79 Sublime Quotes from The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer

The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer is a beautiful book. Deepak Chopra is so right that reading this book can give you more than a glimpse of eternity.I had hard time selecting quotes because every sentence is worth quoting.

If you have trouble controlling anger,fear or suffer from depression,you really need to read this book.

Here are the quotes: 

''The truth is that most of life will unfold in accordance with forces far outside your control, regardless of what your mind says about it.''

― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

 ''If you spend your time hoping that it doesn’t rain tomorrow, you are wasting your time. Your thoughts don’t change the rain. You will someday come to see that there is no use for that incessant internal chatter, and there is no reason to constantly attempt to figure everything out. Eventually you will see that the real cause of problems is not life itself. It’s the commotion the mind makes about life that really causes problems.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''You re-create the world within your mind because you can control your mind whereas you can’t control the world. That is why you mentally talk about it.''

― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''In the thought world there’s always something you can do to control the experience.Basically, you re-create the outside world inside yourself, and then you live in your mind. What if you decided not to do this? If you decide not to narrate and, instead, just consciously observe the world, you will feel more open and exposed.''

― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''True personal growth is about transcending the part of you that is not okay and needs protection. This is done by constantly remembering that you are the one inside that notices the voice talking. That is the way out.''

― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''To be aware that you are watching the [mental] voice talk is to stand on the threshold of a fantastic inner journey. If used properly, the same mental voice that has been a source of worry, distraction, and general neurosis can become the launching ground for true spiritual awakening.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Come to know the one who watches the voice, and you will come to know one of the great mysteries of creation.''

― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''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. Honestly, when was the last time you really had nothing bothering you? Before you had your current problem, there was a different problem. And if you’re wise, you will realize that after this one’s gone, there will be another one.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''You can’t deal well with a situation if you’re getting anxious, scared, or angry about it. The first problem you have to deal with is your own reaction. You will not be able to solve anything outside until you own how the situation affects you inside. Problems are generally not what they appear to be. When you get clear enough, you will realize that the real problem is that there is something inside of you that can have a problem with almost anything. The first step is to deal with that part of you.This involves a change from “outer solution consciousness” to “inner solution consciousness.” You have to break the habit of thinking that the solution to your problems is to rearrange things outside.''

― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''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. Once you do that, you’ll be clear enough to deal with what’s left.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Will you dare to do this experiment?... Just try to get to know what you live with inside by externalizing the  voice [in your head]. Give it a body and put it out there in the world just like everybody else.Let it be a person who says on the outside exactly what the voice of your mind says inside. Now make that person your best friend. After all, how many friends do you spend all of your time with and pay absolute attention to every word they say? How would you feel if someone outside really started talking to you the way your inner voice does? How would you relate to a person who opened their mouth to say everything your mental voice says? After a very short period of time, you would tell them to leave and never come back.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''As it is right now, your life is not your own; it belongs to your inner roommate, the psyche. You have to take it back. Stand firm in the seat of the witness and release the hold that the habitual mind has on you. This is your life—reclaim it.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''So now if I ask you, ‘Who are you?’ you answer, ‘I am the one who sees. From back in here somewhere, I look out, and I am aware of the events, thoughts, and emotions that pass before me.’ If you go very deep, that is where you live. You live in the seat of consciousness.A true spiritual being lives there, without effort and without intent. Just as you effortlessly look outside and see all that you see, you will eventually sit far enough back inside to see all your thoughts and emotions, as well as outer form.All of these objects are in front of you. The thoughts are closer in, the emotions are a little further away, and form is way out there. Behind it all, there you are.You go so deep that you realize that’s where you’ve always been. At each stage of your life you have seen different thoughts, emotions, and objects pass before you. But you have always been the conscious receiver of all that was.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''The best way to learn about consciousness is through your own direct experience. For example, you know very well that your consciousness can be aware of a wide field of objects, or it can be so focused on one object that you are unaware of anything else. This is what happens when you get lost in thought. You can be reading, and then suddenly you’re not reading anymore. It happens all the time. You just start thinking about something else. Outside objects or mental thoughts can catch your attention at any time. But it’s still the same awareness, whether it is focused on the outside or on your thoughts.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Consciousness is neither pure nor impure; it has no qualities. It’s just there, aware that it’s aware. The difference is that when your consciousness is not centered within, it becomes totally focused on the objects of consciousness. When you are a centered being, however, your consciousness is always aware of being conscious. Your awareness of being is independent of the inner and outer objects you happen to be aware of. If you really want to understand this difference, you must begin by realizing that consciousness can focus on anything. That being the case, what if consciousness were to focus on itself? When that happens, instead of being aware of your thoughts, you’re aware that you’re aware of your thoughts. You have turned the light of consciousness back onto itself. You’re always contemplating something, but this time you’re contemplating the source of consciousness. This is true meditation. True meditation is beyond the act of simple, one-pointed concentration. For the deepest meditation, you must not only have the ability to focus your consciousness completely on one object, you must also have the ability to make awareness itself be that object. In the highest state, the focus of consciousness is turned back to the Self.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''As you pull back into the consciousness, this world ceases to be a problem.It’s just something you’re watching. It keeps changing, but there is no sense of that being a problem. 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—the awareness, the Self, the Atman, the Soul.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Creating thoughts, holding onto thoughts, recalling thoughts, generating emotions, controlling emotions, and disciplining powerful inner drives, all require a tremendous expenditure of energy. Where does all this energy come from? Why is the energy there sometimes, and at other times you feel completely drained? Have you ever noticed that when you are mentally and emotionally drained, food doesn’t help that much? Conversely, if you look at the times in your life when you were in love, or excited and inspired by something,you were so filled with energy that you didn’t even want to eat. This energy we are discussing does not come from the calories your body burns from food.There is a source of energy you can draw upon from inside. It is distinct from the outer energy source.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Let’s say that you’re in your twenties and your girlfriend or boyfriend breaks up with you. You get so totally depressed that you start staying home alone.…Your friends invite you out, but you decline. You are simply too tired to do anything. Most people have been there at some time in their lives. You feel that you have no way out, and it seems like you will stay there forever. Then suddenly,one day, the phone rings. It’s your girlfriend. That’s right, the one who dumped you three months ago. She’s crying as she says, ‘Oh, my God! Do you remember me? I hope you’ll still talk to me. I just feel so terrible. Leaving you was the worst mistake I ever made…. Would you please forgive me? Could you ever forgive me? Can I come over and see you?’ Now how are you doing? Seriously, how long does it take you to get enough energy to jump out of bed, clean up the apartment, take a shower, and get some color back in your face? It’s practically instantaneous. You’re filled with energy the moment you hang up the phone….What you’ll see, if you watch carefully, is that you have a phenomenal amount of energy inside of you. It doesn’t come from food and it doesn’t come from sleep. This energy is always available to you. At any moment you can draw upon it. It just wells up and fills you from inside. When you’re filled with this energy, you feel like you could take on the world. When it is flowing strongly, you can actually feel it coursing through you in waves. It gushes up spontaneously from deep inside and restores, replenishes, and recharges you.''

― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Although various energy centers exist within you, the one you intuitively know the most about opening and closing is your heart. Let’s say that you love somebody, and you feel very open in their presence. Because you trust them, your walls come down allowing you to feel lots of high energy. But if they do something you don’t like, the next time you see them you don’t feel so high. You don’t feel as much love. Instead, you feel a tightness in your chest. This happens because you closed your heart.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Some eighty-year-old people have the energy and enthusiasm of a child. They can work long hours for seven days a week. It’s just energy. Energy doesn’t get old, it doesn’t get tired, and it doesn’t need food. What it needs is openness and receptivity. This energy is equally available to everybody.''

― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Did you enjoy having dinner with the family? Was the food good? If so, then the smell of that scent warms you and opens you. If it wasn’t so much fun eating together, or if you had to eat food you didn’t like, then you tighten up and close.It really is that sensitive.… We are programmed based upon our past impressions such that all kinds of things can cause us to open and close. If you pay attention, you will see it happen regularly throughout each day.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''But closing your heart does not really protect you from anything; it just cuts you off from your source of energy. In the end, it only serves to lock you inside. What you’ll find is that the only thing you really want from life is to feel enthusiasm, joy, and love. If you can feel that all the time, then who cares what happens outside? If you can always feel up, if you can always feel excited about the experience of the moment, then it doesn’t make any difference what the experience is. No matter what it is, it’s beautiful when you feel that way inside.So you learn to stay open no matter what happens. If you do, you get for free what everybody else is struggling for: love, enthusiasm, excitement, and energy.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Just relax and open, and tremendous energy will rush up inside of you. You are only limited by your ability to stay open.If you really want to stay open, pay attention when you feel love and enthusiasm. Then ask yourself why you can’t feel this all the time. Why does it have to go away? The answer is obvious: it only goes away if you choose to close. By closing, you are actually making the choice not to feel openness and love.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''You throw love away all the time. You feel love until somebody says something you don’t like, and then you give up the love. You feel enthused about your job until someone criticizes something, and then you want to quit. It’s your choice. You can either close because you don’t like what happened, or you can keep feeling love and enthusiasm by not closing. As long as you are defining what you like and what you don’t like, you will open and close. You are actually defining your limits. You are allowing your mind to create triggers that open and close you. Let go of that. Dare to be different. Enjoy all of life.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''What it means to live life is to experience the moment that is passing through you, and then experience the next moment, and then the next.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Two kinds of experiences can occur that block the heart. You are either trying to push energies away because they bother you, or you are trying to keep energies close because you like them.In both cases, you are not letting them pass, and you are wasting precious energy by blocking the flow through resisting and clinging.The alternative is to enjoy life instead of clinging to it or pushing it away. If you can live like that, each moment will change you. If you are willing to experience the gift of life instead of fighting with it, you will be moved to the depth of your being. When you reach this state, you will begin to see the secrets of the heart.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''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. Don’t sell yourself short. This can go on all the time—unending inspiration, unending love, and unending openness. That is the natural state of a healthy heart.To achieve this state, simply allow the experiences of life to come in and pass through your being. If old energies come back up because you were unable to process them before, let go of them now. It’s that easy.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''When you close down and protect yourself, you are pulling a shell around the part of you that is weak. This is the part that feels it needs protection even though no physical attack is taking place. You are protecting your ego, your selfconcept.Although a situation may present no physical danger, it may cause you to experience disturbance, fear, insecurity, and other emotional problems. So you feel the need to protect yourself.The problem is that the part of you that gets disturbed is way out of balance.It’s so sensitive that the slightest little thing causes it to overreact.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''You will get to a point in your growth where you understand that if you protect yourself, you will never be free. It’s that simple. Because you’re scared,you have locked yourself within your house and pulled down all the shades.Now it’s dark and you want to feel the sunlight, but you can’t. It’s impossible. If you close and protect yourself, you are locking this scared, insecure person within your heart. You will never be free that way.