Beyond all questions and answers

Today I can talk to you about something very familiar to me in these last years, which is the Freedom of this Natural State. Real Liberation is seeing without the sense of separation. It is being free of the illusion thought builds and sustains about life, about everything that presents itself. Liberation is the end of this illusion! This is what attracts you to Satsang. There is something about you that clearly perceives that the mind-built world is not real, and that brings you to this meeting. You can already detect there is something wrong with this notion of “individual”, of “person”, of a separate “identity”. It is not a matter of becoming free, but of recognizing the Truth about yourself. So, this matter of Liberation is essential to you.

There is no longer any quality of story that could justify to you the existence of this separate “entity”, of this “individual”. You are losing interest in this story! All those who are clearly seeing all this, they are always saying the same thing: your world is a “dream”. Then, “awakening” becomes the only thing that matters to you. What I have to tell you is that, indeed, there is no “person”. Your suspicion about that is confirmed here, in this meeting.

I am here just to help you to doubt everything you believe or have believed until now. There is no “person” who has a life or who has created one´s own reality. There is no birth, death or time. Mind lives in a world within time and space, of cause and effect, which is an imaginary world created by thought. I am here to help you to continue doubting all this. So, the Awakening of Intelligence is possible. What I just called Liberation – the Liberation from the illusion of this “person”, of this separate “entity”, of this “me”. The only Real thing that matters is You in your True Nature.

However, mind loves its own imagination, it enjoys being distracted with its own created matters to search for the answers afterwards. So, mind makes the problem as well as the solution. It loves this entertainment! For example, mind asks: “What is the meaning of life?”, “Why am I here?”, “Where did I come from?” Then, it starts to explain all this! In other words, it will find an answer to this in philosophy, psychology or religion, things that mind itself has invented! So, it thinks it is smart, feels proud, important, wise, because it found an answer.

In this sense, mind finds answers to its own questions and calls that wisdom, religion, philosophy, spirituality… This has nothing to do with Real Intelligence, Liberation. In fact, the more intelligent a person is, the more slave one is! Mind establishes itself within its vanity, its proud, its knowledge, its experience. Does it make any sense? If, for example, you are here at this meeting looking for answers to your questions, the only thing I have to tell you is that they do not exist! Every answer is still part of the illusion of the question. The question is an illusion and the answer is just its confirmation.

When there is Liberation, there are no questions and answers! When Real Liberation is present, questions and answers disappear, just as the very own “questioner”. There is no thought about this nor any explanation! This is a “non-knowing”, “non-understanding”. Liberation is “death”! You know that when we use the expression “death”, we are talking about the end, the disappearance of something. If you meet “someone who has died”, it is because he/she has not die! It is just a ghost, an illusion, a creation of imagination, something that thought does very well. An example very close to you is that sense of “me”, this “me” that you feel you are. This is a ghost. It is “dead”. It cannot appear. It is not real!

This perception of Reality, of non-duality, has nothing to do with experiences. Liberation is a complete change in all of your paradigms. This does not match any experience you can describe, explain. It is not something transpersonal, transcendent, nor would it come through the contact with superior worlds. It is nothing like that, because there is no experiencer! These phenomena are happening in a “dream” where anything is possible due to the huge variety of things that can be created by the mind. Do you know what I mean?

So, despite of any experience you have, this sense of separation, this fear, this confusion, these questions will always be present, and new questions will appear after new answers. Mind will always ask questions after answering the first questions it had asked. Do you understand that? It never ends! The more intelligent the person is, the more answers one has and the more are the questions too. Thus, one becomes a person who can explain everything. One knows astrology, numerology, philosophy, religion, spirituality, Advaita Vedanta… One even knows what the words of Buddha, Jesus and Ramana mean. Does it inspire or discourage you?

Mind work like a top, spinning around itself, on its own axis. It is endless this story about Advaita Vedanta, spiritual philosophy, esotericism, astrology, numerology, philosophy, all that never ends! And there is the “person”, strong, firm, decided, learning more and more, and having new experiences. Do you know what I mean? So, there comes a time when you get tired of it, start to suspect you are going in circles as a spinning top. Some call this “doubting” as “Awakening of the dream”. I like that expression!

