Copyright

Thorsons

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2020

FIRST EDITION

© Making Good, LLC 2020

Creative direction and artwork by Nic George

Graphic art and design by Josh Hedlund

Cover design: Creative director Nic George and graphic artist Josh Hedlund for Making Good, LLC

Cover image: Nic George Copyright © 2020 Making Good, LLC.

THE SECRET word mark and logo are trademarks of Creste, LLC. All rights reserved

Quotes included from the book The Power of Now copyright © 2004 by Eckhart Tolle.

Reprinted with permission by New World Library, Novato, CA.

www.newworldlibrary.com

Quote here from the book Stillness Speaks copyright © 2003 by Eckhart Tolle.

Reprinted with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA.

www.newworldlibrary.com

Alan Watts’s quotes in this book are the courtesy of alanwatts.org.

Yogananda’s quotes are reprinted with permission from Self-Realization Fellowship,

Los Angeles, CA, USA. All rights reserved.

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Rhonda Byrne asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

Source ISBN: 9780008447373

Ebook Edition © November 2020 ISBN: 9780008447380

Version 2020-11-17

Note to Readers

This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:

 Change of font size and line height

 Change of background and font colours

 Change of font

 Change justification

 Text to speech

Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008447373

Dedication

Dedicated to all of humanity

May The Greatest Secret free you from all suffering and bring you everlasting happiness.

That is my intention for you, and for every human being.

Epigraph

“Of all the things human beings can learn in this life, I have the greatest news to tell you, the most beautiful thing to share …”

—Mooji

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Dedication

Epigraph

The Beginning

CHAPTER 1 Hidden in Plain Sight

CHAPTER 2 The Greatest Secret: Revealed

CHAPTER 3 The Reveal Continued

CHAPTER 4 You’re Dreaming … It’s Time to Wake Up

CHAPTER 5 Freedom from the Mind

CHAPTER 6 Understanding the Power of Feelings

CHAPTER 7 The End of Negative Feelings

CHAPTER 8 No More Suffering

CHAPTER 9 Dissolving Limiting Beliefs

CHAPTER 10 Everlasting Happiness

CHAPTER 11 The World: All Is Well

CHAPTER 12 The End—There Is No End

The Greatest Secret Practices

Featured in The Greatest Secret

Acknowledgments

About the Publisher

The Beginning

After the release of The Secret in 2006, my life became what I can only describe as a dream life. Through practicing The Secret principles religiously, my mind had become predominantly positive, and so my life reflected that positive state in my happiness, health, relationships, and finances. I also found myself with a natural love and gratitude for everything in life.

But despite all of that, something inside me continued to urge me on to seek more of the truth; something propelled me to continue my search, though for what, I didn’t yet know.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, I had begun what was to become a ten-year journey! It started with studying the teachings of an ancient tradition in Europe, the Rose Cross Order, and I studied their profound teachings for many years. I also spent some years studying Buddhism, the many works of the Christian mystics, theology, Hinduism, Taoism, and Sufism. After I studied the ancient traditions and their historical teachings, my search turned back toward the present time, and I started following recent teachers like J. Krishnamurti, Robert Adams, Lester Levenson, and Ramana Maharshi, as well as some teachers still living today.

Throughout my journey I learned many things that are unknown to the public at large, and while they were fascinating, none of them made me feel that I had found the truth.

As the years passed by, I even considered that searching might be my life forevermore. I didn’t realize it then, but I was looking for the truth in the world, when all along it was closer to me than I could ever have imagined.

Ten years after my search began, in early January of 2016, a challenging situation arose in my life that caused me to feel deep disappointment. I was surprised at the depth of negative emotion that I felt. How could I feel so bad when I usually felt so good? But that disappointing situation was to become the greatest gift in my search for the truth.

To turn my disappointment around, I grabbed my iPad and watched an interview on Conscious TV with a man called David Bingham. At the time of the interview David was not a teacher but was just an ordinary everyday person like you and me, with one difference: after twenty years of searching, he had discovered the truth!

I watched the interview, and afterward I listened to a podcast that David recommended. I listened intently to the podcast, and during it I heard that most people overlook this discovery—not because it’s difficult, but because it’s so simple. Then, I was able to speak with David on the phone, and during our conversation he said, “Look at what I’m pointing to. It’s right here.” And suddenly I saw what I had been searching for. It was so simple, and it was right here. Just like that—after ten years—my search ended! I can say without any hesitation that the happiness and joy I felt from this discovery was worth every second of my years-long journey. Even if it had taken my entire life to discover it, it would have been worth it.

In the end, just one simple discovery was the whole truth that I had been looking for, which is actually what everyone is looking for, whether they realize it or not. And once I had seen the truth, I could see that it was everywhere. Everything I had been reading and learning for ten years contained it; I just didn’t have the eyes to see it at that time. I had been searching for years, from one tradition and philosophy to the next, and what I had been looking for had been right in front of me all along!

From the moment I made the discovery, I knew that there was nothing more important than to understand this discovery more, live it completely, and then share it with the world. My hope was to show the way out for those experiencing hardship, to help end the pain and suffering that so many are enduring, and to shine a light to a future where we can live without anxiety or fear.

