The Greatest Secret

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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Source ISBN: 9780008447373

Ebook Edition © November 2020 ISBN: 9780008447380

Version 2020-11-17

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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.”