The Untethered Soul is the essence of all the great spiritual teachings. It teaches us that the mind is something that can be better understood from the ‘seat of consciousness’, the place from which we observe what is happening in our minds. Singer explains that the essential act is to watch, rather than react, to what our mind is telling us. Thoughts are often destructive, confusing, and quite often completely wrong, but we get bogged down listening to the voice in our head, following everything it says without question. The simplicity of simply letting go of those thoughts and just observing is not easy, but Singer teaches the importance of doing just that. He explains that our world is creating and unfolding right before our eyes but instead of accepting the process, we continually strive to mould the world into what we want it to be, becoming unhappy if it doesn’t fit our expectations.
HIGHLIGHTS
‘If you’re willing to be objective and watch all your thoughts, you’ll see that the vast majority of them have no relevance. They have no effect on anything or anybody, except you. They are simply making you feel better or worse about what is going on now, what has gone on in the past, or what might go on in the future.’
‘You realize and accept that life is not under your control. Life is continuously changing, and if you’re trying to control it, you’ll never be able to fully live it. Instead of living life, you’ll be afraid of it.’
‘The spiritual journey is one of constant transformation. In order to grow, you must give up the struggle to remain the same, and learn to embrace change at all times.’
‘You are a great being who has been given a tremendous opportunity to explore beyond yourself. The whole process is very exciting, and you will have good times and bad times. All sorts of things will happen. That’s the fun of the journey.’
‘Billions of things could happen that you haven’t even thought of yet. The question is not whether they will happen. Things are going to happen. The real question is whether you want to be happy regardless of what happens.’
‘Stress only happens when you resist life’s events. If you’re neither pushing life away, nor pulling toward you, then you are not creating any resistance. You are simply present. In this state, you are just witnessing and experiencing the events of life taking place. If you choose to live this way, you will see that life can be lived in a state of peace.’
‘You gain nothing by being bothered by life’s events. It doesn’t change the world; you just suffer. There’s always going to be something that can bother you, if you let it.’
