On seeing herself in a photograph, two-year -old Sarah  will point andsay , “Th at’ s Sarah!” She won’ t say , “That’ s me,” because she’ s not yet
experiencing herself  as a “m e,” a separate person. H er experience is that there’ s
only One and she is it, and everyone else is it. “There’ s nothing out there but our consciousness. The re’ s only one
consciousness and we’re it.”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
A wareness or Consciousness is all through your body and everywhere outside
your body; A wareness can’ t be contained within your body because A wareness
is formless. It would be like trying to contain space in a jar; of course, space is
both inside the jar and everywh ere outside the jar . In fact, the jar is in space ,
just as all bodi es are in A war eness . Ab solutely everything is con tained in
A wareness, and it’ s the reason why the enlightened beings’ expe rience of life is
that they  are everything—becau se they ar e  e veryth ing. And as A wareness, so
are you! “Behind your eyes is the same consciousness, the only consciousness that is
behind Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and behind all eyes.”
My teacher
Think ab out tha t. Y our Consciousness is the same Consciousness as all of the
great beings; that’ s how close you are to them. They are not at a distance from
you. Y ou are one  with them. “The mystery , the magic of it is that this ordinary consciousness that we take
for gran ted, ev en as far as denying its existence, happens to be the
consciousness of the universe itself, its true center .”
Francis Lucille, fr om  T ruth Love Beauty
How to Stay as A war eness
There’ s no process to become the A wareness that you are; it’ s not something
you have to atta in. This is not something that certain people hav e and you don’ t
have. Y ou ar e alr eady it , right now . Y ou may have overlooked it, and you may
have believed all your life that y ou were just a person, but that doesn’ t alter the
fact of what you actually are. “Y ou can lose everything else, but you can never lose the awareness that you
are.”
Mooji, fr om  V aster Than Sky , Greater Than Space
When a human being lives from the place of knowing they’re Infinite
A wareness, then  the experience of living in the material world becomes
breathtaking. Because their m ind has dropped to the back ground and
A wareness is in the foreground,  they are no longer subject to the turmoil of the
mind, so they are lighthearted, happy all the time, and laugh a lot. They’re
existing in pure happiness and b liss and living their lives from that place every
day . Problems are virtually nonexistent, everything dreamed of comes to them,
and because they’re consciousl y living as A wareness, they’re fully aware of
their immortality . They know they are everything, and yet the y know they’re
not af fected by anything. Life on earth doesn’ t get any better than this!“Every little thing you do or see—every little, ordinary thin g—carries this
tingly se nse of being. It is hard not to cry sometimes at the most unspectacular
things. The lines of the walls in relation to the flat of the floor . I ts horizontality . The nap of the rug. The sound of the car going by . The smell of the skin on
your arm. All is miraculous.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  Opening the Door
But you have to experience it for yourself. Hearing it from someone else is a
guide, p ointing you in the righ t direction. It’ s like a travel agent describing
Mount E verest. Y ou can’ t know what Mount Everest is like until you get there
and experience it for yourself—only then will you know . “It is actually impossible not to remain as this open space of consciousness. However , to be it knowingly is a dif ferent matter .”
Francis Lucille, fr om  The Perfume of Silence
“Y ou cannot be out of awareness—it is missed simply through the habit of
placing the attention in the thinking.”
Peter Lawry
W e can put our a ttention either on the thoughts in our head or on  the A wareness
that we  are. It’ s a simple sh ift of your attention. Put your attention on
A wareness as often as you can r ather than giving your attention to thinking, and
you will be on your way to absolute freedom and bliss. The A war eness Practice—Thr e e Steps
to Bliss
The A wareness Practice is what I use and continue to practice to consciously
stay as A wareness. This practice is not to become  A waren ess, bec ause you’rethat alre ady . It’ s  so you can live your life consciously as the A wareness that you
are. It’ s just three simple steps to a life of total freedom and lasting, blissful
happiness. Step 1. Ask yourself, “Am I aware?”
Step 2. Notice A wareness. Step 3. Stay as A wareness. Step 1. Ask Y ourself, “Am I A war e?”
Don’ t try to answer the question with your mind; thoughts cannot help you
experience A wareness. Each time you ask the question, your attention will be
taken away from thinking and t he mind and put on A wareness. When you ask,
“Am I aware?” A wareness is present instantly . The mind may come in quickly
afterward with a thought, but if it does, simply ask the question again. The
more you ask th e question, the longer you will remain as A wareness, and the
quieter your thoughts and your mind will become. “Notice that the mind, in all its changes, has a changeless background.”
Hale Dwoskin
After as king, “A m I aware?” the  first thing you’ll likely feel is a sense of relief
as a ny resistance you are holdi ng in the mind and body starts to melt away . After re peatedly asking the question, over time the feeling of relief will turn
into a subtle fee ling of peaceful happiness. Y ou may feel a sense of serenity , as
your mi nd beco mes quiet. Y ou may feel currents of joy running through the
area around your heart. The relie f you feel is due to you r mind falling into the backgrou nd. The longer
the mind  remain s in the backgro und, with A wareness present in the foreground,
the greater the relief, and the more happiness you will begin to feel. Bliss
comes when A wareness remains permanently in the foreground, and the mind is
delegated to its rightful place. Remember , A wareness is formless, so it’ s not something you can hold on to. It’ s
like love. Y ou know love exists, but can you hold on to it? Y ou can feel the
sensations of love in your hear t, but you can’ t grasp it in you r hand. It’ s the
same wi th A war eness. Y ou will feel the sensations of relief and happiness in
your body from A wareness, but you can’ t grasp it or hold on to it. It ca n se em dif fi cult to consciously stay as A wareness in the beg inning, because
of the habit of thinking. “As soo n as this is noticed, we may ask again, ‘Am I A ware ?,’ in this way
inviting the mind away from th e objects of knowledge or experience, towards
its essence or source.”
Rupert Spira, fr om  Being A ware of Being A ware
The way to break the habit of incessant thinking is by bei ng the Infinite
A wareness that you are. Y ou can ’ t use the mind to stop the min d and break the
habit of thinking . It’ s the reason many people fail at meditation, because they’retrying to  use the mind to quiet  the mind, instead of allowing the thoughts to
come and go without giving them any attention. For mo st people there’ s virtually no relief from their min d because it’ s
constantly throwing up one thought after another , and they do n’ t realize they
can rem ove thei r attention from their thoughts. Freedom from t he mind is such
a glo rious relief, and it comes when you can observe thoughts ra ther than being
lured into following them and believing them. Step 2. Notice A war eness
In a rela tively short time of practicing step 1, you’ll get to the p oint where you
automatically notice A wareness. Y ou won’ t need to ask, “ Am I aware?”
anymore, because in the moment you think of A wareness, instantly A wareness
will be in the foreground and your mind will recede into the background. “Allow the experience of being aware to come into the foreground of
experience, and let thoughts, images, feelings, sensations and perceptions
recede into the background. Simply notice the experience of be ing aware. The
peace and happiness for which all people long reside there.”
Rupert Spira, fr om  Being A ware of Being A ware
Shift your attention to A wareness by noticing A wareness multiple times
throughout the day . It won’ t be long before you feel a sense of exquisite relief
and happiness each time you return from the turmoil of the mind to the deep
peace of A wareness. “There’ s a fork in every moment. T o be what you are or what you are not. Y ou’re choosing in every second.”
My teacher
If you feel like your mind is cov ering A wareness, or you feel like you’ve lost it
and you can’ t get it back, ask yourself, “What is aware that A wareness is lost?”
