A gift from a friend for my recovery reading, I read Singer's autobiography with interest. This account of living fully surrendered to what the flow of life brings argues that "perfection" unfolds as one accepts what life offers. This may include founding a spiritual retreat, starting a custom construction business, and founding a multi-million dollar software company.

Singer makes no pretense at lilting prose or literary style. He often writes of his own wonder at how events aligned for each stage of his journey. However, while he names influential people in his life, his writing does not reflect deep connection with others, but rather a fascination with his own development. He mentions marrying a woman who moves to his retreat center and the fact that they have a daughter together. Nothing of these relationships surfaces again as he focuses on the important spiritual teachers and later business partners he works with.

That said, many of his ideas sparked connection to the work of Byron Katie, [b:Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life|9762|Loving What Is Four Questions That Can Change Your Life|Byron Katie|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388258105s/9762.jpg|2919169], and many of the teachings of Jesus and Buddha.

What does it mean to lose your life to gain it? Full surrender means trust. Perhaps one reason few ever attempt such an experiment is because they don't trust life, the universe, a higher power, or God to be resourceful and good. ( )

Only the first half was really interesting, although the legal tangle that arose and resolved was truly astonishing. ( )

Michael Singer's biography. When he was young he secluded himself to practice yoga and meditation. Later he decided he wanted to be free from making big decisions for his life and started what he called "The Surrender Experiment":

If my personal self complained, I would use each opportunity to simply let him go and surrender to what life was presenting me.

From that point on he "left his cave" and worked a builder, a teacher, a medical software programmer, a CEO, while still keeping connections to his spiritual community.

I stopped reading after about the 60% mark because it read like the story of a fallen angel, not because he left his cave and started interacting with the world, but because of the constant hyperbole ("we found the perfect person for the job", "it as the perfect house", "we wrote the absolute best software") and some of his comments ("Person X was a real asset").

On the topic of his surrender experiment, I saw him following his goal with big career-decisions like accepting requests to build houses or writing medical software when he felt aversion to it, which I would call surrendering, but I didn't see the same surrendering for other decisions like fighting back against a company who wanted to destroy a forest he loved ("I felt a deep obligation to do what I could to protect the beautiful woods on that land."), where surrendering, to me, would mean to let go of the attachment and let them cut it. Every person is human but I found it disappointing that the experiment became compromised.

What I found most interesting:
- The description of his samadhi experience early on during a trip with his friends.
- The habits or gathas he developed to center himself: reminding himself every time he crossed a door that he's a tiny thing in a planet moving at colossal speeds through space. I've been so far unsuccessfully trying to do the same myself.
- His life example of how to "grow from everything." What I think he calls "life doing things for him" to me is really him approaching many situations with true open-mindedness.
- The unexplainable events that seemed to make his life easier, but I take these with a grain of salt because of the hyperbolic comments everywhere.

Michael didn't want to decide what to do with his life, he wanted to free himself from that, and that approach gave him increasing material success, which I find interesting. He also said that the energy he felt during meditation was similar to the energy he felt building houses, programming or leading a large company. It's hard to comment on something as subjective as "energy", but when you talk of people as if they're assets, I find it hard to believe that you're running on the same "energy" as when you're meditating.

The bigger concern I have about "surrendering my life" is the belief that at least a big part of what happens to us is caused by what we did in the past or random circumstances, not the action of a god-like entity who knows better. If I surrender and start accepting everything that comes my way and that I feel resistance to, should I, for example, continue living with an exploitative partner, continue working at a job I dislike, continue tending to an abusive family member? It seems like a recipe for a life I would regret I'm on my deathbed. ( )

3.5 stars - I have not read The Untethered Soul and I feel that book is more what I enjoy. This is almost equal parts spiritual and business guide. ( )

Throughout life, we're thrown challenges that we often resist.It's easy to say yes to the fun stuff like promotions and healthy children. But what about the icky stuff, like divorce, illness and professional setbacks? Singer tells us his experience of saying yes to everything, trusting that things will go well and remaining unattached to the unfolding. It's definitely something I am willing to try even though I'll be grumbling about a lot of it!
Some passages seem a little simplistic and even overly optimistic; there are also great gaps in Singer's life that make the book seem incomplete, but it's well-written with short chapters and a clear theme: surrender. ( )