embracing your innate beauty and perfection
Posts tagged Byron Katie
Loving the erection
Jul 8th
I read the following piece in one of Byron Katie’s books today. And then I laughed out loud. It’s such a great example of how The Work works:
“An erection means that you’re sexually aroused” – is that true? Are you sure?
Do you believe everything that you think? What does it really mean? It’s an erection. That’s it! The story you tell about it is where your suffering begins.
For example, if you have the belief that you should put your erection somewhere, and there’s nowhere to put it, that’s what is hurting you. If you didn’t believe the thought that you should do something with it, you’d simply join with it, you’d become it, and it would be a complete experience – the beginning, the middle and the end. No climax, no ejaculation, just a beautiful erect penis, coming from nowhere and with nowhere to go.
What Is Is
Jul 3rd
Very exciting, beautiful, yummy, delicious stuff. Please read and enjoy. You’ll never be the same again:
“The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought
that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly
clear, what is is what we want. If you want reality to be
different than it is, you might as well try to teach a cat
to bark. You can try and try, and in the end the cat
will look up at you and say, “Meow.” Wanting reality
to be different than it is is hopeless.
And yet, if you pay attention, you’ll notice that you
think thoughts like this dozens of times a day. “People
should be kinder.” “Children should be well-behaved.”
“My husband (or wife) should agree with me.” “I should
be thinner (or prettier or more successful).” These
thoughts are ways of wanting reality to be different than
it is. If you think that this sounds depressing, you’re
right. All the stress that we feel is caused by arguing
with what is.
People new to The Work often say to me, “But it
would be dis-empowering to stop my argument with
reality. If I simply accept reality, I’ll become passive.
I may even lose the desire to act.” I answer them with
a question: “Can you really know that that’s true?”
Which is more empowering? — “I shouldn’t have lost
my job” or “I lost my job; what can I do now?
The Work reveals that what you think shouldn’t
have happened should have happened. It should have
happened because it did, and no thinking in the world
can change it. This doesn’t mean that you condone it
or approve of it. It just means that you can see things
without resistance and without the confusion of your
inner struggle. No one wants their children to get sick,
no one wants to be in a car accident; but when these
things happen, how can it be helpful to mentally argue
with them? We know better than to do that, yet we do
it, because we don’t know how to stop.
I am a lover of what is, not because I’m a spiritual
person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality.
We can know that reality is good just as it is, because
when we argue with it, we experience tension and
frustration. We don’t feel natural or balanced. When
we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple,
fluid, kind, and fearless.”
An excerpt from Loving what is by Byron Katie
Knowing what’s real and true?
Jun 29th
I’ve recently discovered something called “The Work” by Byron Katie.
It is a very simple method of self-inquiry which has brought me a complete release from the battle with my mind. All that needs to be done, is to question the mind. I now understand what is meant by saying that waking up is the most ordinary experience in the world. It has always been here waiting and available but I never saw how easy it was to just let go of all my thoughts of how things “should” be. It feels like I’m on holiday – a never-ending holiday from the stories my mind loves to create that seem so much more believable than the simplicity of reality as it is, without any story added. As Katie says: “The Work is about discovering what is true and what is not true for you, the difference between reality and imagination.” I would love to work with you on this, if you too are tired of suffering.
From the Indian Buddhist teacher Aryadeva. (He wrote this almost 1900 years ago):
“To question that things might not be as they seem can shake the very foundation of habitual clinging. This questioning spirit is the starting point for self-reflection. Could it be that this tightly-knit sense of self is not what it seems? Do we really need to hold everything together, and can we? Is there life beyond self-importance? These kinds of questions open the door to investigating the cause of our suffering.
“The actual practice of self-reflection requires us to step back, examine our experience, and not succumb to the momentum of habitual mind. This allows us to look without judgment at whatever arises, and this goes directly against the grain of our self-importance.
Jean-Pierre Hartman
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Eckhart Tolle
Jeff Foster