The Work of Byron Katie

1) Is it true?

2) Can you absolutely know that its true?

3) How do you react when you believe the thought?

4) Who would you be without the thought?

Then, turn it around...

It seems so simple. It is simple. It is also one of the most powerful things that you will ever do.

About a year ago I discovered a woman by the name of Byron Katie (everyone calls her Katie). I found out about her through my study of the teachings of Eckhart Tolle. I bought her first book, Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life. I read it with some skepticism. I then started practicing the process of inquiry that she calls The Work and was blown away. It is so simple...

First, you fill out the form called the "Judge-Your-Neighbor-Worksheet." You allow yourself to be petty and childish if necessary. You put all of your thoughts, all of you judgments, on paper.

Second, you take each statement, each belief, and take it through the four questions. You do this process in a slow, deliberate, meditative way. Allow the answers to come up from inside you. Don't rush it. Be with each question until the answers come.

Third, you do the turnarounds. Take the statement and turn it around to its opposite, to the other and/or to yourself. Feel the turnarounds. Are they true? Can you find them in yourself?

The result? Freedom, spaciousness, open heart, peace, truth...

This process has been compared to Rational Emotive BehavioralTherapy (REBT), to Cognitive Restructuring. Of course, there are similarities. However, there are some major differences. The main difference that I see is that REBT and Cognitive Therapy are about replacing unhealthy, irrational thoughts with healthy, rational thoughts. Whereas The Work is about undoing your thinking so that you can experience the truth beyond all thoughts, beyond all stories. The question is "Who would you be without your story?" Not, "Who would you be with this different, more healthy, story?"

Suffering occurs as a result of our thinking, conceptualizing, judging and comparing mind (the "egoic mind"). The Work frees us from this mind over and over and over again. It frees us to experience what some call "Being." Buddhists call it "bodhicitta" -- the awakened heart/mind. It is the non-self that we would have a hard time talking about and describing, but that we all are. The Work makes this Reality real for us.

I am going to "The School for The Work" in Los Angeles in October. This is a nine-day intensive experience that will immerse me in The Work. I imagine that I will come back home with a deeper understanding of this process and a greater confidence in myself as a facilitator of The Work. I have plans to teach it to the staff at SOAR. I plan on teaching it at my church. I will also do workshops and more than likely start doing The Work privately with clients.

I am very excited about the possibilities. I am also frightened. What is going to happen at The School? Who am I going to become as I continue doing The Work in my own life? Will I be successful as a facilitator? Will other people be as open and excited as I am about The Work?

Perhaps I should do The Work on this:

"I wont be successful as a facilitator"

1) Is it true?

2) Can you absolutely know that its true?

3) How do you react when you believe the thought?

4) Who would you be without the thought?

Then, turn it around...

(for more info go to www.thework.com)