It’ s A wareness that’ s aware of it! And with that, you wil l be aware of
A wareness. If you don’ t think you’ve been able to discover A wareness yet, ask yourself,
“What is aware that I haven’ t discovered A wareness?” It’ s A wareness that’ s
aware of that too! And now you’re aware of A wareness. “Y ou are already awareness itself, not the one trying to be aware.”
Mooji
Are you  aware of your body right now? It’ s A wareness that’ s  aware of your
body . A re you aware of the seat you’re sitting on? It’ s A warene ss that’ s aware
of th e s eat. Are you aware of your breathing? It’ s A wareness that’ s aware of
your breathing. It’ s that simple. “Whenever you think of it, bring yourself back to the awareness of now . Do it
hundreds of times each day , because, remember , all of your power is in your
awareness of your power .”
Fr om  The SecretStep 3. Stay as A war eness
“In the beginning you feel like a visitor to awareness, but as you keep
discovering the realness of it, any sense of fear or separation melts away .”
Mooji
Staying as A wareness is all about where you put your attention. My teacher
suggests a simple way to think about this. Our mind operates in a similar way to
the lens on a cam era. The mind has an automatic zoom function, and it focuses
our attention on things in detail, just as you would zoom in with a camera lens
for a  close-up. The majority of  the time the mind is zoomed in and we are
seeing the world through focused attention, which results in a very narrow and
distorted perspective of the world. But when you want to take a photograph of a
wide-open space, you zoom out and open the lens as wide as you can for a
wide-angle shot. In the same way , if you open your attention wid e so you’re not
focused on any detail anymore, A wareness is revealed. It’ s a simple way to stay
as A wareness and let everything be just as it is. T o put this into practice, take a look around you right now , find something close
up to focus on, and focus your attention on only that. Y ou can use your hand if
you wan t. Now open your attention so it’ s very wide, taking in as much as
possible of your surroundings  without focusing on anything in particular . Notice a n imme diate sense of r elief and relaxation in the body . This happens
because our mind is constantly focused, and it takes a lot of ef fort to maintain
that focus. So, when you open your attention to be as wide and open as
possible, our mind dissolves into  the background and A wareness comes into the
foreground. Y ou feel a sense of  relief because A wareness is effortless ; it sees
and knows everything without any need to focus. “The on e that you’ve mistaken yourself for that wants to make things happen
has zero power . Y et it’ s sayin g, ‘I need to take care of som e things.’ It’ s
A wareness that takes care of everything.”
My teacher
“The less you believe you are the doer the more you are an unstoppable force
for good in the world.”
Hale Dwoskin
I u sed to be a big doer . I prided myself on my doing capab ilities, juggling
multiple things at one time. It became my identity . I was the Q ueen of Doing! And so of course the Universe flowed an unending number of things for me to
do, because of what I believed about myself. But that has all changed becau se of continually letting go of what I believed
myself to be, an d staying as the A wareness that I am. I’m not on ly happier than
I’ve eve r been, but instead of do ing, doing, doing all the time, things just seem
to g et taken care of naturally , without me doing them. If I do end up doing
something, it’ s like I’m not even doing it it’ s so ef fortless. Life becomes
miraculous! Give five minutes a day , at the very least, to putting you r attention on
A wareness. Y ou can do it when you first wake up, when you get into bed, or atany other time that suits you. If you are as dedicated as I am to having a
miraculous life, you will give your attention to A wareness more often, but even
five minutes a day will make an enormous dif ference to your life. It’ s that easy . Remember , this is not a practice to become A wareness, because you are Infinite
A wareness alrea dy . Rather it’ s a practice that stops you fr om identifying
yourself with the mind and body , which is not who you are. “T o begin with it seems like an ef fort to keep returning to the welcoming
presence, but at some point, it is so natural that it seems to require an ef fort to
leave it. It feels like home.”
Francis Lucille, fr om  The Perfume of Silence
Y ou will  reach a point where yo u know with certainty that you are in the realm
of d ivinity , or fo r those who pr efer to use the word “God,” in th e pr esence of
God. T o be in the presence of God or the realm of divinity is to be beyond the
mind. “When you lose the eyes of ego you see with the eyes of God.”
Mooji
After doing these steps for a while, you’ll discover that A wareness
automatically be comes more dominant and present within you,  and your mind
becomes much quieter . Other in dications of how you are doin g are: your life
will bec ome easier and more ef fortless, you’ll feel more peaceful, things that
used to bother you won’ t bother you anymore, you’ll feel calmer , your
emotions will be more stable, an d you’ll find you’re not easily swept away with
negative emotio ns. In fact, you will begin to feel a sense of happiness that
you’ve not felt before. Y ou’ll become more acutely aware of your mind’ s
propensity to complain, critici ze, and focus on negativity . A nd you’ll find
you’re not giving your mind po wer over you like you used to, because you’ve
taken your attention away from your thoughts. “Knowing that we are the perfect Self, that we are not this limited body and
mind, all problems immediately resolve.”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
A wareness is greater than every single thing it’ s aware of. The person is limited,
but A wa reness i s unlimited, which means everything  is possible. Nothing can
ever restrict you; nothing whatsoever has power over you! “W e seem to h ave the experience of a limited consciousnes s but when we
investigate more closely , we see that it is impossible. That which is  aware of
limitations transcends limitations and is therefore beyond them.”
Francis Lucille, fr om  The Perfume of Silence
Nothing can disturb A warenes s! No number of problems ca n disrupt you. Negativity can’ t  touch you. W ar s can’ t af fect you. Y ou as A wareness are always
safe and well. Y ou are untouchable, unharmable, imperishabl e. What would
there be  to threaten you? Y ou c ontain everything. Y ou are everything. T o the
best of your abil ity , begin to stay  as the A wareness that you are by putting your
attention on A wareness often, so you can live a wondrous life.“Then y ou can no more be fooled by the apparent limitations of the world. Y ou
see t hem as a dream, as an appe arance, because you know that your very own
Beingness has no limits.”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5C H A P T E R  3  S u m m a r y
Y ou  are A war eness; you’r e not a person  being aware of
something. A telescope is just an instrument without the astr onomer
looking thr ough  it, and your body and mind ar e instruments
of A war eness. Ther e is  only one awar eness, and it’ s the same awar eness
that is operating thr ough everybody . Y ou ar en’ t awar e of thoughts or sensations in another
person’ s body because A war eness has been funneled
thr ough your mind, making it localized to your body . A war eness or consciousness is all thr ough your body and
everywher e outside your body . W e can put our attention either on the thoughts in our head
or on the A war eness that we ar e. Put your attention on
A war eness as often as you can. The A war eness Practice
Step 1. Ask yourself, “Am I awar e?”
Step 2. Notice A war eness. Step 3. Stay as A war eness. The way  to br eak the mind’ s habit of nonstop thinking once
and for all is to stay as the A war eness that you ar e.
Shift your attention to A war eness by noticing A war eness
multiple times thr oughout the day . A simpl e way to stay as A war eness: Open your attention
wide like the lens on a camera so you’r e not focused on any
detail anymor e, and A war eness is r evealed.T o practice, find something close up to focus on, and focus
your atte ntion on only that. Now  open your attention so it’ s
very wi de, taking in as much as possible of your
surr oundings without focusing on anything in particular .C h a p t e r  4
Y ou’r e Dr eaming . . . It’ s T ime to
W ake Up
According to many spiritual teachers and ancient traditions, our entire world,
your life  and everyone else’ s lif e, is nothing more than a dream. They don’ t
say that our wo rld and everything in it is like  a dream, but th at it is literally
made from the s ame substance as our dreams and is equally as illusory . When
you are permanently staying as  A wareness, you will know fo r certain that
your life  and the world are not the reality you thought they we re: they are a
dream. “This lif e is a dr eam; we’re dreaming we’re a person living in a world that we
are convinced is real. W e don’ t realize it’ s all a dream. The whole world as
now seen is no thing but a drea m-illusion that never was. The truth is just
behind the outward world.”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
“W e should be open to the possibility that this is a dream and when we do,
everything chan ges dramatically . It actually turns out to be so. If this waking
experience is seen to be a dream, then our behavior changes and we will find
that the respons e coming from the characters or the situation in this dream
also changes.”
