This is the principle of Meditation

Here, we have the opportunity of one more contact with ourselves. Satsang is the contact with Reality, this Reality we are. It is very important that you are open and learn to prioritize this meeting with yourself.

The mind is constantly emphasizing the object. The mind sees itself as the subject and emphasizes the object. It seems that all your experiences happen on this level. They are experiences for a subject, and the vehicle of that experience is always the object. Your search for experiences is to find what you want. However, it seems it is never found. Something is always missing. Something remains incomplete, no matter the quality of the experience you have or the importance of the object you are in contact with.

You, as a "subject," caught in this vision of the mind, never see yourself complete, you never see yourself really satisfied. There is constant dissatisfaction. No experience is complete for the "subject." Experience itself is never the problem. The problem is the illusory presence of a "subject" in the search for an object. Take it to different areas of your life. This observation of the illusory nature of the "me" is essential.

You need to figure out how to live free from this search. See that an object cannot give you what you are really looking for. When you realize this, you begin to become conscious oriented. Here, I use the word "conscious" in the sense of a real sense of orientation. When you have that, your life is re-orchestrated or rearranged.

The word "orchestra" reminds organization, a perfect organization. So, to re-orchestrate is to reorganize. People's lives, in general, are not organized. You need to realize that when you reach the object, when the experience takes place, what is really wanted is not found. What you get is just a brief sense of satisfaction. This shows this satisfaction is not in the object itself, is not in finding the object. This satisfaction is not in the experience. This means the cornerstone is You, not what you are looking for. There is something about you that remains essential, independent, free from objects and experiences.

You have been programmed for a constant search – the search for objects, fulfillments, and accomplishments that never happen. The mind is continually present, messing up. There is no such organization, such orchestration when the mind is present.

When I use the word "orchestra", the first thing that comes to you is a huge hall, where musicians are seated and organized in a way for a concert to take place. There needs to be an order there, organization. Your life is like that. When there is that Real Sense of Life, that Presence, you are before Grace, the Beauty, the Truth! This is your association with what is real, which is You! This association with Yourself is the association with the Divine! When that happens, there is no longer an internal dispersion since you stopped emphasizing objects. When you stop emphasizing objects, the mind leaves that position it was in.

I have been talking to you from the standpoint of this Order. This speech is born and points out this Order. Now, it takes maturity for that to happen, and not emphasizing objects anymore brings that maturity. That is when you question, explore "your life." When you do that, this energy dispersion does not happen.

Do you know what I call an "object"? Everything! The relationship with everything! A very common thing is this dispersion through thought. Here, thought is also an object. When you live in hope, you are living in imagination, in that imaginary future thought creates. It is a kind of a "daydream." This is just an example of an object, in which the mind is continually looking for fulfillment and satisfaction.

The fact is that while there is imagination, even if it is hopeful, positive, the mind is still within its space, within its own territory, also creating negative imaginations and fears. So, there is hope and hopelessness, the desire and the fear. This way, there can be no such ripening.

Be practical and stop imagining! Stop searching in the mental world through knowledge, through experiences, through hope, through imagination, and turn yourself to the present Reality, which is You, this Consciousness free from the mind and imagination. If you abandon imagination, you are free from fear, free from the future and also the past. Your past is as imaginary as your future, and vice versa.

So, you become mature when you investigate, when you observe, when you understand what goes on internally, when you stop depending psychologically on objects, on thoughts. Thought is constantly revolving around hope, around the desire to get rid of something or get something else.

You differentiate animate from inanimate objects, but I do not. Your little pet dog is also an object. Whatever is serving some form of temporary and psychological fulfillment is just an object. From the mind's viewpoint, people are also seen this way – a thing for self-fulfillment.

That is why there is so much frustration, so much suffering. There is so much dependency. So, there is a lot of fear! How is happiness possible in the midst of all this? How is peace possible in the midst of all this? A confused life, without order... It is like gathering many musicians inside a room, all with their instruments out of tune, completely out of order, and think there is going to be a musical concert. They are not sitting in their right places, the instruments are out of tune, the conductor did not come...

Your mental state, your life, is the opposite of orchestration. When there is Orchestration, when there is Order, Freedom, Peace and Happiness, there is music, there is art, there is beauty – not from an object, but rather from the absence of the "subject" illusion. When there is this absence of the "subject" illusion, there is no problem! I have emphasized to you the importance of not dispersing energy, of being aware of yourself, your actions and reactions, your resistances.

