|
“Byron
Katie’s Work is a great blessing for our planet. It acts like a
razor-sharp sword that cuts through illusions and enables you to know
for yourself the timeless essence of your own being….In Loving
What Is, you have the key. Now use it. ”
Eckhart Tolle, author of
The Power of Now
The
Work is a way to identify and question the thoughts that are the cause
of all suffering and anyone with an open mind can do it. Byron Katie
(who goes by “Katie”) suffered severe depression for ten years before
waking up one morning in 1986 with the realization that what she
believed about the world was the cause of her suffering--not the world
itself--and that instead of trying to change the world, she could
question her thoughts and meet reality where it is. Katie has been
sharing her life-changing inquiry method ever since that amazing morning
in 1986.
The Work and Current Scientific Research
You
have to experience The Work in order to understand it. Katie’s insights
into how the mind works are corroborated by the latest neuroscientific
research which identifies the part of the brain that believes its
stressful stories. Prominent neuroscientist, Antonio Damasio says “the
left cerebral hemisphere of humans is prone to fabricating verbal
narratives that do not necessarily accord with the truth.” His colleague
Michael Gazzaniga adds “The left brain weaves its story in order to
convince itself and you that it is in full control…. What is so adaptive
about having what amounts to a spin doctor in the left brain? The
interpreter is really trying to keep our personal story together. To do
that, we have to learn to lie to ourselves.”
No wonder we get confused! The self-inquiry that Katie
discovered activates neural pathways in a lesser used part of the brain
resulting in a more open mind, where painful stories dissolve.
Four Questions and Turnarounds
The four questions and turnarounds of The Work beckon you inside to realize for
yourself that no thought is true--that this world is a dream--and that as you
witness the dissolution of stressful thoughts, clarity and an ability to act
fearlessly replaces what previously consumed you with worry.
Four simple questions:
1.
Is it true?
2.
Can you absolutely know that it’s true?
3.
How do you react (what happens) when you believe that thought?
4.
Who would you be without that thought?
When you answer these questions honestly, you realize that the answers have
always been within you. And when you turn your stressful thoughts around to
yourself, to the other and to the opposite, your perception shifts into a
kinder, more peaceful state and you experience for yourself that the mind has
been your prison and you’ve found a key to open that prison door.
Katie's Website,
www.thework.com
is a free resource to give you everything you need to get started in
inquiry on your own. And I've also found it extremely helpful to have a
facilitator guide me through inquiry.
"The four questions I call The Work are the path back
to our self. Do you want to take the trip?" Byron Katie
|