A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

This collaboration between Byron Katie, Stephen Mitchell, and Lao-tsu (long-deceased though he may be) has created a truly illuminating work of art that is a great gift to humanity. "A Thousand Names for Joy" is far more than a book - "book" is simply its external form. At its essence, "A Thousand Names for Joy" is an experience of awake consciousness that feels past the limitations imposed by any thought that would seek to limit or define it. It is a gift - an invitation to share presence and intimate dialogue with truth - simple, humble, fearless, radical, unborn, deathless truth. Those who receive this gift, who open to this experience, may find that their familiar ideas, distinctions, and concepts about themselves and the world melt away in a graceful experience of what Lao-tsu calls the Tao, the Way, the flowing movement of the universe happening at all times, in all places, in all beings, perfectly. The reader may come to recognize perfection in areas where once imperfection was believed to exist, as consciousness is gifted with an opportunity to experience itself at its depths, heights, and everywhere in-between. This collaboration between Katie, Stephen Mitchell, and Lao-tsu truly is a dream team of awakened consciousness, which no longer defines itself according to conventions of unquestioned thought, which invites the reader to see, experience, and recognize one's own true face in the perfection, fullness, and freshness of being. It may come to pass that each person who truly opens to the experience offered by the profound gift of this book - who allows conventional thought and identity to be humbled by the recognition of its innate limitations, and who boldly accepts the invitation that the authors offer to radically embrace the unthinkable, unnamable essence of being - will be filled to overflowing with gratitude for the opportunity to connect so intimately both with true self and with the radical perfection of "what is." This has certainly been true for me. In short, this book (so much more than a book!), is a profound blessing, a gift to one's awake soul, and a precious opportunity to gaze deeply into a mirror that reflects only truth.

Byron Katie's latest I think is her best work, which is saying a lot. Each chapter(about 2 or 3 pages) is a great story or learning lesson about how to deal with life's problems. The simple solution is just question your thoughts. Every time we are unhappy, we are attached to an unhappy thought. Question this thought and the unhappiness goes away. There is no exception to this. I have read some other reviews of Katie's previous books that criticize The Work for being practical only to a certain point. All I can say is go see her in person and watch her use The Work to deal with any problem. I recently went to her School and all I can say is that it changed my life more than anything. I saw her actually deal with a cancer patient and bring him to tears of joy. Thank you Katie, for all the help you give to the world.

Eureka! Once and for all, Byron Katie has proven that enlightenment is not waiting on an oxygen-deprived mountaintop in Tibet, nor hiding in some mysterious, inaccessible cave of the heart known only to Yogis and Kabbalists. It's available right here while we're doing the dishes. I'd describe A Thousand Names for Joy as "The Tao for Dummies," a truly useful manual for "the rest of us" who want to live a peaceful, happy life. The conversations in this book are Katie's responses to verses from the Tao Te Ching, an ancient text on the art of living by the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. (Katie's co-author and husband, Stephen Mitchell, wrote one of the most highly esteemed translations of this text in 1986, coincidentally the same year of Katie's now famous "moment of clarity.") This volume is much more than that. Like so many spiritual classics, the Tao wisely tells us what we should be striving for, but not how to get it. Katie, through the alchemy of self-inquiry, always tells us how. At the same time, this truly is a portrait of an awakened mind. We get to see life through Katie's eyes as a seemingly ordinary person who, like us, endures many of the kinds of experiences we may wish we didn't have to. We witness her as a woman whose purse is stolen, whose husband ate the snack she'd bought for herself and was so looking forward to having when she got home, who watches as the birth of a granddaughter becomes a medical emergency, who gets a diagnosis of cancer, who takes care of her dying mother, who is threatened at gunpoint, who looks into the eyes of a dead friend, having arrived "too late"...who endures a painful, degenerative disease of the cornea which leaves her largely blind and vulnerable to falling (though she's since had successful corneal transplants). Katie describes these realities with no more drama and no less joy and gratitude than in other scenarios where she plays with her grandchild, prepares a salad, speaks onstage before an appreciative audience of 350, or receives her husband's caresses. But this is not "the lives of the saints." Katie also provides examples of people like us who have come to know, through a simple process of self-inquiry called The Work, what Katie knows...for instance, a man who, although he loved his wife, was able to celebrate her decision to leave him for another man because he had questioned his anger and fear about his marriage. He stayed in his wife's life as a best friend to whom she could tell everything. (She eventually returned to him; who wouldn't want to live with someone that clear?) In this way, Katie makes the ancient teachings of the Tao come alive for us in the contemporary world.

Byron Katie's work is the wisest I've seen as a psychiatrist of 25 years. I use her work daily in my clinical practice. Her new book is a treasure, full of wisdom and practical help. If you make this book part of your daily life you will siffer less and feel more joy.

Katie's work is absolutely different from anyone else's. Most self-help books aren't really about anyone's "self" except the author's. They provide you with their ideas about how you can be happy, and these ideas are supposed to work for everyone. But instead of offering a one-size-fits-all strategy, Katie has shown me how to craft my own solutions, under any and all circumstances. The value of this really can't be overstated. In addition to helping me with problems after they've arisen, Katie's work showed me how to stop the problems from arising in the first place. I've learned that the way to counterbalance difficult emotions is not necessarily to explore or analyze them, but to catch them as they present themselves, question their validity, and then simply let them go. Once I examine any thought whatsoever, I'm struck by what it really, truly is in the first place: a thought. A thought has no bearing on reality. If you're suffering from a broken heart, for example, when you look, you see that your heart is not really broken. No matter how hard you try, you literally cannot find a broken heart. There is only the thought that a broken heart exists. The funny thing is that if you stop thinking that thought, the heartbreak also stops--not because you've healed it, but because it was never there anyway. It can be difficult to believe that it's this simple, but it is. Most self-help strategies are detailed commentaries on complex psychological or spiritual theories. But Katie's suggestions are almost pre-psychology and even pre-spirituality. They're about how the mind naturally works, no matter how you were raised or what you believe. She helps you step off the merry-go-round of newer, better, perkier self-help strategies and instead relate plainly and directly to your life as it is, without a lot of sturm und drang. It's so incredibly practical. Katie's emphasis on self-inquiry shines a light on the present moment, something all spiritual teachers tell us we should do. However, they usually don't tell you how. But Katie does. She taught me how to set aside my beliefs and philosophies about what is going on and instead relate to what is going on. That's pretty deep when you think about it, but it also may be the reason you may not get the power of her work right away. It's so stripped down and essential. It's not a system of belief, and we're not used to things that aren't assigned to a particular school of thought. But because it's a living tool (not a system or belief), it's always relevant and can be customized to meet any situation. One way this has shown up for me is with my husband. Even though I don't always succeed (ahem), I've learned how to separate my projections about who he should be and how I need him to act from who he really is. It actually strikes me as funny to realize that up until I could do this, I was probably having a relationship with my thoughts about my husband instead of a relationship with him. I like him much be