I had already been putting notes from everything I was learning in a folder on my computer that was entitled “My Next Book.” It was an intuitive sense that inspired me to record everything I was discovering, in the hope that I could eventually share it with the world. Those cherished notes, when I had finished collating them, became the foundation of this book.

Just two months after discovering the truth through David Bingham, I met someone else who was to have an enormous effect on my life, and on the creation of this book. She walked into a room I was in at a retreat, and when I walked up to talk to her, her presence had such a profound effect on me that any trace of negativity from my entire life was gone in an instant! She had been a student of one of my all-time favorite teachers, the late Robert Adams. I knew instantly that she was my teacher, the one who would help me fully realize and live the truth in this lifetime, and she has remained my teacher for the past four years. Her teachings are straightforward, beautifully simple, and she never hesitates to tell me if I’m going in the wrong direction. While her name remains anonymous at her request, I have shared many of her life-changing teachings that propelled my life into one of constant joy and happiness. My deepest wish is that they will do the same for you.

She, along with the other teachers featured in this book, helped lead me out of the darkness of ignorance by illuminating this one discovery. Every one of them helped me to understand the truth that I had discovered more deeply and to live from it more fully, and the love I feel for them is infinite. Their words that changed my life forever are featured throughout this book.

With every step you take through this book, you will become happier and your life will become more effortless, and that happiness and effortlessness will continue to increase without any end. Any fear and uncertainty of the future will no longer plague you. Any anxiety and stress about your daily struggles or world events will dissolve. You can be free of every form of suffering that you might be experiencing right now. And you will be.

While there are certainly some huge revelations throughout these pages, there are also many simple practices to immediately put those revelations into practice. The practices alone are worth their weight in gold. I know. I am the living proof of how well they work.

The Secret showed you how to create anything you want to be, do, or have. Nothing has changed—it is as true today as it ever was. This book reveals the greatest discovery a human being can ever make and shows you the way out of negativity, problems, and what you don’t want, to a life of permanent happiness and bliss.

It simply doesn’t get any better than this. It is my greatest joy to welcome you to The Greatest Secret.

CHAPTER 1
HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

Of the billions of people on our planet, only a few have discovered the truth. Those few are completely free from the turmoil and negativity of life and live in permanent peace and happiness. For the rest of us, whether we realize it or not, we’ve been in search of this truth unceasingly every single day of our lives.

Despite the fact that this great secret has been written about and alluded to by many great sages, prophets, and religious leaders throughout history, the majority of us still remain ignorant of the single greatest discovery we can ever make. Among those who have shared this discovery with us are Buddha, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Jesus Christ, Yogananda, Krishnamurti, and the Dalai Lama.

While they each have different teachings that were appropriate for their time, they all refer to the same truth—the truth about us and the truth behind our world.

“In some religions this truth is expressed less openly and clearly than in others, but it is nevertheless the truth that lies at the heart of every religion.”

Michael James, from Happiness and the Art of Being

This great secret is in plain view for every one of us to see. It’s closer to us than our very breath, yet we’ve missed it! Ancient traditions knew that to hide a secret it should be put in plain sight, where no one will think to look for it. And that’s exactly where The Greatest Secret lies.

“Thus it is referred to in the Kashmir Shaivite tradition as ‘the greatest secret, more hidden than the most concealed and yet more evident than the most evident of things.’”

Rupert Spira, from Being Aware of Being Aware

We’ve missed the truth for thousands of years because we’ve not looked at what is right in front of us. We’ve become easily distracted by our problems, the drama in our lives, the comings and goings of the events in the world, and we’ve missed the greatest discovery we can make that is right here before us—a discovery that can take us out of suffering and into lasting happiness.

What secret can possibly be so life-changing? What single discovery can ever end suffering, or bring everlasting peace and happiness?

Quite simply, a secret that reveals who you really are.

You might think you know who you are, but if you think you’re an individual person with a name, who’s a certain age, from a particular race, who has a profession, a family history, and various life experiences, you will be stunned by the revelation of who you really are.

“The only way that someone can be of help to you is by challenging your ideas.”

Anthony de Mello, S.J., from Awareness: Conversations with the Masters

We’ve all accepted many false ideas and beliefs throughout our lives, and those false ideas and beliefs have kept us enslaved. We’ve been told that there’s limitation and lack in the world—that there’s not enough money, time, resources, love, or health: “Life is short,” “You’re only human,” “You have to work hard and struggle to get somewhere in life,” “We’re running out of resources,” “The world is in turmoil,” “The world needs saving.” But the moment you see the truth, those mistruths will crumble, and your happiness will arise from the ruins.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “My life is going swimmingly, and so why would I even want to know The Greatest Secret?”

To quote the wonderful late Anthony de Mello, S.J.: “Because your life is a mess!”

You may disagree. I certainly didn’t think my life was a mess either until Anthony de Mello defined exactly what he meant.

Do you ever get upset? Ever get stressed? Ever worry? Ever feel anxious, offended, or hurt? Ever feel sad, down in the dumps, or despondent? Are you ever unhappy or in a bad mood? If you experience any of these emotions at any time, then according to Anthony de Mello, your life is a mess!