The foremost thing is that all of this subsides – this illusion of your own actions, this illusion of maintaining yourself as an element of reaction in relationships, and this serious issue of resistance. All of this must subside until it disappears. Otherwise, you will remain trapped within a prison – the prison of your reactions, of resistance, of ignorance, of illusion, of suffering. Thus, there will never be Freedom, Wisdom, Intelligence, Enlightenment. You will be just a "person." There are seven billion people on the planet; you will be just another one of them.

So, this prison must disappear. The moment everything disappears, there is no more object, no more thought, no more tension. There is only Stillness, Silence, a limitless sense of Bliss, something like when you unpretentiously take a walk in a crowded park of trees, with birds singing, and suddenly, for a moment, all your worries disappear, all objects, in your mind, are no longer present. The future and the past are no longer present, only the body walks in that park.

This is indescribable! It does not belong to the mind, to psychological time, to the sense of "me," and there is no object anymore. At that moment, everything disappears! So, there is internal Clarity, Intelligence present. You are no longer acting, reacting, moving from the "person" point of view. Then, there is no longer any dispersion of energy. A space opens up...

This is the principle of Meditation – a complete emptying of all internal content, of all that mess thought causes inside you. Thought is very disturbing. Thought is the presence of the object for this "subject." If the thought is gone, the "subject" is also gone. There is Something present that is not part of the "person."

A "person" then appears as an illusion. The entire person's content disappears. At that moment, you do not have a name, you do not have a story, you do not have memory. There is not this "person" that you know, this set of memory, remembrances and imaginations.

We deal with you about What is essential and, when you have eyes to see it, you see! My work with you is for you to have this direct Revelation of What is internally present. You are important, not the experience, the object, nor what happens. I talk about your True Nature, your Essential Nature. This is important!

*Online meeting transcription originally held on August 24th, 2020. First published in Portuguese on October 27th, 2020. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Ananda, the Joy of Being!

In these meetings we are talking about Real and True Freedom, which implies not upholding anything. If you uphold a feeling, a thought, and find a basis where you protect yourself, this escapes you once again.

This is like trying to hold a piece of furniture inside a space, forgetting the reality of the space itself, in which this piece of furniture appears. You get lost when you uphold a feeling, a thought, a belief, an ideal, a certainty, a set of ideas. You lost this space and end up upholding an appearance. When the space is occupied and you look at it, your eyes are stuck to the objects present in this space, and the space itself is forgotten. As long as your attention is on the objects you observe in this space, you forget the space itself, you lose the space and you fail to recognize it.

Likewise, it happens when you lose yourself on a thought, an emotion, a feeling, a story, a remembrance, a memory, a provocation. When someone approaches you and says you are stupid – if you uphold that idea, then, in fact, you are stupid. Identified with an idea you lose yourself, you stuck yourself to a belief and a thought. You are the space, but you lose that space when you are attached to any form of thought, any belief, concept, ideology and imagination.

When we talk about the sense of "me," of being "someone," we are talking exactly about that: to lose yourself on emotion, sensation, to mistake yourself for a thought, an idea of being "someone." For example, someone who gets lost in the idea of "being smart," which is not real intelligence. The belief of "being smart" is not smart. You never get offended by others when they think you're a smart person, but you get offended when one thinks you are stupid. You mistake yourself for the thought, for the belief you are a stupid being, a stupid person, and you get offended, angry, upset, but not when someone says you are smart. You are indeed a belief, and when you are a belief, you are under a limitation. That is the limitation of the ego. So to be smart or to be stupid is to be in a belief. Right now you are this space, this empty space. In this empty space, the furniture appears – thoughts, emotions and feelings appear. The idea "I am smart" or "I am stupid" also appears.

When the Grace places you before this Presence, this empty space is called Consciousness! That Grace, that Consciousness is exactly what we are talking about: an empty space. Mind and body appear in this space, as well as beliefs and disbeliefs, opinions, judgments and everything else. The Freedom of Being is that Consciousness, the Consciousness aware of appearances. You are completely conscious.