The Truth is that there is no mind. There is only the phenomenon of thought. Many of you believe you have a mind, because thoughts come up. However, this is also just a belief created by thought itself.

I hope you go to sleep tonight thinking this is quite funny. “This” that I am saying are your beliefs. Shall we stop here? Namaste.

*Online meeting transcription, originally held on November 19th, 2019 – For more information about our meetings, click here.

The Truth beyond words, definitions and concepts

Here we are in one more moment, in which what matters least are the words, as we have always said. Although these words are coming from this Silence, in this sense they are somehow important, but only as a result of this Silence. The mind feeds itself with words. The ego, whose base is in the known, loves words, and knowledge is this platform that sustains all this movement. Truth is not knowledge. It is only Truth. Whenever there is definition of Truth, we are no longer with the Truth, but with concepts, ideas and beliefs about it.

In these meetings, like any other meeting, whether through Paltalk or in person, we use speech, but there is something bigger than speech, What makes real work possible. Intellectually, words can entertain, generate admiration and even bring a certain satisfaction of pleasure. Every sensory experience is like this: seeing colors is pleasant for the eyes; touching objects is pleasant or painful for the sense of touch; hearing sounds can be pleasant or painful. Some words can bring a certain pleasure and inner fulfillment, but they are just words. Truth has nothing to do with words.

You can really spend years studying, as you just said that for years you have studied Gnosis and have asked if it was all useless. However, we cannot transform theory into practice in this field of Realization. Theory remains just theory. In Satsang, we deal with something else, which is the possibility of unlearning, of the abandonment of all beliefs, theories, ideas, practices and all concepts. In Satsang, we are dealing with this "I Am" - the non-conceptual "I Am", That which is not an idea either. We are talking about this Reality outside words and concepts.

For a few brief moments, you can have a glimpse of It, whether you are in meditation practice or not. Nevertheless, neither meditation practice or any other method can bring This to you in a definitive way. The establishment of this State does not come from practices, from techniques. The intellectual study of That is the farthest, the most distant thing from This. Realization is the "ripe fruit" of the "tree", when Consciousness, which is that Real Presence, assumes its place. So, this Realization is your Natural State, but in It there is not you, it is only Realization.

However, in this Natural State, there is no this "you" that you believe to be; There is You, of Whom you know nothing about and will never know anything, because when this Realization happens, the one you believe to be is not present. This is the result of a work, not of a practice, a technique, a method, a system of study. This is the surrender of that sense of separateness, a total action of Grace, of this same Presence, of this same Consciousness, of this same Reality - the work is totally of the Grace. In this sense, the Guru is fundamental, because the Guru is not an entity separate from that Grace, that Presence, that Reality. The Guru is that ripe fruit, is the Presence of Grace, the Grace in the form. This sounds very strange for the dualistic mind, especially for the one born in the West.

The figure of the priest, of the pastor, the rabbi, the religious leader is always a figure of authority, of “someone” separate, like a tutor, a teacher. But a Guru is not a teacher, not a tutor, not a separate entity. I speak of the Guru, the unique Guru. The Guru is this Presence, this Consciousness, which can assume a human form, but that is not a separate entity. The separateness is a mental illusion. It is the mind that creates the “separate figure” of authority, in the figure of the tutor, the teacher, the Guru.

We are talking about an internal Presence, which is simultaneously external, which interpenetrates all and everything. There is no separation between you, in your Real Nature, and the Master, the Guru, the Presence, the Consciousness, the Grace, the Truth. What I speak to you today, I speak from my experience here, from the standpoint of the contact with Bhagavan, Sri Ramana Maharshi. There is something present in this Presence ... There is something real, functional and that makes all this work happen.