You might think it’s normal to be plagued by negative emotions throughout your day, but life isn’t supposed to be that way. You can live your life utterly free of hurt, upset, worry, and fear, and exist in continuous happiness.

Life is showing us there’s a way out of suffering through every single challenging circumstance we experience, especially the very challenging circumstances. But we don’t see it. We’re lost in our problems, and we miss the very thing that is right in front of us that is the way out of all problems forever!

“We seek happiness in experience after experience, relationship after relationship, therapy after therapy, workshop after workshop—even ‘spiritual’ ones, which sound so promising but never address the root cause of suffering: ignorance of our true nature.”

Mooji, from White Fire, second edition

Whenever we suffer, it’s because we’ve believed something about ourselves that isn’t true; we’ve mistaken our own identity. All of humanity’s suffering comes down to a case of mistaken identity.

The truth is, you’re not a person who has no control over what happens to you and your life. You’re not a person who has to slave at a job you don’t like, only to die at the end of it all. You’re not a person who has to struggle from paycheck to paycheck. You’re not a person who needs to prove yourself or who needs anybody else’s approval. The truth is, you are not really a person at all. You are most certainly having the experience of being a person, but in the bigger picture it’s not who you are.

“It isn’t the way it appears to be. You aren’t what you think you are.”

Jan Frazier, from The Freedom of Being

“Sometimes we’re targeting the symptoms in life but the real cause in life we’re missing—the understanding and recognition of our true nature. This is the one medicine for everything.”

Mooji

“All the unhappiness, discontent and misery that we experience in our life is caused only by our ignorance or confused knowledge of who or what we really are. Therefore if we want to be free of all forms of misery and unhappiness, we must free ourself from our ignorance or confused knowledge of what we really are.”

Michael James, from Happiness and the Art of Being

Your gauge of how your life is going is your level of happiness. How happy are you? Are you genuinely happy all of the time? Do you live within a continuous background of happiness? You’re supposed to be happy all the time. Happiness is you. It’s your true nature. It’s who you really are.

“The thing that every one of us is looking for in this world is exactly the same thing. Every being, even the animals are looking for it. And what is it that we’re all looking for—happiness with no sorrow. A continuous happiness with no taint whatsoever of sorrow.”

Lester Levenson, from Will Power audio

Every action we take, every decision we make, is because we think we will be happier from it. It’s not a coincidence that we’re all looking for happiness; in our search for happiness, we are actually looking for ourselves without realizing it!

It’s not possible to find lasting happiness through material things. Every material thing appears and eventually disappears, so if you vest your happiness in a material thing, your happiness will disappear when the material thing disappears. There’s nothing wrong with material things (they are wonderful, and you deserve to have whatever you want in life), but it’s a major breakthrough when you realize that you’ll never find lasting happiness in them. If material things brought us happiness, then when we receive something that we really wanted, the happiness would never leave us. But it’s not the case. Instead, we experience a fleeting happiness, and within a very short amount of time we’re back to where we started from—a state of wanting more things in an effort to feel happy again.

There’s only one way to find lasting, permanent happiness—it is to find out who you really are, because your true nature IS happiness.

“The world is so unhappy because it is ignorant of the true Self. Man’s real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true Self. Man’s search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true Self … When a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end.”

Ramana Maharshi

“The only real purpose of being here on this earth is to learn or to re-remember our original natural state of no limitations.”

Lester Levenson, from Will Power audio

“The discovery of our true Self has the power to transform the darkness of ignorance into the light of pure understanding. It is the most profound, important and radical discovery. It is a tree that bears fruit immediately. When we realize who we are—the one experiencing and perceiving the world—so many things will be set right. There are not many things to know if truth is what you seek. It’s not volumes of knowledge that are required—it’s to come to the recognition of the one true Self that you are.”

Mooji

Remembering who you really are has been given many names over the centuries. Enlightenment, self-realization, self-discovery, illumination, awakening, remembering. You probably think “enlightenment” can’t be for you (“I’m just a normal person”), but you couldn’t be further from the truth. This discovery—this happiness, this freedom—is who you are, so how can it not be for you?

“Open yourself to the possibility that you can experience the truth of what you are, this very moment. How, you may ask? By noticing that the only obstacle in the way is your imagination—your imagined opposition.”

My teacher

“We are free, and we don’t know it. It feels the furthest thing from possible, that it could be so. We’d swear we’re at the mercy of what goes wrong, what goes right. And yet (here is the truth), freedom is right here.”

Jan Frazier, from The Freedom of Being

“Self-realization is possible for someone who’s had no education and it can also be possible for a king. There are no preconditions to self-realization. Self-realization isn’t just for those who’ve undergone years of spiritual practice—it’s possible for someone who’s been drinking and smoking all the time.”

David Bingham, from Conscious TV

What Will Your Life Be Like?

“I’m talking about something that hardly anyone has yet experienced. How can I describe it? No limits on anything in any direction whatsoever. The ability to do anything for the mere thought of it. Yet it is more than that. Imagine the highest joy you can have and multiply by a hundred.”

Lester Levenson, from No Attachments, No Aversions

When you fully recognize who you are, you will have a life without problems, without upset, hurt, worry, or fear. You will be free from the fear of death and will never again be controlled or tortured by your mind. False ideas and beliefs will dissolve. In their place will be clarity, happiness, joy, peace, infinite fun and wonder—every moment a delight. You will know you are safe and secure no matter what.