When someone approaches you and calls you stupid, you are aware that you were not the one who was called that. If you do not attach yourself to that idea, you remain in that Empty Space, the Real Consciousness, the Consciousness aware of that belief. However, when you mistake yourself for this belief, you place yourself within time and space as a separate entity, someone who believes "to be something." There is a huge limitation, which I now call mediocrity: to place yourself in the mind, to place yourself in being "someone," in the belief of "being someone." You are intelligent, I enjoy your intelligence, and at that moment you feel happy since someone has appreciated your competence, your skill, your dexterity, your ability to understand, comprehend, to reason. When you do this, you place yourself within time as someone who believes to be what others say that "you are." Ego loves this – to have its beliefs confirmed! This only strengthens the sense of "being someone" in you. It is what I have just called as upholding a thought, a conviction, a belief, an idea.

I sometimes provoke this in these meetings. I say: you are arrogant – and you believe it. By believing in this, you abandon this Space that has no name and cannot be named, classified, judged and evaluated. You leave this Space and place yourself in the belief of "being someone" and "someone" arrogant. However, ego does not consider itself arrogant, but rather wise, intelligent, and that hurts this self-image you have of yourself.

Do you see that?

All of this is just a belief, and you have just placed yourself in an idea – the idea of being arrogant. So, in the ego, in that belief, in that habit, addiction of upholding ideas about yourself, you are not real, but rather an easily manipulated plaything. You easily believe anything, but who does it? That person you believe to be is the ego.

I am challenging you to remain untouched by any opinion, judgment, appreciation, thought – your thoughts or the thoughts of others about you. I am saying this is possible. I am not saying this is easy, but I am saying it is possible.

Your work in Satsang is to recognize the Truth about yourself, and I am pointing this out to you! When I point it out to you, I say: You are real. But I am not talking about the "you" you believe to be. I am talking about the Void, the Space – this immeasurable Space! I am talking about this nameless, formless Thing that is not arrogant, stupid, nor smart. I am talking about What remains as pure Consciousness, Presence, Reality.

How does that sound to you?

There is nothing mysterious about this... It is just the acknowledgment of What You Are! An acknowledgment that cannot be captured by the intellect, since the intellect has nothing to do with this! You may capture this, but not as an intellect acquirement.

You are Buddha, Christ, Consciousness, you are the Truth! When I point at you, I say: You Are! I am not stating anything. I am saying: You Are this Void. Forget the words Buddha, Christ, God. Remain without ideas about this. Remain present, here, now, only conscious of being captured once again by the same old pattern of "being someone," who depends on others' opinion, judgement, appreciation, who depends on the idea others have about you.

You ask: Am I the space where every experience takes place?" I am saying you are exactly the whole Space, not only the space where every experience takes place. You are the whole Space… just Space. Body and mind are appearances, just like the ideas, the beliefs like "intelligent," "arrogant" and "stupid" are appearances, and you remain therein.

When you come to these meetings, you think you are going to discover something magical. However, if you discover something magical, it will be a trick since what you call as magic is just another illusion. That Space is just space. It is interesting to talk a little about this. People take this thing called Awakening, God's realization, Enlightenment, as something that is going to make them special; some people believe it. You are not special in Realization! In this Realization, "you are not"! When that Realization is present, you are not! You are no longer there to be praised or defamed. You are no longer there to be offended when they call you arrogant or stupid, nor to brag or feel special when they say you are smart, intelligent, for that does not make the slightest difference.

I have been told I am a fraud, some people say that. Some people have already said to me, "you are the Guruji." Some have said to me, "I do not believe you," and others have said, "You are my Master." I tell them, okay! It has to do with them, not with me. I Am What I Am and this will remain like this. Is it clear that these are just ideas, beliefs? Never be offended, hurt, or saddened by what others think or say about you. Any and every thought is just a thought. And it is only the reality that thought has, nothing else. But when you uphold this, this assumes a reality for that "you" you believe to be.

Participant: Does being Enlightened, or Awakened, have to do with the inner joy that flows from the heart, with no external need or external means for it?

Master: Let me put it in another way – answering your question, of course. The nature of that Consciousness, that Void, that Presence, is the nature of Being, What we can call as joy. But, see this – it is a joy of an entirely different quality than the joy the mind knows. The mind knows joy when it wins a prize, a gift, or passes an examination, a test. However, this joy of conquest, of achieving something, is a circumstantial, momentary joy – it has a cause. The joy of Being, of Consciousness, of Presence, of your True Nature, is joy without a cause.

