this sharing, we end up taking a ride on this Silence, this Grace and this Power. And this is an incredible facilitator for us to know ourselves, so that we can comprehend what is beyond intellectual comprehension.
So, the invitation is in the first comment, pinned, with the WhatsApp link to participate in these meetings. Go ahead and 'like' the video, leave a comment with questions for us to bring to the next videocasts, and if you are not subscribed to the channel, please, do it. And once again, Master, thank you for the videocast.
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