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on July 10, 2014
I wanted to like this book! It is clearly one that has resonated with so many people and changed lives, but sadly it fell completely flat with me. I kept hoping that at one point it would start to resonate, but it did not. I believe these are some of the reasons why -
1. I'm suspicious of authors who claim it is possible to live life free of worries, problems, and unhappiness. This author makes such claims throughout the book and many times indicates that freedom from suffering should be the goal of the spiritual journey. I see life and the spiritual journey differently, and though I do believe we all should strive for a happier life and a more peaceful spirit, I don't believe it is desirable to live without some unhappiness, some worries, some fears. We need to experience and honor both the dark and the light in order to live in balance. That is my view at any rate, and this book did not make a strong enough case for me to change it.
2. Contradictions. The author contradicts himself many times, but more importantly doesn't indicate any awareness that he has contradicted himself. In one chapter he is claiming that God only likes to be around happy people, but in a later chapter he points out that God does not judge, that the sun shines equally on us all, etc. Confusing, right? Thus, while the author makes many statements throughout that I agree with, he also constantly is making other statements that contradict previous ones, giving me the impression that he is just writing a stream of consciousness of statements cherry-picked to resonate with a broad range of spiritual-enlightenment-seekers, without much regard to whether those statements gel together to form a cohesive whole. Which brings me to. . .
3. Structure. To me the book reads like a long-winded, disorganized, repetitive lecture on how the reader should be living his life. While there may be many helpful suggestions and kernels of wisdom sprinkled throughout, the lack of structure, evidence, and strategies for how to go about actually doing what the author is suggesting really rubbed me the wrong way. For me, these types of commands - "just open" or "just do it" or "let go of fear" - are never helpful. These types of life-suggestions happen on every single page, as if it just takes reading the words enough times to know how to actually go about doing things that take enormous amounts of courage and practice. I need help with the how, and I found this book was like a list of ingredients with no recipe, assuming that the reader was already an experienced chef.
Perhaps the book is simply not written in a way that speaks to me. As I said at the beginning, it has clearly resonated with many, and so I feel badly giving it such a poor review. If the book has helped you to find happiness and live a more peaceful life, then wonderful! I would not want to take that away from anyone, but sadly, it is not the book for me.
1. I'm suspicious of authors who claim it is possible to live life free of worries, problems, and unhappiness. This author makes such claims throughout the book and many times indicates that freedom from suffering should be the goal of the spiritual journey. I see life and the spiritual journey differently, and though I do believe we all should strive for a happier life and a more peaceful spirit, I don't believe it is desirable to live without some unhappiness, some worries, some fears. We need to experience and honor both the dark and the light in order to live in balance. That is my view at any rate, and this book did not make a strong enough case for me to change it.
2. Contradictions. The author contradicts himself many times, but more importantly doesn't indicate any awareness that he has contradicted himself. In one chapter he is claiming that God only likes to be around happy people, but in a later chapter he points out that God does not judge, that the sun shines equally on us all, etc. Confusing, right? Thus, while the author makes many statements throughout that I agree with, he also constantly is making other statements that contradict previous ones, giving me the impression that he is just writing a stream of consciousness of statements cherry-picked to resonate with a broad range of spiritual-enlightenment-seekers, without much regard to whether those statements gel together to form a cohesive whole. Which brings me to. . .
3. Structure. To me the book reads like a long-winded, disorganized, repetitive lecture on how the reader should be living his life. While there may be many helpful suggestions and kernels of wisdom sprinkled throughout, the lack of structure, evidence, and strategies for how to go about actually doing what the author is suggesting really rubbed me the wrong way. For me, these types of commands - "just open" or "just do it" or "let go of fear" - are never helpful. These types of life-suggestions happen on every single page, as if it just takes reading the words enough times to know how to actually go about doing things that take enormous amounts of courage and practice. I need help with the how, and I found this book was like a list of ingredients with no recipe, assuming that the reader was already an experienced chef.
