I am so grateful that the right books find me. Michael Singer’s name came up in several books and blogs I read. I looked up his books, The Untethered Soul and The Surrender Experiment, in the library and read them in one go.

In the first book, Michael explains the main ideas of Buddhism in such an accessible and practical way that makes them very easy to understand and apply. His books are easy to read, yet contain multiple gems, in particular, new perspectives.

Below are some of the quotes from The Untethered Soul that I wanted to keep a note of.

On the importance of keeping the heart open:

If at any given point in time the heart happens to open, we fall in love. If at any given point in time it happens to close, the love stops. If the heart happens to hurt, we get angry, and if we stop feeling it altogether, we get empty.

On freedom from negative emotions:

All the attractions, repulsions, thoughts, and feelings don’t make any difference. They don’t make you pure or impure. They are not you. You are the one who’s watching, and that one is pure consciousness. Don’t think you’d be free if you just didn’t have these kinds of feelings. It’s not true. If you can be free even though you’re having these kinds of feelings, then you’re really free – because there will always be something.

On loneliness:

You don’t have to get rid of loneliness; you just cease to be involved with it. It’s just another thing in the universe, like cars, grass, and the stars. It’s none of your business. Just let things go… Awareness does not fight; awareness releases. Awareness is simply aware while everything in the universe parades before it.

On God as love:

…let go of the idea of a judgmental God. You have a loving God. In truth, you have love itself for a God. And love cannot do other than love. Your God is in ecstasy and there’s nothing you can do about it. And if God is in ecstasy, I wonder what He sees when he looks at you?

On freeing yourself:

So you decide to use life to free yourself. You become willing to pay any price for the freedom of your soul. You will realize that the only price you have to pay is letting go of yourself. Only you can take inner freedom away from yourself, or give it to yourself. Nobody else can. It doesn’t matter what others do, unless you decide that it matters to you. Begin with small things. We tend to let ourselves get bothered by the little, meaningless things that happen every day. For example, somebody beeps at you at the stoplight. As these little things happen, you will feel your energy change. The moment you feel a change, relax your shoulders and relax the area around your heart. The moment the energy moves, you simply relax and release. Play with letting go and falling behind this sense of being bothered. 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.