There is only You! You are the Guru! You are the Master! You are Consciousness! I am not talking about those thoughts, feelings, and sensations that happen to you, because those only pass through you, but they are not you in your Real Nature. You are the same Guru who appears outside, for when the disciple is ready (which is the internal Guru ready) the Master (who is the external Guru) appears, without any separation. It is through the Grace of the Guru that this work takes place. Today I am here sharing with you what this Grace, the Grace of my Guru brought to this mechanism called Marcos Gualberto: this Liberation, the Consciousness of "I Am". This "I Am" is "What He Is", and "What He Is" is What You Are, which is What I Am.

All sense of separation has dissolved, has collapsed. There is no more conflict and there is no more fear; there is no longer the illusion of someone in the experience of the world, and of a world separate from someone. You were born to realize This, this non-separation between you, God and the world. This non-separation is the awareness of that Consciousness. It is the Consciousness of this Reality. It is the awareness of this Presence.

Your Real Nature is Love, Peace, Truth, Silence. It is Consciousness, is God. This is not conceptual, this is not verbal and not a belief. The time for you has come to let go of all beliefs, all concepts and theories about it. The invitation to face-to-face Satsang is an invitation to a real work in this direction, to abandon all concepts, theories, talks people in general listen to, besides all the books and words. There comes a time in your life when you realize you cannot remain with beliefs, theories, and concepts. There are thousands and thousands of techniques and works, all promising certain harmonization, pacification of the mind, and a certain silence and balance. That is not what we are talking about in Satsang. We are talking about the end of the sense of separation, the awakening of wisdom, of this Self-Realization, this completeness of your Real Nature.

The speech in this meeting, in this space does not serve this purpose, for it is just another set of words being said as a warning about the no need of words. This is like a trumpet blast, in which you listen to the trumpet and take a certain action, not getting attached to the blast itself. The purpose of the trumpet blast is to move you to a certain action. So, the "trumpet call", which is this speech here, is for you to go beyond it. This is only possible in face-to-face Satsang before a living Master, the one who no longer lives in that sense of separateness.

A Master appeared in my life in 1986. From 1986 to 2007 a work took place here, a period when I would go in and out of this State of Silence, but that would not be already the final settlement, the completion of this work in this organism, in this mechanism, in this “machine”. The conclusion only happened in the year of 2007, on that night of June 2007. Along all these years, a work was happening here, happened here in this mechanism, in this machine, all for His Grace, through a very direct contact. I cannot find the right words to explain it... there are no words to explain it.

There is no way to realize This without this Grace, without the power of this Presence (the Grace of Sri Ramana Maharshi, the Sage of Arunachala, Jai, Jai, Jai Gurudeva, for His divine and inexplicable compassion). Only in the eyes of God it is possible to see God. Only through the eyes of God it is possible to have the eyes of God, what in India they call Darshan, the look of the Guru. The look of God is that look of the Guru, of Presence, of Grace; the Grace in Its look. It is the Guru's compassion, this love of His/Her divine Presence that makes the devotee's heart blossom towards the very own recognition there is no separation between the devotee and the Guru. Tonight, in this meeting, we have this moment of Grace, of Silence, of Presence, but words cannot express That. The reality is that this Presence is still alive. On the night of April 14, 1950, my Guru left the human form. Nisargaddata died of cancer; Ramana Maharshi died of cancer too, and Jesus, on the cross. However, this Presence is not the form, It is not within the time of death, but beyond the name and form; It is not Indian, Jewish or Brazilian. That Presence is that Consciousness. This is the real Guru, the one who is beyond the body, beyond a terminal illness, which only ends with the body.

That’s it…

*Online meeting transcription originally held on May 30, 2016 – First published in Portuguese on June 27, 2016. Online meetings every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 19:30 pm (Local time: Brazil BRT). To participate, download Paltalk App. For further information, click here.

The Real Self-Knowledge

I am here calling your attention to something of extreme importance. It is essential in this meeting that you be receptive, with a profound sensibility to listen with the heart, or otherwise you will get nothing here. I am pointing out Something the majority human beings have given no importance at all. The world as everybody knows is something subjective, and what predominates in most people’s live is anxiety, unhappiness, depression, despair, fear. People’s live have been like this because they live within this subjective world, this mental world.

