Byron Katie - You Quotes

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Your understanding of another person is limited by what you think you already know. So when you just listen, the person you meet won't match your preconception. The exciting thing is that you usually meet someone much wiser and kinder than you expected. You might also lose track of your ideas about who you are.

Byron Katie
Here's how a child listens: you tell him something, and he puts his own interpretation on what you said. That's what he hears. No one has ever heard you.

Byron Katie
If you want to see the love of your life, look in the mirror.

Byron Katie
There is no story that is you or that leads to you. Every story leads away from you.

Byron Katie
Do you want to be right more than you want to know the truth? It's the truth that set me free. Acceptance, peace, and less attachment to a world of suffering are all effects of doing The Work. They're not the goals. Do The Work for the love of freedom, for the love of truth.

Byron Katie
Until you look forward to criticism, your Work's not done.

Byron Katie
Nothing you believe is true. To know this is freedom.

Byron Katie
If you want real control, drop the illusion of control; let life have you. It does anyway. You're just telling yourself the story of how it doesn't.

Byron Katie
You can't have your daughter as long as you have a concept of her. When you get rid of the concept, you meet your daughter for the first time. That's the way this works.

Byron Katie
When they attack you and you notice that you love them with all your heart, your Work is done.

Byron Katie
If your happiness depends on your children being happy, that makes them your hostages. So stay out of their business, stop using them for your happiness, and be your own happiness. And that way you are the teacher for your children: someone who knows how to live a happy life.

Byron Katie
Without an uninvestigated story, there's only the perfection of life appearing as itself. You can always go inside and find the beauty that's revealed after the pain and fear are understood.

Byron Katie
You can't have an up without a down. You can't have a left without a right. This is duality. If you have a problem, you must already have the solution. The question is, do you really want the solution, or do you want to perpetuate the problem?

Byron Katie
You either believe what you think or you question it. There's no other choice.

Byron Katie
Depression, pain, and fear are gifts that say, "Sweetheart, take a look at your thinking in this moment. You're living in a story that isn't true for you." Living a lie is always stressful. And investigating a lie through The Work always leads you back to who you are. Who you are is not an option. You are love. It hurts to believe you're other than who you are, to live any story less than love.

Byron Katie
Any story that you tell about yourself causes suffering. There is no authentic story.

Byron Katie
The Work is merely four questions; it's not even a thing. It has no motive, no strings. It's nothing without your answers. These four questions will join any program you've got and enhance it. Any religion you have - they'll enhance it. If you have no religion, they will bring you joy. And they'll burn up anything that isn't true for you. They'll burn through to the reality that has always been waiting.

Byron Katie
What is is. You don't get a vote. Haven't you noticed?

Byron Katie
Nothing can cost you someone you love. The only thing that can cost you your husband is if you believe a thought. That's how you move away from him. That's how the marriage ends. You are one with your husband until you believe the thought that he should look a certain way, he should give you something, he should be something other than what he is. That's how you divorce him. Right then and there you have lost your marriage.

Byron Katie
So what is it with your mother that you haven't worked out yet?

Byron Katie
Once we begin to question our thoughts, our partners-alive, dead or divorced-are always our greatest teachers. There's no mistake about the person you're with; he or she is the perfect teacher for you, whether or not the relationship works out, and once you enter inquiry, you come to see that clearly.

Byron Katie
When you think that someone or something other than yourself needs to change, you're mentally out of your business.

Byron Katie
I could find only three kinds of business in the world—mine, yours, and God's. Whose business are you in?

Byron Katie
You are your only hope, because we're not changing until you do. Our job is to keep coming at you, as hard as we can, with everything that angers, upsets, or repulses you, until you understand. We love you that much, whether we're aware of it or not. The whole world is about you.

Byron Katie
There's never a mistake in the universe. So if your partner is angry, good. If there are things about him that you consider flaws, good, because these flaws are your own, you're projecting them, and you can write them down, inquire, and set yourself free. People go to India to find a guru, but you don't have to: you're living with one. Your partner will give you everything you need for your own freedom.

Byron Katie
The worst loss you've ever experienced is the greatest gift you can have.

Byron Katie
But when you think you're supposed to do something with it and imagine that you're the doer, that's pure delusion. Just follow your passion. Do what you love. Inquire, and have a happy life while you're doing it.

Byron Katie
When you say or do anything to please, get, keep, influence, or control anyone or anything, fear is the cause and pain is the result.

Byron Katie
It is easy to be swept away by some overwhelming feeling, so it's helpful to remember that any stressful feeling is like a compassionate alarm clock that says, "You're caught in the dream."

Byron Katie
So, how do you get back to heaven?
To begin with, just notice the thoughts that take you away from it.
You don't have to believe everything your thoughts tell you.
Just become familiar with the particular thoughts you use
to deprive yourself of happiness.
It may seem strange at first to get to know yourself in this way,
but becoming familiar with your stressful thoughts
will show you the way home to everything you need.

Byron Katie