Contents
A book by Michael Singer
An exhortation to mindfulness:
If you’re willing to be objective and watch all your thoughts, you will see that the vast majority of them have no relevance. They have no effect on anything or anybody except you. They are simply making you feel better or worse about what is going on now, what has gone on in the past, or what might go on in the future.
The ultimate cause of suffering isn’t pain or discomfort, but our resistance to them which stems from the belief that they shouldn’t happen:
Eventually you will see that the real cause of problems isn’t life itself. It’s commotion the mind makes about life that really causes problems.
We are addicted to thought, as the Buddha saw:
You will come to see that the mind talks all the time because you gave it a job to do. You use it as a protection mechanism, a form of defense. Ultimately, it makes you feel more secure. As long as that’s what you want, you will be forced to constantly use your mind to buffer yourself from life, instead of living it. This world is unfolding and really has very little to do with you or your thoughts. It was here long before you came, and it will be here long after you leave. In the name of attempting to hold the world together, you’re really just trying to hold yourself together. True personal growth is about transcending the part of you that is not okay and needs protection. This is done by constantly remembering that you are the one inside that notices the voice talking. That is the way out. The one inside who is aware that you are always talking to yourself about yourself is always silent. It is a doorway to the depths of your being.