At this meeting, I want you to look at this closely. See if indeed what you know as world has any reality. Here, the first point is to perceive the world you know is subjective, due to a complete lack of vision about Your Self. This makes human being assume an illusory life based on thought.

To investigate this is the possibility of finding out What the great majority has not perceived yet. What I am saying to you is that the majority is living in this subjective world, personal, that is, identified with thoughts. This “sense of person” is something outside of Reality! People are living outside of Reality, of Real Life, of Life as It is, because the world they know is this subjective world.

Here, your interest must be to find out what means to discard this illusion of subjectivity, the illusion of this world, so that all burden will disappear. This unhappiness, anguish, negative feelings, conflicts, fears, all these happen because of these internal images the mind produces, of this sense of separation in which human being is living. So, these images, these pictures, these internal dialogues, all these therein are creating this subjective world.

In this world, you are lost, imprisoned, contracted, so there is no Peace, Freedom, Serenity, Tranquility, Happiness. This is the ordinary known state; this is the model, the human pattern of living. It is something quite curious, funny and, simultaneously, unhappy and miserable. Instead of Peace, Freedom, Silence, what exists are afflictive, desperate feelings, preoccupation, that is, all kinds of negative feelings and images.

This ordinary model, in which you may have already been for many years, is something learned, an imitation of a general model present around you. This is the result of the lack of understanding the Truth about who, in fact, You are! Through these meetings, you have the opportunity of approaching This. Therefore, here we deal with the Real Self-knowledge, that is not the psychological knowledge of this “entity,” of this “person.” Actually, it is the verification that there is no “person,” no psychological “entity.” What I am saying is that there is a Reality present, and only This can put an end to this imaginary subjective world of fear, unhappiness, conflict, despair, anxiety, where there is huge suffering, burden, sadness… Notice what I am saying here!

This subjective world is present, but it is something imaginary! The most singular thing is the opportunity of seeing Life in all its Fullness when there is no longer this psychological background of a false identity present. That is why Realization of God is the most singular and unique thing for each one of us, because it is the Discovery of the Reality of Life, of Life as It is, and not as the thought has been producing. In the world where there are more than 7 billion people, what predominates is this sense of “person,” the misery of living in the mind. To live under the domain of thought, under the impulse of desires, under the constant attempt of running away from a psychological pain, is a curious thing, funny and simultaneously complex and miserable.

The fact is that you have an internal movement happening – thoughts, feelings, emotions – and you get lost within the illusion of being identified with it. This is the separatist sense, the “me” what I have called “subjective life.” The clear perception of the illusion of all this, is the end of “me,” of the “person,” of the sense of separation. Thus, the body continues, life continues, but now in Fullness, in Consciousness, in Peace, in Freedom, in Happiness! This is inexplicable. It is outside the known, outside of what the mind can understand.

In the Bible, Paul calls This “The Peace that surpasses all knowledge.” This is the Peace of God that surpasses all reason, all human understanding! It means Life as Consciousness; no longer in the mind, in this prison of liking, disliking, fearing, desiring, judging, criticizing, fleeing… How is this for you? What I am saying here is something that causes very little interest. The “person” is not interested in This, for it sounds as something out of his/her reality. We know that This sounds very strange, however, if you look closely, you will see this talk is right, it is completely right.

*Online meeting transcription originally held on April 1st, 2020 - First published in Portuguese on May 5th, 2020- For further information about our meetings, click here.

You need to find out what Meditation is

After all, why is it important to be in Satsang? What are we doing here? What is it like to be here? First, you have to intelligently doubt there is a real distance between you and Reality. That is the greatest difficulty for majority. You never question what is Reality, not even if there is any distance between you and It. Here, Reality is synonymous with Truth.

We have a perception of the world, which is the perception of objects. After all, what is the distance between this awareness and the objects witnessed? If you investigate this directly, you will notice there is no such distance. Thoughts, sensations and emotions are objects, because they can be seen in that consciousness. So, what there is, is an apparent separation between object and consciousness.

