- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Crown Archetype; 1 edition (Mar 19 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0609608746
- ISBN-13: 978-0609608746
- Product Dimensions: 16.2 x 2.7 x 24.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 499 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #316,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Remember the phrase "question authority"? Loving What Is is a workbook on questioning authority--but in this case, what is in question is the authority of our own fundamental beliefs about our relationships.
Known simply as "The Work," Byron Katie's methods are clean and straightforward. The basis is a series of four questions addressed to your own lists of written assumptions. Whether you're angry with your boss, frustrated with your teen's behavior, or appalled at the state of the world's environment, Katie suggests you write down your most honest thoughts on the matter, and then begin the examination. Starting with, "Is it true?" and continuing with explorations of "Who would you be without that thought?" this method allows you to get through unhelpful preconceptions and find peace. An integral part of the process is "turning the thought around," and at first this can seem like you're simply blaming yourself for everything. Push a little harder, and you'll find a very responsible acceptance of reality, beyond questions of fault and blame.
The book is filled with examples of folks applying The Work to a variety of life situations, and reading other's examples gets the idea across pretty clearly; chances are you'll find your own frustrations echoed on the pages a few times. Many chapters are divided into specific topics, such as couples, money, addictions, and self-judgments, with one chapter devoted to exploring the method with children.
Questioning your own authority is never an easy process, but it seems well worth the potential rewards--stress-free choices, peace, and affection for those closest to you. --Jill Lightner
From Library Journal
A thrice-married housewife and mother of three who once suffered from depression, Katie presents what she calls "the Work," a series of questions to help alter bad thinking patterns and reveal painful truths. So that readers might see the method in action, she has reproduced edited dialogs among herself and participants at her workshop. Direct and easy to follow, her book could indeed produce results for readers battling run-of-the-mill work and relationship problems. However, Katie and coauthor/husband Mitchell, a translator of the Bhagavad Gita, would like their audience to believe that this is heads above a standard self-help book: in Mitchell's compelling introduction, he compares Katie's process to the Socratic method and the Zen Koan and posits that it will enhance any other program or religion. These are heady claims, and it's up to the reader to decide whether the authors deliver on their promises. With the publicity campaign and author tour, there will likely be demand in public libraries. Susan Burdick, MLS, Reading, PA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
What I love about The Work is that it allows you to go inside and find your own happiness, to experience what already exists within you, unchanging, immovable, ever-present, ever-waiting. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
What I love about The Work is that it allows you to go inside and find your own happiness, to experience what already exists within you, unchanging, immovable, ever-present, ever-waiting. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Ghastly,
By A Customer (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (Hardcover)
If no stars were available, I'd choose that. This self-help book is aimed primarily at helping the author. I found it preposterous, and downright dangerous. I don't think this woman has any credentials; rather, she seems to tout her qualifying experience as the fact that she had a nervous breakdown when she was 43 years old. Katie's "help" is presented as a series of questions that branch from her initial query of "Is it [the situation, feeling, etc.] true?" Nothing intended to help people break out of lifelong conditioning works as fast as Katie would have one believe. Especially annoying parts of the book are the intro by her husband (who has no more credentials than his wife) where he belabors Katie's lecturing on the ideas in her book for free (the book certainly is not free; thank goodness I borrowed it from a library), the many times Katie showcases her approach in a cult-like way as "The Work," Katie pretending to be an objective participant when she is clearly steering people toward her sometimes-dangerous ideas, and Katie using endearments that just seem patronizing with her interview subjects in the dialogue transcripts (e.g., "Nice Work, honey"). I was muddling through the book and wondering when I'd get to something helpful when I read her exchange with a woman who was repeatedly raped as a child (around age 8 or 9) by her stepfather. Then the author, through a series of questions, ended up turning the blame for the rapes around on the victim, culminating in the idea that rape was the woman's way of receiving love. All this was done in front of an audience. Brainwashing and abuse in the guise of therapy. Ghastly.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Weird,
By A Customer
This review is from: Loving What is (Audio CD)
I've participated in all kinds of new age kind of stuff. Gestalt, EST, Hypnosis, etc. and have been able to find value in most of these. However, these tapes are weird. The basic idea: that expecting that things should be different and feeling badly about this isn't going to help an individual is straight forward enough. I expected more, but if the only thing these tapes had done was reinforced this idea in a memorable way, they might interesting enough. However, they failed to even meet this minimal standard. I was disappointed. Here are the four questions: 1. Is it true? 2. Can you absolutely know that it's true? 3. How do you react when you think that thought? 4. Who would you be without that thought?. The four questions are presented with the self important phrase "the work". I can imagine a simple discipline consistently applied could be worthwhile, but I don't see this as the one. The book got some good reviews, you might check out those reviews to make up your own mind.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Katie is RIGHT!,
By
This review is from: Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (Paperback)
Katie encourages people to take responsibility for their own life, their own happiness by questioning their own thoughts. She says there is my business, your business and God's business...I found the peace I was seeking when I stayed in my business. This is definitely worth the money! You can't put a dollar sign on peace of mind.
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