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The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

by Parker · 125 things on Twos

“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” - William Shakespeare
To maintain honest relations with others we must first be true to ourselves
Freud divides the psyche into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is our primal, animal nature; the superego is the judgement system that society has instilled in us; and the ego is our representative to the outside world that struggles to maintain a balance between the other two powerful sources
Your “self” is what you are, at all times and in all places
Honestly look at yourself in the most natural, intuitive manner
You already know how to find yourself; you have just gotten distracted and disoriented
You not only have the ability to find yourself, you have the ability to free yourself. Whether you choose to or not is entirely up to you
There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind—you are the one who hears it
If you’re willing to be objective and watch all your thoughts, you will see that the vast majority of them have no relevance
The real cause of problems is not life itself. It’s the commotion the mind makes about life that really causes problems
In the thought world there’s always something you can do to control the experience
Your inner growth is completely dependent upon the realization that the only way to find peace and contentment is to stop thinking about yourself
You’re ready to grow when you finally realize that the “I” who is always talking inside will never be content. It always has a problem with something
To attain true inner freedom, you must be able to objectively watch your problems instead of being lost in them
You have to break the habit of thinking that the solution to your problems is to rearrange things outside. The only permanent solution to your problems is to go inside and let go of the part of you that seems to have so many problems with reality
What part of me is being disturbed by this?
You have to distance yourself from your psyche
Set the direction of your life when you’re clear and don’t let your wavering mind deter you
Your will is stronger than the habit of listening to the voice of your mind. There is nothing you can’t do
If you want to free yourself, you must first become conscious enough to understand your predicament
To attain inner freedom one must continuously and sincerely ask the question “who am I?”
When you are an aware being, you no longer become completely immersed in the events around you. Instead, you remain inwardly aware that you are the one who is experiencing both the events and the corresponding thoughts and emotions
Consciousness has the ability to do what is called “focus.” The essence of consciousness is awareness, and awareness has the ability to become more aware of one thing and less aware of something else
It is all just objects of consciousness, and you are the consciousness
What differentiates a conscious, centered being from a person who is not so conscious is simply the focus of their awareness
Meditation is the simple awareness of being aware
As you pull back into the consciousness, this world ceases to be a problem. It’s just something you’re watching. The more you are willing to just let the world be something you’re aware of, the more it will let you be who you are
When you start to explore consciousness instead of form, you realize that your consciousness only appears to be small and limited because you are focusing on small and limited objects
Instead of just focusing so intently on this one human beings thoughts, emotions, and sensory world, you can pull back and see everything
Spiritual energy is what you’re experiencing when love rushes up into your heart
Opening allows energy in, and closing blocks it out. You stay open by never closing
If you stay open, you will experience love, enthusiasm, excitement, and energy
Defining what you need in order to stay open actually ends up limiting you. You have limited your openness to those conditions. Better to be open no matter what
When your heart starts to close, just say, “I’m not going to close. I’m going to relax. I’m going to let this situation take place and be there with it.” Honor and respect the situation, and deal with it
Embrace life with all your heart and soul
You are only limited by your ability to stay open
Just keep opening and not closing
When you open, you bring more energy into the system, and it can heal. Energy can heal, and that’s why love can heal
The most important thing in life is your inner energy
Nothing is worth closing your heart over
You are not your heart. You are the experiencer of your heart
Enjoy life instead of clinging to it or pushing it away
The highest state you have ever experienced is simply the result of how open you were. If you don’t close, it can be like that all the time. Unending inspiration, unending love, and unending openness
Simply allow the experiences of life to come in and pass through your being
You will get there. Just keep letting go
If you protect yourself, you will never be free
If you protect yourself perfectly, you will never grow
The reward for not protecting your psyche is liberation. You are free to walk through this world without a problem on your mind. You are just having fun experiencing whatever happens next. You no longer have to listen to “what will they think of me?” or, “I wish I hadn’t said that. It sounded so stupid.” You just go about your business and put your whole being into whatever’s happening, instead of putting your whole being into your personal sensitivity
If you don’t want it, let it go
When your thoughts start, you do not have to go with them
If you aren’t centered, your consciousness is just following whatever catches its attention
A thought or emotion emerges, you notice it, and it passes by because you allow it to
Take the risk that you are better off letting go than going with the energy. When you’re free from the hold the energy has on you, you will be free to experience the joy and expansiveness that exists within you
There ls nothing wrong with being peaceful and centered as long as you are releasing the energy, not suppressing it
Surrender yourself to the process of emptying yourself
Consciousness is always drawn to the most distracting object
Anything you put out comes back
The secret of the ascent is to never look down—always look up
Sit in the seat of awareness and never leave. No matter what goes on below you, open your heart and let it go
Learn to embrace change at all times
Real transformation begins when you embrace your problems as agents for growth
If you don’t solve the root cause of the problem, but instead, attempt to protect yourself from the problem, it ends up running your life
To free yourself from your inner thorns, you simply stop playing with them. The more you touch them, the more you irritate them. Because you’re always doing something to avoid feeling them, they are not given the chance to naturally work themselves out. If you want, you can simply permit the disturbances to come up, and you can let them go