“And when we recognize this … ultimate happiness is established permanently, and forever. And with its establishment comes immortality, unlimitedness, imperturbable peace, total freedom, and everything else that everyone is seeking.”

Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5

When you fully recognize who you are, life becomes effortless—everything you need seems to appear without any effort from you. There’s an ease and a flow that take over your life. A life of lack and limitation is over forever. You come to know the ultimate power you have over everything in the world.

When you fully recognize who you are, suffering and struggle will be gone, and fear and negative emotions will dissolve. The mind will quiet. You will be filled with joy, positivity, fulfillment, a sense of abundance, and an imperturbable peace. This will be your life.

From the words of Jan Frazier, a mother and literary teacher:

“Imagine this: Whatever has weighed on you suddenly no longer weighs. It may still be there, a fact in your life, but it has no mass, no gravity. All that has ever troubled you is now just a feature of the landscape, like a tree, a passing cloud. Every bit of emotional and mental turmoil has ceased: the entire burden, some form of which has been with you as long as you can remember. A thing familiar as your closest friend—as much a part of you as the language you speak, the color of your skin—is utterly, inexplicably gone. Into the startling emptiness flows a quiet joy that buoys you morning, noon, and night, that goes everywhere you go, into any kind of circumstance, even into sleep. Everything you undertake happens effortlessly. You are happy, but for no reason. Nothing bothers you. You feel no stress. When a problem arises, you know what to do, you do it, and then you let it go. People that used to drive you crazy no longer do. While you feel compassion for others’ suffering, you don’t suffer yourself. Activities that used to be tedious are fun. You don’t need therapy; you don’t get bored, anxious, or moody. Except when needed for a task, your mind is at rest. Your life is entirely fulfilled—without your having to do anything to fulfill it, … you know that no matter what challenge you are handed—for the rest of your life—the peace will sustain. Never again will you be afraid, desperate, lonely. Whatever comes your way, this causeless joy will hold. Imagine it.”

Jan Frazier, from When Fear Falls Away

This is your life with The Greatest Secret. This is your destiny.

CHAPTER 2
THE GREATEST SECRET: REVEALED

“So close you can’t see it.

So subtle your mind can’t understand it.

So simple you can’t believe it.

So good you can’t accept it.”

Loch Kelly, from Shift into Freedom regarding the Shangpa Kagyu Tibetan Buddhist tradition

Why is it so few have discovered the truth? Why haven’t the majority of us realized who we are? How can billions of people have missed something so vitally important to our happiness?

We’ve missed discovering The Greatest Secret because of one small obstacle: a belief! Just a single belief has prevented us from making the greatest discovery we can make. That belief is that we are our body and our mind.

You Are Not Your Body

“We came into this world to be a body in order to learn that we are not a body.”

Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5

Just as you use a car to get from one location to another, your body is a vehicle you use to move around and to experience the world.

“If you have a car, you do not say you are the car. Why then, if you have a body, do you say you are the body?”

Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5

Being material, your body isn’t conscious. It doesn’t know it’s a body, but “you” know it’s a body. Your toe doesn’t know it’s a toe, your wrist doesn’t know it’s a wrist, your head doesn’t know it’s a head, and your brain has no idea it’s a brain, but “you” know each and every part of your body. How could you be the body when you know all the different parts, and yet not one of them knows you?

It’s probing questions like these that enabled the great beings of the past to unravel the mystery behind who we really are.

“The worst habit we have gotten into over the millenniums is that we believe we are this body.”

Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5

“We have forgotten what we are, and we have identified ourselves with objects. I am this body, therefore I’m going to die.”

Francis Lucille

“You fear that if the body isn’t, you are not.”

Lester Levenson

Believing you’re just your body creates the biggest fear of humanity, the fear of death: when your body dies, you fear you will no longer exist. It’s like a dark cloud hanging over your life.

“If you want immortality—stop holding on to the body.”

Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5

It’s good news that you’re not your body, because your body is going to come to an end one day, as all material things do. The world is completely made up of material things, and not one of those things will last, including your body, which appears and disappears through the process of birth and death. What you actually are never dies!

“What you truly are cannot die. The body will die, but the body is not what you are.”

Mooji

“We have free will to identify with the body or identify with who we really are. Body equals pain and what you are equals infinite joy.”

Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5

Your way out of all difficulties begins with letting go of the belief that you are your body.

You Are Not Your Mind

The voice in your head is not you, yet you’ve probably believed it is you for most of your life. While the voice in your head sounds like you, seems to know a lot about you, and has become very familiar to you, it’s definitely not you. That voice in your head is your mind, and you are not your mind.

“The mind is a collection of thoughts that constantly appear and disappear.”

Peter Lawry

“If there are no thoughts, then there is no mind. Mind is only thought.”

Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5

Check for yourself. Where is your mind if there is no thought? Your mind isn’t there.

“There’s nothing inside but thoughts and feelings, memories and sensations, but are you a thought? Are you a feeling?”

