The Work of Byron Katie

Join Byron Katie on Zoom in her athomewithbk.com event Monday-Thursday live. (Replays daily) ©2020 Byron Katie International, Inc. All rights reserved.

Join Byron Katie on Zoom in her athomewithbk.com event Monday-Thursday live. (Replays daily) ©2020 Byron Katie International, Inc. All rights reserved.

Join Byron Katie in a Zoom conversation in her athomewithbk.com event Monday-Thursday live. (Replays daily) ©2020 Byron Katie International, Inc. All rights reserved.

Join Byron Katie in a Zoom conversation about racism her athomewithbk.com event Monday-Thursday live. (Replays daily) ©2020 Byron Katie International, Inc. All rights reserved.

Join Byron Katie in a Zoom conversation with Harriet during her athomewithbk.com event Monday-Thursday live. (Replays daily) ©2020 Byron Katie International, Inc. All rights reserved.

A man with teenage triplet daughters does The Work with bk on the thought, "They don't want to be with me." This is a recording from a recent "At Home with Byron Katie" Zoom event. To learn more about how to join these online events, please visit athomewithbk.com. ©2020 Byron Katie International, Inc. All rights reserved.

This episode is a continuation from last week, recorded live from in Woodacre, California. It concludes this three-part series. To begin, a woman reads her Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet to Byron Katie. "I am angry with mom because she didn't love me." The situation is "My mom knew that my marriage had ended and chose not to talk to me about it." As this woman does The Work with bk, she comes to discover how the push of divorce brought her to inquiry to get the support that she needed. The Work is a process of identifying and questioning the thoughts that are the cause of all suffering. Everything you need to do The Work, including a downloadable version of the Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet, is available free of charge at byronkatie.com. Thank you to Amigo for our theme music (link to music: https://spoti.fi/38Fadd8) ©2020 Byron Katie International, Inc. All rights reserved.

This episode of The Work of Byron Katie podcast is a continuation from last week's episode, recorded live from Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. To begin, participants at the event ask questions following an inquiry between Byron Katie and an event participant (available in last week's episode). Byron Katie offers her experience to participants who have various questions about The Work, including how to do the Turnarounds. Next, Byron Katie and a participant practice inquiry on a powerful list of complaints. __ The Work is meditation. It is a method of inquiry born directly out of Byron Katie's experience. This practice allows you to access the wisdom that always exists within you. As we do The Work of Byron Katie, not only do we remain alert to our stressful thoughts--the ones that cause all the anger, sadness, and frustration in our world--but we question them, and through that questioning, the thoughts lose their power over us. Great spiritual texts describe the what--what it means to be free. The Work is the how. It shows you exactly how to identify and question any thought that would keep you from that freedom. Everything you need to do The Work is available free of charge at byronkatie.com. This is Episode Two of Four. Please tune in next week for the next episode. Thank you to Amigo for our theme music. (link to music: https://spoti.fi/38Fadd8) ©2020 Byron Katie International, Inc. All rights reserved.

This episode featuring The Work was recorded at an event with Byron Katie at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. In this episode, we hear Byron Katie's opening remarks and an introduction to her "I complain about" exercise. In this exercise, you are invited to make a list of complaints by completing the phrase: I complain about (write a person's name) because (write your reason). For example, I complain about my mother because she lied to me. Next, Byron Katie moves into The Work, which is a simple, yet powerful process of questioning our stressful beliefs. A participant in the audience reads her complaint, "I complain about my son's disease because it causes him to suffer." Byron Katie then facilitates this participant on the thought, "My son's disease causes him to suffer." This is Episode One of Three. Please tune in next week for the next episode. Everything you need to do The Work is available free at byronkatie.com. Thank you to Amigo for our theme music. (link to music: https://spoti.fi/38Fadd8) ©2020 Byron Katie International, Inc. All rights reserved.

