Loving What Is

I recently stumbled on a booklet entitled An excerpt from Loving What Is : Four questions that can change your life by Byron Katie with Stephen Mitchell.

I have done the questionnaire, and have found it enormously supportive.

I was so inspired that I placed an Amazon order for two of Katie's books:

• Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life
• A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

The books still are in the mail, so I can't comment on them in more detail, but am looking forward to receiving them.

If you want to try Katie's questionnaire yourself, here's a PDF version of The Little Book.

As Katie says, everything you need in order to do what she calls "The Work" is available for free on her website.

With that having been said, I wanted to delve into "The Work" in more depth, so I ordered the books mentioned above.

Acceptance = Listening

I have found it challenging to accept everything in my life, as Eckhart Tolle recommends in "The Power of Now."

Sometimes the best I can do is grit my teeth and grudgingly endure a situation.

In Jean Klein's writing I came across a concept that felt more supportive to me.  Klein says that accepting a situation means listening to it.

Klein goes on to say that listening, in this sense, is not something that you do with just your ears.  Rather, you listen with your whole being.

You patiently listen, without an agenda or a deadline, and the situation gradually reveals itself to you.

Perhaps the situation simply evaporates.

Or, if it continues, you slowly come to see it in a larger context. 

Whatever happens, there is likely to be some sort of movement.  You probably won't feel as stuck as you previously did. 

Listening feels to me like an easier recommendation to follow than accepting.