“‘Ego is the masquerading self’ (Yogananda) … In other words the facade you pulled over your consciousness to define yourself.” — Michael Singer

“I’ll do every single thing that a spiritual person would do, then I’m spiritual. No, you’re not, it’s nothing. It’s the biggest trap that could possibly exist … Do not try to put nice white lights around your garbage and sit there and say, ‘I’m pure’. That is spiritual ego.” — Michael Singer

“Defensiveness is the nature of ego.” — Michael Singer

“There should be no cage. The soul is infinite … Decorating your cage with beautiful experiences, fond memories, and great dreams is not the same as going beyond. A cage by any other name is still a cage. You must be willing to go beyond.” — Michael Singer

“What are you having a problem with? What you’re going to find out is you’re having a problem with your mind. Your mind has decided what you want to be happening and what you don’t want to be happening, and that’s what you’re having a problem with.” — Michael Singer

“Anger is anger, and it’s coming from a personal place. What it’s going to do is create more anger on the other side.” — Michael Singer

“What is a desire? Having a way you want it to be … The probability that the world in front of you is going to unfold exactly the way you decided you want it to be is zero.” — Michael Singer

“The cause of suffering is that you have a way you want it to be … The cause of suffering is that you decided how you want it to be and now you suffer when it’s not that way … You honestly believe that you get to make up what the moment in front of you should be like and that it really should be that way, and you get upset when it’s not that way, and therefore you suffer. — Michael Singer

“Suffering is a state of not being okay, a state of disturbance, and now I need to do things in order to try and make it so I’m not disturbed.” — Michael Singer

“Why am I not enjoying the journey of what’s going on? If you study that carefully and watch it, you’re going to see it is because you have limited your happiness to events being exactly the way you define them to be.” — Michael Singer

“Life is not bothering you. You are bothering yourself about life … This is more important than meditation. This is the most important thing. If you’re going to bother yourself about everything, what are ya gonna take 15 minutes and try to offset your whole day of bothering yourself? How about we learn to not bother ourselves?” — Michael Singer

“Are you dealing with the core, or are you dealing with the facade? We are all dealing with the facade and trying to get the outside world to support the facade so that we don’t have to deal with the core.” — Michael Singer

“What does it mean to grow personally? It means to notice that you have issues inside yourself. You think you have issues outside. No, you have issues inside … You don’t deal with what’s outside until you’ve dealt with what’s inside.” — Michael Singer