A woman feeling lost and alone after the break up of her ten year marriage looks at her thoughts about her ex-husband's selfishness, betrayal, and finding happiness with someone else. Watch as she discovers something quite beautiful unfold as she courageously does The Work with Katie. Underneath all her thoughts about the divorce she finds she is doing just fine. She experiences laughter, relief, inspiration and even gratitude. She comes to see without his “selfishness,” she would still be stuck in an unhappy relationship. She realizes how brave he was to call it quits and now sees his unselfishness in a whole new way.

Byron Katie's level of insight, self-awareness and questioning is precisely what's required of the coaches and mentors and therapists who work with individuals who've been impacted by trauma. In 1986, at the bottom of a ten-year spiral into depression, rage, and self-loathing, Byron Katie woke up one morning to a state of constant joy that has never left her. She realized that when she believed her stressful thoughts, she suffered, but that when she questioned them, she didn't suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Her simple yet powerful process of inquiry is called The Work. The Work consists of four questions and the turnarounds, which are a way of experiencing the opposite of what you believe. When you question a thought, you see around it to the choices beyond suffering. Katie has been bringing The Work to millions of people for more than thirty years. Her public events, weekend workshops, five-day intensives, nine-day School for The Work, and 28-day residential Turnaround House have brought freedom to people all over the world. Byron Katie's books include the bestselling Loving What Is, I Need Your Love-Is That True?, A Thousand Names for Joy, and A Mind at Home with Itself. For more information, visit thework.com.

Byron Katie guides a 50 year old woman in doing The Work on a situation with her father that occurred when she was 17. This was recorded live during an At Home with Byron Katie event at the Center for The Work in Ojai, California. "Something occurred with my father that shouldn't have," the woman says. "I left home and haven't spoken to him until a month ago, when he apologized on the phone for everything before and after that moment. He says he doesn't remember the moment I refer to." "'He says he doesn't remember'--is it true?" says Katie. "We're going to meditate on that moment with your father on the phone. This keeps you in the situation so we can do our work. Can you absolutely know that it's true that he said he doesn't remember?" "Yes," says the woman. "Now notice how you reacted when you believed the thought. Close your eyes and witness it; you don't have to guess. This is how to answer these questions. So you're on the phone. Get in touch with your physical tendencies--your face and your emotions. Were they high or low in your chest or belly? Witness how you reacted. I want you to get in touch with your emotions, because they are a signal that lets you know when your integrity is off, and that's the cause of your suffering. It can never be the other person. What I'm thinking and believing is the cause of all, not some, my suffering, and The Work is a test of that. Witness how you react when you believe that thought." "My whole body is on fire with anger," the woman says. "Now witness how you talk to your father. That shift in attitude. How do you treat him when you believe the thought?" "I'm no longer open, I'm not willing to be vulnerable with him. I shut down and immediately go into defense mode." "Who would you be without that thought, on the phone, listening to him as he says, 'I don't remember'? Everything was fine. Up to that point you were completely on board." "Wow!" the woman says. "Without the thought, I'm open and vulnerable... and it's not a place I like to be with people I don't fully trust." "But you're still there now..." "Yes," says the woman. They move to the turnarounds. The woman finds two: "I don't remember what I did" and "I don't remember what he did." They continue to question all the thoughts about that situation that she collected on her Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet, uncovering again and again her powerful vulnerability and openness. Notice what they did, then notice what you believe about what they did. Which one is the cause of your suffering? —bk

