Byron Katie Quotes (121) Spiritual Sayings
About the Author: Byron Kathleen Mitchell, better known as Byron Katie (born December 6, 1942, is an American speaker and author who teaches a method of self-inquiry known as "The Work of Byron Katie" or simply as "The Work". She has taught it to millions of people all over the world, at free public events, in prisons, hospitals, churches, corporations, shelters for survivors of domestic violence, universities and schools, at weekend intensives, and at her nine-day School for The Work. The Work is a way of identifying and questioning the stressful thoughts that allegedly cause all the suffering in the world. It consists of four questions and the turnaround, which allows you to experience the opposite of what you believe. The four questions asked of a stressful thought are: 1) Is it true?, 2) Can you absolutely know that it's true?, 3) How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?, and 4) Who would you be without that thought? See website for more info - http://www.byronkatie.com/
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“It's not your job to like me - it's mine”
― Byron Katie
“Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don't have to like it... it's just easier if you do.”
― Byron Katie
“As long as you think that the cause of your problem is “out there”—as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering—the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you’re suffering in paradise.”
― Byron Katie, Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life
If you think the cause of your problem is 'out there,' you'll try to solve it from the outside. Take the shortcut: solve it from within.
― Byron Katie
Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don't have to like it... it's just easier if you do.
― Byron Katie
What is perfect health? The unraveling of all imagined states of mind
― Byron Katie
When we believe in our thoughts, when we tell ourselves a story, we suffer. 'My husband doesn't respect me.' 'I should be thinner.' Those are stories. When there's no story, there's no suffering.
― Byron Katie
People try so hard to let go of their negative behaviors and thoughts, and it doesn't work, or it works only for a short time. I didn't let go of my negative thoughts; I questioned them, and then they let go of me, and so did my addictions and depression.
― Byron Katie
Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you.
― Byron Katie
Until you can see everything in the world as your friend, your work is not done.
― Byron Katie
Spare yourself from seeking love, approval, or appreciation-from anyone. And watch what happens in reality, just for fun.
― Byron Katie
Our job is unconditional love. The job of everyone else in our life is to push our buttons.
― Byron Katie
Peace doesn't require two people; it requires only one. It has to be you. The problem begins and ends there.
― Byron Katie
Every single human being is trying his best. We're all doing the best we can. But when we believe what we think, we have to live out those thoughts. When there's chaos in our heads, there's chaos in our lives. When there's hurt in our thinking, there's hurt in our lives. Love thy neighbor as thyself? I always have. When I hated me, I hated you. That's how it works. If I hate someone, I'm mistaking them for me, and solutions remain hidden.
― Byron Katie
It's not the problem that causes our suffering; it's our thinking about the problem.
― Byron Katie
When you believe that your problem is caused by someone or something else, you become your own victim.
― Byron Katie
Placing the blame or judgment on someone else leaves you powerless to change your experience; taking responsibility for your beliefs and judgments gives you the power to change them
― Byron Katie
The whole world is simply my story, projected back to me on the screen of my own perception. All of it.
― Byron Katie
The most important relationship is the mind's relationship with itself. In other words, the ultimate - and, really, the only - relationship you have is the relationship with your own thoughts.
― Byron Katie
Stress is an alarm clock that lets you know you're attached to something not true for you.
― Byron Katie
Fear has only two causes: the thought of losing what you have or the thought of not getting what you want.
― Byron Katie
Happiness is the natural state for someone who knows that there's nothing to know.
― Byron Katie
Love is action.
It's clear, it's kind, it's effortless, and it's irresistible.
― Byron Katie
God, as I use the word, is another name for what is. I always know God's intention: It's exactly what is in every moment.
― Byron Katie
It's not your job to like me - it's mine
― Byron Katie
I stopped waiting for the world to give me what I wanted; I started giving it to myself.
― Byron Katie
I can find only three kinds of business in the Universe: mine, yours, and God's.
― Byron Katie
Pay close attention to the particular thoughts you use to deprive yourself of happiness.
― Byron Katie
To argue with reality is to argue with God
― Byron Katie
I can find only three kinds of business in the universe: mine, yours and God's. Much of our stress comes from mentally living out of our business. When I think, "You need to get a job, I want you to be happy, you should be on time, you need to take better care of yourself," I am in your business. When I'm worried about earthquakes, floods, war, or when I will die, I am in God's business. If I am mentally in your business or in God's business, the effect is separation.
― Byron Katie
It's not easy to find your own way when you believe that you need love, approval, appreciation, or anything from your family. It's particularly hard when you want them to see things your way.
― Byron Katie
A thought is harmless unless we believe it.
― Byron Katie
We never make a decision. When the
time is right, the decision makes itself.
