Product Description

The Work began on a February morning in 1986, when Byron Katie woke up on the floor of a halfway house, at a complete dead end in her life, and began to laugh. She had woken up without any concept of who, where, or what she was. She awoke to the fundamental, luminous state of being that is without any separation, that experiences itself as pure love. Like great spiritual masters from many traditions, she knew she had reached the end of confusion and suffering. That was the moment she burst into laughter. Determined to give people a way to discover for themselves what she had realized, Katie developed a simple method of self-enquiry that she called The Work, a life-transforming system for discarding the stories we tell ourselves, which are the source of suffering, and replacing them with the truth ("what is") and a life of total joy. She began teaching The Work wherever she was invited - at first in small, informal gatherings and eventually to packed workshops around the world. The Work consists of only four simple questions that you can apply to any problem. It is so easy and practical - but also profound in its application.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5634 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Erica Jong
‘...a revolutionary way to live your life. The question is: are we brave enough to accept it?’

Time Magazine
‘...a pragmatic and simple way of getting people to take responsibility for their own problems.’

About the Author
Byron Katie lives in Los Angeles. Stephen Mitchell's widely acclaimed translations of the Tao Te Ching and the Bhagavad Gita (Rider 2000) are respected the world over. He lives in California.

Customer Reviews

transformational
I was a bit puzzled by this book at first - I thought the four questions were too simple. But by the time I reached the end of the book I had got it - a profound change occurs almost without you realising. Byron Katie's work is really a radical form of cognitvie therapy which makes you aware that almost all of our 'problems' and the negativity we feel is caused by our thoughts. I came across this book through a recommendation from Eckhart Tolle, and have come across other great books through him, such as Steve Taylor's The Fall The Fall:the Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of a New Era: The Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of a New Era

LIFE CHANGING STUFF INDEED!
I was extremely sceptical when I first came across this book having read numerous others of this genre but I can honestly say this book blew me away....its effects were dramatic and I just felt as if huge shift had occurred in my general outlook which I now recognize is irreversible. I was about half way through the book when I realised I had just "got it", (something akin to the proverbial penny dropping)and now I can't imagine how I could have lived in such darkness before this light was switched on - it's effects really are as dramatic as that! I now KNOW that I consciously choose to be happy or otherwose and that that is all entirely within my power and I find it incredible that I just didn't see this truth before - this truth which is so blindingly obvious - and which once seen cannot be unseen any more than I could "unlearn" how to swim or ride a bike! My family and friends have all noticed a huge change in me - I have become easy-going, calm and at peace...previously I was often moody, snappy with everyone (including my husband and 3 young children), driven and resentful - basically in conflict with reality. I have just ordered another 3 of these books for friends who are all curious about my "secret". Katie can save us from ourselves, waking us up to the fact that we can be our own worst enemies. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude!

Life transforming!!!!
This book shows us that the root of all our problems begin with a thought. For example: "I hate who I am, I hate my job, I hate my life, I hate Bob, Jane, my ex-wife, I hate the rich, blacks, whites, Jews, Christians, Communism, I hate this world". The list goes on. How do these thoughts make you feel? Negative, resentful, angry, jealous, hurtful, all these things and more. The reality is: you simply are who you are, your job is your job and you are in it right now, Bob is just Bob, your life is just however it is. Life or existence itself is just however it is. It is at the very point of giving thought to a given situation that you experience an emotion. Before a (negative) thought, you're ok. Then the thought comes along, you're not ok, a problem has arisen. So who created this problem? You did. By holding on to a certain thought or pattern of thoughts, you create an experience that you take as reality, your world, THE world, but that world exists only in your mind. The problem exists therefore only in your mind. So what's your problem got to do with your job, your life, your father, your boss, Bob, your so-called enemies. Nothing! You place the blame on the world and then try to change it, when the problem lies internally with your thoughts about the the need to change the world. Change ones thinking, then the world changes too, because the world is simply what's going on in the thoughts of 6 billion individuals. Where is this world that we talk of? There is no world other than in our own minds. It is constructed out of the thousands of thoughts that we have about it, upon which he keep building more thoughts, more concepts.

This book is powerful stuff! Yet at the same time, utterly simple and accessible. Forget about religion and other silly beliefs. A set of beliefs, be it spiritual or moral is a set of thoughts, the cause of your suffering, not the answer. After all, as explained ealier, what is suffering anyway other than a thought. How can you use the cause of your suffering (a thought) to solve it? That's like using fire to fight fire. With the help of this book, through the simple realization that our thoughts about a situation or person is the problem and not the situation or person itself, we come to see therefore that our problems are all illusory. Then we no longer experience them as problems. They are simply thoughts. Result: peace!

I recommend also As It Is by Tony Parsons, a book of staggering clarity.