Dave Asprey of the Bulletproof Executive, who has used The Work, takes a deep dive with Byron Katie into the process of clearing the mind. "You experienced a 10-year spiral into depression," Dave says. "What got you to this state?" "I was believing my thoughts." Katie says. "And I had no way out. My anger was aimed outward at other people; it was their fault. So the self-loathing and anger was all an effect of things I would say and do out of a mind that believed others were at fault. It was a debilitating, vicious cycle of judgment-guilt, judgment-guilt. I had agoraphobia. Most of the time, toward the end, I was unable to leave my bedroom—very painful. I do whatever I can now so that no one has to suffer at that level or any level, because there is a way out." "What actually happened?" "I was asleep on the floor; I opened my eyes, and in that moment I saw how the mind worked. The shift in me was so radical that my family recognized my body, but otherwise had no idea who I was. I had shifted from a very confused and lost human being to someone who was at peace." "It seems like you just went to sleep and woke up with this mass of knowledge. How did that happen?" "Well, I just saw how the mind worked. I saw that when I believed my thoughts I suffered, but that when I questioned them I didn't suffer," Katie says. "And it's not as easy as it sounds. I still had this ego-personalty to deal with. It's like there were two of me; there was this wisdom and understanding of the cause of suffering, and then the ego. I designed the Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet and used it to capture all the crazy thoughts in my head. I would write them down and sit--the mind with the mind--and ask the four 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? And this is when people's blood pressure goes up. It's when the heart begins to race. We experience the physical wear and tear on our bodies from the emotions that happen. And you see images of past and future. They're not real. They're like fake news. When we're experiencing those emotions, we're reacting to that movie in our mind. That's the cause of all suffering. We have this movie running. The thoughts are the soundtrack we believe onto it. And 4. Who would you be without the thought? Who would I be without believing these past/future images? Just who am I just now? That's how we drop into our true nature, and out of that, our choices radically shift, because now we're sane. There's no mind to argue and talk us out of what we know is right in our life. And then we turn the thought around to find opposites, to see if they are just as true as or truer than our original belief. We enlighten ourselves with possibilities we haven't considered." "What's a short description of what you do?" Dave says. "Clear the mind," Katie says. "And when I use the four questions of The Work to clear my mind, it frees up a huge amount of energy to do things that matter. The Work is useful simply because it removes the drag on your life." Dave says. "In closing, I know that you're in Ojai, and you have a nine-day in-person event where you teach people The Work. You have one coming up in March. If you want to know what's going on with the thoughts in your head, Byron Katie's work is powerful. There's great value to sitting down and spending about a week with other people doing the same thing. Something happens differently than if you just sit down by yourself for a week doing this. Especially when you're in the presence of a great teacher." Question anything that would limit you in life. --Byron Katie

Luke begins: "Katie, it's clear that you don't need me to promote your work; I'm small relative to the millions of people you've reached. But something I've noticed about you over the years is that you just tirelessly, happily, and joyfully keep sharing this information with people. It's so neat to see someone who does it for the love. I mean, The Work is free on your website! I know you have conferences and things to keep the lights on and go deeper, but I really dig that passion. "Now, there are stories of instant enlightenment like you and Eckhart Tolle, but I know that when people ask you if you're enlightened you've said, 'I don't know anything about that. I'm just someone who knows the difference between what hurts and what doesn't.'" "For me," Katie says, "no suffering is as good as it gets. That's about as enlightened as I want to be. If you don't love the mind after you've outgrown suffering, what's left?" "When you were in that dark place in your life, how much of that was at the hands of drugs and alcohol?" "A lot of it, along with compulsive overeating. All of these were simply ways of trying to ease the pain and put myself to sleep," Katie says. "Do you think at that point you were clinically alcoholic or were you someone who just abused a little bit?" "I saw that I was addicted to what I was thinking and believing. It became so painful to live out of the confusion in my head that it took me to sanity." "Once you had that experience, was there ever any desire to overeat, self-medicate, or drink?" "It all ceased to be a problem, because I was making decisions out of a sane mind. When we're sane, the choices are so clear, but when we're believing thoughts that argue against our true nature, we suffer. Sanity doesn't suffer, ever. --Byron Katie thework.com Website: http://www.thework.com Webcasts: http://www.livewithbyronkatie.com Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/theworkofbk Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theworkofbyronkatie Twitter: https://twitter.com/ByronKatie © 2018 Byron Katie International. Inc. All rights reserved.