Francis Lucille, fr om  The Perfume of Silence
“W e are right now in a lucid dream. And part of the dream is that which we
call mind, body , and universe.”
Deepak ChopraTM, M.D. “And th e dream  is seamless so  it’ s virtually impossible for pe ople to wake
up.”
My teacher
In your night dreams your mind creates your body , other people (some you
know , so me you don’ t know), cities, towns, houses, vehicles, food, objects,
trees, na ture, an imals, the sun, stars, and sky . It also creates time passing,daytime, nighttime, voices, sounds, and every circumstance a nd event that
takes place in y our dream. Y our mind creates an entire world, it creates a
dream v ersion o f you, and it makes everything seem so real that you don’ t
even question it—until you wake up! Only then do you realize it was a dream. “Y ou probably have noticed one of the main things about a dream. V irtually
always, the “you” in the dream doesn’ t realize it’ s a dream. That’ s the ironic
thing about dreaming. The char acters in a dream automatically assume they
are w ide awake! The dream cha racters are not awake. The dream experiences
are not real. But in the drea m, none of that has been noticed. Notice
something else about a dream. As far as the dream characters are concerned,
there is nothing beyond the dream. The dream characters have no idea that
there is another , real kind of awakeness. A dream character has no idea of
what it’ s missing.”
Peter Dziuban, fr om  Simply Notice
“While w e are subjected to the night dream, everything seems to  be real. If we
see a tiger , we are afraid because we don’ t know that we are c reating the tiger . If w e kn ew that  we couldn’ t po ssibly be afraid, could we? This  demonstrates
that an illusion can seem to be quite real while we are subjec ted to it, even
though, when we become awar e of its illusory nature, we understand that it
was we who were creating it all along.”
Francis Lucille, fr om  T ruth Love Beauty
Even if  you’re fully aware th at the world is a dream, you still remain
respectful of its physicality , and of your physical body . Y ou don’ t go and jump
of f a building, because the build ing, the ground, your body , and gravity are all
made of the same dream stuf f, and you will feel it! As one teacher said, if you
come up and pinch me in a dream, I will feel it, because it’ s a dream pinch!“In a dream, ten years may pass by in one minute. Y ou may have a baby and
then be taking it, as a child, to school. When you wake up, you see that the
body in the drea m was an illusion, and the time to which it was subjected was
also an illusion, but from the vantage point of the dream, it seemed to be real.”
Francis Lucille, fr om  The Perfume of Silence
“If we take the dream state as an example, there may be a dream that covers a
fifty-year period, but we wake u p and realize that it didn’ t actually happen. It
only seemed real while there was identification with the dream state of
consciousness. The waking state is also only an extremely convincing play
that consciousness is producing.”
David Bingham, fr om Conscious TV
“The laws of physics are the laws that apply to this waking d ream. During
night dr eams, th e laws of physics are dif ferent. That is why y ou can fly at
night!”
Francis Lucille, fr om  The Perfume of Silence
No matter what takes place in the “earth” dream, the end is the same for all of
us: we wake up to discover that  it was all a dream! This is why we’re told by
spiritual teacher s to “wake up. ” It means waking up from the illusion and
realizing that it’ s all a dream. W hen we wake up to the truth, we discover that
no one was ever hurt or harmed, and no one died; just like when you wake up
terrorized following a nightmare, and you realize with relief that no one was
actually hurt and nothing bad happened, it was just a dream. “If you can go to a movie an d see a picture of war and suf fering, and
afterward say ‘What a wonderful picture!’ so may you take this life as a
cosmic picture-s how . Be prepared for every kind of experience that may come
to you, realizing that all are but dreams.”
Paramahansa Y ogananda, fr om  Man’ s Eternal Quest
“Seeing the world as a dream is a great practice, and it will help break its
apparent solidity .”
Francis Lucille
W aking Up
“The greatest healing is to wake up from what we are not.”
Mooji
“It’ s like  shifting  your eyes from one thing to a dif ferent thing. It’ s that subtle. It’ s like exhalin g. When you’re ready , you’ll do it. Don’ t tell y ourself you’ll
never be ready . Don’ t tell yourself it’ s not possible. It’ s happening all around
you, to people j ust like you. Th ey aren’ t troubled anymore. They used to be. They are still living their lives. They are brimming in joy . They live lives of
ease, no  matter what is going on . Don’ t be jealous of them. Don’ t doubt them. Become that way yourself. Y ou will rejoice. Y ou will no t be able to
understand why you let yourself continue so long the other way .”
Jan Frazier , fr om  Opening the DoorI can  say with absolute certaint y that I was asleep for several d ecades of my
life. I know I was asleep beca use I can pinpoint the exact day , the exact
moment, and the exact circumstance when I first woke up! Since then I have
had lots of sma ll awakenings, and another major awakening. A wakening is
like coming out of a fog, when suddenly it clears, and you can s ee everything
clearly . Some people have woken up lying on a couch, walking through a parking lot
to their car , hearing the sound of a bird or something a teacher says, or reading
something in particular . Many have woken up in the midst o f a terrifying
event, or during a personal crisis when their life had hit rock bottom. And for
all of them, it w as only when they woke up that they realize d—they were
asleep. “Most p eople, even though they don’ t know it, are asleep. They’re born
asleep, t hey live asleep, they ma rry in their sleep, they breed children in their
sleep, th ey die in their sleep w ithout ever waking up. They liv e mechanical
lives, mechanical thoughts—generally somebody else’ s—mechanical
emotions, mechanical actions, mechanical reactions. They never understand
the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence.”
Anthony de Mello, S.J., fr om  A wareness: Conversations with the Masters
Our min d is mechanical, like a program in a computer , so if we’re governed
by o ur m ind, the n our life is mechanical. Maybe you continually  find yourself
with not enough money . This is  the result of a mechanical mind repeating the
same thoughts of “not enough money” over and over again. Y ou empower
those thoughts by believing them, and so you continue to experience not
having e nough m oney . This is th e work of the mind’ s limiting thoughts, while
A wareness is absolute abundance. When you wake up and begin living your life as A wareness, your life will be
beyond anything you can imagine now . Y ou will find the world utterly
magnificent, bur sting with beauty and loveliness, and you will see with clear
eyes tha t everything is on track, nothing is out of place, and all is well. When
our min d is running our life, w e’re prevented from seeing the world as it
really is. The ego ic mind takes issue with most things and objects to them  vehemently . Through its ego-centeredness and inability to see the full picture, it will judge,
criticize, and find fault, and d ue to its limited perspective o f life, it must
perceive problems. “W aking up is unpleasant, you k now . Y ou are nice and comfort able in bed. It
is irritating to be woken up. That’ s the reason the wise guru will  not attempt to
wake people up. I hope I’m g oing to be wise here and make no attempt
whatsoever to wake you up if yo u are asleep. It is really none of my business,
even though I say to you at times, ‘W ake up!’”
