Product Description

Inspired by the "Tao Te Ching", this is Byron Katie's inspiring and pragmatic approach to achieving an awakened mind and living more simply and profoundly. Using the template of the 81 chapters of the 'Tao Te Ching', she talks about her own experience of living in harmony with the way things are, and and the difference between what hurts and what doesn't. Katie has written two books that teach how suffering can be relieved by questioning the thoughts that create it, the thoughts that argue with reality. This questioning takes courage and, in this her third book, she gives readers profound encouragement by showing them the freedom and love that live on the other side of self-inquiry. Many people believe that although enlightenment was attainable thousands of years ago by a few great saints or ascetics, such a state is out of reach of anyone living in the modern world, let alone themselves. This richly detailed account has the ability to change that belief. Katie's comments on life, and how to live it, are profound, vibrant, funny and crystal clear and all rooted in the familiar circumstances of everyday life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63626 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Byron Katie is based in California but travels the globe ceaselessly, teaching to sellout audiences. 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

A practical, fearless example of a life lived with integrity
Readers of Byron Katie's two previous books, "Loving What Is" and "I Need Your Love - Is That True", will delight in this new offering, and it also serves as a fantastic introduction for those who are new to this author. The book contains a few of the powerful and much-loved dialogues between Katie and an enquirer doind the remarkable process Katie calls The Work, but the bulk of the book is in the form of little essays by Katie prompted by quotations from the Tao Te Ching. A combination of beautifully poetic and deeply affecting prose and a multitude of concrete examples from Katie's life provide the reader with amazing evidence of the possibility to live a life of joy and integrity in today's world. I have read it cover to cover and am now looking forward to going back and reading it at a slower pace...it's a treasurehouse of wisdom which I suspect has no end....

"Harsh" But True Words
This book has a "harsh" tone for someone unprepared because Byron communicates directly about realities we often avoid discussing such as death, pain, suffering and our fears. Each passage is like a conversational meditation on a passage from the "Tao Te Ching." I found awakenings as I read key parts of this book that were relevant to me. Excerpt 46 on "Fear" was very insightful and I realized that my own belief projected onto others is what frightened me. Excerpt 33 dealt with "Death" and Byron communicates honestly about it. We rarely hear such honesty and it can be disconcerting yet it is part of life and we need to embrace these realities. I recommend this book to readers seeking honest, insightful revelations.

Another book that I highly recommend for a transformative and insightful story is "Nexus: A Neo Novel" by Deborah Morrison and Arvind Singh. This novel examines the ups and downs of spiritual life through the journey of people at a spiritual retreat.

So good it's 'Beyond Belief'
I haven't read the Tao Te Ching or either of Katie's other 2 books, although I have seen videos of her doing 'The Work' on the Net. Having read many books by 'Awakened Beings', Ekhart Tolle, Tony Parsons, Krishnamurti etc. I was unsure what to expect from Katie. Maybe I was finally ready to listen; the honesty, the clarity the radicalness of it connected with something deep inside me.

Quite simply the most beautiful book I have ever read.

Thank you Katie