Perhaps the book is simply not written in a way that speaks to me. As I said at the beginning, it has clearly resonated with many, and so I feel badly giving it such a poor review. If the book has helped you to find happiness and live a more peaceful life, then wonderful! I would not want to take that away from anyone, but sadly, it is not the book for me.
on April 7, 2017
The first half of the book is more focussed and "enlightens" the reader to appreciate self from non-self. It does a good job in making you aware of the mental noise and mind games the brain plays with you on a daily basis. But as you read on with excitement and zest, you find that the later portion fails do much to illustrate in an objective manner how to overcome this. It is just a continuous flow of trite and superficial examples after examples of how the mind fools you, and keeps going back and forth to the original problem and how you could be aware of it.
However, overall, it is a good book and does create positive outlook to life and bring a sense of compassion. I say compassion because once you decode what your mind does to you, you realise and understand the behaviors of other fellow human beings in different scenarios (you realise that afterall, others are also locked in their heads with the same eternal maniac!
However, overall, it is a good book and does create positive outlook to life and bring a sense of compassion. I say compassion because once you decode what your mind does to you, you realise and understand the behaviors of other fellow human beings in different scenarios (you realise that afterall, others are also locked in their heads with the same eternal maniac!
on April 16, 2017
The Untethered Soul is a book for a specific kind of person. I purchased this book because it was recommended to me, but then the person retracted the recommendation after I had already placed my order. Let me start by saying that if you are interested in the teachings of eastern philosophy, yoga, Buddhism, and are seeking "enlightenment", etc., you will probably really like this book. For someone who is not familiar with these teachings, it's not an easy read. The author explains the importance of freeing yourself from the burdens we self inflict like, jealousy, envy, worry, fear, doubt, unhappiness, etc., but does not offer any clear exercises on how to overcome these burdens that hold us back in life. I found that each chapter was repetitive and unduly long winded with no real advise on how to move beyond these issues, other than you just have to. I found chapter 15, The Path of Unconditional Happiness, interesting to say the least. The author says, and I quote, "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." Now, I don't know about you, but if I was wrongly accused of something, put in solitary confinement and starved, I sure as hell would not be able to have fun with it!
I'm not saying that the book is terrible, but I do think it's for a certain type of person. If you are contemplating buying this book, I would do so only if you are interesting in philosophy and are seeking the path to enlightenment. Even though I struggled with this book, there were one or two things that the author said that did resonate with me and that's why I gave the book a 3 out of 5 rating.
I'm not saying that the book is terrible, but I do think it's for a certain type of person. If you are contemplating buying this book, I would do so only if you are interesting in philosophy and are seeking the path to enlightenment. Even though I struggled with this book, there were one or two things that the author said that did resonate with me and that's why I gave the book a 3 out of 5 rating.
on March 9, 2014
I am listening to the audible version of this book while reading it using the immersion reading available. This way I am seeing the words and hearing them and I believe I am learning and soaking in what the book is teaching better by doing so. This book is fantastic. It is a bit deep and I struggled a bit at times to figure out how to do what he calls the "simple" thing of just leaning back and observing the disturbances in my life. it is something that will take time for me to achieve as I have 50 years of bad habits to break. But I think this book is one of those life changing books.
Since starting to read this book I have started to meditate without the use of guided meditation. The book inspired me to learn to quiet that noise inside of me. I didn't want the book to end and I am going to start reading it over again which is something I never do.
Since starting to read this book I have started to meditate without the use of guided meditation. The book inspired me to learn to quiet that noise inside of me. I didn't want the book to end and I am going to start reading it over again which is something I never do.
on August 13, 2016
A very nice description of an approach most people think of as "spiritual enlightenment" but as an uber-rationalist I tend to think of as "reality is what you make it". Connected to traditions of yoga and buddhism, but not explicitly setting out those teachings. An agnostic's roadmap to enlightenment, if you will. Lots of points are repeated throughout the book, which may be overly redundant for some, but I found it helpful; the principles are so simple, and repetition helps reinforce the simplicity. The last chapter was a little too centered for my taste around how enlightenment is manifested in more traditional christian frameworks, but it's a small blemish in an otherwise outstanding treatise.
on May 15, 2017
I give the first 37 pages a five star review. Michael Singer gives a wonderful example of how you are lost in a dream-like state. You are at the mercy of every thought that arises in your mind and you have no idea of what's happening. He wonderfully shines a light on the process that is happening to you and if you are paying attention, you could discover one of the most important ideas you could ever learn; you are not your thoughts. The first 37 pages are worth the price of admission and I have added this book to my personal lending library.
