A Map of the Inner World

 

This diagram to the right represents the inner hierarchy of awareness and being, as seen through Michael Singer’s teachings. At the very bottom is "External Events / Life Itself," which includes everything that happens around you—other people, circumstances, and the unfolding world. These events are filtered through your senses in the block called "Perception and Sensory Input." This is where your eyes, ears, and other senses transmit raw data inward.

 

Next comes "The Mind," where thoughts, interpretations, memories, and judgments are generated. This is the voice in your head that constantly talks about what’s going on, tries to make sense of it, and often reacts out of habit or fear.

 

Moving upward, you enter the layer of "Emotions and Energetic Reactions." Here you feel the physical sensations and emotional responses that events trigger, such as anxiety, joy, anger, or love. These are linked to past experiences and internal impressions.

 

Above emotions is the "Ego," which is your constructed identity—the mental image you’ve built over time based on what you’ve done, what you fear, what you want, and how you see yourself in the world. The ego constantly tries to maintain control and protect itself by manipulating the layers below.

 

Next is the "Soul," described here as a subtle spiritual identity. This is not your personality, but a deeper sense of being—a loving, wise presence that feels like the true inner you. It doesn’t fight life, it accepts it. It exists beyond thought and emotion, and it resonates with peace.

 

At the very top of the ladder is "Pure Consciousness / God / Source." This is the formless, infinite awareness from which everything flows. It is not a being with a voice or opinion, but a presence that simply is. It is eternal stillness and pure knowing. It is the light that shines through all the other levels.

 

To raise yourself up this inner ladder, begin by becoming aware of the voice in your head and choosing not to engage with it. Instead of getting lost in thoughts or reacting to every emotion, take a step back and observe.

 

This simple act of witnessing moves you out of the lower levels of reactivity and into the seat of awareness. As you practice letting go—of needing to be right, of clinging to pleasure, of resisting discomfort—you start to reside more steadily in the observer.

 

When you no longer identify with the ego’s fears and desires, you naturally rise to the level of the soul, where love and clarity begin to guide your actions. Through continued surrender, you touch the stillness and spaciousness of pure consciousness.

 

This ascent is not about going anywhere physically—it’s a shift in identity from the outermost layers of personality to the innermost truth of who you are. The journey upward is a process of relaxing into the present moment, letting go of inner resistance, and trusting the flow of life itself.

 

The Computer Within: A New Way to Understand Opening and Closing

 

An analogy can be made between your body and mind and a beautifully complex computer.


At the center of computer system is the Operating System—not seen, not often noticed, yet quietly essential.. Like Windows or macOS, it doesn’t announce itself. It simply allows all the  processes to function. You don’t particularly notice the operating system very much, but without it, nothing works.

 

Consciousness is our operating system. Consciousness keeps all our upper processes working together. Consciousness is always there, but exists in the silent background.  By itself doesn’t judge or speak. It just is. We can control our consciousness as we will see.

 

Just as a computer requires energy to function we also need energy, actually two types of energy, physical energy we get from food, and physic energy.  We can feel the physic energy we get when we fall in love, and also the lack of energy when we break up with someone.

 

We open up when we have a lot of physic energy.  Our energy flows naturally and we think think clearly and more positive when we are in love. The feeling is deep.  Things are easy. We act with ease and grace.

 

But just like in a computer, your code can get corrupt.  When a  relationship go bad, it gets corrupt and does not work very well.  The energy flow seems to be blocked and things can go downhill.

 

In your life, when you encounter pain, fear, or trauma—moments you couldn’t fully experience or accept—those moments can be strongly emotionally remembered. They are quickly stored and are more difficult to erase as time goes on.  These deeply stored emotional traumas are called  samskaras.

 

A samskara is akin to a computer malware program.  This memory is not good for you and can make you have psychological problems. .


You cannot not see a samskara and its power, as it lies dormant below the surface, but it’s there—draining resources, interfering with your flow, waiting for the right condition to cause problems that seem to come out of nowhere.

 

A samskara can be triggered by a tone of voice or a familiar face. A small insignificant little thing can cause a person to feel rage and suddenly, your system slows down. You can’t think clearly. Your emotions surge. The whole system seems compromised.

 

This is no different than a computer doing something wrong because a background process has been triggered—a line of corrupted code can cause all sorts of problems. .

 

Most people respond by trying to forcing the reaction to stop. They push it down. They close down.

 

They might blame someone else or they might curl up in a ball and shut down.  If a person yanks out the power cord from the wall  when a computer does something wrong, the computer when restarted will have additional problems. When a person shuts down, or acts out, additional problems are created.

 

Like fixing a computer, one  has to take intelligent steps.  A person who shuts down or has other problems should not keep shutting down, but open up.  A person who shuts down often will become depressed.  A person who is active can stop being depressed.  Opening up means doing good stuff.

 

One a person who is closed can open up again by simply letting go.  When they do they can again witness what is going on.  When a person fixes a computer, they witness the computer and then use their intelligence to try various things.  They keep watching.

 

When we let go, it is like erasing bad code or data in a computer. To fix a computer, it is important to observe, and narrow down the problem .

 

In a way it is easier to fix a human problem.  You just let go.

Imagine life is a movie.  If we don't get so involved in our movie, we can stand back and take a deep breath and things usually get better.

 

You have to stay open to the process. You observe. You breathe. You allow. You keep checking if something goes wrong.

 

In most popular computers an anti-malware programs runs all the time. This  is how a computer protects itself.

 

As humans we need to continuously monitor ourselves too.  This process is call mindfulness.  Here you are aware of what you are doing.  You remember where you put your keys or wallet.  You remember to treat other people nicely.  If someone is misbehaving, you simply walk away.