In India, they call it Ananda, which is a Sanskrit word for Happiness – a causeless, non-dependent, non-circumstantial joy. It is a joy that cannot be stolen or taken from you since you are that joy. It is not something you feel. It is what you Are. The nature of this Joy is Ananda, Happiness, Bliss.

When you are before a living Master, it is clear what we are talking about – there is something that emanates from His Presence, from His Silence. There is something present in His eyes and behind His voice. Something that silences and quiets you, that also allows you to enjoy that same joy of your Real Nature, your True Nature, Something that IS you. All you are for, in this life, is to enjoy this Joy, the Joy of your Real Nature.

Another word for this Joy is Love, which is not motivated by forms or connected to them. It has absolutely nothing to do with the male, female or animal form. It is not the love for people, animals or plants... It is something beyond the form... It is the fragrance present in all directions, which goes in all directions. So, just like this causeless Joy, it is this causeless Love – something that has no contrary, opposite, which cannot change. You cannot turn this Joy into something else.

The Sage is pure Joy, pure Love, and you cannot sadden Him, you cannot do that. He will not love you because you love Him. He will love you because He cannot stop loving you. Your love is conditional, the Sage's Love is unconditional! Your joy is conditional, His is unconditional!

That's it. Let us stop here. Good night!

*In-person meeting transcription originally held in Rio de Janeiro city-Brazil, on August 2015. First published in Portuguese on September 23rd, 2015. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Do we need a Guru?

All this debate about the need or no need for the Guru, the need to work or not to work towards this Realization is quite controversial. However, the matter of the need for the Guru should never be questioned, since it is completely mistaken. Yet the matter of work could be debated. It is possible to question if we need or not the work, but not if we need the Guru. This is the mistake. There is nothing to question about the need for the Guru since there is nothing to question about the need or not for God.

If we question the need or not for the work, which is a questionable, discussable matter, and we find out the need for the work, it becomes crystal clear how indispensable the Guru is. First, we need to understand what the Guru is so that we can see how flawed it is to question the need for Him or not.

So, what is the Guru? Is the Guru a human form? Is the Guru a person, someone? Is the Guru an authority?

What is the Guru?

To talk about an internal Guru is to try to create this questioning, this debate according to the thought model, since when you talk about an internal Guru – which is just quoting a theory, a concept, a belief – you are making room for the illusion there is a Guru outside, an external Guru, a Guru with a form, the "person" in the form of the Guru.

There is no inner Guru. There is no outer Guru! There is nothing to be discussed about it, and there is no Guru! There is only God, and God is a great need, the only need! God is the Nature of Being! God is the only Real need! God is Being! One cannot get rid of the Self. One cannot get rid of the Guru. The Guru is not a teaching, not a practice, not a teacher. The Guru is Consciousness, Truth, God! The Guru is your True Nature, and you cannot get rid of what you Are.

The only thing you are sure about is that you are present there. So, the only thing you are sure about is that being here and now cannot be ignored. This is the Guru! It is not about internal or external, but rather about the Nature of Being, of the Truth. Therefore, it is not a matter of discussing it! It is not possible to question the need for the Guru, the Truth of the Guru or not, the Truth of your Being or not. What can be done is to investigate the nature of the work.

What is the nature of the work to this Awakening? What is the value or importance of all this? If the work was unnecessary, you would have already realized That by yourself.

We cannot discuss the need or not for the work to Awakening... It is what we can discuss and, at the same time, we cannot discuss it! We can get entangled with this discussion and come to a conclusion about it, which is that the work is unnecessary for this Awakening. But that is clearly a conclusion of "no investigation," since through clear investigation it is possible to confirm the real need for the work, since without it you remain the same. The work to Awakening is a real need. So, as we discover the real need for the work, it becomes quite clear the Guru is indispensable.

