Several people have written to me about joining YOI (Year of Inquiry) and how it works. Our year began in September….however if you’re really wanting to be in our inquiry circle to stay close and steady in the practice of questioning stressful thoughts, with a group of awesome people, then this is a super easy and great way to do it.
Three weeks out of every month we’re on the phone or skype together, from time zones all over the world, looking deeply at our thoughts, reading our worksheets out loud, closely investigating the pain and stress that arises in our lives.
People get to partner with others in the group if they choose, and we change topics every month….but you can always do your own work, even if it seems unrelated to our month-long subject.
We meet Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. You can pick only one, or join them all. It all depends on your desire for practicing inquiry. To apply, click here.
The other day, during our Tuesday morning call, our investigating was profound.
I felt like we were the peacemakers of the world, considering our thoughts about homelessness, or any other group or person who seems frightening and strange.
Sitting on our call together, I remembered how close I came to my own “homelessness”…..
…..and how now, I see even better than ever before how NOT homeless I was back then, even though that beautiful house in my memory is no longer where I live.
I still drive by it from time to time, and gaze up the long driveway. I can’t really see the house. But images and memories pass through my mind like a speeding bullet train.
I used to think about my old house and feel sad, sad, sad.
I should never have felt we had to sell. We were so screwed up in our thinking. That was such a mistake. We didn’t have a good attitude towards money. We made life hard for ourselves for no reason.
I see so deeply today how there is nothing permanent, and thinking I need a shelter or structure over my head which stays the same is completely bonkers.
Afterall, I’m outta there sooner or later.
The reality is, I’ve actually moved by choice many times, and moved because it was what was required other times, and stayed planted right where I was other times, and looked for a place to sleep some times.
Just like everyone else.
By connecting with the fear of homelessness, by looking at someone I think of as “homeless” in my town, I turn it around and see what I’ve imagined to be so frightening, and what is at home, right now, no matter what’s going on.
Never homeless.
From that place, I notice, I can give the “homeless” person I walk past a hug.
“If you have a problem with people or the state of the world, I invite you to put your stressful thoughts on paper and question them, and to do it for the love of truth, not in order to save the world. Turn it around: save your own world. Isn’t that why you want to save the world in the first place? So that you can be happy? Well, skip the middleman, and be happy from here! You’re it. You’re the one. In this turnaround you remain active, but there’s no fear in it, no internal war. So it ceases to be war trying to teach peace. War can’t teach peace. Only peace can. I don’t try to change the world–not ever. The world changes by itself, and I’m a part of that change. I’m absolutely, totally, a lover of what is. When people ask me for help, I say yes. We inquire, and they begin to end their suffering, and in that they begin to end the suffering of the world.” ~ Byron Katie pg. 83 1000 Names For Joy
Much love,
Grace
P.S. December 6th is filling up–mini retreat in person in Seattle 1:30-5:30 pm all afternoon. What a great way to spend a winter Saturday.