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''If you protect yourself perfectly, you will never grow. All your habits and idiosyncrasies will stay the same….Living like this allows for very little spontaneous joy, enthusiasm, and excitement for life. Most people just go from day to day protecting themselves and making sure nothing goes too wrong. At the end of the day, when someone asks, 'How was your day?' a normal response is, 'Not too bad,' or 'I’ll survive.' What is that telling you about their view of life? They see life as a threat. A good day means you made it through without getting hurt. The longer you live like this, the more closed you become.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Real spiritual growth happens when there is only one of you inside. There’s not a part that’s scared and another part that’s protecting the part that’s scared. All parts are unified. Because there is no part of you that you’re not willing to see, the mind is no longer divided into the conscious and subconscious. Everything you see inside is just something you see inside. It’s not you; it’s what you see. There is simply the pure energy pouring inside of you that creates the ripples of thoughts and emotions, and there is the consciousness that’s aware of it. There is simply you watching the dance of the psyche.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Let’s say you’re outside taking a walk and a car drives by. Your thoughts say, “Boy, I wish I had that car.” You could just keep on walking, but instead you start getting upset. You want a car like that, but your salary isn’t high enough. So you begin thinking about how you can get a raise or a different job. You didn’t have to do all that. It could have just been—here comes the car and there it goes, and here comes the thought and there it goes. They’re both gone together because you didn’t go with them. That is what’s called being centered.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Let’s say you feel a little jealousy or a little fear. If you focus on it, it grows in importance and demands more of your attention. Then, because your attention feeds it, it becomes infused with even more energy and draws more attention.That’s how the cycle goes. Eventually, what started as a passing thought or emotion can become the center of your entire life. If you don’t let go, it can get completely out of control.A wise person remains centered enough to let go every time the energy shifts into a defensive mode. The moment the energy moves and you feel your consciousness start to get drawn into it, you relax and release. Letting go means falling behind the energy instead of going into it.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Begin with small things. We tend to let ourselves get bothered by the little, meaningless things that happen every day….Let’s say someone at work took your pencil, and you notice that every time you go to use another one, your inner energy shifts—even the slightest amount. Are you willing to release the old pencil in order to liberate yourself? This is how you make freedom a game. Instead of getting into being bothered, you get into being free. When you reach for a pencil, and you see yourself getting a little uptight, let go. Your mind might start saying, ‘It was a pencil today and if I let go, they’ll step all over me. It’ll be my desk tomorrow,or my house, or maybe even my husband.’ That’s how the mind talks. It’s very melodramatic. But you decide that for the cost of a pencil, you’ll go for the ride.You tell your mind, ‘When it’s the car, we’ll have a talk. Right now, it only costs a pencil to be free.’ Just decide that no matter what the mind says, you aren’t getting involved. You don’t fight the mind. In fact, you don’t even try to change it. You just make a game out of relaxing in the face of its melodrama. You simply learn how to release the tendency for getting drawn into the energy.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''If you can learn to remain centered with the smaller things, you will see that you can also remain centered with bigger things. Over time, you will find that you can even remain centered with the really big things. The types of events that would have destroyed you in the past can come and go, leaving you perfectly centered and peaceful. You can be fine, deep inside, even in the face of a deep sense of loss.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''The natural ups and downs of life can either generate personal growth or create personal fears. Which of these dominates is completely dependent upon how we view change. Change can be viewed as either exciting or frightening,but regardless of how we view it, we must all face the fact that change is the very nature of life. If you have a lot of fear, you won’t like change. You’ll try to create a world around you that is predictable, controllable, and definable. You’ll try to create a world that doesn’t stimulate your fears.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Who said that the way life naturally unfolds is not all right?