Anthony de Mello, S.J., fr om  A wareness: Conversations with the Masters
There’ s one purpose in life for every one of us—to wake up to who we are,
A wareness, and enjoy this incre dible spectacle of the world. W hen you wakeup, you will be in  th e world but n ot of  t he world, which means you w ill be
completely free from the challenges of the world. As I  outlined in  the three-step A wareness Practice in the previous chapter ,
after you’ve woken up to the truth of A wareness, the final step is to stay
consciously as A wareness and not be pulled back into the mind and the ego. Some people wake up suddenly and stay that way permanently , and for others
awakening seem s to be a process. Everyone, however , says that the process of
awakening continues to deepen with no end. “It i sn’ t any longer possible to say—this is about saints, this is about Zen
monks, this is s omething you must wait lifetimes to have. Or—this is for
serious spiritual  practitioners, or for people who don’ t revel in the physical
life, or for people who believe a certain way . . . Know th at you can go there,
can be there, ca n live a life that is unencumbered. Y ou do no t have to earn
this, or deserve it. It’ s free, already here. It isn’ t a reward. It’ s innate.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  Opening the Door
W aking up to who you really are is the way out of all  negativity and the way
to permanent happiness. It is the destiny of every human on earth. It is your
destiny . Y ou can make it your life now! The Mountain of Consciousness
Many y ears ago , the Imperator of the European Rose Cross Order shared a
metaphor to help me understand the levels of Consciousness and A wareness. He called it “the mountain of consciousness.”
If you’re at the base of the mountain in the valley , you can’ t see very far . Y our
perspective is narrow and limited, and you can’ t see what’ s ahead of you or
what’ s around any corner . Because you don’ t know what’ s beyond the valley ,
there is a great fear of the unknown. As y ou climb th e mountain, you begin to notice changes. Y our perspective of
life expands as you get higher , because you can see farther and you can see
past some of the things that were blocking your view at the bottom of the
mountain. Thing s look dif ferent a little higher up because you can see them
more clearly , and while still fearful, you’re not nearly as fearful as you were
in the valley . Higher again up the mountain, the atmosphere is dif ferent, the  vegetation is
dif ferent, and you can see much farther than you could be fore. Life looks
very dif ferent here, and because you can now see a lot of things that were
hidden from you before, your fear of the unknown is diminishing.When y ou reach the top of the mountain, you can see everything in all
directions. Nothing whatsoever is hidden from you. Y our vision  of the world
and beyond is fu lly expanded in every direction. Y ou can see the people in the
valley a nd their  limited perspective, and you know from wher e you are that
there’ s n othing for them to fear . Y ou can also see the peop le who are at
various stages on their way up the mountain, and the various limitations of
their perspective. And where you stand, at the top of the mountain, you can
see the sheer ex quisite beauty and perfection of absolutely everything. Y ou
see that nothing is out of place, a nd there’ s nothing for anyone to  worry about,
or be afraid of. The spectacle, the wonder , and the mystery of life that is
revealed to you is nothing shor t of magnificent, and when the people in the
valley can see the magnificence of what you can see, they also will be free. “When we stand on top of a mountain or look at the stars we are sensing
infinity , which is what we truly are, and why so many people cr ave that sense
of expansiveness.”
David Bingham
“At a higher level of consciousness, none of this personal mind stuf f matters
at all, for you are standing on the mountaintop of your own being, and all
below y ou are clouds passing. Y ou come to a point where noth ing matters at
all! Nothing, nothing, nothing! And all is perfection only .”
Mooji, fr om  White Fire, second edition
Now tha t you know who you are, you have begun the awakening process! The
only obstacle to permanently be ing who you are is your mind. Y our mind is
your gr eatest power in the material world, because it will generate any
material thing, event, or circumstance you want, but if you believe its negative
thoughts, you will use its crea tive power against yourself. There’ s nothing
wrong with the mind, it only becomes troublesome when you believe it’ s who
you are. When your mind tries to speak on your behalf, remember that the voice you
hear in your head is not you. Y our mind is not even an actual entity , but aprocess—a mechanical process. It’ s just made up of thou ghts, and the
thoughts it produces are coming from programs formed by your beliefs and
held in your subconscious mind . The subconscious mind is the storehouse of
our beliefs, memory , personalit y traits, automatic processes, and habits, and
its operation is no dif ferent from that of a computer; it’ s completely
mechanical. Y our subconscious mind receives information from the conscious mind, which
is yo ur t hinking mind, and it ac cepts all the data that the thinking mind puts
into it. The subconscious mind doesn’ t discriminate with any of the
information coming into it, but instead accepts everything that the thinking
mind believes is true . So b asically our mind recycles thoughts according to our belief s and holds us
prisoner with those thoughts by severely limiting our life—until we wake up
and see that our thoughts and our mind are not who we are! “W ould you rather play the game of limitation or would you rather be free? That sim ple que stion is a key to dropping our obsession with  being limited
body-minds. If you think you ar e your body-mind and the stories that you tell
yourself and others about being that body-mind, then you wou ld rather play
the game of limitation.”
Hale Dwoskin, fr om  Happiness Is Free
The firs t step to freedom is when we understand that our thoug hts create our
life. What you think is what manifests. Y ou won’ t  h ave the life y ou want if
you give  your attention to thoughts of what you don’ t want . And you will  have
the l ife you wan t if you give your attention only to thoughts o f what you do
want ! When you un derstand this fully , you become very aware of your
thoughts, and it puts you well on the path of awakening, because your
awareness of your thoughts n ot only stops you from belie ving negative
thoughts, but it means you are becoming more aware. The Secr et  b ook and docum entary explain  the power you have to create y our
life on all subje cts—health, relationships, money , work, happin ess, and even
the wo rld—through your thoughts. If you don’ t yet understand the
phenomenal power you have through your thoughts, I ur ge you to get a copy
of The Secr et , or borrow one from a friend or a library . The Secr et  has
changed the lives of tens of mil lions of people, and becoming m ore aware of
your thoughts is an excellent fir st step in the wonderful process  of waking up
to what we really are.C H A P T E R  4  S u m m a r y
This life  is a dr eam. The whole world is nothing but a
dr eam-illusion. In yo ur night dr eams your mind cr eates an entir e world and
makes everything so r eal that you don’ t question it—until
you wake up. The waking state is also only an extr emely convincing play
that consciousness is pr oducing. Because the mind is mechanica l, if we live fr om our mind,
our life is mechanical. When our mind is running our  life, we’r e pr evented fr om
seeing the world as it r eally is. When you wake up, you will be  in the world but not  of the
world. The Mo untain of Consciousness is a metaphor for
consciousness: Y our perspective of life expands as you get
higher . At the to p of the mount ain, you can see the beauty
and perfection of absolutely everything. Y our mi nd is made up of thoughts, and the thoughts it
pr oduces ar e coming fr om pr ograms formed by your beliefs
and held in your subconscious mind. The subconscious mind stor es our beliefs, memory ,
personality traits, automatic pr ocesses, and habits; its
operation is no differ ent fr om that of a computer . The firs t step to fr eedom is when we understand that our
thoughts cr eate our life. What you think is what manifests.C h a p t e r  5
Fr eedom fr om the Mind
“It is n’ t necessary for the mind to be quiet. All that matters is tha t you not listen to what
it’ s saying, as if it were true.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  The Great Sweetening: Life After Thought
Y our mind is an amazing tool to create your life exactly as you want it to be. It is not
your psychoanal yst or your ther apist, yet we give it that kind of authority over us when
we listen  to it a nd believe all it s thoughts as though they were true. This one habit of
believing our own thoughts robs us of being able to live in the magnificence and glory
of our true nature, A wareness. W e are prevented from having a life of constant
happiness, and a life where everything we need falls into our hands at the perfect time. Humanity has suf fered too mu ch for too long, because of our minds. It’ s time to
delegate our mind to its rightfu l place so that it is no longer the dictator of our life. When w e no longer live from an d through the mind, we will begin to live from our true
self, A w areness, and our life will truly become heaven on earth, free of suf fering and
negativity . “Every p roblem perceived to be ‘out there’ is really nothing more than a misperception
within your own thinking.”