Rupert Spira, from a public talk

If you were a thought—let’s say, a frustrated thought—then you would disappear when the frustrated thought disappeared. You are not a thought, a sensation, or a feeling, because when they end you would end too, but you’re still here after they end. You are here before a thought, you are here before a feeling or sensation, and you remain perfectly intact after they’ve gone. It’s fairly obvious when you look at it. Certainly, we do experience thoughts, feelings, and sensations, but we are none of those things.

In some ways it’s easy to understand how we’ve missed seeing who we really are, because the body and mind are a very convincing combination. Our mind keeps up a constant tirade of thoughts, most of which include the word “I,” as though the mind is us. And you may be surprised to learn that all our bodily sensations come from the mind, too, which reinforces our belief that we are our body.

“How others see you contributes to your sense of self. When things happen, they seem to happen ‘to’ you, or you may bring them about … You care what happens because of its effect on you. You ‘hold’ yourself with a wish to keep yourself safe and in a good light. You certainly do seem real.”

Jan Frazier, from The Great Sweetening: Life After Thought

It’s not that you don’t have a body and a mind; it’s just that they are not the real you. Just like your car, they’re simply finely tuned instruments you’re using to experience the material world.

“Identifying with the body and mind is the only thing that is covering up who you truly are. It’s this misidentification that is veiling your true Self.”

Mooji

Are You Really the Person You Think You Are?

“Considering all the effort given to bolstering the ego—the emphasis on self-esteem, reputation, achievement, physical appearance, material acquisition—it’s a miracle awakening ever happens at all.”

Jan Frazier, from The Freedom of Being

The ego, the imagined self, the pretend self, the separate self, and the psychological self are a few of the names that teachers and sages have given for our mistaken identity. All of these descriptions refer to a body and a mind that together make up what we call a person. When we refer to ourselves, most of us are referring to this person that we think we are.

“A person is what you experience, it is not what you are.”

Mooji

“There’s no such thing as a person. If you say, ‘I’m a person,’ then you have to say which one—there was a baby once upon a time, there was a teenager, there was a toddler … and then this whole process will be over soon.”

Deepak ChopraTM, M.D.

Your personality is constantly changing, so if your personality is you, which person are you? Are you the angry person, the loving person, the frustrated person, the irritated person, or the kind person? You probably think you’re all of them, but you can’t be all of them because if you were, the angry person would never disappear; it would always be here. Or if the frustrated person were really you, when the frustrated person disappeared, a bit of you would disappear with it. But that doesn’t happen, does it? You’re here before the angry person appears, and you’re here after the angry person disappears. You’re here before the frustrated person appears, and you’re here after they disappear. Clearly you are not your changing moods or personality.

“Personality is a useful tool, but it cannot define who you are. Who you are lies far beyond who you think you are.”

Jac O’Keeffe

“The biggest obstacle to discovering the truth of who we essentially are is the belief that I am a cluster of thoughts, memories, feelings and sensations. Together these form an illusory self or entity. The belief that I am this entity is the only obstacle. All our psychological problems are due to this imaginary self. It always comes down to mistaking ourselves for this.”

Rupert Spira, from a public talk

“The person only seems to exist because of the persistent and unquestioned belief that there is an actual ‘person’ here. But the person, or ego, can’t exist without the belief in it. It’s only imagination. In truth, there’s no person at all. The only resident of this house of the body is the pure Self, which is what you are. The rest is all made up. There are not two tenants in this body, there’s only ever been one. Belief in ego gives a sense of reality, but this is not a fact, only a fiction.”

Mooji

What’s the problem with believing we’re an ego or a person?

We feel small and extremely vulnerable. We’re afraid of bad things happening to us. We’re afraid of illness, getting old, and dying. We’re afraid of losing the things we have, and not getting the things we want. We live in a state of lack, believing there’s “not enough”: not enough money, not enough time, not enough energy, not enough love, health, or happiness, and not enough life. And even worse, we believe we’re not enough. None of this is true—in fact, it is the very opposite of the truth—but we can never have true lasting happiness while we hold on to the belief that we’re only a person.

“The tragedy and comedy of the human condition is that we spend most of our lives thinking, feeling, acting, perceiving and relating on behalf of an illusory self.”

Rupert Spira, from The Ashes of Love

“The ego isn’t who you are. But it makes so much racket you can’t hear who you really are. If you keep it going, if you feed and water the ego, it’s madness.”

Jan Frazier, from Opening the Door

“I think everyone is suffering from person poison … living life

too personally, perceiving life too personally, taking things too personally. When you’re responding to life in a personal mode it is a form of blindness. You don’t see things in their correct light.”

Mooji

You are most certainly experiencing a body, experiencing a mind, and having the experience of being a person, but these are actually the least parts of you, and ultimately they are not you, because when they end, you do not end.

“There is ‘no people’ in people.”

Shakti Caterina Maggi

But there is a real you.

“Why is it so hard to see through the ego, to let it go—to stop believing in the solidity of the little guy? Why do we hold on to this apparently real self, when beneath and around and above and swimming all through it is this gorgeous other reality that really is real, that can be counted on for sustenance, for perfect peacefulness? Why deny ourselves this, for the sake of something so paltry by comparison—for a thing that causes so much trouble, even pain?”