This is like being sick and having not the needed knowledge to treat the disease. It is like trying to ignore the disease by closing your eyes to the discomfort and pain it brings and saying, "there is no disease," just because the doctor says there is no disease. The doctor may say there is no disease, he can treat it without naming it, without talking to you about the disease, without emphasizing the belief in the disease. He is the doctor, and not you. As you are feeling the pain, symptoms and discomfort, you cannot say there is no disease. That would be denying yourself the possibility of treatment, medical care, which is what you do when you say the Guru is unnecessary. When the Guru is unnecessary, no work is needed. When the doctor is not needed, then treatment is not needed either. However, the disease persists. Even if you do not want to look at the disease, it is present. Even if you do not want to feel the symptoms, the symptoms are present. Even if you do not want to feel the pain, the pain is still present.

One can theoretically or intellectually get rid of the Guru... One can have a very clear answer to the matter of whether or not the Guru is needed and that answer can be quite clear intellectually. It is like when you do not need the doctor – the body is still sick, in need of treatment, but "I dismiss the need of treatment and the doctor." That is what people have been doing… So, "if the doctor is unnecessary, so is the treatment to be prescribed." Therefore, "if the Guru is unnecessary, so is the work the Guru would propose me." But everything remains the same... Everything remains the same.

The countless arguments you can use to defend yourself against the "treatment" – which is the work – and to defend yourself against the One who will "treat" it – who is the doctor, the Guru – can be quite clear, forceful, relevant, logical and reasonable. However, they will not solve anything... The problem will remain there! It is only a matter of time, and sooner or later the pain will be there, the "symptoms" will be there, the "disease" will become more and more evident.

Therefore, debating these issues is completely useless. Who would do such a thing in the very own ego if the doctor is always ready to treat the patient? The doctor has the skill, capability, expertise and knowledge needed to care for the patients, instead of convincing them they are ill, isn't it? Have you ever seen a doctor dealing with this? Trying to convince the patients they are sick? The doctor just waits for you to talk about what you are feeling and is not interested in explaining what you feel – that is your business. The doctor's interest is in treating you, freeing you from the symptoms and the disease. So, it is useless to keep this endless debate about the need or not for treatment with a person who does not feel the symptoms of a present illness.

Do you believe that this work happening around me is for those who are doing well or for those who are ill? Is it for the sick or the healthy ones? Do you believe the doctor is there for the sick or the healthy ones? With the Guru it is the same thing... The Guru is useless! It is like the doctor, who is useful only for the sick ones! The doctor is so good for the patients since the doctor will relieve them of the pain, but for the healthy ones, the doctor is useless. For someone healthy, the doctor is just a friend; not an expert, not a help, just a friend! If you cannot see the Guru, the Guru is just another friend, and as a friend he or she is useless.

That is why I said to you: it is no use coming to visit me on ordinary days since I do not want to be your friend. I am nobody's friend. I am a "doctor" taking care of patients. If you feel pain, come to me, but if you do not feel any pain, stay far away from me! I have nothing to do with friends, but rather with the truth seekers, those who are "burning" for God. I do not have subjects about international politics, such as: "How is the US doing?" "What will happen now, after the new president?" I do not have a subject about soccer championships. I have no politics subjects to deal with you. I do not know and I am not interested in knowing about economics, music or art. My interest with you is to communicate God, is to help you to go beyond the illusion of the sense of a separate "me," of a separate identity.

Now, if you do not feel like that, it is just like the patient that does not feel anything... You are not a patient to the doctor! Imagine you sit down in front of the doctor and say, "I'm here, Doctor" and he says, "Okay! What is the matter?" and you say, "I do not know." Then, the doctor asks: "How come you do not know? Are you well?" You answer: "I am fine!" The doctor asks: "What do you mean? What does it mean to be well?" You answer, "I am fine, I am fine!" He asks again, "So, what are you doing here?" You answer: "Nothing. I was just passing through and I came for a cup of coffee with you!" The doctor will say, "Well, please, I am sorry, but now there are patients out there waiting to be seen. I do not have time to have coffee with you; let us leave it for another time. If I feel like having a cup of coffee, I will let you know and we will have a cup of coffee together. But, now, there is a line of people waiting for an appointment."