Everything that happens to you, internally or externally to the body, is still object of consciousness. It is the consciousness that becomes aware of all this. Notice that, in deep sleep, there is not such thing as "consciousness" and there is not world either. We usually link consciousness to perceptions, to experiences – "If there is no experience, there is no consciousness". But here, we come into a very important aspect.

It is generally believed when there is not such consciousness, there is not anything else, and this is not true either. There is Something beyond that consciousness with its objects, and that Something is present independently of each and every experience. This “Something” is not the “nothing”, but That which transcends what you call consciousness and its objects.

You are here to discover the Truth about Yourself. There is no distance between You and Reality! This Reality is What is beyond this awareness of objects and of these objects in consciousness. The Revelation of This is Real Meditation!

This direct investigation will show you there is no separation, no real distance between You and Reality, which I rather call as Divine Consciousness, which is not this consciousness of objects that only appears through experience. I am talking about this Consciousness that transcends object and perception, that is, that transcends experience.

The perception you have of the world is about thoughts, emotions, feelings, sensations... All of this is part of the history of this body, this mind, this world, it is within this duality of consciousness and object. Awakening is the end of that duality, of this separation between consciousness and object. This means living in your Being, in your Essential Nature, free from dependence on the idea of being someone in the world.

To be someone in the world means this duality "I and the non-I", "I- thinking and the thought," "I-feeling and the feeling". In the ego, you live in the illusion of a character's story, which is part of the objects of which this limited consciousness is aware of. Your Essential Nature is Something beyond that limited consciousness. It is beyond the duality of subject and object, thinker and thought, the character and its story. Meditation is the basis of the Realization of the Self, of your Essential Nature.

Duality means the illusory existence of a consciousness as a witness and an object being witnessed. The object is the mind, the body, the world, but none of this is real! This is the "reality" of the mind's dream creating the sense of separation. There is no separation! The thinker is just an idea, another thought. It is very important that this be clear, since all your problems are based on this duality "the experience and I".

There is no "the experience and me" – the experience is present in that "me", and that "me" is present within that experience. If you are in your Being, you are free from the illusion of that “me” in the experience, free from the experiencer, free from duality. You need to find out what Meditation is, otherwise you will remain trapped in this web of duality, the illusion of separation.

*Online meeting transcription held on March 11th 2020. For further information, click here.

The false center

The illusion of trusting that you are a person always carries the burden of the need of people. I am going to put it better: what does a person need to be happy? The person needs friendship, gratitude, acknowledgment… The person has a million needs!

The body is just appearance and the idea of a center present in the experience of life is just imagination that does not have substance, does not carry any form of reality. It is an apparent center inside an apparent body! Thought creates the idea of a person present, and if “I” am a person, “I” need things that people need. So what do people want? It is what “I” want! In a practical way, here is the difference between being in Happiness and living in misery.

As long as this illusion you are a person is present, this search for something will sustain misery. Perception is present, but the illusion is that there is a center in it! For example, at this moment, the sensation in you is that there is a center of perception listening to this speech. Notice how magical this divine joke is! There is a sensation therein that there is a center experiencing auditory, visual, sensitive perceptions, isn´t it so? This sensation is imaginary, is from the thought itself, for this center does not exist! This sense of person is sustaining this center, which sustains the sense of person, which is looking for something. Notice how this ego-identity magic works! There is absolutely no center of experience there or here! There is not a center! There is not anyone speaking or listening. There is not an experiencer and a private experience going on! I have tried in many ways to show you this, the trick, the whole magic.

When you dream at night, the idea is that you are there with a world around you where the experiences are happening. So, the idea is that world is real and you are the central character in that whole experience. This illusory center sustains the reality of an external world present around itself. However, when you wake up, you perceive there was no center of experience! All apparitions in the dream were not happening for a present center of experience.

