The reading below is from Byron Katie‘s “A Thousand Names for Joy, Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are.” If you are interested in Katie’s work, we recommend starting with her first book, “Loving What Is,” or the downloads below.
When you don’t believe your own thinking, life becomes effortless.
In my experience, confusion is the only suffering. Confusion is when you argue with what is. When you’re perfectly clear, what is is what you want. So when you want something that’s different from what is, you can know that you’re very confused.
As you inquire into your own thoughts, you discover how attachment to a belief or story causes suffering. The mind’s natural condition is peace. Then a thought enters, you believe it, and the peace seems to disappear. You notice the feeling of stress in the moment, and the feeling lets you know that you’re opposing what is by believing the thought; it tells you that you’re at war with reality. When you question the thought behind the feeling and realize that it isn’t true, you become present outside your story. Then the new story falls away in the light of awareness, and only the awareness of what really is remains. Peace is who you are without a story, until the next stressful story appears.
When there’s no story, no past, no future, nothing to worry about, nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to be, it’s all good.
Byron Katie’s “The Work”
- Is it true? (Yes or no. If no, move to 3.)
- Can you absolutely know that it’s true? (Yes or no.)
- How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
- Who would you be without the thought?
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