If you do not feel that, going to the Guru is useless, as a matter of fact, you do not even see the Guru. You do not need a Guru! You are already a Guru for yourself. You are already your own Master. You are taking care of yourself and you do not need treatment... You are fine! So, why do you come here? I am not your friend. I do not want to have some coffee with you, but rather to know what you are feeling. Nevertheless, if you come to me and say: "I do not feel anything! I am Consciousness, Happiness, Love, Peace...", that's wonderful! That's good to know... Wonderful! It is good to know you are that. So, the line is there and the next patient needs to be seen! Excuse me, because there is another one who thinks, feels or believes it is not like that. You believe it is this way and the other one believes it is not. So, one has a belief and the other one has another belief, but both of you believe in one belief. Glad to know you believe you are well. You came and sat down here, but you found out you came just for some coffee. I cannot offer you some coffee, since I do not have time to have some coffee with you. I could prescribe treatment if you felt the need for it, but since you do not feel it...

Do you understand how useless this is? You have already understood that, haven't you? So, what do I do? You sit down, take other's place and I say, "No! Excuse me! I have no personal matters." I let you go, leaving the "chair" free...

*In-person meeting transcription originally held in João Pessoa/PB-Brazil, on November 2016. First published in Portuguese on February 10th, 2017. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

Meditation requires no effort to happen

You may ask me what meditation is. Meditation? Do not meditate about that. If someone orders you to stop thinking and you strive in this direction, you will soon discover there is no way to do that. It means thought happens without you. And, here, we have something interesting to say: in the same way, meditation happens without you. Just like effort will not cease the thoughts, so also meditation requires no effort to happen.

Your Natural State is already meditative when there is no identification with the mind. When there is not this obsession, this fixation, this undue importance we give to thought, then meditation is present – and that is quite natural.

Listen to this carefully. I am saying that when you look at something, thought is not present, but it does arise a second later and, when it does, it says "I want" or "I do not want," "I like" or "I dislike," or anything else. However, at the look moment, at that instant of the look, there is no thought. The same happens with hearing. You hear a sound, and at that very moment you are listening to it, there is no interpretation on it, there is no "I like it," "I do not like it," "it disturbs me," "it does not disturb me," "it is good" or "it is bad." Therefore, I want to invite you to stay there, only with the listening, without judging, translating, interpreting. Stay there with the looking, with the seeing without saying "like" or "dislike." This is possible when you are aware of this thought movement. Such attention puts an end to this conditioned pattern, a mental pattern that is frequently putting us in this unnatural challenge of "being someone," "being something" – "someone" who likes or dislikes something, who listens to, or sees something. Did you get what I say?

To be natural is to not be "someone," here, at this very moment. This is so simple... It's really simple! That is the work. But notice: it is not your work. It is just the work. This because if you do something, you destroy it. You do not interfere in it, and so the work takes place without you. You are not included into it. You are not involved in it. You have nothing to do with that.

Deep inside we have this strong need to "nosing into other's affairs," especially when we are not requested, we have to show up! You do not have to get involved in anything, nor getting involved with everything, but the mind is constantly getting involved with anything, continuously involved with everything. And this interrupts, undoes, your naturalness, your Natural State, which is Silence, Stillness, Peace.

So, I want to say to you: stay there! Even when you go to the "outside," talking, having a conversation, choosing one side, giving your opinions, even if you have to be there, in the "outside", do not leave home, stay therein! This is the art of Being, of being Yourself. This is natural, quite natural. There is a present "discipline," but it is a discipline of a new order. It is the discipline of self-investigation, of meditation and surrender. Is that clear? It comes naturally, as natural as a fish swimming, a bird flying and the Sun shining. This is to be natural.

*Meeting transcription originally held on February, 2012. For further information about our meetings, please click here.

The ordinary human state is not natural

The question people ask each other is "how are you, is everything right?" Why do people ask each other this kind of question? Everyone knows why this is asked: you never know how that person, who was feeling so well yesterday, is going to be today; or that person who was feeling so well ten minutes ago, will be now after ten minutes have passed. Why does it happen? Because what we call as "human consciousness" is changing states of emotions, feelings and thoughts. That is how the human being lives. This has been our ordinary experience.

But I want to question this. This is essentially human from the common viewpoint, but it is not essentially human from the Real viewpoint. All we know is how to be an ordinary human being, but we know nothing about how to be a Natural human being. So, from the ordinary viewpoint, we ask, "What's up? How are you?" But you do not need to ask it, just look at the person's face to see that already: the person is angry, stressed, annoyed, sad... at best, since the person may be even worse! Isn't it like this?

