John Woltjer's Reviews > The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

I know that there are some people who go to religious texts on a regular basis to glean wisdom about their lives. I have never been that person, raised in a decidedly secular home that was deeply suspicious of organized religion. I consider myself lucky to have been raised in a way that left me unshackled from religious dogma or tethered to a religious institution. But an inquisitive mind also puts one on what, for better or worse we call a spiritual path. Avoiding religion does not make the ultimate questions go away, it just allows the mind to wander more freely in search of truth. In my 57 years I have searched widely, sometimes earnestly to understand just what my niche is in the majestic mystery called life. i have read many books, sought out many gurus, talked to many people about what the meaning of life really is. And in that search, I think I have never read a wiser, more intuitively grounded book than The Untethered Soul, by Michael Singer. Perhaps it is true that there is nothing new under the sun; that the same truths just get said in myriad ways that appeal to people at different places on the spiritual journey. If that is true, then what Singer does in this book is to synthesize those truths in a way that are direct, crystal clear, and uniquely graspable. In some regards, his book is a much shorter version of Eckhart Tolle's books; more concise, more accessible. Singer deals with the "two of us" that are within us--the experiencer of things, the monkey mind, the consciousness that is constantly feeding us information through our senses, our intellect--and the observer, buried deep behind the monkey mind that has the capacity to watch the parade in our heads--to step back behind and just watch, dispassionately all that is being projected onto the screen of our minds. That is the great wisdom that underlies much of the new thought about consciousness--that there are, in fact two of us in there-one, out of control, spinning its daily dramas-and one, timeless and immortal, the true river of consciousness from which each our lives flows as tributaries. The brilliance of Singer is that he makes the awareness of that very clear--he quite literally walks us through the question of, "who are we" in a step-by-step process. He calls the monkey mind our "inner roommate" that quite often borders on pure insanity. He invites us to imagine the monkey mind as a roommate, sitting next to us on the couch, and asking us to consider how long this roommate would be allowed to live with us when considering just how obnoxious and pestilent it can be. what becomes quite obvious is that we live with a crazy person in our head that torments us with persistent, meaningless, repetitive dialogues that ultimately blind us to what is truly real--the world behind all the stimulus in our heads. This is a brilliant book--just reading the praises written by many prominent people at the beginning of the book gives the reader a sense of just how profound the truths within are. One comment dares to suggest that this book can give the reader a glimpse of eternity. I have found this to be true. All of life is, of course process. It is my belief that our capacity for the development of consciousness is just like our capacity for physical development. Some people are uniquely suited for developing Olympic quality physiques, others of us capable of attaining transcendent awareness through spiritual development. Most of us are posted somewhere in the middle of those kinds of capacities--we can be physically healthy, and we can be spiritually aware. The concept of the archetype is helpful--the archetype of the spiritual teacher is represented by Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, etc. They are the exemplars of the ability to stand closest to the spiritual fire. Most of us will never attain their ability to feel the deepest levels of spiritual transcendence, but we can, though a lifetime of development, develop the capacity to have moments of transcendence that give us the wisdom to carry on in a life that, at times, can be maddeningly inscrutable. Singer is one of those people who can open the crack just a little wider to accessing that wisdom. I have returned to this book many times--it was a re-reading this morning that inspired me to write this review. This little, wise book has helped me incalculably on my own spiritual journey, and has helped me to glean just enough wisdom about this life I have been given to prevail through some very difficult transitions in my life. I am sorry that i can only give it 5 stars--it deserves multiples of that...