Byron Katie: The Work

Excerpted from www.thework.com

The Work of Byron Katie is a deeply transformative process of inquiry that is helping people around the world approach their problems from a perspective of clarity and inner peace.

As a species, we human beings tend to put our happiness on hold until something changes. We'll be happy, we think, when we get what we believe we want or need: more money, a healthier body, a more attractive or understanding partner, a loving mother, children who behave. Many of us spend our lives trying desperately to get the world and the people in it to satisfy our desires. No wonder we don't feel any lasting sense of peace; mentally we're continually engaged in war with reality.

In 1986, Byron Katie experienced the profound realization that without any story about how life is supposed to be, we are left with peace far beyond what we hoped to find through wish fulfillment. On the other side of our myths about reality is reality itself, indescribably joyful-and unknowable as long as we keep trying to change it. Only when we give up "what should be" can we experience the perfection of "what is."

This "giving up," however, can't be achieved by the thinking mind. (Hoping to give up attachment, the mind subversively attaches to a concept of liberation.) The remedy that brought Katie her freedom is something she calls The Work, a penetrating inquiry process of four questions and a "turnaround." By exposing unconscious beliefs to the clear light of direct investigation, the mind wakes up to its innocent mistake and drops its losing battle. This happens naturally when we see that something we once believed is proven wrong-for example, when we learn years later that a bitter disagreement was based on a simple misunderstanding. With The Work, we don't have to wait months or years to resolve our lingering issues; liberating insights happen consistently and on purpose, showing us that suffering is ultimately based on a misunderstanding-our own.

People new to The Work often imagine that giving up their war with reality leads to a boring and passive existence. Katie responds, "Can you absolutely know that's true? My experience is just the opposite-being a lover of reality is exciting beyond imagination, and leaves me free to make real change." When we lose the blinders of limiting beliefs, we can see options and opportunities that were previously unavailable.

Questioning your long-held beliefs gets easier with practice of The Work. Coming to events with Katie and listening to tapes of her facilitating The Work can also be extremely helpful. Eventually, you may experience that whatever troubles you is an opportunity to see yourself more clearly. After doing The Work for a while, you may find that painful moments become increasingly rarer, until eventually you love and sincerely look forward to whatever life brings.