Is it also like that for you? Don't you know someone like that? Within your ordinary circle of friends, aren't people like that? So, this is the ordinary human state, not the Natural State. The Natural human State is non-dual, of full Consciousness. It is a State free of the "me."

Participant: Master, are "me" and the fear the same thing?

Not only "me" and the fear are the same thing, but also "me" and the conflict, "me" and suffering, "me" and desire, "me" and unconsciousness are the same. Basically, what is this "me"? What do you take for "me" when you talk about yourself? Notice that this "me" is sadness sometimes; at other times, euphoria, regret, conflict, fear... We never separate this "me" from this emotional, sentimental experience, nor this thought experience.

So, when we ask, "How are you?", what we are asking is "what state are you in right now?" It is like saying, "Are you angry? Are you sad? Are you upset with me? With the world? With yourself?" We just say politely, "What's up? How are you?", but what we mean is, "what kind of 'me' do you have now to show me?" "What is the 'me' that is present at the moment?" Isn't it?

If you have a girlfriend or boyfriend or live in a closer relationship with someone, you know very well what I am saying. One hour this person smiles and swears love. Ten minutes later, the person is pinching you full of imaginary thoughts about cheating, about being cheated on, or about the possibility of being cheated on. Then jealousy assumes that body, those pretty eyes, that sweet little face, and now the person looks like the devil itself, possessed by jealousy. Isn't it?

So, which "me" am "I" dealing with right now? In a relationship with another person, you find strange how much the person changes, but you do not realize how much you change, because you also have several "I's" – one time it is the "me-conflict," another time it is the "me-anger," the "me-fear," the "me-desire," the "me-…," and so on. There is the "me-love" and the "me-hate" – the "I" who loves and the "I" who hates. You are never just one! This is easy to see. It is difficult to observe this in yourself, but in others, it is very easy. It is complicated to see it in yourself. It is easy to see the others are crazy or that they are on the verge of madness. So, what are we dealing with in Satsang? We are dealing with the human Natural State, not with the ordinary state of humanity. We investigate the ordinary state of humanity, but we do not point it out as a real goal of life, of existence. We are pointing out non-duality. Do you know what non-duality means? It means "not two"; "me-love" and "me-hate"; "me-joy" and "me-sadness" – this is duality! "Me and others," "me and the world," "me and suffering," "me and desire," and so on – this is duality!

We are talking about non-duality, this sense of Reality outside the mind, which is like a sense of connection to Life. So, this illusion of being a witness disappears. The illusion of being "someone" in a relationship with the world disappears – this is non-duality! In non-duality, you do not see the world – the world and you disappear. You do not see a mountain, there is no "you" and there is no mountain, or there is only the mountain, but there is no "you." There is no "you and the world." The world is present, however without the sense of a separate "me," and when there is no such separation, there is no fear, there is no "me-fear." When there is no such separation, there is no "me" and envy, since there is no object of desire. There is no "me and the control." So, there is no "me and jealousy," once there is no fear of losing, no fear of not dominating, not controlling, which is what upholds envy, jealousy, all these internal mental conflicting, unhappy and complicated states under this duality.

Are you with me? Can you see this in yourself or just in the world around you, in others? Is the other person like that? Don't you see it within yourself? This sense of duality, this sense of separation, this desire to get away, to punish, to take revenge? This desire to protect yourself or not to suffer? This is suffering, this is conflict. Not willing to suffer means already suffering. There is great conflict in this desire to escape suffering. Notice it is always the "I" with this model, it is the "I" carrying this model. Without the sense of "me," there is only the mountain, there is no "me and the mountain." Without the sense of "me," there is neither the friend nor the enemy on the other side. There is not the one who "I" like and the one who "I" do not like. Do you see that? Do you see that linking people is the same as to disliking them? The problem is present there.

The root cause of every human suffering lies in the ignorance of this straightforward Truth – the Truth that there are not two. There is only this Consciousness everywhere! Some sages called that as Consciousness, God. It is the unique Reality, the unique Truth present in every manifestation, in the whole existence, everywhere! There is only God! There is no "you and Him."

*Online meeting transcription originally held on January 13th, 2021. First published in Portuguese on February 10th, 2021. For further information about our meetings, please click here.