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Review by Tedi Elliott
I now own three books written by Byron Katie. I leave them lying around the house out in plain view, because her picture on the front is always a handy reminder to question my stressful thoughts. Is that true? Can you absolutely know that it’s true? How do you react when you believe that thought? Who would you be without that thought? Turn it around. Ah, that’s better. In each of her pictures on these book covers, there is something about Katie that tells you she is authentic and she is authentically happy…and she’s just like you.
I imagine that Katie is so far ahead on the path that she rarely has any stressful thoughts anymore. That, in itself, is an intimidating thought. (Is that true?…wait. Let’s do that later…) And even more intimidating - her latest book, A Thousand Names for Joy, dovetails with Stephen Mitchell’s beautiful new English version of the Tao Te Ching. Mitchell takes excerpts from the Tao Te Ching and Katie uses them to illuminate her life’s work. So what we have here is The Work showing us The Way. What on earth could possibly be more esoteric, more veiled in mystery and profundity and impossibility to comprehend? Just thinking about reading her book was stressful…until I got started.
I read both books together and it is a beautiful thing. It is most beautiful because slowly, slowly one begins to see, to feel, to understand the way of things as Katie does, perhaps in the way Lao Tzu must have. One just begins, mind you…but we all start somewhere. Katie experienced a radical, almost overnight shift into loving what is. Not all of us do it that way. But it’s ok. Sometimes we wish for such a bright line shift, but there’s usually a high price to pay for shifts like that. Be careful what you wish. These are quite radical ideas, very new ways of thinking, and it’s not easy to unwrap your mind from the familiar old ways. But we have Katie to show us how it’s done. Here are a few examples…
First of all, remember that intimidating thought of mine that Katie is so far ahead of us on the path? Of course, she dispels that thought. She takes the stress out of it. She doesn’t think of herself as anyone’s ‘spiritual teacher’. She is ‘the student sitting with the student.’ And of course, your mind begins to argue with such a crazy thought. (Byron Katie is my equal, just a student on the way, just like me…riiiiiight.) Then she says it again in another beautiful way and slowly, slowly your mind begins to relax and to open to a new thought.
Another example is the thought many people have that they need to achieve ‘enlightenment.’ It’s an achievement to attain, a goal to be reached, a final destination at which to arrive and then you can stop. Katie sees it differently. In fact, she says there’s no such thing as this sort of enlightenment. “No one is permanently enlightened; that would be the story of a future.” Now, raise your hand if right now, right in this very moment, you are a permanently enlightened being. I see very few hands. And does that thought cause you some tiny irritation, some annoyance, some level of stress because of all the long hours of practice and meditation you’ve put into becoming enlightened, and you’re not?
Katie says, ‘There’s only enlightenment in the moment.’ If you believe a stressful thought in any given moment, you’re confused. If you realize that the thought isn’t true, you’re enlightened to it. It causes you no irritation, no annoyance, no stress. It’s that simple. It’s learning how to live moment to moment. It is that profound.