Notice who is aware of the object. The one who notices is already free. If you want to be free of these energies, you must allow them to pass through you instead of hiding them inside of you
Awareness does not fight; awareness releases. Awareness is simply aware while everything in the universe parades before it
Once you learn that it’s okay to feel inner disturbances, and that they can no longer disturb your seat of consciousness, you will be free
The prerequisite to true freedom is to decide that you do not want to suffer anymore. You must decide that you want to enjoy your life and that there is no reason for stress, inner pain, or fear
People do not understand how much they are suffering because they have never experienced what it is like to not suffer
You only think about your body when there is a problem
Inner sensitivity is a symptom of nonwellbeing
Pain is not bad; it’s how the body talks to you. When you overeat, you get a stomachache
The root problem is that you don’t feel whole and complete within yourself
A naturally healthy body is one that just does what it’s supposed to do while you’re going about your business. You never have to think about it
Success regarding your psyche means you never have to think about your psyche again
When your mind starts telling you what you have to do to make everything inside okay, don’t buy into what it’s telling you. The truth is, everything will be okay as soon as you are okay with everything
The key is to be quiet. It’s not that your mind has to be quiet. You be quiet. You, the one inside watching the neurotic mind, just relax. You are not the thinking mind; you are aware of the thinking mind
Take a moment to remember that you’re spinning on a planet in the middle of empty space
You don’t have to change anything. Just be there, noticing that you notice
Simply watch the heart begin to react, and let go before the mind starts. At some point in the journey it all becomes heart, not mind. You will see that the mind follows the heart
This path of letting go allows you to free your energies so that you can free yourself
One of the essential requirements for true spiritual growth and deep personal transformation is coming to peace with pain
Change involves challenging what is familiar to us and daring to question our traditional needs for safety, comfort, and control
If you are doing something to avoid pain, then pain is running your life. All of your thoughts and feelings will be affected by your fears
Every single time you relax and release, a piece of the pain leaves forever. Yet every time you resist and close, you are building up the pain inside
When you are comfortable with pain passing through you, you will be free
When you constantly go beyond yourself, there are no more limitations
Your choice is to either resist reality or go beyond the limits of your model
If you really want to see why you do things, then don’t do them and see what happens
Spirituality is the commitment to go beyond yourself every minute of every day for the rest of your life
Consciousness is a field of awareness that focuses down to a point by concentrating on a particular set of objects
Don’t allow events to leave impressions inside of you. Let them come and go
Why should anything that anyone says or does cause you to get disturbed? You’re just on a planet spinning around the middle of absolutely nowhere
The way out is through awareness
When your mind is disturbed, don’t ask, “what do I do about this?” Instead ask, “who am I that notices this?”
Awareness transcends what it is aware of
Your only way out is the witness. Just keep letting go by being aware that you are aware
Once you reach this state, you will never have to worry about anything ever again. The forces of creation will create creation, both inside and outside of you. You will float in peace, love, and compassion beyond it all, yet honoring it all
It all comes down to one decision: do you want to be happy, or do you not want to be happy?
Any condition you create will limit your happiness
Things are going to happen. The real question is whether you want to be happy regardless of what happens
The purpose of your life is to enjoy and learn from your experiences
You were not put on earth to suffer. You’re not helping anybody by being miserable
Events don’t determine whether or not you’re going to be happy. They’re just events. You determine whether or not you’re going to be happy
You can be happy just to be alive. You can be happy having all these things happen to you, and then be happy to die. If you can live this way, your heart will be so open and your Spirit will be so free, that you will soar
No matter what happens, just enjoy the life that comes to you
In the end, if you stay happy, you win. Make that your game, and just stay happy no matter what
Meditation strengthens your center of consciousness so that you’re always aware enough to not allow your heart to close
One should view their spiritual work as learning to live life without stress, problems, fear, or melodrama
There really is no reason for tension or problems. Stress only happens when you resist life’s events
You waste time resisting what has already happened or what might happen
Allow each moment of each day to pass through you
It is not life’s events that are causing problems or stress. It is your resistance to life’s events that is causing this experience
Not all of us resist the same things or have the same issues. This is because we don’t all have the same preconceived notions of how things should be or how much they should matter to us
Begin dealing with each situation with acceptance
Letting go of yourself is the simplest way to get closer to others
Life is giving you a gift, and that gift is the flow of events that takes place between your birth and your death. These events are exciting, challenging, and create tremendous growth. To comfortably handle this flow in life, your heart and mind must be open and expansive enough to encompass reality. The only reason they’re not is because you resist. Learn to stop resisting reality, and what used to look like stressful problems will begin to look like the stepping stones of your spiritual journey
A wise person realizes that at any moment they may breathe out, and the breath may not come back in
Any time you’re having trouble with something, think of death
Death is the greatest teacher in all of life
Imagine if you knew you were going to die within a week or a month. How would that change things? How would your priorities change? How would your thoughts change?
Since you know you’re going to die, be willing to say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done
Learn to live as though you are facing death at all times, and you’ll become bolder and more open
You really don’t need more time before death; what you need is more depth of experience during the time you’re given
Don’t be afraid of death. Let it encourage you to experience life fully
The extremes create their opposites; the wise avoid them. Find the balance in the center and you will live in harmony