The Zap

I just got finished reading The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer.  Nothing new in this book in terms of content, but what clarity!

Now, I am an avid reader of spirituality books. I’m a  big fan of Krishnamurti and Eckhart Tolle, for instance, but there is always something opaque in these books for me; something key that I seem to get while I’m reading, but if you asked me to explain it to you five minutes after I put the book down, I really couldn’t.  I’d be blithering some confused nonsense and just wind up handing you the book with a, “Here, read it for yourself.”

That’s why this Mickey Singer book was such a rare and yummy find for me because he tells stories and uses metaphors to explain complicated concepts like fear, but in a fresh, alive way that allowed me to get it, and then be able to share it with others.

(I love that.)

For example, he tells this story about a dog. A dog who lives in a fenced-in yard.  The dog knows the limits of his freedom.  The limit is the fence.

Then one day the dog’s owner puts in an electric fence.  The dog is outfitted with a special collar and the old fence is taken down.  The dog goes out into the fence-less yard and takes off, but is immediately zapped by the collar.  Whoah.

But each day this brave dog inches closer to the zap point and begins to realize that even though he’s getting a little bit zapped, he’s still alive.  Then one day he just braves the full frontal ZAP! charges through, and is free forever!

Mickey Singer says this is what fear is.  It’s fear of getting zapped.  We all live inside the electric fence, afraid of the zap. The zap can be fear of anything: failure, ridicule, you name it, whatever  keeps us safe (and boring and trapped) in the yard.

But if we want to be free, we have to be willing to take the ZAP.  It won’t kill us to fail or be laughed at.

And the payoff?

Our complete and utter freedom.

I think this is very cool.