Only 4 spots left for Being With Byron Katie, an unusual event where we’ll be watching Katie on screen via internet as she teaches a retreat in Switzerland July 11-14.
Because this event is via internet, the cost is only $165 for all four days. These last spots available are for commuters only (a mattress may be free for you if you want to sleep in our big private rented lodge). We’ll have a ball together (24 people total), share potluck lunch, and have one hour of silent sitting meditation each day at 2:30 pm.
A fantastic group of people interested in questioning stressful thinking. What could be more wonderful?
Perhaps Breitenbush Retreat June 24-29!
This is a deep intensive dive into your inner world of stressful thinking, where you will get to do The Work with me and the incredible group who always assembles for 4.5 days. We gather to declare peace through this powerful self-inquiry.
Breitenbush Hotsprings is a gorgeous conference center located in old growth forest in Oregon. This retreat also has 20 people registered (capacity is 28) so call soon to make your reservation 503-854-3320.
The Breitenbush Retreat offers mental health counselors 26 CEUs.
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Speaking of gatherings and retreats, it seems like a summer full of contemplative activities, doing this powerful work, is spread before me.
In only two weeks, all the people in Year of Inquiry who can come, plus some Year of Inquiry alumni, will be arriving in Seattle and coming to my cottage to do The Work for three days.
My hands are clapping!
I love that it doesn’t matter where you are for this work.
You can be deeply concerned, very frightened about a particular issue or situation or person….
….or concerned about something that seems petty and small, and unimportant in the big scheme of things.
Long ago, a dear friend and inquirer and I had made plans to exchange facilitation in The Work.
She had facilitated me through a worksheet I wrote on my impending divorce.
I felt sick to my stomach, almost every day.
I was terrified I would never find a job, my money was draining out of my bank account faster than the sinking Titanic, I was a bundle of pain and agony.
I felt a little lighter after she facilitated me. Like chipping away at a big block of granite, my beliefs about being supported in life getting broken into pieces one hammer-strike at a time.
Then we switched roles.
Now I would facilitate her.
Her stressful belief was on her kitchen drawer.
It wouldn’t open properly, after the recent remodel.
“It should open easily.”
Seriously??
As I asked her the four questions, I noticed with amazement the joy of doing this work on something so apparently insignificant.
I could feel the frustration having a thought like this, that sometimes made me want to bang something around, throw my hands up in frustration, lose my temper in a fury, slam a door, or a drawer, break something.
Who would you be without the belief that this drawer, or anything, should open more easily than it is opening?
What if everything, even a drawer, is exactly in place, doing what it does, without a need to argue with it, or against it?
As my friend answered the questions, it washed through me….
….what if my estranged husband shouldn’t open, either?
What if all was going along in the best way possible?
What if I didn’t get involved in being opposed to or in favor of thislife?
Turning the thought around….
….this dear friend found the opposite: “my mind should open easily”.
WOW!
I chuckled softly.
I could find this, too.
Later, after the phone call was over and we had hung up, I sat silently.
A sense of peace, quiet, and emptiness beyond all words, beyond all thinking, beyond needing to do something or fix anything, wrapped around me.
Everything was going to be OK.
It already was.
Thank you for inquiry, on a drawer in a kitchen that wasn’t even mine.
Sometimes inquiry works in the oddest ways.
“There is no peace in the world until you find peace within yourself in this moment. Live these turnarounds, if you want to be free. That’s what Jesus did, what the Buddha did. That’s what all the famous great ones did, and all the unknown great ones who are just living it in their homes and communities, happily and in peace.” ~ Byron Katie
Do The Work on whatever you see around you that brings you stress. Begin with one situation at a time. Nothing more is required.