A husband feels that his privacy is being violated when he finds his wife looking through his texts. During a live event with Byron Katie, his wife reads each of The Work's four questions to him and waits for his answers. "'I'm violating your privacy'--is it true?" says the wife. He pauses to consider the question. Speaking to the audience, Katie says, "Don't think the answer is supposed to be no. This is a journey. We're noticing what arises as we meditate on the situation. And the answer to questions one and two is either yes or no. You started the Worksheet with a yes. If you aren't seeing anything different in your mind's eye, you're still at a yes. So you don't have to torture yourselves by looking for a no. Be open to 'no,' but if you can't decide, it's still 'yes.' She's not asking, 'Is it true? And don't hurt my feelings.'(To the wife) So, sweetheart, let's continue. And whatever his answer is, take it in fully and respond with 'Thank you.'" "Can you absolutely know that it's true that I violated your privacy?" says the wife. "Yes," he says. "Thank you. How do you react, what happens, when you believe the thought, I violated your privacy?" "I get defensive," he says. "I try to prove that I'm as open and enlightened as you are by just allowing it to happen. I become very judgmental and fearful of what it portends for our relationship." "Thank you. So who would you be, in that same situation, without the thought 'I violated your privacy?'" "I would be calm, happy, and better able to see you clearly. I'd be able to communicate more openly and honestly." "Thank you. 'I violated your privacy.' Turn it around." "I violated your privacy." He pauses. "I can see that by believing you are violating my privacy, it taints my opinion of you and therefore I'm not as present as I'd like to be in our lives together." "Thank you. Can you find another example?" "Probably (laughing). It makes me suspicious of you, so I want to check your phone (laughing), because if that's the level of trust you have for me, then maybe there's something going on with you." "Thank you. Can you find another example in that situation?" Katie says to the audience, "Notice how she doesn't defend, and she's giving him plenty of time. He's able to empty himself to her. This is conflict resolution. It's a beautiful thing to experience and witness. It means that for all the days of your life, you can say anything to each other, and have an incredibly intimate relationship. And if there are times when you're not ready for it, just say 'Not now.' It takes a lot of courage to stand with such integrity before the one you love." What you're believing is the cause of all the hurt and anger you will ever experience. --Byron Katie Give yourself or someone you love a fresh start to 2019 with the New Year’s Mental Cleanse. Join me for one day, two days, or all three and a half days. 29 December 2018-1 January 2019. The gift of peace. xo bk thework.com Website: http://www.thework.com Webcasts: http://www.livewithbyronkatie.com Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/theworkofbk Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theworkofbyronkatie Twitter: https://twitter.com/ByronKatie © 2018 Byron Katie International. Inc. All rights reserved.

Byron Katie discusses the innate power of The Work with Achim Fassbender of SimplYoga, Houston. "How are you doing with inquiry?" Katie asks. "I don't know what holds me back from really going in to do my Work on abandonment by my father," Achim says. "Maybe a lack of courage. I'm being protective of that wounded place." "When you say you have a 'lack of courage,'" Katie says, "you're speaking for the ego. The ego's life is threatened every time you go into the unknown by questioning your thoughts. It's the ego's fear of discovery. We're talking about identity, the identity of the ego that you see as you, the false self. There's nothing to lose but the loss of identity. But be gentle with your ego along the way. I don't do war with the ego. Love is the power. The question 'Is it true?' invites you to revelation. Just get still and wait, and expect nothing." "I can hit a wall after the revelation," Achim says. "I don't know what to do with it." "I nurture the revelation," Katie says. "I don't take it for granted. I support and honor it. It's a gift. So what's next? Just awareness. Be aware of what was revealed to you. Just be with it." "It seems that the mind always wants more. For the ego, it's not good enough until there is some complete resolution." "There's only one complete resolution," Katie says, "and that is prior to mind/ego. It's non-duality. We could call it original mind. There's no opposition to it. It's music. It's just living in that revelation you described and having breaks from it if there are other lessons to learn." "So is The Work a means to bring us out of the duality, the world of the dreamer?" "What's left after ego?" "Awareness? But that's what I've learned. I haven't really experienced it. Is awareness experienceable in a way that I will notice? Or will I just become a drop in the ocean, indistinguishable from all the other drops?" "You just described your life now," Katie says. "It's better than that. Physically it could look like tears. I'd call it pure devotion. The need of no other thing. It's beyond ego. There are not two. It's completely delighted. It needs no other. It's creating everything. But that everything is nothing. It's not capable of sending out anything that is not equal to devotion. It is devotion itself." "This is the first time I'm hearing this," Achim says. "It's a whole new perspective for me. In the book, you explain that you had to relearn names, relationships, and pretty much everything. But relearning didn't effect you so that you would slip back into the dream world. Yet you are capable of seeing it from the other side." "You could say, I'm simply awake to the dream," Katie says, "so I see nothing. I love. And there are no consequences. There's no denial in it. It's everything." If it's really the truth you're looking for, trust the questions; they absolutely know where to go. Requirement: patience. —Byron Katie Website: http://www.thework.com Webcasts: http://www.livewithbyronkatie.com Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/theworkofbk Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theworkofbyronkatie Twitter: https://twitter.com/ByronKatie © 2018 Byron Katie International. Inc. All rights reserved.