Byr on Katie, fr om  Loving What Is
“The most powerful way to remove negativity is to recognize that you are not the mind. Once realized, negativity has nothing to hook to, and it dissolves by itself.”
Hale Dwoskin
Most people believe that negative situations come from outside of them; they believe
that it’ s  either people, circums tances, or events in the world that have caused the
negative situatio ns in their life. But nothing is inherently good or bad, as Shakespeare
told us: “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
It’ s your thoughts about a perso n, circumstance, or event that’ s the source of negative
situations in your life, not the actual person, circumstance, or event. And so
understanding a little of how the mechanics of your mind work will help free you from
its erroneous negative judgments, and then you can use it for what it’ s intended for—to
create the life you want. “Thinking was made to order what you want, not to indulge in it. The mind is there to
receive the order and make it a ppear to you. Thinking isn’ t ne eded for anything else
because everything else is taken care of by A wareness.”
My teacher“If you would only from this moment on see what you want, that is all that you would
get. But you hold in mind the things you do not want. Y ou struggle to eliminate the
things you don’ t want, thereby  sustaining them. So, it is necessary to let go of the
negative and put in the positive if you want a positive, happy life.”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
What ex actly is  your mind? First, it’ s important to understand  that your mind is not
your bra in. Y our brain doesn’ t t hink. Scientists have not been able to find a thought in
the brain; they c an only see the electrical activity caused by thoughts. Thinking comes
from the  mind. Y our mind is ma de up entirely of thought. If there’ s no current thought,
there’ s no mind. It’ s as simple as that. Y our mind can’ t even hold two thoughts at one
time. Y o u know that it’ s impossi ble to truly listen to a conversation and read something
on your  phone at the same tim e. Y our mind can’ t multitask, as much as you might
believe it can. However , a single thought, whe ther positive or negative, becomes a powerhouse when
you believe it. “If you prefer to suf fer , go on b elieving your stressful thoughts. But if you’d rather be
happy , question them.”
Byr on Katie, fr om  A Mind at Home with Itself
Most people believe their own t houghts as though they were facts, which explains why
life is stressful and challenging for so many . No one pointed out to us that our thoughts
are j ust mental noise, and they are not  reality . However , if we choose to believe our
thoughts, they will  become our reality! Mind is the gre at manifester of our physical life, and it wil l manifest any and all
thoughts we believe, whether th ey’re positive or negative, whether they’re thoughts of
what we want o r what we don’ t want. Positive thoughts are not harmful to your life
because they are close to your true nature; it’ s negative thoughts that are the cause of
our stres s and suf fering. And s o, we need to become particularly aware of negative
thoughts. Because our mind is mechanical, negative thinking can easily be come a fixed pattern. If
you then listen to and identify with the negative thoughts, yo u will be drawn in and
become lost in your thoughts as though in a hypnotic tran ce. Y our thoughts will
constantly take you into your head and away from what is actually happening in the
world. “Y ou believe that you are your mind. This is the delusion. The in strument has taken you
over .”
Eckhart T olle, fr om  The Power of Now
It’ s as though we’re playing a  virtual reality game and we’v e for gotten we have a
headset on. Because of the challenging circumstances in the virt ual reality world, we’re
stressed and suf fering, but if we  would just take the headset of f, we would realize that
the virtual reality world is not real. So it is with our thoughts. When we believe our
thoughts, we’re immediately ca ught in an imaginary mind-made movie that’ s playing
inside our head, and we’re no longer experiencing the world as it really is. “All thoughts are lies. The only truth is what is aware of them.”
My teacher
“A wareness does the observing; thought does the judging.”
Rupert Spira, fr om  The Ashes of Love
Thoughts are also responsible f or causing our feelings, and then in turn those feelings
will cause more thoughts. When we have a sad thought, it causes a sad feeling, and thesad feeling causes more sad th oughts. W e end up looking at  life through a veil of
sadness, where everything appears sad to us and we canno t see what is actually
happening in the world. “Mind is consciousness that has put on limitations. Y ou are originally unlimited and
perfect. Later you take on limitations and become the mind.”
Ramana Maharshi
If yo u h aven’ t d eliberately prog rammed your mind to think po sitively , your mind will
constantly throw  up negative t houghts that belittle and limit you. “I shouldn’ t have
done that.” “What was I thinking?” “That was really dumb.” “I’m running out of time.”
“I can’ t do that.”
“The mi nd is all, ‘No!’ ‘T oo late !’ ‘T oo early!’ ‘T oo fast!’ ‘T oo  slow!’ The mind never
stops.”
My teacher
“It’ s not that the mind is bad. The problem is that it tends to run on automatic, a
machine we can’ t figure out how to turn of f. Most of the time, w e don’ t even realize it’ s
running. Its ever -looping conten t is like elevator music, hardly noticed, like background
static that’ s tuned out. Because the mind goes everywhere we go, the temptation to use
it consta ntly is overwhelming. It runs simply because it can. Like a misapplied hammer ,
the overactive mind takes ra ndom whacks at everything in sight, omitting no
opportunity to judge, balk, interpret, identify with, stew over , start a story about.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  The Freedom of Being
A mind that’ s ru nning on automatic will also constantly tell you there’ s lack in your life
and the world—lack of money , lack of health, lack of love,  lack of time, lack of
resources—and that there’ s not enough to go around. And if you believe it, that will be
what you experience. Fortunately , you r mind is also a magnificent tool. Y our positive thoughts of what you
want can not only turn your life around but also give you great happiness and joy . If
you only thought about what yo u wanted, your life would be amazing. But many are
caught in the addictive pattern o f believing negative thoughts, and it is freeing yourself
from this loop of negative thinking that is needed and can be done quite easily: your
A wareness will help set you free. Don’ t Believe the T r oublemakerThere’ s nothing  wrong with the mind; the trouble only begins when we believe its
negative thoughts. When you feel worried, it’ s because you are believing worried
thoughts. When you feel doubt, it’ s because you are believing doubtful thoughts. When
you feel anxious, upset, dishe artened, scared, disappointed, irritated, impatient, re
vengeful, depres sed, hateful, or any negative emotion, it’ s bec ause you are believing
thoughts! And while you hold on to those emotions by continuing to believe your
thoughts, your mind will give you even more of the same. A  depressed feeling will
produce more depressing thou ghts, giving you a depressing perspective of people,
circumstances, a nd events, which makes you feel even more depressed, and around and
around it goes. “Thought is so cunning, so clever , that it distorts everything for its own convenience.”
J. Krishnamurti, fr om  Freedom from the Known
When we believe the mind’ s negative thoughts, we get pulled into the mind-made
movie, and then we’re guaranteed to experience more stress and suf fering. “Self-inflicted misery arises when we believe negative thoughts!”
