Freedom From Suffering

In the mid to late 1990s, I attended a workshop presented at the church I attended at that time. The presenter was a woman named Byron Katie. Her workshop was about a process called The Work®. I found the topic and the process interesting, and left that day with a cursory understanding of it.

A couple of years later, I sought out a spiritual counselor. At my initial appointment with her, she asked me if I was familiar with The Work®. I told her I was, but that I had not incorporated its practice. She sent me home with instructions and copies of a worksheet. If memory serves me, I completed a couple of the worksheets, but did not pursue it further. I did not continue sessions with this counselor.

In 2001, a dear friend loaned me two cassette tapes that she insisted I listen to. They were, you guessed it, recordings of Byron Katie leading participants through the process of The Work®. As I listened, I heard the participants experience relief from deep emotional pain. For some of them, it was pain they had been carrying for years. I was hooked! I had to learn more.

In March of 2002, I attended The School for The Work® in Sedona, Arizona. The school is an intensive nine-day program that takes you into the process of listening to and questioning your thoughts. It is intended to foster an atmosphere in which The Work® comes alive for you and becomes a part of your daily spiritual practices.

I can honestly say that this was my experience. During the school and for a time following, The Work® became a valuable addition to my self-discovery toolbox. I regret that after a couple of years, I used the process less and less, until gradually it became another forgotten tool.

Fast forward to 2009, I was the Spiritual Leader at Unity of Arlington in Arlington, Texas. J and I moved to Arlington from Dallas in October 2009. Through a series of synchronistic events and personal connections, we were introduced to our neighbors, Michael and Karen, who lived directly across the street from us.

It just so happened that Karen had recently returned from attending, you guessed it, The School for the Work®. We recognized our soul connection and became fast friends. Karen conducted workshops on The Work® at Unity of Arlington, in 2011 and 2012. She soon became an integral part of the community there, heading up a fundraising event and helping to provide leadership for our welcoming team. Karen made her transition from this Earthly plane in 2015. I will always be grateful to her for reconnecting me with The Work®.

While I don’t complete a worksheet every day or formally engage the process, it has become a part of my consciousness. As Katie says, once you practice the process, you don’t work The Work®; The Work® works you.

The Work® requires no spiritual or intellectual preparation, no belief and no psychological acuteness – just a desire to know the truth about you.

The Work® is a simple process of four questions and a turn-around that helps bring clarity to an unquestioned mind. When approached with the intention to know the truth, this simple process provides us with a way to question the thoughts that often create stress, or cause pain and suffering. 

The four questions are:

·       Is it true? 

·       Can you absolutely know that it’s true?

·       How do you react when you think that thought?

·       Who or what would you be without that thought?

The turn-around asks, “Could the opposite be just as true?”

As is often the case, when I recognize that I am creating inner turmoil or confusion and I’m willing to stop and connect, Spirit reminds me of just what I need to return to peace and sanity. This week was no exception. I was reminded to go to The Work® when I got caught up in thinking the thought, “I need to know what to do.” 

This seems an innocuous thought, but it stimulated suffering for me this week, so I will use it as an example.

When I asked the question, “Is it true that I need to know what to do?” my first response was “Yes, I need to know what to do. How else am I going to move forward?”

Then, I asked, “Can I absolutely know that I need to know what to do?” As I considered the question, I realized that while I would like to know what to do, I may not need to know what to do, at least not right now.

The third question asked me to honestly reflect on how I react when I believe the thought, “I need to know what to do.” When I breathed into that question and invited awareness, I felt tension in my chest and abdomen, and my jaw was tight. I was feeling concerned, nervous and afraid.

Lastly, I asked myself, “Who or what would you be without that thought?” Katie often says to consider who or what you would be if you could never think that thought again. When I imagined that possibility, it came to me that I would be the presence of peace, open and receptive to the guidance of Spirit in every moment.

Using the turn-around, I asked, “Could the opposite be just as true or truer?” Is it possible that, “I don’t need to know what to do” could be just as true? My answer was, “Yes, and when I think that thought, I feel much more open and free.”

It was through actively engaging in the process that I realized that I was stressing myself out thinking, “I need to know what to do.” When I was freed from the thought, I was more open to being present for the guidance of Spirit in the moment, trusting that each step along the way will reveal to me what I need to know next. I felt relief, peace and excitement. My body relaxed, and I was willing and able to do the next thing or nothing at all.

Granted, I have offered an example using a relatively low pain-inducing thought, but I have witnessed people who, through this process, have experienced freedom from pain and suffering stimulated by unquestioned thoughts and beliefs that they have carried for years, even decades.

When the mind is free and clear of the thoughts that create clouds of pain and confusion, the light of truth can shine through. Only when the mind is open and receptive can the inspiration of Spirit be clearly received and known, and then acted upon.

Katie says, “The work shows you that you are the only teacher you can believe. You, and only you, know your truth. You are the healer you have been seeking.”

I share all of this in this forum because I value and appreciate the efficacy of The Work®. The violence that we witness every day in the world around us is evidence of the pain and suffering we experience because of the unquestioned stories we believe. These four simple questions, when answered from the desire to know the truth, act as a laser that cuts through the illusion. They have the power to bring us to peace, one mind at a time.

Everything you need to practice The Work® is available free on the website. I encourage you to avail yourself of it. Try it. You may discover that it is a path to your freedom from suffering.

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As always, I invite you to join us on Sunday at 10:00 at Unity Spiritual Center Denver. We welcome our special guest, Charles Holt. He will present the lesson entitled Beyond Forgiveness: A Call to the Divine "Yes." 

Charles will also present a workshop, Beyond Forgiveness: Living a Life of Letting Go, from 1:30 to 4:00 PM. You may register for the workshop here. To learn more about Charles and his work, please visit TheOpenFramesProject.com.

Additionally, if you are blessed or inspired by these posts or my Sunday lessons, which are available on YouTube, I encourage you to make a donation  to support the ministry of Unity Spiritual Center Denver. Thank you!