Unfortunately, everything after that is similar to explaining what a shadow looks like to a blind person. He will tell you about some pretty amazing stuff but he won't tell you how to get there. You should buy his book, it will give you one of the best explanations as to why you should meditate, but it won't tell you how to meditate or attain it's benefits.
I would recommend reading Mindfulness in plain English after reading this book. It will give you basic instructions on what to do next. As a warning though, it has some brief supernatural references, please just ignore them if they offend you, it really does contain a great instruction on how to meditate and loose the bonds that shackle you to anger, anxiety, depression and whatever else you are suffering from. Best of all.....You will do it by yourself.
Unfortunately, everything after that is similar to explaining what a shadow looks like to a blind person. He will tell you about some pretty amazing stuff but he won't tell you how to get there. You should buy his book, it will give you one of the best explanations as to why you should meditate, but it won't tell you how to meditate or attain it's benefits.
I would recommend reading Mindfulness in plain English after reading this book. It will give you basic instructions on what to do next. As a warning though, it has some brief supernatural references, please just ignore them if they offend you, it really does contain a great instruction on how to meditate and loose the bonds that shackle you to anger, anxiety, depression and whatever else you are suffering from. Best of all.....You will do it by yourself.
on May 8, 2017
This book was just ok. I agree with many of the "negative" reviewers - the writing was repetitive and poorly organized. I found myself nodding off while reading. For those who are on a spiritual journey and would like to learn more about mindfulness, I'd recommend anything by Pema Chodron, Thich Nhat Hanh, or Jon Kabat-Zin. I also loved 'Broken Open' by Elizabeth Lesser.
on May 27, 2017
I felt cheated reading this book. I throughly enjoyed the majority of this book, but felt conflicted by the final chapter. The book started of by exploring spirituality with a few examples from various teachings and believes, but by the end it seemed to drop all other believes and ways of life in favour of Christianity. It practically become a christian book.
I believe to be fully spiritual is to not identify with labels and religions. That is a sense of what I picked up when reading the first few chapters. The Author used so many examples to show how the soul and various concepts and energies have different names in different believes without showing favouritism to one. That’s what I believe pure spirituality should be, an understanding of various believes with no bias or favouritism to one, because I think religion and believes were all various interpretations of spirituality and divinity.
By dedicating nearly two chapters of references to christianity, the author seemed to be selling the reader on christianity. It also felt a bit contradictory.
Apart from that gripe this is one of the most motivational and most quotable books I have read.
I believe to be fully spiritual is to not identify with labels and religions. That is a sense of what I picked up when reading the first few chapters. The Author used so many examples to show how the soul and various concepts and energies have different names in different believes without showing favouritism to one. That’s what I believe pure spirituality should be, an understanding of various believes with no bias or favouritism to one, because I think religion and believes were all various interpretations of spirituality and divinity.
By dedicating nearly two chapters of references to christianity, the author seemed to be selling the reader on christianity. It also felt a bit contradictory.
Apart from that gripe this is one of the most motivational and most quotable books I have read.
on September 5, 2016
I wish I had read the book first. The narrator of the CD reminds me of the 1950s Junior High science class films with a touch of preaching tossed in with the pontificating. I felt like I might "flunk enlightenment" if I didn't do what he said. Rather irritating!
And of course, due to the subject matter, I kept reminding myself to just "let go" of that irritation. But I'm writing this, so I guess I couldn't.
I'm probably spoiled by the engaging voices of Dr. Andrew Weil, Pema Chodron and Jon Kabat Zinn on CDs of this type. But I wish the voice had been a better match to the material. Material is a little preachy though, so maybe it is a match.
And of course, due to the subject matter, I kept reminding myself to just "let go" of that irritation. But I'm writing this, so I guess I couldn't.
I'm probably spoiled by the engaging voices of Dr. Andrew Weil, Pema Chodron and Jon Kabat Zinn on CDs of this type. But I wish the voice had been a better match to the material. Material is a little preachy though, so maybe it is a match.
