Reading this book was an experience.
When I read it the first time, I enjoyed it, appreciated it....but didn't really go gaga over it. However, because I hadn't taken notes, I went back to a browse within a couple of days, and it's then that I found it talking a whole different language....found myself so absorbed..it became an immersion.
I kind of understood Deepak Chopra's blurb on the book:
"Read this book carefully and you will get more than a glimpse of eternity".
"Read this book carefully and you will get more than a glimpse of eternity".
I am compelled to start with a little excerpt from it's synopsis:
Who are you really?
What would it be like to be free from limitations and and soar beyond your boundaries? Whether this is your first exploration on inner space or you've devoted your life to the inner journey, this book provides an intuitive answer to transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you.
Then there's a quote from Shakespeare at the very beginning, one which maybe gives you also why Shakespeare is a name revered even today.
"This above all to thine own self by true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man"
Michael talks of the voice inside our head. How it's narrative is what connects us to our world and buffers reality. It gets overactive when we're anxious, worrying or fearful. And even when we are at peace, doing nothing, it still talks.
He talks of becoming aware of the voice, a meta level awareness.
The first two chapters talk of the what of the book, of which here are some excerpts:
Awakening Consciousness:
The first two chapters talk of the what of the book, of which here are some excerpts:
Awakening Consciousness:
"To be aware that you are watching the voice talk is to stand on the threshold of a fantastic inner journey. If used properly, the same mental voice that has been the source of worry, distraction and general neurosis can become the launching ground for true spiritual awakening"
"Consciousness is pure awareness. When you contemplate the nature of self, you are meditating. That is why meditation is the highest state. It is the return to the root of your being, the simple awareness of being aware"
Experiencing Energy:
If Consciousness is one of the great mysteries in life, Inner Energy is another.
"Creating thoughts, holding onto thoughts, recalling thoughts, generating emotions, controlling emotions and disciplining inner drives, all require a tremendous expenditure of energy.
This energy is sometimes there and sometimes not. When you are mentally nd emotionally drained, even food can't replace the energy lost.
Conversely, if you look at times when you were in love, or excited and inspired by something you are so filled with energy, you may not even need to eat.
This is an energy you draw from the inside. It is distinct from the outer energy source. It is always available to you.
The only reason you don't feel it all the time is because you block it. It flows through several energy centers in the body. For instance, the heart is an energy center we are very familiar with , one we intuitively know. When you are hurt you close it and energy can't flow. And depending on how closed you are, you either feel disturbance or lethargy. Energy needs openness and receptivity.
And that is a choice. You can train yourself to keep it open, under normal circumstances our state of openness is left to psychological factors. The only thing you really need to feel are enthusiasm, joy and love.
Can you feel that within you.
Can you make it happen irrespective of external triggers. If you can stay open no matter what, you get for free what everybody else is struggling for, love, excitement, enthusiasm, energy.
The more you stay open, the more the energy flow can build. At some point, so much energy comes into you that it starts flowing out of you. You can actually feel it. What is more, the energy affects other people, people can pick up on your energy, and you are then feeding them with this flow.
You can even affect the health of your body with your energy flow.
This energy can heal.
Yet this is not as simple as it sounds, as we are filled with energy blockages from a very long time. Patterns that cannot make it through you, are pushed out of the forefront of the mind and held until you are prepared to release them. You have a choice. You have to decide if you want stored pain blocking your heart and limiting your life. Alternative is to be willing to let it go when it gets stimulated, it only hurts for a while and then it's gone.
Your reward is a permanently open heart. Set your eyes on the highest state.
Our survival instinct, earlier used extensively physiologically is now turned towards defending psychologically, the fight to defend our self concepts.
Ultimately if you protect yourself perfectly, you will never grow. Life stagnates when people protect their stored issues.
You can start in the present. Your center of consciousness is always stronger than the energy that is pulling on it. You just have to be willing to exercise your will. Not as a fight or a struggle. Feeling the energies of fear, jealousy or attraction don't make you pure or impure. They just are. 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 have these kinds of feelings, then you're really free.....because there will always be something. You need to learn to be centered even through them.
