Loving What Is
Byron Katie (with Stephen Mitchell) · 2002
Loving What Is (2002) is a book by Byron Katie (with Stephen Mitchell) on mindfulness & inner peace. Byron Katie's method of self-inquiry, "The Work," uses four questions and a turnaround to examine the stressful thoughts behind our suffering, showing that arguing with reality is the only cause of pain.
It hands you a four-question scalpel for cutting stressful thoughts loose from reality, and the peace that was underneath them all along.
Three of the ideas you’ll keep
The Clif summary of Loving What Is pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.
- Suffering is optional because it comes not from what happens but from your *thoughts* about what happens; when you argue with reality you lose, but only 100% of the time.
- There are only *three kinds of business* in the universe, mine, yours, and God's (reality). Almost all stress comes from mentally living in a business that is not your own.
- *The Work* is four questions plus a turnaround: Is it true? Can you absolutely know it's true? How do you react when you believe that thought? Who would you be without it?
The other 4 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.
What’s inside: 8 chapters
The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.
- The Floor That Ended a War
- The Three Kinds of Business
- Judge Your Neighbor, Write It Down
- The First Two Questions: Is It True?
- Question Three: How Do You React?
- Question Four: Who Would You Be Without the Thought?
- The Turnaround
- Inquiry in the Real World: Relationships, Money, Death
Finish Loving What Is tonight.
Read or listen to the full summary in about 11 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.
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