― Byron Katie
I came to see that there was nothing to forgive, that I was the one who caused my own problems.
― Byron Katie
Do you want to meet the love of your life? Look in the mirror.
― Byron Katie
You can’t change what you haven’t realized yet. Once you realize what you were asleep to, the change happens on its own.
― Byron Katie
If your beliefs are stressful and you question them, you come to see that they aren't true - whereas prior to questioning, you absolutely believe them. How can you live in joy when you're believing thoughts that bring on sadness, frustration, anger, alienation, and loneliness?
― 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
Life just happens. It’s what you’re believing about life that makes you suffer.
― Byron Katie
Reality doesn't wait for your opinion, vote, or permission, sweetheart. It just keeps being what it is and doing what it does.
― Byron Katie
We are never really in control. We just think we are when things happen to be going our way.
― Byron Katie
As long as you think that the cause of your problem is “out there”—as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering—the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you’re suffering in paradise.
― Byron Katie
If I had a prayer, it would be this: "God, spare me from the desire for love, approval, or appreciation. Amen."
― 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 move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer".
― Byron Katie
If you are an enemy to your own mind, other people have to become enemies too, sooner or later. Until you understand, until you can love the thoughts that appear in your mind, then you can love the rest of us. You work with the projector -the mind - not the projected world. I can't really love you until I question the mind that thinks it sees you outside itself . . .
― Byron Katie
No one has ever been able to control his thinking, although people may tell the story of how they have. I don't let go of my thoughts-I meet them with understanding. Then they let go of me.
― 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
The ego is terrified of the truth. And the truth is that the ego doesn't exist.
― Byron Katie
No one has ever been angry at
another human being-we’re only angry at
our story of them.
― Byron Katie
Nothing belongs to me. Everything comes and goes. Serenity is an open door.
― Byron Katie
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
Our parents, our children, our spouses, and our friends will continue to press every button we have, until we realize what it is that we don't want to know about ourselves, yet. They will point us to our freedom every time.
― Byron Katie
Since the past is unreal and the future is unreal, all your thoughts are about nothing.
― Byron Katie
When you realize that suffering and discomfort are the call to inquiry, you may actually begin to look forward to uncomfortable feelings. You may even experience them as friends coming to show you what you have not yet investigated thoroughly enough.
― Byron Katie
The world is nothing but my perception of it. I see only through myself. I hear only through the filter of my story.
― Byron Katie
You are the effect of your story, that's all.
― Byron Katie
Your most intimate relationship is the one you have with your thoughts.
― Byron Katie
An uncomfortable feeling is not an enemy. It's a gift that says, "Get honest; inquire." We reach out for alcohol, or television, or credit cards, so we can focus out there and not have to look at the feeling. And that's as it should be, because in our innocence we haven't known how. So now what we can do is reach out for a paper and a pencil, write thought down, and investigate.
― Byron Katie
Everything that happens is God's will. When you realize that, you're home free.
― Byron Katie
The Work always leaves you with less of a story.
Who would you be without your story?
You never know until you inquire.
There is no story that is you or that leads to you.
Every story leads away from you.
Turn it around; undo it.
You are what exists before all stories.
You are what remains when the story is understood.
― Byron Katie
It's not what happens in life that bothers us. It's what we're believing about it that bothers us.
― Byron Katie
Everyone in your life is a figment of your imagination--ev en you.
― Byron Katie
My experience is that the teachers we need most are the people we're living with right now.
― Byron Katie
Reality is always kinder than your thinking.
― Byron Katie
When you discover that all happiness is inside you, the wanting and needing are over, and life gets very exciting.
― Byron Katie
Nothing you believe is true. To know
this is freedom.
― Byron Katie
We say to others only what we need to hear
― Byron Katie
I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment.
― Byron Katie
It's difficult to seek other people's love. It's deadly. In seeking it you lose what is genuine. This is the prison we create for ourselves as we seek what we already have.
― Byron Katie
I'm most inspired whenever I hear of even the smallest act of human kindness.
― Byron Katie
The opening to reality, as it really is, is beauty.
― Byron Katie
We do not mature through age. We mature in awareness.
― Byron Katie
What you’re believing in the moment creates your suffering or your happiness.
Byron Katie
―
When a thought hurts, that’s the signal that it isn’t true.
― Byron Katie
I love what I think, and I'm never tempted to believe it.
― Byron Katie
When your mind opens, the whole world falls into place.
― Byron Katie
There is nothing that isn't true if you believe it; and nothing is true, believe it or not.
― Byron Katie
Any thought of discomfort or stress is an alarm that lets you know you're believing an untrue thought
― Byron Katie
The Ego’s job is to kill everything but itself
― Byron Katie
No-one can disappoint you, only your thoughts about them can
― Byron Katie
It's not possible to have a problem without believing a prior thought. To notice this simple truth is the beginning of peace.
