This is a book about consciousness…

Unusually for me, it’s also a book I’ve read more than once. In it, Singer explains how the majority of us (DEFINITELY ME) create suffering in our lives through identifying too closely with our own thoughts—and reacting too readily to the ever-changing world around us. Our caveman brains think we are protecting ourselves from the ‘predators’ of life, but in fact we are just causing ourselves constant and unnecessary suffering with our incessant thinking. Sound familiar?

Singer compares the chattering, judgemental mind to having a roommate that comments on everything that you do and every experience that you have. Meeting someone for the first time, when the phone rings, when someone says something at a party, even in the shower. He encourages us to watch our thoughts for a day:

“...the incessant chatter seems so neurotic that you won’t believe that it’s always that way. But it is…The bottom line is undeniable: If somehow that voice managed to manifest in a body outside of you, and you had to take it with you everywhere you went, you wouldn’t last a day.”

The key to freedom, Singer tells us, is to “come to know the one who watches the voice, and you will come to know one of the great mysteries of creation.” In other words, training ourselves to objectively watch our thoughts rather than becoming identified with them helps us become aware of our own awareness - and in the silence behind the chatter we can glimpse our own consciousness, our own soul, and the peace from which we are made.

One of the things I love about this book is that despite the deep and at times esoteric subject matter, Singer manages to make it so simple and universal. With a no-nonsense and often humorous approach to the human mind, there’s a sense of compassion that comes through his writing, but also urgency. For me there was a ‘come on guys, I get it, but haven’t you had enough of living like this?’ kind of narrative that emerged as I worked through the book.

There’s far too much gold to get into in detail here, but I just want to mention the final chapter on death. Sounds cheery, right? In fact for me this was probably the part of the book that spoke to me the most. Singer opens this chapter by saying “it is truly a great cosmic paradox that one of the best teachers in all of life turns out to be death…The question is, are you going to wait until that last moment to let death be your teacher?” He urges us to take some time looking at the things we think we need and how much time and energy we put into various activities. And then if we knew we were going to die in a week or a month, how would things change. Would we keep doing what we are doing? Keep treating people the same way? 

“What are you doing with your life?’ That is what death asks you.”

Just a light little question to leave you with :) Definitely worth a read!

(And if you’re interested in the death-as-the-utlimate-teacher topic, you might like my poem ‘If I was going to die tomorrow’)