The answer is, fear says so. The part of you inside that’s not okay with itself can’t face the natural unfolding of life because it’s not under your control. If life unfolds in a way that stimulates your inner problems, then, by definition, it’s not okay. It’s really very simple: that which doesn’t disturb you is okay, and that which does disturb you is not. We define the entire scope of our outer experience based upon our inner problems. If you want to grow spiritually, you have to change that. If you are defining creation based upon the most messed up part of your being, what do you expect creation to look like? It’s going to look like a frightful mess.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''As you grow spiritually, you will realize that your attempts to protect yourself from your problems actually create more problems. If you attempt to arrange people, places, and things so they don’t disturb you, it will begin to feel like life is against you. You’ll feel that life is a struggle and that every day is heavy because you have to control and fight with everything. There will be competition, jealousy, and fear. You will feel that anyone, at any moment, could cause you disturbance. ….The alternative is to decide not to fight with life. 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 life.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Fear is the cause of every problem. It’s the root of all prejudices and the negative emotions of anger, jealousy, and possessiveness. If you had no fear, you could be perfectly happy living in this world. Nothing would bother you. You’d be willing to face everything and everyone because you wouldn’t have fear inside of you that could cause you disturbance.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''life is actually trying to help you. Life is surrounding you with people and situations that stimulate growth. You don’t have to decide who’s right or wrong. You don’t have to worry about other people’s issues. You only have to be willing to open your heart in the face of anything and everything, and permit the purification process to take place. When you do this, the first thing you’ll see is that situations will unfold that hit your stuff. But, in truth, that’s exactly what has been happening your entire life. The only difference is that now you see it as a good thing because it’s an opportunity to let go.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Imagine if you got upset and fully released your disturbed energies onto another person. This is how people ruin relationships and destroy their lives.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''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. You end up so psychologically fixated on the problem that you can’t see the forest for the trees. You actually feel that because you’ve minimized the pain of the problem, you’ve solved the problem.But it is not solved. All you did was devote your life to avoiding it. It is now the center of your universe. It’s all there is.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''You can look deep within yourself, to the core of your being, and decide that you don’t want the weakest part of you running your life. You want to be free of this. You want to talk to people because you find them interesting, not because you’re lonely. You want to have relationships with people because you genuinely like them, not because you need for them to like you. You want to love because you truly love, not because you need to avoid your inner problems.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''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. You will begin to be sustained by the inner energy flow that comes from behind you. When you have tasted the ecstasy of the inner flow, you can walk in this world and the world will never touch you. That’s how you become a free being—you transcend.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''If you mistreat an animal, it becomes afraid. This is what has happened to your psyche. You have mistreated it by giving it a responsibility that is incomprehensible. Just stop for a moment and see what you have given your mind to do. You said to your mind, ‘I want everyone to like me. I don’t want anyone to speak badly of me. I want everything I say and do to be acceptable and pleasing to everyone. I don’t want anyone to hurt me. I don’t want anything to happen that I don’t like. And I want everything to happen that I do like.’ Then you said, ‘Now, mind, figure out how to make every one of these things a reality, even if you have to think about it day and night.’ And of course your mind said, ‘I’m on the job. I will work on it constantly.’Can you imagine somebody trying to do that? The mind has to try to make it so that everything you say is said the right way, taken the right way, and has the right effect on everybody. It has to make sure that everything you do is interpreted and seen the right way, and that nobody does anything that hurts you.It has to make sure that you get everything you want, and that you don’t ever get what you don’t want. The mind is constantly trying to give you advice about how to make it all okay. That is why the mind is so active; you gave it an impossible task to do.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''External changes are not going to solve your problem because they don’t address the root of your problem. The root problem is that you don’t feel whole and complete within yourself. If you don’t identify the root properly, you will seek someone or something to cover it up. You will hide behind finances, people, fame, and adoration. If you try to find the perfect person to love and adore you, and you manage to succeed, then you have actually failed. You did not solve your problem. All you did was involve that person in your problem. That is why people have so much trouble with relationships. You began with a problem inside yourself, and you tried to solve it by getting involved with somebody else. That relationship will have problems because your problems are what caused the relationship.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Imagine what fun life would be if you didn’t have those neurotic, personal thoughts going on within you. You could enjoy things, and you could actually get to know people instead of needing them. You could just live and experience your life, instead of trying to use life to fix what’s wrong inside of you. You are capable of achieving that state. It’s never too late.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''The truth is, everything will be okay as soon as you are okay with everything. And that’s the only time everything will be okay.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''One of the essential requirements for true spiritual growth and deep personal transformation is coming to peace with pain. Becoming familiar with this pain is part of your growth. Even though you may not actually like the feelings of inner disturbance, you must be able to sit quietly inside and face them if you want to see where they come from.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''If you want a decent life, you had better not devote your life to avoiding psychological pain. You had better not spend your life worrying about whether people like you or whether your car impresses people. What kind of life is that? It is a life of pain. You may not think that you feel pain that often, but you really do. To spend your life avoiding pain means it’s always right behind you. At any point you could slip and say the wrong thing. At any point anything can happen. So you end up devoting your life to the avoidance of pain.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''If you want to grow and be free to explore life, you cannot spend your life avoiding the myriad things that might hurt your heart or mind.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''You must learn to transcend the tendency to avoid the pain…Do you actually think that if you resist, it will go away?''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