 

Your inner system—this brain, this body, this mind—is made of trillions of processes, constantly in motion. But all of it rests on something deeper: awareness. That is your stabilizer. This stabilizer is another word for spirit.

 

Inner World Block Diagram

 

Ladder Block Diagram of Singer's Teachings

The Sacred Flow and Releasing a Samskaras

 

There is a divine energy flowing through you at all times. You don’t have to summon it. You don’t have to earn it. It is already there—shining like the sun, radiant, constant, and unwavering. This energy flows from the highest source, from the silent center of pure consciousness. It is the light of God, the force of life, and the essence of your being.

 

It moves naturally—through your heart, your breath, your soul—radiating joy, clarity, and peace.

 

But along the way, something happens. That radiant energy, meant to flow freely through you, encounters resistance. It meets with stored pain, old wounds, and emotional residues left behind by experiences you could not fully face.

 

These blocks are called samskaras—impressions etched into your energetic field when you were overwhelmed by a moment you could not let pass through you.

 

Samskaras are not just memories. They are trapped energy.

 

They form in those critical moments when something hurt, shocked, or frightened you—and instead of staying open, you closed. You tensed. You resisted. You couldn’t fully allow the experience to pass through, so it stayed. A piece of the moment got stuck inside you, like an echo frozen in time. That stuck energy, unresolved and unprocessed, sank into the deeper layers of your being.

 

Over time, you forgot it was even there.

 

But life doesn’t forget. Life is always offering you the chance to release what you’ve held onto.

 

Each samskara is like a seed buried in the heart, and when life conditions match the frequency of that seed, it begins to stir. A sound, a smell, a glance, a word—it doesn’t take much. Suddenly you feel a tightness in your chest, a racing of the mind, a pulling down into an old emotional storm. That’s the samskara being triggered. The old energy is trying to rise so it can finally be released. But instead of letting it pass, most people do what they’ve always done: they push it back down. They resist. They fight. They try to change the outer world to avoid feeling the inner discomfort.

 

But in doing so, they block the energy again. The knot tightens.

 

This is how we stay trapped—cycling through the same reactions, the same patterns, without ever understanding that the true prison is within.

 

But there is another way.

 

When a samskara is triggered, you are being given a profound opportunity—not to act, not to react, but to release. When that surge of discomfort rises inside you, you can choose not to follow it. You can choose not to identify with the voice in your head, the emotion in your heart, or the need to defend or escape.

 

You can simply stay open. You can breathe.


You can become still and aware—and allow the energy to move.

 

Just watch. Just feel. Don’t close. Don’t resist.


Let the wave rise. Let it move. Let it complete.

 

This is not repression. It is release. You are not suppressing the emotion—you are letting it pass all the way through, without grabbing it, fearing it, or turning it into a story.

And when you do this, something miraculous begins to happen.

 

The samskara dissolves. The energy that was once trapped begins to flow. The channel clears. And in its place, a deeper stillness emerges—one that was always there, waiting beneath the noise.

You don’t need to fix yourself. You don’t need to go back into your past to heal. You need only to surrender in the present moment and allow life to pass through you as it comes.

 

Each time you let go, your heart becomes lighter.


Each time you surrender, your consciousness rises.

You move upward—from emotion to love, from thought to silence, from the turbulence of ego into the calm expanse of your true self. The witness awakens. The soul opens. And divine energy—pure, luminous, eternal—flows once again, unobstructed.

 

This is the spiritual journey.

 

You are not here to control life. You are here to be free of the need to control.


You are not here to rearrange the outer world to protect your inner wounds. You are here to let the wounds release so the world no longer threatens you.

 

The divine energy is already here.


It never left. It was only blocked by your resistance, by your grasping, by your fear.

 

But you can open. You can let go. And when you do, the path becomes clear—not because the world changes, but because you do. This is the art of inner freedom: To witness, to allow, and to let everything go.
And in that surrender, to rise—one breath, one moment, one release at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Script for Letting Go

 

Close your eyes.


Take a gentle breath in… and let it go.

 

Feel the breath. Feel the space around you. Feel yourself sitting here, in this moment. There is no past, no future—just this.

 

There is a light within you. You don’t have to create it. It’s already shining.


This is the energy of life, the flow of divine presence. It moves through you, from the highest source—what some call God, some call Spirit, and others call pure awareness.

 

This energy flows freely, unless something gets in its way.

 

As you sit here, notice where you hold tension. In your heart? Your belly? Your mind? These tensions are not flaws. They are the echoes of life—impressions, old memories, stuck emotions. Samskaras.

They rise when something touches them, and when they rise, your job is simple: let them pass.

 

Feel the pull, but don’t follow it. Feel the fear, but don’t hold it.


Let everything move through you—without clinging, without pushing. Let go.

 

You are the one who notices.


You are not the voice in your head. You are not the tension. You are not the reaction.


You are the witness—the one who sees.

 

Sit in that seat. Stay open.


Even if something stirs inside you—an old story, a burst of sadness, a flash of anger—just watch. Don’t run. Don’t resist. Let it unfold like a wave rising from the ocean and returning again.

And notice what happens when you don’t block it.

 

That divine energy flows. You begin to feel lighter, freer. Not because life changed, but because you let go. You released the barrier. You surrendered.

Breathe again.

 

In this moment, you are returning to your true self.


The energy is moving.


You are rising.

 

And the more you practice, the more this becomes your life—not just a meditation, but a way of being. Each moment becomes a chance to open instead of close, to let go instead of hold on.

This is freedom. This is healing.


This is the new you filled with deep, unshakable peace and a rich spiritual life.