A mind at home with itself How asking four questions can free your mind, open your heart, and turn your world around

Byron Katie

Book - 2017

"In A Mind at Home with Itself, Byron Katie illuminates one of the most profound ancient Buddhist texts, The Diamond Sutra (newly translated in these pages by distinguished scholar Stephen Mitchell) to reveal the nature of the mind and to liberate us from painful thoughts, using her revolutionary system of self-inquiry called 'The Work.' Byron Katie doesn't merely describe the awakened mind; she empowers us to see it and feel it in action. At once startlingly fresh and powerfully enlightening, A Mind at Home with Itself offers us a transformative new perspective on life and death and is certain to become a classic." -- From book jacket.

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2nd Floor 158.1/Katie Due Dec 26, 2024
Subjects
Published
New York, NY : HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins [2017]
Language
English
Main Author
Byron Katie (author)
Other Authors
Stephen Mitchell, 1943- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xxiv, 305 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9780062651600
9780062651594
  • Foreword
  • About Inquiry
  • About the Diamond Sutra
  • About This Version of the Diamond Sutra
  • 1. The Cosmic Joke
  • 2. Bowing to a Grain of Sand
  • 3. The Radiant Moment
  • 4. Giving Is Receiving
  • The Work in Action: "Dave Didn't Acknowledge Me"
  • 5. Everyday Buddhas
  • 6. Mind Is Everything, Mind Is Good
  • 7. At Home in the Ordinary
  • 8. The Ultimate Generosity
  • 9. Love Comes Back for Itself
  • 10. Living in Inquiry
  • 11. The Gift of Criticism
  • 12. Teaching a Cat to Bark
  • The Work in Action: "My Mother Attacks Me"
  • 13. The World Beyond Names
  • 14. Noting Belongs to Us
  • 15. Coming Home
  • 16. Everything Happens for You, Not to You
  • 17. Life Without Separation
  • 18. Freedom Is Not Believing Your Thoughts
  • The Work in Action: "Sophia Doesn't Listen"
  • 19. Inconceivable Wealth
  • 20. The Perfect Body
  • 21. Nothing to Lose
  • 22. Picking Up the Garbage
  • 23. Gratitude Has No Why
  • 24. The Cause of All Suffering
  • The Work in Action: "Daniel Doesn't Keep His Promises"
  • 25. Equal Wisdom
  • 26. A Buddha in the House
  • 27. The Space Between Thoughts
  • 28. "Brush Your Teeth!"
  • 29. Being Transparent
  • 30. A World That's Completely Kind
  • The Work in Action: "Glenn Is Drinking Again"
  • 31. The True Nature of Everything
  • 32. Loving the Dream
  • Appendix: How to Do The Work
  • Contact Information
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Authors
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In her newest book, Mitchell (Loving What Is), who goes by Byron Katie, speaks about her method of self-inquiry, "the Work," through the lens of the Diamond Sutra-a Buddhist text that emphasizes the teachings of nonself, emptiness, and nonattachment-and arrives at some suspect conclusions. Suffering, she posits, is caused by "arguing with what is" through the stories and thoughts that one believes about the world. Mitchell explains how she uses the Work to question the truthfulness of apparent thoughts, turn them around to provide alternative perspectives, and reveal what is really happening in any situation. The Work allows "wordless questioning" to arise, which Mitchell says will show "everything as it really is: as pure grace." However, Mitchell's interpretation of the Diamond Sutra leads to more distressing implications. "Suffering is optional," she writes, because problems are individually, solipsistically created; Mitchell places the blame squarely on the individual's inability to regulate the mind rather than the presence of any external, objective causes of suffering. The world that Mitchell occupies is a world of self-projections, and she goes so far as to characterize compassion as "pure selfishness" since there are no real others and all suffering is imagined. The result is an (unintended) solipsistic worldview that does not acknowledge the possibility of external sources of suffering. New readers should approach Mitchell's newest book on the Work with caution. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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