My teacher
“Y ou are  responsible for everything that you feel. They are your feelings, they are your
thoughts. Y ou turn them on, you think them, and no one else but you does it—and you
act a s th ough yo u have no control! Y ou turn a faucet that flows  on your head and you
say , ‘Oh someone is getting me all wet.’ It’ s you who’ s turning on the faucet and
getting yourself wet. So, your direction should be taking full responsibility for what’ s
happening to you. Then you’ll see by looking in the direction of ‘I am doing this’ that
you are! Then when you see that you’re torturing yourself, you’ll say , ‘My gosh, how
stupid can I be?’ And you’ll stop. Instead of torturing yoursel f, you’ll make yourself
happy .”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
T aking responsibility for everything in our life also means not blaming anyone or
anything else for something that happened. And it means not blaming ourselves. Blaming is just another repetitive program in the mind. The real you never blames—
only the mind does. What will  set you free from the mind’ s blaming and criticizingways is understa nding that it’ s y our mind  that is the sole cause of negative judgments,
and to stop believing its negative thoughts. “As long as you think that the cause of your problem is ‘out there’—as long as you
think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suf f ering—the situation is
hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you’re suf fering in
paradise.”
Byr on Katie, fr om  Loving What Is
When we take responsibility for our own life, we no longer allow the ego and mind to
play the role of a victim on our behalf. “No tho ught eve r can dominate that which perceives the thought. Notice what it feels
like to realize this. Notice that it feels free. This is what stops the unconscious
identification with thoughts. This breaks the chain.”
Peter Dziuban, fr om  Simply Notice
It’ s A wareness that is aware of your thoughts, and it’ s A warene ss that is aware of your
emotions. The one who gets ups et is not A wareness, the r eal  you ; the one getting upset
is your mind. The one who gets angry , hurt, worried, anxious, or  disappointed is not the
r eal  you, it’ s your mind. It only feels like you because you believe your mind is you
and because you believe your mind’ s thoughts. “Like the scrolling text at the b ottom of the television screen, l et thinking just pass. If
attention is not focusing on the text, then you can be fully present to the whole picture.”
Kalyani Lawry
The Mind’ s Thr ee Thoughts
Although our mind arises out of awareness, as everything do es, our mind is not an
entity or a real thing, even though it sure seems like it is. It’ s simply a mechanical
activity or process, much like a  computer program. And just like a computer program,
it’ s repetitive. In fact, it’ s so repetitive that it only has three dif ferent kinds of thoughts. “The mi nd measures, compares,  and describes. These three thing s are all the mind does,
over and over and over again. Check for yourself with any thing you say , or with
whatever though t appears. That thought will either be the mind measuring something,
comparing something, or describing something.”
My teacher
Y our mind measures with thoughts like these: “It will take two h ours to get there.” “I’m
going on  vacatio n in one week .” “How long will it take for m y shipment to arrive?”
“I’ve lost ten pounds.” “I don’ t have enough money .”
Y our mi nd is comparing when  it thinks thoughts like these: “I prefer an SUV to a
sedan.” “I like to walk to work instead of taking the bus.” “She’ s smarter than me, and
way mo re talent ed.” “He’ s going to get the promotion over me, I know it.” “Look at
her . I wish I had her body .” “He’ s not the person he used to be.”
And your mind constantly describes things as if you can’ t see them. But you can see
what’ s h appening in your life ve ry well without mind’ s constant commentating, and in
fact that nonstop chattering prevents you from seeing the world as it really is. “Our att ention fo cuses mostly on thinking. W e become trapped i n the interpretations we
make and miss out on the fullness of living.”
Kalyani Lawry“The m ind mak es something of everything that comes along. This has become the
default mode. So much so that it little occurs to us that it could be otherwise—that the
mind re ally could for go the ma king-something of everything that comes along. Nor
does it occur to us that the mak ing-something that keeps the mind so enthralled is the
actual cause of s uf fering. W e keep thinking it’ s the stuf f that happens in life that causes
suf fering.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  Opening the Door
When your mind is describing something, it’ s telling a story . It’ s an interpretation of the
world an d realit y—it’ s imagined . Many of the mind’ s fabricate d stories are about you ,
and if believed, those stories can not only cause you stress and suf fering but also greatly
limit yo ur life. When you belie ve a negative story , your life will turn into that story! Y our mind spins up a negative story about you, you add the po wer of belief to it, and
then your mind projects it into the world for you to experience it. It does it with
thoughts like these:
“I’m overwhelmed. I just can’ t seem to get on top of things.”
“I’m no good with money . It seems to slip through my fingers.”
“This disease runs in our family .”
“I’ve got a big problem.”
“I can’ t get past the trauma of it. It will af fect me for the rest of my life.”
“W e were together for years, he was the love of my life, so I’ll never get over him.”
One of the biggest lies our mind  has convinced us of is the story  that we are a body and
a mind. And b ecause we’ve believed it, it has become ou r experience. W e feel
vulnerable, fearful of what might happen to us or others, helpless against life’ s events
and circumstances, and, if that isn’ t enough, many of us are also burdened with the
belief that life w ill come to an end for us when the body dies. It’ s ironic that the real
you—the Infinite A wareness that you really are—is the direct o pposite of that story the
mind has told you. “If y ou t ake the way it works, a  human being wakes up in the m orning and for the first
moment there’ s just stillness; th en there’ s a re-engagement of th e mind, the mind kicks
in and starts saying, ‘What ha ve I got to do today? How old am I? What are my
problems? How  am I going to stop all these things going wrong?’ There is complete
identification with the story; you pull your boots on and of f you go again.”
David Bingham, fr om Conscious TV
Another story our mind has convinced us of is the story about time. T ime is a very
convenient tool that enables us to all work from the same calendar and clocks so that
we can coordina te our lives with each other and with everything that’ s happening in the
world. B ut as Einstein discover ed, time is relative; ultimately , there’ s really no such
thing as time. T ime is an illusion—a mental concept created by the mind.“If y ou try to get your hands on time, it’ s always slipping through your fingers. People
are sure time is t here, but they can’ t get hold of it. My feeling is  that they can’ t get hold
of it because it isn’ t there at all.”
Julian Barbour , physicist, excerpt fr om Adam Frank’ s book  About T ime
All that really ex ists is this pres ent moment, and try as you might, you will not be able
to find any event or circumstance that happened at any other time than the present
moment. If you try to imagine a world without time, you won’ t be able  to do it because your
mind can’ t comprehend it. Y our mind is always either in the past or in the future; it’ s
not aware of this present moment. If you stop and are present right now , you will notice
that ther e is no thought. It’ s one of the reasons why the mind has been able to prevent
so many  of us from realizing who we really are, because A wareness can only be
recognized in this present moment! If yo u d on’ t thin k your mind creates time, then see if you can find time outside of your
mind. “T ry and find any evidence of the past without thought. T ry as hard as you can to find
any past apart from the current thought of it. It’ s impossible.”
Peter Dziuban, fr om  Consciousness Is All audiobook
Now try and find the future without thought. T ry really hard. It’ s not possible to find any evidence of the past or the future without thought. No one
has ever been able to step into the past or into the future. When anything happened in
the past,  it happened in the pre sent moment. When anything happens in the future, it
always h appens in the present m oment. Check it for yourself. G o back in your memory
to when  you first rode a bike as a kid. When you were actually riding your bike, were
you riding it in the past? Or were you riding your bike in the present moment? When
you woke up th is morning, did you wake up in the past, or d id you wake up in the
present moment?“The past and fu ture cannot be e xperienced. They can only be mentally processed. Past
and future exist only in the form of thought.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  The Great Sweetening: Life After Thought
“The only evidence we have of the Earth’ s past is rocks and fossils. But these are just
stable st ructures in the form of an arrangement of minerals we examine in the present. The point is, all we have are these records and you only have them in this Now .”
