Tag: The work of byron Katie Breitenbush

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Give Everything Up, Be Hopeless, Be Given Everything

Update on Breitenbush Hotsprings Annual Retreat June 25-29: For those of you still wishing you could come and thought there was no hope, there are a few spots left for lodging, if you’re open to sharing (very inexpensive that way):

There is a female dorm bed still free, one entire cabin available after all, without plumbing (they are very cute, cozy and private and bath facilities are a short walk away), and one free bed inside a cabin with plumbing that is occupied by a woman who is enrolled already (open to female roommate).

Our workshop only can fit two more in our gorgeous Forest Shelter meeting house….so call Breitenbush soon if you’re ready to go for it.

This is a marvelous, sincere group of truly amazing inquirers, and we have fabulous exercises planned to create an incredible opportunity for you to free yourself, literally, from your troubled thinking.

If you’ve struggled with inquiry, feeling at war….and ready to declare peace on an important situation, join us. Why not now? We can’t wait to meet everyone. Call 503-854-7174.

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Speaking of No Hope…..or Hope…..the experience of being with or without it is extremely powerful.

Every human has times of hopelessness, and times of great hope.

But it’s a tricky concept, the idea of hopefulness or hopelessness. Because it can set you off into the future very, very easily, or into the past with the blink of an eye (the blink of a thought).

Here’s what I mean.

I’m going about my day, living my life, moving from here to there. This is the present, what is happening. And inside my head there are thoughts flashing, pictures of what could be, or what was.

When a difficult or scary thing occurs, the natural experience of the mind, projecting into the future, is to prefer to avoid it repeating.

I hope that won’t ever happen again.

When a wonderful thing happens, or you hear an enticing story filled with good news, your mind naturally wants to generate that story for itself.

I hope that happens to me, I hope I can do that!

There are also reflections the mind has of the past and what should have happened or should NOT have happened, that can never be rewound, never re-lived, never a do-over.

Totally hopeless.

The thing is, you know when you’re going off into a stressful land of stories when you feel anxious, worried, sad, despairing, or unhappy about any event, whether you hope for it or hope against it.

The most simple thing to do then, I have found, is inquiry.

“This situation is hopeless” (and I am so disappointed, regretful, horrified, sad).

Is it true?

Yes. I thought I was going on that retreat, that adventure, I thought I would have succeeded with “x” by now, I thought I’d be with that person, I didn’t think I’d lose, I can’t figure it out, I failed, I can’t….

Are you sure?

No. I’m never sure. I know things can change at any moment. But careful now. Notice the ease with which the mind could slip into hoping and grabbing on and pushing forward, without rest.

How do you react when you think your situation is hopeless, and this is a terrible thing?

Rage, fury, depression, sinking into inaction, mute… OR running as fast as I can even though the timer already went off, the race is finished.

But who would you be without the thought that this hopeless situation is terrible, horrifying or eternally dark? Without the thought that you HAVE to get back to HOPING, or else?

Without the thought that all is hopeless is bad, hopeful is good….I notice something gently opens right here, in the middle of this hopeless situation.

I notice I’m alive, breathing, and there is something more here, present, without thought. Something that has nothing to do with THINKING.

How funny!

I turn the thought around: this situation is hopeless, and that is really, truly OK. All is well. No trying, manipulating, pushing, lashing out. 

Wow. Maybe there is something beyond me, beyond my own thoughts. Perhaps reality has other ideas besides the ones I myself think are best. Maybe rest is here, and love, and support.

Even out in the desert with no water left and only a few more breaths before death.

“When you’re having a relatively pleasant dream, you don’t mind so much dreaming on. But when your dream turns into a nightmare then you REALLY want to awaken from that, when you can’t stand it. That’s what happened to me. It drove me almost to suicide….When I was a child, my pain body grew very quickly…. But if this had not been the case, I would have never awakened. So retrospectively, one is grateful for one’s suffering, because eventually suffering will wake you up.” ~ Eckhart Tolle

Welcome all hope being lost….and doing nothing. The greatest surrender.

“When the ancient masters say ‘If you want to be given everything, give everything up’ they weren’t using empty phrases. Only in being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself.” ~ Tao Te Ching #22

Much love, Grace

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Retreat Into The Work of Byron Katie

Only four spaces left for Breitenbush Hotsprings so we’re extending the Early Bird registration for $100 off until May 5th, tomorrow. There are only a few cabins left, and tent platform space (mild and gorgeous this time of year).

It’s an amazingly inexpensive way to spend time in a pristine, old growth forest and natural hot springs spa. The food is exquisite, vegetarian, vegan, raw, organic, home cooked. The grounds smell like heaven. Wild rhododendrons grow in the forest that time of year. The mineral hotsprings are soothing and healing.

People are happy, the staff is superb and helpful, and there are no distractions. No cell phone service, no internet.

That may sound frightening at first (no internet?!) but if you plan for it and enter the inner forest sanctum, with fellow inquirers….WOW.

You may feel the tension and stress, as you enter this place, surface, and finally have a long-awaited conversation with you.

When this kind of direct conversation and inquiry happens, in a very safe environment, who knows what might shift afterwards.

Join me, and my nurturing and experienced co-facilitator Susan Grace Beekman. We can’t wait to inquire with you, through the places you’re stuck or concerned.

Wherever you’re arguing with reality.

As Susan and I say, “Declare Peace”. That’s what you’re doing anyway, as you live your life on this path, right? This time of retreat is for entering that space within where peace doesn’t seem as easy to declare as you were hoping.

Come do The Work with us and the group, and get reinforced in your journey. Call Breitenbush to reserve: 503.854.7174, 503.854.3320, 3321, or 3314. If you leave a message, they’ll call you back.

If you know its right for you, call them quick. We’ll be sold out soon.

“I need to be silent for awhile. Worlds are forming in my heart.” ~ Meister Eckhart (1260-1328).

Yesterday I got to spend four hours with an absolutely wonderful group of inquirers doing a mini retreat where we all do The Work from start to finish.

The rain pattered hard on the roof, spattering against the two window skylights in the kitchen. Outside, wet spring rain. Inside, cozy tea, friends, and inquiry.

Breitenbush is like that too….only More and Longer. We start with a core, powerful session, just like yesterday, where we take a slow swan dive into a situation we find very unpleasant.

Or completely horrible.

But then we examine our concepts, one by one, and watch the new ones come to the surface, like something stuck and unconscious in the underworld, is finally given the space to see the light.

I always find, every time, that working with the energy of the group, my path is clearer.

Like Frodo gathering companions on his transformational journey, we declare together that we’re going.

And off we go. Into unknown territory.

As one mini-retreat participant said yesterday so beautifully “I have felt stuck doing The Work by myself….but I got something here today, something profound. Doing The Work with others is so deeply helpful.”

“Meditation, answering the four questions that make up The Work as we sit, eyes closed, still, mind open like a child to the old wisdom, the uninvited hidden unknown known, invite it to surface.

Watch, it will show you the answers through the wisdom that lies beyond what you are believing, and your emotional dysfunction will lessen each time, as will your fear, and eventually you are enlightened to the cause of all suffering and each thing seen is seen through the eyes of God, brilliant.” ~ Byron Katie

Much love, Grace