Disclaimer: This group is not part of the regular Treeleaf forum. To take part, you must have registered on the original thread (https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...ase-Read-Agree) and agreed to the group rules.
Note - Onka needs to step back from co-leading this group for her own health so I will be posting all of the notes from now on. I very much hope that she will remain as part of the group and continue to offer her own valuable experiences and insights with us and am grateful for all that she has contributed thus far.
This chapter of How to be Sick is about the ‘Work’ of Byron Katie. Katie is an author and speaker who teaches a method of self-enquiry that many people have found helpful. However, her approach has also been heavily criticised in that she can be seen to push participants in her workshop to deny or negate what they are feeling, something we do not advise in Sōtō practice.
She described her initial breakthrough in the following terms which most of here would almost certainly agree with:
"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."
For those who are interested, this is a recent discussion we had on Byron Katie and her Work, and we decide to go ahead with this chapter anyway and allow members to take or leave the content with the disclaimer that we do not advise negating or denying feelings even as equally we also do not advise totally buying into them either: https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...ighlight=Byron
With respect to illness, how helpful do you find Ayya Khema’s words? “Thoughts are just there, like the air around us. They arise but are arbitrary and not reliable. Most of them are just rubbish, but we believe them anyway.”
How much do you believe your thoughts when they arise, especially around illness? Has this been a problem for you?
Do you find there are aspects of the inquiries given in this chapter that you have used or you think could be helpful?
As always, please feel free to answer any of those questions or anything else that comes up for you after reading this chapter.
In terms of practice, notice what thoughts arise with regard to illness and what you are currently experiencing with respect to that in terms of yourself or the person you care for. What ways of working with thoughts work for you in terms of helping to see that they are constructions of the mind rather than absolute truth?
Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-
Note - Onka needs to step back from co-leading this group for her own health so I will be posting all of the notes from now on. I very much hope that she will remain as part of the group and continue to offer her own valuable experiences and insights with us and am grateful for all that she has contributed thus far.
This chapter of How to be Sick is about the ‘Work’ of Byron Katie. Katie is an author and speaker who teaches a method of self-enquiry that many people have found helpful. However, her approach has also been heavily criticised in that she can be seen to push participants in her workshop to deny or negate what they are feeling, something we do not advise in Sōtō practice.
She described her initial breakthrough in the following terms which most of here would almost certainly agree with:
"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."
For those who are interested, this is a recent discussion we had on Byron Katie and her Work, and we decide to go ahead with this chapter anyway and allow members to take or leave the content with the disclaimer that we do not advise negating or denying feelings even as equally we also do not advise totally buying into them either: https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...ighlight=Byron
With respect to illness, how helpful do you find Ayya Khema’s words? “Thoughts are just there, like the air around us. They arise but are arbitrary and not reliable. Most of them are just rubbish, but we believe them anyway.”
How much do you believe your thoughts when they arise, especially around illness? Has this been a problem for you?
Do you find there are aspects of the inquiries given in this chapter that you have used or you think could be helpful?
As always, please feel free to answer any of those questions or anything else that comes up for you after reading this chapter.
In terms of practice, notice what thoughts arise with regard to illness and what you are currently experiencing with respect to that in terms of yourself or the person you care for. What ways of working with thoughts work for you in terms of helping to see that they are constructions of the mind rather than absolute truth?
Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-
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