The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer Book Summary & Analysis
The Journey Beyond Yourself.
PART II
INFINITE ENERGY
“Consciousness is one of the great mysteries in life. Inner energy is another.”—Michael A. Singer
“The truth is,” said Singer is that “every movement of your body, every emotion you have, and every thought that passes through your mind is an expenditure of energy.”
For instance: Holding onto thoughts, recalling thoughts, creating ideas, generating emotions, controlling emotions, and disciplining powerful inner drives—require tremendous energy expenditure.
And this flow of energy, Singer said comes from the depth of your being.
It’s been called many names.
In ancient Chinese medicine, it is called Chi.
In yoga, it is called Shakti.
In the West, it is called Spirit.
Singer said, “Call it anything you want.”
All the great spiritual traditions talk about your spiritual energy they just give it different names.
Singer explains, “If you don’t feel this energy, always, then you have blocked it.”
How? you asked.
Well, Singer said, “You’ve blocked it by closing your heart and mind.”
As a result, this closes you off from all the energy.”
Singer realized “Life is no fun if we’re always tired and never enthused.
But if we’re always inspired and filled with energy, every minute of every day is an exciting experience.”
THE SECRETS OF THE SPIRITUAL HEART
Singer noticed, “When you take in the world through your senses, energy comes into your being.
But When the energy can’t get through the mind because of conflicts with other thoughts and mental concepts, it’d then tries to release through the heart.”
However, If you allow your heart center to close, then what you will find is that the heart closes because it becomes blocked by stored, unfinished energy patterns from the past.” Writes Singer.
“In the yogic tradition, this unfinished energy pattern is called, Samskara. (A Sanskrit word that means, blockage. or an impression from the past. In other words, it is an unfinished energy pattern that ends up governing your life.)
Everything is energy, and energy will expand outward if it is not contained.
- That’s why energy manifesting as an atom forms the basic building block of this entire physical universe.
This packet of cycling energy is stored in your energetic heart center. Said Singer. All the Samskaras you have collected over your life are stored there.
If they build up sufficiently, you will find yourself in a state of depression. But, again, it’s because very little energy is coming into your heart or mind.
The alternative is to enjoy life instead of clinging to it or pushing it away. 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.
REMOVING YOUR INNER THORN
The spiritual journey is one of constant transformation.
To grow, you must give up the struggle to remain the same and learn to embrace change at all times.
Real transformation begins when you embrace your problems as agents for growth.
Do not doubt your ability to remove the root cause of the disturbance inside you. It really can go away. 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 love because you genuinely love, not because you need to avoid your inner problems.
To be free of these energies, Singer suggests allowing these energies to pass through you, instead of hiding them inside.
Then, when you are no longer absorbed in your melodrama, you will start to feel this energy flow coming up from deep within.
If you sit within the Self, you will experience the strength of your inner being even when your heart feels weak. There’s no reason to spend your life protecting the thorn from getting touched when you can remove it. Once the thorn is removed, you are indeed free of it.
Conclusion
Singer points out that “real spiritual growth happens when there is only one of you inside.
When there’s not a part that’s scared and another part that’s protecting the nervous function, but when all parts are unified.
For this reason, he advises us to begin by seeing the tendency to protect and defend ourselves.
And If anything can cause disturbance inside of you, it means it hits your model.
It means it hits the false part of you, says Singer, the one that you built to control your definition of reality.
It would help if you learned to be comfortable with psychological disturbances. Because the only way to inner freedom is through the one who watches: the self.
And once you’ve committed to freeing yourself of that scared person inside, you will notice that there is a clear decision point at which your growth takes place.
Thank you for reading.
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This summary is meant to be a replacement for the original book. All quotes are credited to the mentioned author and publisher.