Julian Barbour , physicist, excerpt fr om Adam Frank’ s book  About T ime
When I was first told that time doesn’ t exist, my mind went crazy with all kinds of
thoughts trying to prove that tim e does exist! Like, what about old buildings? Aren’ t
they pro of there’ s a past? But when I really examined it, I realized that when the
buildings were built they were built in the present moment. And if I am standing
looking at the old building, I’m also looking at it in the present moment, and anyone
who has looked at the same building also looked at it in the present moment. Eventually
as I exam ined e ach thought that came up trying to prove time is real, I saw that every
one of them was false because there is only the present moment. “Whether you like it or not, you’re in the moment. There’ s only one moment, it’ s
infinite, and you can’ t be anywhere else but in it.”
My teacher
“Now is  not a m oment in time, sandwiched between the two vast spaces of past and
future. This present Now is the only Now there is—the eternal Now . It has not come
from anywhere and is not going anywhere.”
Rupert Spira, fr om  The Ashes of Love
If you can just open yourself to  the possibility that time is an illusion, it will help set
you free. “The future never comes. Think of that: the future never comes. There is only ever the
present. In the present, there is the feeling of not missing life. Of not having anywhere
to get to, anything to get done. The present is where it is happening. And it isn’ t
happening anyw here else. It su re as heck isn’ t happening in the mind, with all the
wondering abou t what’ s ahead, and the going over (and over) something that has
already come and gone.”Jan Frazier , fr om  Opening the Door
“The past is made of memory , the future of imagination. Neither has any existence
outside the realm of thought.”
Rupert Spira, fr om  The Ashes of Love
The min d constantly fixates on the past and the future, neither of which exists, but
which ju st the same causes us stress and worry . Y ou think to you rself, “I’m running late
for our meeting. My boss and work colleagues are going to be furious with me. I was
late last week too. I could get fired over this.” Instead of believing those thoughts as
facts an d certainties, be aware that they’re just  flimsy thoughts. They’re fabricated
stories. But if you believe your mind, it will  become true. The mind’ s storytelling is nothing more than one of its mechanical programs, and yet it
has managed to convince most of us that its stories are true—the story that time is real,
the s tory that we ’re a body and a mind, the story that we are a  separate person who is
born and dies. All of these things combined play their part in constructing the reality
that we experience, but they are all in the mind, and therefore nothing but mental ideas. “It’ s not you that people like or dislike; it’ s their stories of you.”
Byr on Katie, fr om  A Mind at Home with Itself
Don’ t believe a story your mind tells you if it’ s something you don’ t want; otherwise,
you will brand yourself with it. W atch the mechanics of your mind, and don’ t accept a
single st ory or thought about yourself that is anything but perfection and goodness,
because perfection and pure goodness are the fact of what you r eally  are! A war eness Is Y our W ay Out
“What is a thought? A movement of ener gy . What is a feeling? A movement of ener gy .”
Peter Lawry , fr om the talk “Consciousness Unlimited”
What you are, In finite A warenes s, can never be af fected by thoughts. So become aware
of your thought s and see them for what they are—just a thoug ht, just ener gy passing
through. “A t hought is like a bird flying by . Let the bird fly past without analyzing it. ‘Where are
you going? What kind of bird a re you? Where’ s your family? How old are you?’ Just
let the bird fly past.”
My teacherY ou don’ t have to eliminate you r mind or go to war with your mind. Y ou will add even
more power to your mind if you try to do that. A wareness is your way out of the turmoil
of the mind. Jus t become aware of your thoughts so that you no longer believe them. Y ou can’ t be aware of your thoughts and believe them at the same time, because
A wareness of your thoughts prevents you from identifying with them as though they
were tru e. Whe n you observe your thoughts instead of getting  lost in them, you see
them for what they are: something that you can either choose to believe, or not. “Who you are does not need a thought to hear . Doesn’ t need a thought to see. Doesn’ t
need a thought t o sense your bo dy and your surroundings. Who you are is thought free. A wareness is hearing, seeing, sensing everything first without any thought.”
My teacher
Remember , you r thoughts aren’ t aware of you; you are the A w areness that is aware of
your thoughts. “When y ou are willing to really look at how seriously you take yourself, your mind can
start to feel at peace, with a little warm breeze drifting around in there. Who you have
held on to as being you—your o pinions, your desires, fears, what you’re invested in—
has gott en a little hazy around the edges. Life is feeling strangely easy . Joyful even. What happens just . . . happens. Y ou’re okay with it, really and truly okay . No opinion
about it floats a cross the radar screen. It’ s gotten very quiet inside your head. Y ou
realize h ow ver y hard you’ve b een working, your entire well-meaning life. Life just
began for you.”
Jan Frazier , fr om  Opening the DoorC H A P T E R  5  S u m m a r y
The hab it of believing our own  thoughts r obs us of being
able to live in th e magnificence  and glory of who we r eally
ar e.
It’ s your thoughts about a person, cir cumstance, or event
that’ s the sour ce of negative sit uations in your life, not the
actual person, cir cumstance, or event. Thinking was made to or der what you want. Thinking isn’ t
needed for anything else because everything else is taken
car e of by A war eness. Y our mind is n ot your brain. Y our brain doesn’ t think. Thoughts come fr om your mind. Y our mind is m ade up entir ely of thought. If ther e’ s no
curr ent thought, ther e’ s no mind. Most people believe their own th oughts as though they wer e
facts, which explains why life is str essful and challenging
for so many . It’ s n egative thoughts that ar e the cause of our str ess and
suffering, so we need to become particularly awar e of
negative thoughts. When we believe our thoughts, we’r e immediately caught in
an i maginary mind-made movi e that’ s playing inside our
head, and we’r e no longer experiencing the world as it
r eally is. Thoughts ar e also r esponsible for causing our feelings, and
then in turn our feelings will cause mor e thoughts. Ther e’ s nothing wr ong with the mind; the tr ouble only
begins when we believe its negative thoughts.The one who gets angry , hurt, worried, anxious, or
disappointed is not the  real you. It’ s your mind. The mind only has thr ee differ ent kinds of thoughts. The
mind measur es, compar es, and describes. One of the biggest lies our mind has convinced us of is the
story that we ar e a body and a mind. Another story our mind has co nvinced us of is the story
about time. T ime is an illusion—a mental concept cr eated by
the mind. All that r eally ex ists is this pr ese nt moment. Past and futur e
exist only in the form of thought. Y ou don ’ t have to eliminate yo ur mind or go to war with
your mind. A war eness is your w ay out of the turmoil of the
mind. When yo u obser ve your thoughts instead of getting lost in
them, you see them for what they ar e: something separate
fr om you that you can either choose to believe, or not.C h a p t e r  6
Understanding the Power of
Feelings
It is possible to live your life w ithout ever being thrown about by negative
feelings again. When you live from the A wareness that you are, negative
feelings won’ t af fect you in the same way as they do now . The real you is pure
happiness at all times and under  all conditions. It can be hard t o imagine that
you can bring an end to negative feelings af fecting you, but you  will discover
for yourself that you can. “Negative feelings are destructive. What we are is constructive.”
My teacher
Through practic ing the methods shared in this book, I don’ t suf fer from
extreme negative feelings anym ore. If any negative feeling appears, it’ s quite
soft, I notice it i mmediately , and  it dissolves on the spot. Earlier in my life, I
used to be throw n about by negative feelings as if I had just stepped into a
hurricane. But after I discovered  The Secret, I became acutely aware of how
I’m feeling from one moment to the next. And if you’re aware of how you’re
feeling, it’ s just one more simple step, as you will discover , to dissolving
negative feelings for good. When you are free of all negative feelings, what
remains is the Infinite A wareness that you are, and your life will be absolutely
breathtaking. “Once you realize how ef fortless the highest way of life is, it takes
tremendous ef fort to assume the opposite.”