Now, at this moment, the idea you have is that you are a center living the experiences that are happening. When you left the dream and woke up in the morning, you perceived that you and that world were just one thing. What was the difference between you inside the dream and what was happening in the dream? After waking up, do you see any difference? Do not you realize that both the one who was living the dream and the dream itself were just one? Is there a difference between someone living the dream and the dream itself? Now that you are awake, can you separate the dreamer - that character with episodes going on around itself - from the dream itself? Can you separate that “person” you believed to be in the dream from the dream itself? For example, in the dream you were walking on a road, listening to music, and now you have woken up. When you remember the dream, do not you see that the dream and you had the same quality? Were not you, the walking and the road made of the same material? Was there an experience center there or just an experience without a center? Was not the material on the road the same material of that body, of the sound heard and of the walking? Was not everything that happened in the dream, including your own presence in it, created, imagined and produced by the mind itself? So, is it possible to separate the wind that was blowing on that road where you were walking, the walking, yourself and the sound of the music? Is it possible to say there was a center that separately perceived the experience? Now, here, awake, do you say there was a center perceiving that or do you notice there was a whole, an image, a film happening?

Devotee: Are you somehow conscious of an observer in the dream?

Marcos Gualberto: Are you conscious of an observer now, here? That is the way it happens in the dream. Now, what is this observer? Is he/she separate from this experience? Can you separate the one who listens from what is listened? Can you separate what is seen from the one who sees? If you cannot, where is this center? If you take the observed object out, where does the observer go to? If you take the music out of the one who listens, where does this one who listens go to? So, it is easier now to perceive there is not a center of experience. There is only the experience if there is an experiencer. There is no center now, here! Do you perceive there is no person now therein? There are only physical, thermal, auditory and visual sensations appearing and disappearing, right? If this was understood there, after this step by step, I may go into what I have said at the beginning: as long as the sense of person is present, there will be a need for things. Do you remember? The "person’s" things. But, what does this "person" need if it does not exist? Notice that the “person” is the imagination of a center that lives experiences. Notice that the “person” is a fiction created by thought, living a life of its own, having private experiences and needing things.

So, what is the secret of Meditation? To see that the feelings or thoughts going on now do not have a private center. Do you understand this? Thought, feeling and sensations present do not have a private center to handle them, to manage them. So if you remain without this center, which is this controller, there is no way for you to be unhappy, to be miserable. And why not? Because you are not there anymore demanding something. Is it clear? This requirement of yours is what makes you miserable, because this is what sustains this “center” always unhappy, always dissatisfied. This is what creates the sense of separation, the ego, what maintains you outside your Natural State, which is Consciousness, which is Being.

Just one sustained thought as the truth therein, is enough for this “center” to remain miserable. Just one thought is enough! The false center is in the thought that says “I,” “me,” with all feelings and emotions associated to itself. I am going to put this in a simpler way: if thought arises, it is already implied that it is for a “center,” for an “I.” If you discredit, if you do not sustain this thought, this false center cannot prevail and continue. It is not that first there was the “I” and then the thought; it is already implied that the thought carries a “me” present, an imaginary center. The thought itself already comes up due to this habit!

Why is it so easy to remain without thoughts for a Self-Realized One? Because this does not find support for a “center” anymore, sustenance for an illusory center. So what distinguishes the Natural State from the state of the ordinary man, in this relation with thought? See, thought happens for the ordinary man and for the Sage, but this One carries lightness, why? Because the imaginary center has already died of hunger! It disappeared for having no food! It was so long without eating that it died! When thought appears to the Sage, it is just an existential phenomenon, but for the ordinary man who lives always feeding this false center, this is the truth.

Thus, the Sage lives in Happiness because the Sage does not have what sustains the search, the constant search of the “person.” So, does the thought happen for Ramana, Buddha, Jesus and Gualberto? Yes. But this imaginary center around and for which experiences happen, no longer exists! This way, thoughts are just a phenomenon, an apparition without personal importance, because there is not a “person;” with no importance for a “center,” because it is no longer present as imagination.

*Face-to-face meeting transcription originally held on February 25th, 2020, in a Retreat on Itamaracá Island/PE -Brazil - First published in Portuguese on April 22nd, 2020. For more information about our meetings, please, click here.