A man at the 6 September LIVE--At Home with Byron Katie event reads his stressful thought to Byron Katie and the audience. "I am angry and disgusted with those who support the current administration." This thought usually occurs to him when he's reading an article or some comments on Facebook. Katie brings him back to the moment when he is reading. "How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought, and you're reading an Op-Ed?" "Very tight in the throat and chest," says the man. "I want you to know where you feel it," Katie says, "so that the physical reaction can remind you to look to what's going on in your mind. What images of the future do you see when you're believing this thought?" "Environmental devastation, people with no access to education or doctors, people being silenced for having alternative beliefs, and basic 1984 fear," says the man. "The 1984 image is of the past in your mind," Katie says. "I want you to know why people often say, 'Be here now.' You're reading and you see what is not happening now; it's a case of imagination witnessed in your mind's eye. And you see future fearful images. You become upset yourself as you witness false past and future as a movie in your head. Who would you be without those thoughts, images of past/future?" "I'd be Forest Gump," says the man. "I'd be happy. I'd be a much more sane and calm person." "So is it really those of us who are supporting the current administration who upset you, or are you just sitting in an internal movie upsetting yourself?" "I'm absolutely just sitting there upsetting myself," says the man, laughing. "And then others take the blame." "I guess I'm kind of trying to rule the world." "I'd drop the 'kind of,'" Katie says. (Audience laughter.) "Now how would you turn your thought around?" "I'm disgusted with myself for assuming all of these things about people I don't know anything about." "The way you have identified yourself, you're up here and we're way down here," says Katie. "We seem to be who you believe us to be. "Another turnaround," the man says. "Thank you for supporting something I don't believe in, so that I can learn a different way of looking at it." "A clear mind is a beautiful mind," says Katie. "Can you find another turnaround?" "I'm not disgusted with anybody, because that's insane," says the man. "I love your open mind," Katie says. "That tight feeling in your chest will always let you know when your mind is closed." When the man gets to statements two to six on his Worksheet, he is astonished that he now feels embarrassed to read them. "What we are thinking and believing is the cause of all suffering. No administration has the power to cause you stress or ultimately take your freedom from you." —Byron Katie Website: http://www.thework.com Webcasts: http://www.livewithbyronkatie.com Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/theworkofbk Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theworkofbyronkatie Twitter: https://twitter.com/ByronKatie © 2018 Byron Katie International. Inc. All rights reserved.

Byron Katie invites you to this walk, here with your eyes closed, or as you walk in the world. It's a silent meditation. It's about noticing. "It's so lovely to just walk and not know," Katie says, "and let the world tell you what it is rather than you telling each object. Just listen, be still, and let everything name itself, or not. Just notice and be free in that, as though nothing has ever been named. Someone called it "tree," and you really think it's a tree. But what if you just got still, noticed, and let it tell you? I invite you to that don't-know mind in your morning walk." The morning walk is a core element of Byron Katie's School for The Work. The School is an immersion in freedom. For more about the School, visit http://thework.com/en/ultimate-inner-adventure. I invite you to the don't-know mind. —Byron Katie Website: http://www.thework.com Webcasts: http://www.livewithbyronkatie.com Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/theworkofbk Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theworkofbyronkatie Twitter: https://twitter.com/ByronKatie © 2018 Byron Katie International. Inc. All rights reserved.