Lester Levenson
It helps to diminish their power over you if you understand what feelings
really are. Feelings (and thoughts and sensations) are simply a movement of ener gy . Ener gy vibrates,  which means feelings, like thoughts, also vibrate. Dif ferent
feelings vibrate  at dif ferent frequencies. Good feelings vibrate at higher
frequencies, and  they’re very be neficial to the body and positiv ely af fect thecircumstances surrounding your life. Y our positive feelings a lso benefit all
other beings and the planet as a whole. Negative feelings vibrate at low
frequencies, and  they’re detrimental to the body , to your life circumstances,
other beings, and the planet. B ut where do feelings come from in the first
place? Thoughts create  feelings. The ki nds of thoughts you have will create the same
kinds of feelings. After having  happy thoughts, you feel hap py . And once
you’re feeling happy , it’ s not possible to have angry thoughts at the same
time. Happy thoughts cause happy feelings, which cause more happy
thoughts. Likew ise, if you feel angry , that feeling has come from having had
angry thoughts. Thoughts and f eelings always match; thoughts and feelings
are two sides of the one coin. If a situation arises and you allo w negative thoughts and feelings to take over
you, you will l ikely continue to experience one thing going wrong after
another in your day . However , when you feel good, your day will have one
good thing following after another . What you feel inside will match precisely
with what you experience in the world around you. “Y ou no w know  that nothing co mes into existence from the ou tside, and that
everything first comes from thinking and feeling it on the inside.”
Fr om  The Secret
Positive Feelings
Have yo u noticed that all good feelings require zero ef fort? When you’re
feeling good, you feel as light as a feather , and you feel as though you have an
unlimited supply  of ener gy . If you become sensitive to how you’re feeling,
you will notice the positive ef fect those good feelings are having on your body
and mind. Feeling good doesn’ t mean you’re like a cheerleader at a football game,
jumping up and down with excitement. As you no doubt would have
experienced, if you get overexcited, you dissipate all your ener gy , and you’re
exhausted afterward. Feeling good is like how you feel at the end of a big day that went really well,
or when you’re chilled out on vacation, or when you’ve exercis ed hard, had a
shower , and then sat down to e njoy dinner or your favorite s how . Y ou feel
relaxed. Y ou feel a sense of relief. Y ou let go, and you feel a peaceful
happiness. Y ou know those tim es when you say , “Ahh, this is nice”? This is
what feeling good feels like. If y ou could let go of your white-knuckle grip on
life, you  would automatically fe el this good, because feeling goo d is your true
nature. I n fact, whenever you feel good, it means you must have  let go of bad
feelings, enabling good feelings to naturally appear . “Good feelings are to be enjoyed.
thegreatestsecretbyrhondabyrne-220221200112.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        On seeing herself in a photograph, two-year -old Sarah  will point andsay, “Th at’ s Sarah. ” She won’ t say, “That’ s me,” because she’ s not yet
experiencing herself  as a “m e,” a separate person. H er experience is that there’ s
only One and she is it, and everyone else is it. “There’ s nothing out there but our consciousness. The re’ s only one
consciousness and we’re it. ”
Lester Levenson, fr om  Happiness Is Free, volumes 1–5
A wareness or Consciousness is all through your body and everywhere outside
your body; A wareness can’ t be contained within your body because A wareness
is formless. It would be like trying to contain space in a jar; of course, space is
both inside the jar and everywh ere outside the jar. In fact, the jar is in space,
just as all bodi es are in A war eness. Ab solutely everything is con tained in
A wareness, and it’ s the reason why the enlightened beings’ expe rience of life is
that they  are everything—becau se they ar e  e veryth ing. And as A wareness, so
are you. “Behind your eyes is the same consciousness, the only consciousness that is
behind Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and behind all eyes. ”
My teacher
Think ab out tha t. Y our Consciousness is the same Consciousness as all of the
great beings; that’ s how close you are to them. They are not at a distance from
you. Y ou are one  with them. “The mystery, the magic of it is that this ordinary consciousness that we take
for gran ted, ev en as far as denying its existence, happens to be the
consciousness of the universe itself, its true center. ”
Francis Lucille, fr om  T ruth Love Beauty
How to Stay as A war eness
There’ s no process to become the A wareness that you are; it’ s not something
you have to atta in. This is not something that certain people hav e and you don’ t
have. Y ou ar e alr eady it, right now. Y ou may have overlooked it, and you may
have believed all your life that y ou were just a person, but that doesn’ t alter the
fact of what you actually are. “Y ou can lose everything else, but you can never lose the awareness that you
are. ”
Mooji, fr om  V aster Than Sky, Greater Than Space
When a human being lives from the place of knowing they’re Infinite
A wareness, then  the experience of living in the material world becomes
breathtaking. Because their m ind has dropped to the back ground and
A wareness is in the foreground,  they are no longer subject to the turmoil of the
mind, so they are lighthearted, happy all the time, and laugh a lot. They’re
existing in pure happiness and b liss and living their lives from that place every
day. Problems are virtually nonexistent, everything dreamed of comes to them,
and because they’re consciousl y living as A wareness, they’re fully aware of
their immortality. They know they are everything, and yet the y know they’re
not af fected by anything. Life on earth doesn’ t get any better than this. “Every little thing you do or see—every little, ordinary thin g—carries this
tingly se nse of being. It is hard not to cry sometimes at the most unspectacular
things. The lines of the walls in relation to the flat of the floor. I ts horizontality. The nap of the rug. The sound of the car going by. The smell of the skin on
your arm. All is miraculous. ”
Jan Frazier, fr om  Opening the Door
But you have to experience it for yourself. Hearing it from someone else is a
guide, p ointing you in the righ t direction. It’ s like a travel agent describing
Mount E verest. Y ou can’ t know what Mount Everest is like until you get there
and experience it for yourself—only then will you know. “It is actually impossible not to remain as this open space of consciousness. However, to be it knowingly is a dif ferent matter. ”
Francis Lucille, fr om  The Perfume of Silence
“Y ou cannot be out of awareness—it is missed simply through the habit of
placing the attention in the thinking. ”
Peter Lawry
W e can put our a ttention either on the thoughts in our head or on  the A wareness
that we  are. It’ s a simple sh ift of your attention. Put your attention on
A wareness as often as you can r ather than giving your attention to thinking, and
you will be on your way to absolute freedom and bliss. The A war eness Practice—Thr e e Steps
to Bliss
The A wareness Practice is what I use and continue to practice to consciously
stay as A wareness. This practice is not to become  A waren ess, bec ause you’rethat alre ady. It’ s  so you can live your life consciously as the A wareness that you
are. It’ s just three simple steps to a life of total freedom and lasting, blissful
happiness. Step 1. Ask yourself, “Am I aware. ”
Step 2. Notice A wareness. Step 3. Stay as A wareness.
Because they are trying to use their mind to quiet the mind, instead of allowing thoughts to come and go without giving them any attention.
According to the text, what is the reason why people can't experience the enlightened state?
Staying as awareness, which is effortless and cannot be contained within the body.
What is the key to breaking the habit of incessant thinking?
The habit of identifying with the mind, which is mechanical and repetitive.
What is the main obstacle to achieving a state of permanent happiness?
Don't believe them, and instead, observe them without giving them any attention.
What is the teacher's advice on how to stop negative thoughts?
Believing one's own thoughts as facts, which creates a false reality and perpetuates suffering.
What is the main cause of negative feelings and stress in one's life?