Jan Frazier, from Opening the Door

Big Pretenders

Your thoughts, feelings, sensations, and beliefs seamlessly work together to convince you you’re a person. We’re all big pretenders. We’re pretending we’re very small. We’re pretending we’re very limited. We’re pretending we’re a small, limited person who is born, lives for a time, dies, and that’s the end of us. But nothing could be further from the truth!

“We are self-obsessed with an imaginary character that doesn’t exist.”

Shakti Caterina Maggi

We could say that this imaginary character is exactly like a movie character. We know the actor playing the character exists, but does the movie character know that the actor exists? No, the movie character is imaginary.

We cement our belief that we’re a person with every thought. If you check on any thought, you’ll find that there’s a “me” at the center of every one of them. Those thoughts centered around the “me” you believe yourself to be affirm over and over again that you’re a little, limited person.

When you believe the voice in your head is who you are, you automatically believe everything it says; you believe all the thoughts that your mind generates.

Thoughts like:

“I’m getting old.”

“I’m too tired.”

“I’m not good enough.”

“I can’t do it.”

“I don’t have enough time.”

“I’m not as healthy as I used to be.”

“I don’t have enough money.”

“I’m not smart enough.”

“My eyesight is not as good as it used to be.”

“I don’t feel loved.”

“He or she doesn’t approve of me.”

“I don’t deserve it.”

“I’m scared of dying.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

These thoughts are all limitations, imposed on you by your mind. Who you really are is unlimited, which means absolutely nothing has power over you!

My teacher says that we’re practicing being small through constant limited thoughts (like the ones I just listed), and if we were not practicing being a small, limited person, we would see the truth of who we really are.

Everything about a “person” is the very opposite of who you really are. The person is imperfect. The real you is perfect. The person is temporary and limited. The real you is permanent and unlimited. The person is born and dies. The real you is never born and never dies. The person is personal and unstable. The real you is impersonal and always stable. The person has changing moods. The real you is constant happiness and peace. The person is full of judgments and opinions. The real you is allowing and accepting of everything. The person gets sick and becomes old. The real you is not subject to aging, and sickness can never touch you. The person suffers. The real you is free of all pain and suffering. The person dies. The real you exists for all eternity.

Trading Unhappiness for Truth

There’s only one way to have a blissful life with lasting happiness, and that is to know your true nature. There’s only one way out of a life plagued with problems, negativity, and discord, and that is to know the truth of who you really are.

“The real you is infinitely grand and glorious, whole, perfect, and in total peace, and you are blinding yourself to this by assuming that you are a limited ego. Drop the blinder, the ego, and be forever in perfect peace and joy. When you have found yourself—you will have everything.”

Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5

“Life is not about solving lots of little problems because they will never end. Life points us to the one essential thing that has been overlooked—our own true and unchanging self. Mankind as a whole is living largely in the mistaken idea that we are fundamentally a person with a body as opposed to our true Self.”

Mooji

“There may be tragedy in the ‘story’ of our lives, but in truth, there is no tragedy happening to us. Ultimately, the story is only there to teach us this distinction. The moment we take the lesson even the story changes to reveal itself as beauty, love, and intelligence. Do not be attached to the concept that misery is unavoidable. As long as we are attached to this concept, there will be misery.”

Francis Lucille

“In the biblical parable, the man who is identified with the body/mind is the man who built his house on sand. To realize one’s true nature is to build one’s house on rock.”

David Bingham

There’s no search to find the truth because it is what you already are. How could you search for yourself? It’s only that the majority of us have been constantly looking away from our true selves, rather than looking at who we are.

Have you ever looked at one of those pictures where there are two images in the one picture? When you first look at the picture, you can see one image clearly, but at first you can’t see the second image. You try, but the second image seems to elude you due to your focus on the first image.

You have to change your perspective and soften your gaze ever so slightly to see the other image come into view.

In Rubin’s famous picture, at first either you see two people looking at each other, or you see a vase. To see both images clearly you have to shift the way you’re looking at the picture.

For most of our lives we’ve been looking at ourselves from the perspective that we are a body and mind—that we are a person. But to see clearly who we are, just as for Rubin’s painting, we have to shift our perspective—ever so slightly.

The Reveal

Let me ask you one simple question.

Are you aware?

Your answer must be “yes,” otherwise you wouldn’t be aware of the question I just asked you. Let me ask you again.

Are you aware?

Yes, you’re aware. You were aware as a baby, through your childhood, your teenage years, and throughout adulthood. You’ve been aware your entire life.

Awareness is and has been the only constant in your life. Your body keeps changing, your mind keeps changing, thoughts, feelings, and sensations all keep changing, but the one thing that has never changed is your awareness of it all.

And that awareness is who you really are.

You are Awareness.

“You are it. It’s so close you cannot see it. You look through its eyes at the world around you.”

Jan Frazier, from The Freedom of Being

“When we say ‘I,’ we’ve been conditioned to believe that we’re referring to the body, when really ‘I’ is referring to Awareness.”

David Bingham

You are not a body, a mind, or a bundle of thoughts, feelings, memories, or sensations. You are the one who is aware of your body, your mind, your thoughts, feelings, memories, and sensations. You are Awareness itself.

“The moment you meet Awareness something in you recognizes it.”