With practice you will see that the types of events that would have destroyed you in the past can come and go, leaving you perfectly centered and peaceful. No matter what events take place in life, it is always better to feel and let go, than to close.
After you've put years and years into this process, and learned to let go no matter how deep the pain, you will achieve a great state.
You will then be free to explore the nature and source of your true being - Pure Consciousness.
The rest of the book is in essence the 'how' of it. He eventually talks of the 'tao' from 'Tao te Ching' one of the deepest of all spiritual teachings.
Chapter by chapter, 'The Untethered Soul' walks you through your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, helping uncover the source and fluctuations of your inner energy. It delves into what you can do to free yourself from the habitual thoughts, emotions, and energy patterns that limit your consciousness.
With a paradoxical simplicity and profundity, the book opens the door and shows a path, to a life lived in freedom....the freedom of your innermost being.
"Creating thoughts, holding onto thoughts, recalling thoughts, generating emotions, controlling emotions and disciplining inner drives, all require a tremendous expenditure of energy.
This energy is sometimes there and sometimes not. When you are mentally nd emotionally drained, even food can't replace the energy lost.
Conversely, if you look at times when you were in love, or excited and inspired by something you are so filled with energy, you may not even need to eat.
This is an energy you draw from the inside. It is distinct from the outer energy source. It is always available to you.
The only reason you don't feel it all the time is because you block it. It flows through several energy centers in the body. For instance, the heart is an energy center we are very familiar with , one we intuitively know. When you are hurt you close it and energy can't flow. And depending on how closed you are, you either feel disturbance or lethargy. Energy needs openness and receptivity.
And that is a choice. You can train yourself to keep it open, under normal circumstances our state of openness is left to psychological factors. The only thing you really need to feel are enthusiasm, joy and love.
Can you feel that within you.
Can you make it happen irrespective of external triggers. If you can stay open no matter what, you get for free what everybody else is struggling for, love, excitement, enthusiasm, energy.
The more you stay open, the more the energy flow can build. At some point, so much energy comes into you that it starts flowing out of you. You can actually feel it. What is more, the energy affects other people, people can pick up on your energy, and you are then feeding them with this flow.
You can even affect the health of your body with your energy flow.
This energy can heal.
Yet this is not as simple as it sounds, as we are filled with energy blockages from a very long time. Patterns that cannot make it through you, are pushed out of the forefront of the mind and held until you are prepared to release them. You have a choice. You have to decide if you want stored pain blocking your heart and limiting your life. Alternative is to be willing to let it go when it gets stimulated, it only hurts for a while and then it's gone.
Your reward is a permanently open heart. Set your eyes on the highest state.
Our survival instinct, earlier used extensively physiologically is now turned towards defending psychologically, the fight to defend our self concepts.
Ultimately if you protect yourself perfectly, you will never grow. Life stagnates when people protect their stored issues.
You can start in the present. Your center of consciousness is always stronger than the energy that is pulling on it. You just have to be willing to exercise your will. Not as a fight or a struggle. Feeling the energies of fear, jealousy or attraction don't make you pure or impure. They just are. 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 have these kinds of feelings, then you're really free.....because there will always be something. You need to learn to be centered even through them.
With practice you will see that the types of events that would have destroyed you in the past can come and go, leaving you perfectly centered and peaceful. No matter what events take place in life, it is always better to feel and let go, than to close.
After you've put years and years into this process, and learned to let go no matter how deep the pain, you will achieve a great state.
You will then be free to explore the nature and source of your true being - Pure Consciousness.
The rest of the book is in essence the 'how' of it. He eventually talks of the 'tao' from 'Tao te Ching' one of the deepest of all spiritual teachings.
Chapter by chapter, 'The Untethered Soul' walks you through your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, helping uncover the source and fluctuations of your inner energy. It delves into what you can do to free yourself from the habitual thoughts, emotions, and energy patterns that limit your consciousness.
With a paradoxical simplicity and profundity, the book opens the door and shows a path, to a life lived in freedom....the freedom of your innermost being.
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