― Byron Katie
If I want something, I go get it. Anything that I believe will stop me, I question.
― Byron Katie
When we love what is, it becomes so simple to live in the world.
The world is exactly as it should be.
― Byron Katie
Until the mind is open, the heart stays closed. The open mind is the key to the open heart.
― Byron Katie
Reality - the way that is, exactly as it is, in every moment - is always kind. It's our story about reality that blurs our vision, obscures what's true, and leads us to believe that there is injustice in the world. I sometimes say that you move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer.
― Byron Katie
I love not rushing the process. Mind doesn't shift until it does, and when it does shift, it's right on time, not one second too late or too soon. People are like seeds waiting to sprout. We can't be pushed ahead of our own understanding.
― Byron Katie
One morning, in February 1986, out of nowhere, I experienced a realization. In an instant, I discovered that when I believed my stressful thoughts, I suffered, but when I questioned them, I didn't suffer.
― Byron Katie
To exclude anything that appears in your universe is not love. Love joins with everything. It doesn't exclude the monster. It doesn't avoid the nightmare - it looks forward to it.
― Byron Katie
Without our stories, we are not only able to act clearly and fearlessly, we are also a friend, a listener. We are people living happy lives. We are appreciation and gratitude that have become as natural as breath itself. Happiness is the natural state for someone who knows that there's nothing to know and that we already have everything we need, right here now.
― Byron Katie
The mind usually says, “I know, I know, I know.” But the “don’t-know mind” is where wisdom lives.
― 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
We don’t attach to things; we attach to our stories about them.
― 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
Don't be careful. You could hurt yourself.
― Byron Katie
Every uncomfortable feeling, every pain, every moment of stress & suffering is for your own self-realizatio n.
― Byron Katie
A thought is harmless unless we believe it. It’s not our thoughts, but our attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. Attaching to a thought means believing that it’s true, without inquiring. A belief is a thought that we’ve been attaching to, often for years.
― Byron Katie
That's the purpose of stress. It's a friend. It's an alarm clock, built in to let you know that it's time to do The Work.
― Byron Katie
The world is what you believe it to be, and it changes as you change.
― Byron Katie
Gratitude is what we are without a story.
― Byron Katie
I have never experienced a stressful feeling that wasn't caused by attaching to an untrue thought. Behind every uncomfortable feeling, there's a thought that isn't true for us.
― Byron Katie
When you realize that every stressful moment you experience is a gift that points you to your own freedom, life becomes very kind.
― Byron Katie
Thinking that what you want equals what's best for you is a dead end.
Byron Katie
What would it be like to let go of wanting things to be other than they are?
― Byron Katie
Mind changes, and as a result, the world changes. A clear mind heals everything that needs to be healed.
― Byron Katie
The best way of leading people is to let them find their own way.
― Byron Katie
Whatever it takes for you to find your freedom, that's what you've lived.
― Byron Katie
The only way I can be angry at you is when I have thought, said, or done something that is unkind in my own opinion.
― Byron Katie
Whenever you think that your needs are not being met, you’re telling the story of a future
― Byron Katie
When you become a lover of what is, the war is over.
― Byron Katie
In my experience, we don't make thoughts appear, they just appear. One day, I noticed that their appearance just wasn't personal. Noticing that really makes it simpler to inquire.
― Byron Katie
If someone says, "Katie, you are out of order," over something I've said, or, "Katie, you are wrong," if I defend myself or justify myself, then I have just started the war.
― Byron Katie
Nothing terrible has ever happened except in our thinking. Reality is always good, even in situations that seem like nightmares. The story we tell is the only nightmare that we have lived.
― Byron Katie
That's what every uncomfortable feeling is for-that's what pain is for, what money is for, what everything in the world is for: your self-realization.
― Byron Katie
If our thinking is clear, how could work or money be the problem? Our thinking is all we need to change.
― Byron Katie
When they attack you and you notice that you love them with all your heart, your Work is done.
― Byron Katie
As long as we believe our thoughts, there will always be war.
― 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
It doesn´t come later. Everything you´re supposed to do is here right now.
― Byron Katie
In the fall, you don't grieve because the leaves are falling and dying. You say, "Isn't it beautiful!" Well, we're the same way. There are seasons. We all fall sooner or later. It's all so beautiful. And our concepts, without investigation, keep us from knowing this. It's beautiful to be a leaf, to be born, to fall, to give way to the next, to become food for the roots. It's life, always changing its form and always giving itself completely. We all do our part. No mistake.
― Byron Katie
When safety is our priority, we live our lives being very, very careful, and we wind up having no lives
― Byron Katie
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