Mooji

You’re aware of reading this book. You’re aware of the sounds around you. You’re aware of the room you’re in. You’re aware of your name. You’re aware of your body and the clothes on your body, your breathing, and bodily sensations. You’re aware of the roof of your mouth, the soles of your feet, and your fingers. You’re aware of your mind, the thoughts in your head, and your feelings and moods.

In fact, you couldn’t know or experience any of life at all without Awareness.

You Are the Awareness That Is Aware of Everything

Awareness is what is aware of every single life experience you have. It’s not the mind or the body that is aware of your life. You—the Awareness that you are—are aware of the mind, thoughts, and the body, and anything you are aware of cannot be you.

The teacher Sailor Bob Adamson points out that we know we exist—of that we have no doubt. Well, the only way we know that we exist is our awareness that we exist. We make the mistake of believing our awareness that we exist comes from the mind or the body, but that is not true. Our awareness that we exist is what we truly are, not the mind or the body.

Just for a moment, imagine you have no body or mind.

Take away your body.

Take away your mind.

Take away your name.

Take away your life story, which is your entire past.

Take away all memory, beliefs, and all thought.

And notice what is left.

What is left is simply Awareness.

“If someone were to draw our attention to the white paper on which these words are written, we would suddenly become aware of it. In fact, we were always aware of the paper but we didn’t realise it due to the exclusive focus of our attention on the words. Awareness is like the white paper.”

Rupert Spira, from Being Aware of Being Aware

Just like the white paper, Awareness is always present in the background of our life. We usually give our exclusive attention to our mind and thoughts and our body and sensations, because they’re very attention grabbing. But we could not experience the mind and its thoughts or the body and its sensations without Awareness to be aware of them, just as we could not see any words if it were not for the background of the paper the words were printed on.

“Give your attention to this background, even a little, and you will discover a whole new world.”

Hale Dwoskin

“Awareness is the most obvious element of experience and yet the most overlooked.”

Rupert Spira, from Being Aware of Being Aware

“The subtle thing that is overlooked is that everything is known directly by awareness, but it’s assumed that everything is coming in through the mind. For instance, the common thing would be to say, ‘I think,’ but actually, if it’s looked at carefully, it’s noticed that there is an awareness of thinking … so the thinking isn’t who you are; there’s something that is aware of thinking.”

David Bingham, from Conscious TV

The one that is looking out through your eyes is Awareness! The one that is hearing through your ears is Awareness! Without Awareness you wouldn’t be aware of anything you see, hear, taste, smell, or touch, and you would have no experience of the information coming in through your senses. Your senses aren’t aware; it’s Awareness that’s aware of all of your senses.

“The apparatus with which we see is by itself inert, unable to see. A telescope is useless without an astronomer behind it. It doesn’t see anything by itself. Likewise, the apparatus of mind doesn’t see anything by itself.”

Francis Lucille, from The Perfume of Silence

“You are the Awareness that is aware of everything.”

David Bingham

“This individual consciousness—our feeling ‘I am a person, a separate individual, a mind or soul confined within the limits of a body’—is merely an imagination, a false and distorted form of our pure consciousness ‘I am,’ but it is nevertheless the root cause of all desire and all misery.”

Michael James, from Happiness and the Art of Being

“The ‘me’ that we imagine we are is just another thought.”

Kalyani Lawry

“Our real nature, the infinite real self that we are, is simply us minus the mind.”

Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5

Our mind distorts the world we see by layering veils of thought and belief, one over the top of each other. Each mental veil distorts the world further and prevents us from seeing everything the way it really is.

“The mind will never discover who you are because the mind is the cover-up of who you are. It’s only by letting go of the mind that you will discover who you are.”

Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5

Trying to see the truth with your mind is like trying to see something with a blindfold on. You need to drop the blindfold to see, just as you need to drop the mind to see who you really are.

“Attempting to understand consciousness with your mind is like trying to illuminate the sun with a candle.”

Mooji, from White Fire, second edition

Without even realizing it, most of us are constantly focused on the noise of thoughts coming from our mind. Awareness is always present, but when there’s a break from the noise of thoughts, it’s much easier to notice it. When thoughts stop, we become consciously aware of Awareness, which has been existing silently in the background all along.

The Mind’s Cover-Up

“We’re so used to knowing ourselves through our troubles, our dramas, and our obsessions that awake awareness, which is our true nature and our basic goodness, is hard to accept as our true identity.”

Loch Kelly, from Shift into Freedom

“Awake Awareness” is the name that Loch Kelly uses for Awareness, and it is just one of the many different names used by teachers past and present to describe what you are: Awareness, Awake Awareness, Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, Being, Buddha Nature, Christ Consciousness, God Consciousness, Spirit, the Self, Infinite Being, Infinite Intelligence, Unlimited Being, True Nature, True Self, Presence of God, Presence, Presence Awareness, Pure Consciousness, Pure Awareness, and many others. All these words are describing exactly the same thing—the Awareness that you are.

“We’re so smart and our lives are so complex that it’s hard to believe that simply discovering awake awareness could be the solution to our suffering. It’s also hard to believe that the most important discovery is already here within us; we don’t have to go on an odyssey to find it, earn it, or develop it.”