Susan Piver of the Daily Dharma Gathering interviews Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell. "As a busy Buddhist, it's a delight to feel the cohesion between my Buddhist studies and The Work," Susan says. "It feels like there's no difference. And The Work is meditation that you can do off the cushion." "Yes," Katie says, "it's a practice that takes stillness, and we don't have to leave meditation just because we're walking and talking, going to work, and taking care of our children. And we don't need that cushion once inquiry is alive in us. It's an unceasing meditation to live in these questions. As an example, if I meet someone and hold a grudge against them, it's what I'm believing onto them that creates that grudge. It's like I'm slapping post-its on them as if my judgments are that person. So I'm not talking to that person, but rather to the identity that I believe them to be. So it's no wonder we're confused in our relationships. It's my responsibility to meditate on and to question what I'm believing about you, so that I can see you and know you. Believing onto you doesn't show me you. When I take my story off someone by questioning what I believe about them, I begin to experience compassion and love." Later they discuss Katie and Stephen's new book, A Mind at Home with Itself, which is based on the Diamond Sutra. "A mind at home with itself is the end of war in your world," Katie says. "The Diamond Sutra is a text that centers on the issue of generosity," Stephen says. "The main point is that the more you understand the unreality of the self, and see that there's no difference between self and other, the more you naturally live a life of unfettered generosity. It came to me that this sutra would be an excellent framework for Katie to talk about her experience, because it's so much in harmony with the spirit of The Work." "As Stephen read to me his translation of the sutra," Katie says, "I wept with joy. I felt that any word I added to it would take away from its clarity. But Stephen encouraged me to speak out of my own experience, so I followed the simple directions, and we ended up with this book. We hope you find it helpfully alarming!" The clearer the mind, the clearer the choices. --Byron Katie Website: http://www.thework.com Webcasts: http://www.livewithbyronkatie.com Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/theworkofbk Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theworkofbyronkatie Twitter: https://twitter.com/ByronKatie © 2018 Byron Katie International. Inc. All rights reserved.

Iñaki describes to Byron Katie how he becomes fearful when he understands that thoughts create his world. "Walking down the street," Iñaki says, "I understood that my thoughts create the world I experience. Then it felt like an abyss was opening around me, like a pool of nothingness. With this feeling came fear. Fear of nothingness, of dissolution, of disconnection, fear of being alone in a cold and unfriendly universe, like an astronaut cut off from his spacecraft and the world, lost in the nowhere." "The moment you fear what you perceive as the abyss," Katie says, "you frighten yourself back into this false world that you see as safe. So there's nothing enlightened about it; it's just one more terrifying thought. No different. But it's enough to keep the ego strong and identified. So let's prepare for that unfriendly universe. Get still, and imagine yourself as that astronaut. There's no way back, no help. You're drifting away. You're never going to see another human being or get help. And you're not even going to die. This is forever. What do you want in that moment?" "I want to feel safe." Iñaki says. "Other than what you're thinking and believing, are you safe?" Katie says. "Yes," Iñaki says, laughing in recognition. "Someone said, 'Imagination is everything.' Your imagination frightened you, not the abyss. The abyss has a terrible reputation. It's so beautiful. And what I love about the abyss is that it's an opportunity to do The Work. What is truer: "I shouldn't trust this?" or "I shouldn't trust my thoughts about this?" Whenever we believe our thoughts, we're out there in the abyss. 'The abyss is cold, terrifying, empty, forever, disconnected.' One turnaround is: your thoughts are cold and terrifying; they would keep you from such a beautiful experience. The next time you're in the abyss and frightened, capture what you are thinking and question it. After questioning it, the abyss just becomes another place to be still. All you're going to discover when you're alone is yourself. With people--without people--fear is fear. You know how to question it. And people, like the abyss, are your imagination. Just like the abyss, we are not who you believe us to be." The abyss is the same as the earth. Pure imagination. --Byron Katie Website: http://www.thework.com Webcasts: http://www.livewithbyronkatie.com Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/theworkofbk Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theworkofbyronkatie Twitter: https://twitter.com/ByronKatie © 2018 Byron Katie International. Inc. All rights reserved.