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Jay Shetty PodcastEVERYTHING You've Been Taught About Manifesting IS WRONG! | Rhonda Byrne & Jay Shetty
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Chapter summaries
Welcome and Rhonda's Move Next Door
Jay introduces Rhonda Byrne and her new book The Greatest Secret. Rhonda is moved by the introduction, then describes moving to a new home next door on an 85-acre property of orchards.
- •Jay introduces Rhonda as the author known for The Secret and her new book The Greatest Secret
- •Rhonda is humbled by letters from people whose lives have changed
- •She moved next door to a property with orchards, deer and open fires
- •The move felt effortless, and she says it helps to work on the inner self because you take yourself with you
Letting Go of Possessions and Attachment
Rhonda talks about giving away belongings, including moving from Australia to the US with two suitcases before The Secret's release. She says she is no longer attached to material things and links that openness to her journey in The Greatest Secret.
- •She had a big cleanse when she left a large house of 15 years
- •She came to the US with two suitcases and kept only a tapestry and a Buddha
- •She had decades of attachment and says attachment isn't much fun
- •Her journey is about freedom, openness and trust that life has everything under control
The Belief in Separation and Rhonda's Search
Jay asks what belief blocks us from the greatest secret. Rhonda says it is the belief that we are separate, limited individuals made of body and mind, and she describes her search that led to a realization in 2016.
- •The blocking belief is that we are separate and limited, consisting only of a body and a mind
- •Rhonda says we are infinite, eternal, pure love, and never born and never die
- •The ego seeks approval and attention and is not who we are
- •After searching religions, traditions and thousands of books, she realized who we are in 2016
- •From 2016 to 2020 her reactions and judgments dissolved and her happiness deepened
From Intellectual Understanding to Noticing Awareness
Jay shares that his monastic training introduced him to these ideas intellectually. Rhonda says intellect is where you start, then it takes diligence to keep noticing awareness. The two trade practices such as asking "Am I aware?" and the "I am awareness" Post-it.
- •Jay says these ideas begin at the intellect before they are realized
- •Rhonda felt she had lost the realization after 2016, but says you can't lose who you are
- •Asking "Am I aware?" is one way to begin noticing awareness
- •Her teacher told her she hadn't suffered enough
- •Jay used Post-it notes reading "I am awareness", and Rhonda says the mind goes quiet when you say it
Safety, Security and Welcoming Negative Emotions
Jay observes that we think the body and mind keep us safe. Rhonda says real safety is who we are, then names the practice that affected her most: welcoming rather than resisting negative emotions.
- •People work for safety and security in a world that is always changing
- •Rhonda says we are the only safety and security in existence
- •The most impactful practice for her was welcoming negative emotions instead of resisting them
- •Welcomed emotions evaporate faster each time and get weaker
How to Embrace a Negative Feeling in Practice
Jay asks what embracing a negative feeling means in practice. Rhonda explains how to notice without focusing, imagine embracing the feeling like an old friend, and the relief she felt when depression dissolved.
- •Notice the feeling without focusing into it, since focusing makes it stronger
- •Rhonda imagined putting her arms around the feeling as an old, dear friend
- •Welcoming her depression made it dissolve
- •Dissolving a feeling gives a flash of who you really are
- •Unless you feel joyously happy, you have a negative feeling to welcome, and you needn't name it
Morning Practice: Starting the Day as Awareness
Jay asks what Rhonda does first thing in the morning. She lies in bed as awareness, and previously woke up in gratitude. She says now is a good time to welcome emotions and look toward who you are.
- •Jay notes phones and news start our day in the wrong direction
- •Rhonda lies in bed being awareness, feeling joy and freedom
- •Earlier she woke up in gratitude and still uses it when life gets bumpy
- •She says nothing will ever be greater than knowing who you are
- •Now is the best time to welcome emotions as the mind is being challenged
Does Awareness Help You Succeed? Happiness and Effortlessness
Jay addresses how this helps with success and happiness, using the fish-out-of-water analogy. Rhonda says a greatest dream coming true reveals what's missing, and that living from who you are brings effortless success and original ideas.
- •Jay's Vedic fish-out-of-water analogy: outer things can't satisfy awareness
- •Rhonda says a dream coming true shows happiness from achievements doesn't last
- •Effort signals the ego and mind, while effortlessness signals who you really are
- •Original ideas come from awareness, not the recycling mind
- •The shortcut is to be happy now
- •This doesn't mean going into a cave; it must be experienced, not taken on as a belief
Investigating the Mind: You Are Not Your Thoughts
Jay says many people accept they aren't the body but struggle with not being the mind. Rhonda explains the mind is made of thought, and that you are present before and after thoughts come and go. Jay adds the point that we say "my mind" and Rhonda cites Lester Levenson on the mind as a tool.
- •The mind is made only of thought: memory, images and current thoughts
- •If we were the mind, a bit of us would vanish with every thought, yet we remain
- •Awareness is what is aware of thoughts, while a thought has no awareness
- •Jay points out we say "my mind" and "my body", implying an owner
- •The mind is a great tool; the problem arises only when we think it is who we are
What Awakening Feels Like
Jay asks about the awakening Rhonda describes. She says you know when you've woken up, as life feels lighter, freer and miraculous, and everyone can have it because it's who they are.
- •Awakening brings feeling lighter, freer and happier
- •Everyday things like sunsets become moving
- •Awakening frees us from limitations and conditioning, and no one is to blame for them
- •Small awakenings come when you see through a belief, and a full awakening is a bigger version
- •Everybody can have it
Daily Practices: Peeling Away and the Three Steps
Jay asks for daily rituals. Rhonda describes setting aside body, story and mind to see what remains, and the three-step practice of asking "Am I aware?", noticing awareness, and staying as awareness.
- •Set aside body, name, story, then mind, memory, thoughts and feelings, and notice what's left
- •Peeling away what we are not is what sets us free
- •Step one: ask "Am I aware?" many times a day
- •Step two: automatically notice awareness
- •Step three: stay as awareness, so awareness comes to the foreground and the mind to the background
The Final Five Rapid-Fire Questions
Jay commends Rhonda for challenging people to go beyond the desires of body and mind, then asks five one-sentence questions. Rhonda answers on lessons, hopes, human nature, a universal law and the truth she lives by.
- •Her biggest lesson of the last 12 months: discovering awareness
- •She hopes to manifest freedom and joy for as many people as possible
- •Human nature is ultimately not our true nature
- •Her law would be that happiness is mandatory
- •She tries to live as the infinite being and awareness she is
Closing Thoughts on The Greatest Secret
Jay wraps up by recommending the book, joking that it's heavy because the truth is heavy, and expressing hopes for an in-person conversation. He ends with his own book promotion.
- •Jay encourages listeners to read The Greatest Secret for their personal journey
- •He and Rhonda joke about the weight of the book
- •Jay hopes readers take the next step toward discovering who they are beyond body and mind
- •He mentions his book Think Like a Monk