On the other side of the pain is ecstasy. On the other side is freedom. Your true greatness hides on the other side of that layer of pain. You must be willing to accept pain in order to pass through to the other side. Just accept that it is in there and that you are going to feel it. Accept that if you relax, it will have its moment before your awareness, and then it will pass. It always does.

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''In truth, pain is the price of freedom.And the moment you are willing to pay that price, you will no longer be afraid.The moment you are not afraid of the pain, you’ll be able to face all of life’s situations without fear.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Remember, if you close around something, you will be psychologically sensitive about that subject for the rest of your life. Because you stored it inside of you, you will be afraid that it will happen again. But if you relax instead of closing, it will work its way through you. If you stay open, the blocked energy inside of you will release naturally, and you will not take on any more.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''When you are comfortable with pain passing through you, you will be free.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''you must go through the darkest night in order to get to the infinite light.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''You must realize that when you defend yourself, you are really defending your walls. There is nothing else to defend in there. There’s a reason you overeat. There’s a reason why you dress the way you do. There’s a reason for everything you do. If you want to see why you care so much about what you wear and what your hair is like, then just don’t do it one day. Wake up in the morning and go somewhere disheveled with your hair a mess, and see what happens to the energies inside of you. See what happens to you when you don’t do the things that make you comfortable. What you’ll see is why you’re doing them.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Spirituality begins when you decide that you’ll never stop trying. Spirituality is the commitment to go beyond, no matter what it takes.It’s an infinite journey based upon going beyond yourself every minute of every day for the rest of your life. If you’re truly going beyond, you are always at your limits. You’re never back in the comfort zone. A spiritual being feels as though they are always against that edge, and they are constantly being pushed through it.''

― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Would you like to go beyond? Would you like to feel no edges? Imagine a comfort zone that is so expanded that it can easily fit the entire day, no matter what happens. The day unfolds and the mind doesn’t say anything. You simply interact with the day with a peaceful, fully inspired heart. If your edges happen to get hit, the mind doesn’t complain. It all just passes through. This is how great beings live.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Events that happen in the moment belong to the moment. They don’t belong to you. They have nothing to do with you. You must stop defining yourself in relationship to them, and just let them come and go. Don’t allow events to leave impressions inside of you. If you find yourself thinking about them later on, just let go.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''When you become truly spiritual, you are totally different from everybody else. That which everybody else wants, you don’t want. That which everybody else resists, you totally accept.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''You must learn to be comfortable with psychological disturbance. If your mind becomes hyperactive, just watch it. If your heart starts to heat up, let it go through what it must. Try to find the part of you that is capable of noticing that your mind is hyperactive and that your heart is heating up. That part is your way out.''

― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''If you want permanent peace, permanent joy, and permanent happiness, you have to get through to the other side of the inner turmoil. You can experience a life in which waves of love can rush up inside of you any time you want. It is the nature of your being. You simply have to go to the other side of the psyche. You do that by letting go of the tendency to cling. You do it by not using your mind to build false solidity. You just decide, once and for all, to take the journey by constantly letting go.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''You have to realize that you really only have one choice in this life, and it’s not about your career, whom you want to marry, or whether you want to seek God. People tend to burden themselves with so many choices. But, in the end, you can throw it all away and just make one basic, underlying decision: Do you want to be happy, or do you not want to be happy? It’s really that simple. Once you make that choice, your path through life becomes totally clear.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''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.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''The purpose of your life is to enjoy and learn from your experiences. You were not put on Earth to suffer.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''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.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''In the end, enjoying life’s experiences is the only rational thing to do. You’re sitting on a planet spinning around in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Go ahead, take a look at reality. You’re floating in empty space in a universe that goes on forever. If you have to be here, at least be happy and enjoy the experience. You’re going to die anyway. Things are going to happen anyway.Why shouldn’t you be happy? 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.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''If they starve you and put you in solitary confinement, just have fun being like Gandhi. No matter what happens, just enjoy the life that comes to you.As difficult as that sounds, what’s the benefit of not doing it? If you’re totally innocent and they lock you up, you might as well have fun. What good does it do to not have fun? It doesn’t change anything. In the end, if you stay happy, you win. Make that your game, and just stay happy no matter what.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''It’s bad enough that your happiness is conditional upon your own behavior. When you start making it conditional upon other people’s behavior, you’re in serious trouble.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''The greatest gift one can give to God is to be pleased with His creation.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''God is ecstasy. God is as high as it gets. If you want to be close to God, learn to be joyful. If you remain spontaneously happy and centered, no matter what happens, you will find God. That’s the amazing part. Yes, you will find happiness, but that’s nothing compared to what you’re really going to find.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Stress only happens when you resist life’s events. If you’re neither pushing life away, nor pulling it 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.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''you’re generally using your will to resist one of two things: that which has already happened or that which hasn’t happened yet. You are sitting inside resisting impressions from the past or thoughts about the future. Think of how much energy is wasted resisting what has already happened. Since the event has already passed, you are actually struggling with yourself, not with the event.In addition, contemplate how much energy is wasted resisting what might happen. Since most of the things you think might happen never do, you are just throwing your energy away.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''You will be surprised to find that in most situations there’s nothing to deal with except for your own fears and desires. Fear and desire make everything seem so complicated. If you don’t have fear or desire about an event, there’s really nothing to deal with. You simply allow life to unfold and interact with it in a natural and rational manner. When the next thing happens, you’re fully present in that moment and simply enjoying the experience of life.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''When a person is dealing with their own fears, anxieties, and desires, how much energy is left for dealing with what’s actually happening?Stop and think about what you’re capable of achieving. Up to now, your capacities have been constrained by constant inner struggles. Imagine what would happen if your awareness was free to focus only on the events actually taking place. You would have no noise going on inside. If you lived like this, you could do anything. Your capabilities would be exponential compared to what you’ve ever experienced. If you could bring this level of awareness and clarity to everything you do, your life would change.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''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.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''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? Think honestly about what you would do with your last week. What a wonderful thought to contemplate. Then ponder this question: If that’s really what you would do with your last week, what are you doing with the rest of your time? Wasting it?Throwing it away? Treating it like it’s not something precious? What are you doing with life? That is what death asks you.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''So why not be bold enough to regularly reflect on how you would live that last week? If you were to ask this question of people who are truly awakened, they wouldn’t have any problem answering you. Not a thing would change inside of them. Not a thought would cross their minds. If death were to come in an hour, if death were to come in a week, or if death were to come in a year, they would live exactly the same way as they’re living now. There is not a single thing they carry inside of their hearts that they would rather be doing. In other words, they are living their lives fully and are not making compromises or playing games with themselves.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''There is no reason to be afraid of life. And the fear will fade once you understand that the only thing there is to get from life is the growth that comes from experiencing it. Life itself is your career, and your interaction with life is your most meaningful relationship. Everything else you’re doing is just focusing on a tiny subset of life in the attempt to give life some meaning. What actually gives life meaning is the willingness to live it. It isn’t any particular event; it’s the willingness to experience life’s events.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''Why should anything stop you? You’re just going to die anyway.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''You have to understand that it is your attempt to get special experiences from life that makes you miss the actual experience of life. Life is not something you get; it’s something you experience. Life exists with or without you. It has been going on for billions of years. You simply get the honor of seeing a tiny slice of it. If you’re busy trying to get something, you will miss the slice you’re actually experiencing. Every one of life’s experiences is different, and every experience is worth having. Life is not something to waste. It’s truly precious.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself 

''So, instead of getting lost in the normal mental chatter, why not contemplate the temporal nature of life? Why not think about something meaningful? Don’t be afraid of death. Let it free you. Let it encourage you to experience life fully. But remember, it’s not your life. You should be experiencing the life that’s happening to you, not the one you wish was happening. Don’t waste a moment of life trying to make other things happen; appreciate the moments you are given. Don’t you understand that every minute you’re a step closer to death? This is how to live your life. You live it as though you were on the verge of death, because you are.''

 ― Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself