Loving what is

Loving what is

April 2016

Byron Katie is a revolutionary spiritual teacher who helps us to cut through all illusions and embrace what-is, says Gyandev Many people spend 10, 20, 30 years in sincere spiritual study and practice, only to realise they still hate their jobs, or their mothers, If so, according to Byron Katie, it’s because we’re seeing everything upside down. What we believe to be true, isn’t, and what we’ve been told works, doesn’t. We blame, fear and react because we’ve not gone within to find out what’s true for us. Byron Kathleen Reid, a businesswoman and mother living in the high deserts of southern California, became severely depressed while in her 30s. Over a 10-year period, her depression deepened, and Katie spent almost two years seldom able to leave her bed, obsessing over suicide. Then one morning, from the depths of despair, she experienced a life-changing realisation. The remedy that brought Katie her freedom is something she calls ‘The Work’, a penetrating inquiry process of four questions and a ‘turnaround’. An excerpt of an interview with her. What does the term ‘enlightenment’ mean to you? People often ask me if I’m an enlightened being. I don’t know anything about that. I am just someone who knows the difference between this hurts and this doesn’t. I am someone who wants only what-is. So what would you say to those who are searching for enlightenment? I would ask them to question their stressful thoughts. The Work is four questions: Is it true? Can you absolutely know that it’s true? How do you react when you believe that thought? Who would you be without the thought? And then the turnaround, which is a way of experiencing the opposite of what you believe. When you question your stressful thoughts, the mind naturally finds peace. How does The Work lead to peace? It’s like this. I’m walking in the desert and I see an enormous snake, and I’m terrified of snakes. So I jump back and my heart is beating and I’m paralysed with fear. And then I happen to look again, and I see that the snake is actually a rope. Right. Now I invite you to stand over the rope for one thousand years and try to make yourself afraid of it again. You can’t. It’s not possible, because you have realised for yourself what is true. That is self-realisation. You realise that the snake is a rope and that there’s nothing to be afraid of. It was just a misunderstanding. The mind is full of apparent snakes – the stressful thoughts that cause us sadness or anger or depression. And I can tell you that every snake in the mind is actually a rope. There are no exceptions. If you think you have a problem, you’re confused. If you think that there are any problems in the world, you are confused. You’re looking at a rope and seeing a snake. Life is not fearful. It’s our unquestioned thoughts about life that cause our suffering, not life itself. Life is benevolent and kind and good, and we always have more than we need under all circumstances. But it takes a thoroughly questioned mind to see that. You really demolish the whole world…(laughs) No, only the world of suffering. (Both laugh)