The more we begin to learn about our own minds, the more we discover how we all share the same thoughts and beliefs. We begin to realize that our inner world, our perceptions, judgments and stories are the source of our suffering. Through The Work of Byron Katie, we identify our stressful thoughts, ask ourselves four questions and see if we can discover how the opposite could just as true if not truer than the original belief. The Work opens the mind to other perspectives, takes us out of victim-consciousness and creates empowerment, clarity and freedom in what once seemed like impossible situations. Honest self-inquiry leaves you the humble student, open to life and living fully, freely and fearlessly.
“The Buddha compares his teaching to a raft that takes people from the shore of suffering to the shore of freedom. He says that that’s its only purpose. When you reach the other shore, you leave the raft behind. It would be ridiculous to strap it onto your back and carry it around as you walk. It’s the same with spiritual teachings, he says, even the clearest of them…I love how the Buddha undercuts his own words and leaves us with no ground to stand on.
The Work too is like a raft. The four questions and the turnarounds help you move from confusion to clarity. Eventually, through practice, you no longer impose your thinking onto reality, and you can experience everything as it really is: as pure grace. At that point the questions themselves become unnecessary. They are replaced by a wordless questioning that undoes every stressful thought immediately, as it arises. It’s the mind’s way of meeting itself with understanding. The raft has been left behind. You have become the questions. They’ve become as natural as breathing, so they’re no longer needed.
When we reach the “other” shore, we realize that we have never left the short we started from. There’s only one shore, and we are already there, though some of us haven’t realized it yet. We think that we need to get from here to there, but there turns out to be here. It was here all along.
When you sit in a state of contemplation, seeing what actually exists, excluding everything remembered or anticipated, the Buddha-mind becomes apparent, and you wake up as the unborn. If you really want peace, if you understand that self-inquiry goes beyond life and death, your practice will leave you on the other shore, which turns out not to be the other but the only shore. Thoughts of a different shore were imagination, and when you realize this, you realize that you have always been on the shore that the Buddha points to. No raft necessary. ” Byron Katie, A Mind at Home with Itself
If you are new to The Work, and interesting in exploring the possibility of working with Jen as your holistic life coach, you are invited to make an appointment for a free phone facilitation at: HolisticCoachJen@gmail.com.