Loch Kelly, from Shift into Freedom

“The great joke is the simplicity of it all.”

Peter Lawry

It’s a great joke because what we truly are, what is closer to us than our very breath, has eluded the majority of humans for thousands of years.

We’ve missed the simplest, most wonderful discovery because our thoughts have a hypnotic effect on us that keeps us in our head, oblivious to Awareness. We usually give our attention exclusively to the thoughts in our mind and to everything we perceive through our senses, and with our attention diverted we miss what is always present—Awareness.

“There is nothing wrong with the body or the mind. The only problem is that we identify our witnessing presence, consciousness, with them. As long as we identify this witnessing presence with the body and the mind, there is no room for this presence to reveal itself in all its glory.”

Francis Lucille, from The Perfume of Silence

“For a moment, take off the persona. It’s just an item of clothing, threadbare, stained with years of wear and tear.”

Pamela Wilson

“To believe that our Self—luminous, open, empty Awareness—shares the limits and the destiny of the mind and body is like believing that the screen shares the limits and destiny of a character in a movie.”

Rupert Spira, from The Ashes of Love

“People think they are a human being, but they’re the Infinite Being. They’ve mistaken their identity, but who they really are has never left them and is always present.”

David Bingham

Your mind appears only when you have a thought, and it disappears after the thought has ended. But Awareness never appears and disappears. Awareness is always present, even when you’re asleep. It feels like Awareness disappears when you go to sleep and appears again when you wake, and yet you know when you’ve had a great night’s sleep because you say something like, “I slept really well. I slept like a baby.” How do you know that you slept like a baby? You know it because Awareness was aware and present the entire time you were sleeping.

When you ask yourself the question, “Am I aware?” immediately Awareness is noticed. It didn’t appear; it was always present. You simply took your attention from thinking and put it on Awareness, and so you became consciously aware.

Everything other than Awareness eventually ends or dies. Without exception, all material earthly things come and go, appear and disappear. Every single thing on earth—bodies, cities, countries, oceans—appears and eventually disappears. Take a moment to think about it, and you’ll see that nothing remains. It’s all temporary, even planet earth itself, the sun, the solar system, even universes. Nothing is here forever, except for one thing—Awareness. You, Awareness, are here forever!

Our bodies age, yet when people get older they’ll say they don’t feel they’ve aged, and that they feel the same as they always have. They’ll admit that their body feels older, but the one they feel themselves to be deep down doesn’t feel like it has aged at all. Without realizing it, they are sensing the timeless Awareness that they really are.

“When you remember your past, your childhood, who is it that remembers? I remember. ‘I’ is that which knows the experience, remembers the experience.”

Deepak ChopraTM, M.D.

The “I” that we call ourselves at five years old, fifteen years old, thirty years old, and sixty years old is the ageless Awareness that has witnessed our entire life.

Five years old: “I … am going to school soon.”

Fifteen years old: “I … can’t wait to graduate.”

Thirty years old: “I … just got engaged.”

Sixty years old: “I … am not ready for retirement yet.”

“Self-realization is to see that the changing appearances on the surface of life are arising within the permanent, ever-stable Awareness that one truly is and has only ever been.”

David Bingham, from Conscious TV

“This is not a fairy tale. This possible thing is as real as a tree, as real as politics, as the roots that hold the tree to the ground, as real as the newspaper and its stories. It is as real as the Red Sox, as the price of gas, as a fight with your in-laws, as real as a tuition bill … The truth is, it is more real than these things, and yet it is hardly seen, hardly felt, let alone directly known.”

Jan Frazier, from Opening the Door

“There is not one of us who is not in direct touch with, in possession of, an infinite Beingness that’s all perfect, all present, all joyous and eternal. There is not one of us who is not in direct contact with That right now! But due to wrong learning, by assuming, over the ages, concepts of limitation and by looking outwardly, we have beclouded the view. We have covered over this Infinite Being that we are with concepts of, ‘I am this physical body,’ or, ‘I am this mind,’ or, ‘With this physical body and mind, I have heaps and heaps of problems and troubles.’”

Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5

“This is the same state that most religions refer to as ‘liberation’ or ‘salvation,’ because only in this state of true self-knowledge are we free or saved from the bondage of mistaking ourself to be a separate individual, a consciousness that is confined within the limits of a physical body.”

Michael James, from Happiness and the Art of Being

Consciousness or Awareness is also known by some religions as the presence of God. When a person has a divine experience—an experience where they feel they were touched by God—the individual mind and ego drop, which then reveals Awareness, or the presence of God. There is a feeling of pure love, infinite peace, beauty, happiness, and bliss, which cannot be mistaken for anything but divinity.

“In reality, we are the Infinite Being rather than the human being. We are the Infinite Being, having a human experience.”

David Bingham

In many ways, the truth of life and of ourselves is actually the complete opposite to what we have been taught. Instead of looking outward to the world for happiness, for fulfillment, for answers and truth, we need to turn and look inward, because it’s only in that direction that we will find everything we’re looking for. Our breathtaking world, and everything in it, is meant to be enjoyed to the fullest, but the happiness, joy, love, peace, intelligence, and freedom that are Awareness—your very nature—can only be found within you.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.