Notes from Michael Singer

 Why peace and harmony may not always be present?

How often do you experience a deep sense of peace when interacting with the world? Unfortunately, it seems to be very minimal. For spirituality, you have a choice to make. Will you focus on achieving an inner state of peace, love, harmony, and contentment? Or will you prioritize seeking external situations that can generate those rare experiences of peace, love, harmony, and joy?

When you seek peace, your mind constantly looks outside of yourself for external factors that will bring about feelings of peace and happiness. This can involve trying to recreate past positive experiences, seeking specific people or situations, or avoiding negative experiences. Whether it’s planning for dinner, vacation, marriage, career, or property accumulation, the mind intends (consciously or subconsciously) to find peace and harmony.

These external pursuits may generate a temporary feeling of contentment or joy, but eventually, they will not provide lasting peace. The mind will start looking for something else. Instead of exploring the internal reasons why peace and harmony may not always be present, the mind remains fixated on what needs to be done externally to maintain peace and joy.

You ever say that I’m really open around him? Ever use that term? I feel really open to this situation. I feel really open and I feel really closed around this person. I am really close to that position. There is no question that there are situations in this world that will naturally cause you to open and naturally cause you to close. You got a choice. Either you run around spending every moment of your life trying to find those situations, or you find out why you can’t be open all the time.

Worldly person is somebody who is out there thinking the answer is in the world. And I will try to find those situations. Whatever the magic is that makes me open, I’ll stay away from what makes me close and I’ll go, what makes me open. Now you are 100% dependent upon this world, aren’t you?

Sometimes you feel open energies, you feel good, and other times you don’t. Why is this happening?

And you see that sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes you feel open energies, you feel good, and other times you don’t. Have you noticed why? You’re asking yourself, why? Why is this happening? If you explore that, you will open up the doors to this tremendous inner realm of understanding. That’s what spirituality says. That’s not what your mind says. Your mind says, when you feel good, it says, I want this. I need to keep it. I need to keep that person around me. I need to keep this situation. Oh my God, what am I going to do if they ever leave?  

Closing the door to our true selves only traps us in a world of distorted perception and limited growth.

Closing is the process of shutting down emotionally, energetically, or mentally. It involves losing touch with our true selves and becoming attached to our physical bodies and the pain caused by certain circumstances. As a result, we see others and the world through a lens of disturbed energy. Our minds become overwhelmed with negativity, making us insist circumstances should change, and blocking us from being receptive to input from both within ourselves and from external sources.

Let your heart be the compass that guides your words and actions, radiating love to all.

Opening is a state of being filled with joy, love, energy, and enthusiasm. It is a state where you are fully open and connected to your higher or true self. In this state, all your inner energies align harmoniously, and your perspective becomes as divine as that of a goddess. You perceive everyone as children, making noise out of ignorance, and you shower them with unconditional love and blessings. Your mind overflows with immense love, and every word and action you express radiates that love.

Indirect opening means finding external situations or people that make you feel open and joyful. If you’re disturbed, you need external stimuli to return to your natural state.

Direct opening involves understanding the dynamics of why one opens or closes, and actively working towards maintaining a state of openness and joy.

True love and inner peace reside within, not in the external world.

That’s why it’s called spirituality, because it’s about finding your spiritual true inner self and true inner being and true inner energy which feeds you at that level, as opposed to indirectly trying to create situations that make it happen once in a while. The truth is, when you feel love, it is coming from inside of you. It’s not outside of you. They think love is something you get from your boyfriend or your girlfriend. No, it’s not. Love is something you get from your heart. Where does it come from? When you feel it, it wells up inside your heart. Where’s peace? It’s inside of you. It’s not somewhere else. It’s not in nature. But if you put yourself in a situation that stimulates that, that permits you to open to that part of you, then that’s what you feel. I’m telling you, spirituality in your whole life is about, at some point deciding, I don’t want to have to get this indirectly. I don’t want to have to beg, steal and borrow from people, place and things in this world in order to feel a moment of what I’m capable of being at all times.

So deep you can have love and peace and joy and harmony

I think that all of spirituality, in the end, comes down to giving up on that. Spirituality says, It is beautiful in there. It is filled with love. It is filled with joy. It is filled with light. It is filled with peace. So strong that nothing in this world and no one in this world can take it away from you. Just like, watch this. Do you exist? Are you in there? Do you hear me? Do you know you’re there? No one can take that from you. That’s how deep you can have love and peace and joy and harmony. So deep that it has nothing to do with this world and nobody can touch it and nobody can take it from you. It is who you are. That’s what spirituality says. It says that’s your starting point. That’s your background. Now, if you feel that it doesn’t matter what you eat, it’s just fun. No matter who you’re with, it’s fun.

Embrace each day as if it were a gift, for in the present moment lies the true essence of life.

You’re at a camp called Camp Earth. Everyone at camp is supposed to have a good time. When you sleep at night, you become your true self. However, if you consciously return to your true self, everything will reset and you’ll start fresh the next day. If you can keep your true state in the background even during the day, you feel that love all the time, irrespective of external circumstances.

As you wake up in the morning, every single morning, no matter what’s going to happen today and no matter what happened yesterday. And you are just like a kid on Christmas. That’s how you are. You can’t even contain yourself. You are just filled with Shakti, with spirit, with joy. Excited about what’s happening inside of you. Excited about anything that might happen today. And then go into your day. And no matter what’s happening, it’s just camp, right? You’re in this school or that school or this course or that course and doing different things. Whatever’s happening to you, you’re just dealing with that. That’s just the challenge of the day, the situation of the day. You get to ride horses, get to do this. Whatever your day is, whatever you’re doing, that’s what it is. And then at night, you don’t ever think about it again. If you’re thinking about that day, you’re not living this one. And you don’t have much of a life if you’re not living it. That I guarantee you. You got to be present if you want to live life.

True inner peace comes from knowing that you are inherently okay, regardless of external circumstances.

If you are fine inside, it does not make any difference what is going on outside. Rich, poor friends, no friends, good situations, bad situations. They are just what’s happening. It’s only because you think you need them to be okay that they cause a problem. You think you won’t be okay if they’re not okay. But if you are okay because you’re naturally okay and you know you will be okay no matter what they do, then it doesn’t matter what they do. You are capable of achieving that state. It does not matter what has ever happened to you, doesn’t matter what state you’re in right now. You are capable because of that.