The Work is a way to identify and question the thoughts that cause all the suffering in the world.
Anyone with an open mind can do it. The Work consists of four questions and a turnaround, which is a way to experience the opposite of what you believe.
The four questions are:
1. Is it true?
2. Can you absolutely know that it's true?
3. How do you react when you believe that thought?
4. Who would you be without the thought?
When we do The Work, we free ourselves from the effects of believing thoughts such as ‘He doesn't love me,’ ‘I'm a failure,’ ‘No one understands me,’ ‘My mother doesn't listen to me,’ ‘My children are out of control,’ ‘I'm too fat,’ ‘I need more money,’ ‘Something terrible is going to happen.’
By exposing unconscious beliefs to the clear light of direct investigation, the mind wakes up to its innocent mistake and drops its losing battle. This happens naturally when we see that something we once believed is proven wrong - for example, when we learn years later that a bitter disagreement was based on a simple misunderstanding. With The Work, we don't have to wait months or years to resolve our lingering issues; liberating insights happen consistently and on purpose, showing us that suffering is ultimately based on a misunderstanding - our own. And, when we give up ‘what should be’, we can experience the perfection of ‘what is.’
When you’re a lover of what is, it’s obvious that the world is your own face in the mirror. But how do you become a lover of what is? The ‘how’ has been a mystery till now. Now it’s clear that all you need to do is investigate your stressful thoughts. The four questions and turnaround of The Work will take you as deep as you want to go.
People think that they need to get ‘enlightened’ in order to be free, and nobody knows what enlightenment is. Yes, it’s in the sacred texts, and yes, this guru or that lama says he has attained it, but that’s just a concept; it’s the story of a past. The truth is that there’s no such thing as enlightenment. No one is permanently enlightened; that would be the story of a future. There’s only one enlightenment in the moment. Do you believe a stressful thought? Then you’re confused. Do you realize that the thought isn’t true? Then you’re enlightened to it. It’s as simple as that. And then the next thought comes, and maybe you’re enlightened to it as well, and maybe not.
I have found that there are no new stressful thoughts, they’re all recycled. People try to ‘let go’ of their thoughts. That’s like telling your child you don’t want her and kicking her onto the street. I used to go out into the desert to get away from all the noise of the world, and I took the whole world with me in my head - every concept that had ever been experienced. I was undoing the thoughts that run through the mind of every human being. Thoughts are no more individual than the TV programme that everyone watches. I have found that all over the world, in every language and culture, people suffer because they believe the same stressful thoughts: ‘My mother doesn’t love me.’ ‘I’m not good enough.’ ‘I’m fat.’ ‘My husband should understand me.’ ‘My wife shouldn’t have left me.’ ‘The world needs to be saved.’ Of course, I would never ask people not to believe their thoughts. Not only would that be unkind: it isn’t possible for people not to believe what they believe. We can’t help believing our thoughts until we question them. That’s the way of it.
People used to ask me if I was enlightened, and I would say, ‘I don’t know anything about that. I’m just someone who knows the difference between what hurts and what doesn’t.’ I am someone who wants only what is. To meet as a friend each concept that arose turned out to be my freedom.
I have a friend whose wife fell in love with another man. He had been doing The Work for a while, and instead of going into sadness and panic, he questioned his thinking. ‘ “She should stay with me” - is it true? I can’t know that. How do I react when I believe the thought? Extremely upset. Who would I be without that thought? I would love her and just wish the best for her.’ This man really wanted to know the truth. When he questioned his thinking, he found something extremely precious. ‘Eventually,’ he said, ‘I was able to see it as something that should be happening, because it was. When my wife told me about it, she didn’t have to censor anything to protect me. It was amazing to hear what it was like for her, without taking any of it personally. It was the most liberating experience I ever had.’ His wife moved in with the other man, and he was fine with that, because he didn’t want her to stay if she didn’t want to. A few months later, she hit a crisis point with her lover and needed someone to talk to. She went to her best friend - her husband. They calmly discussed her options. She decided to get a place of her own where she could work things out, and eventually, after many ups and downs, she went back to her husband. Through all this drama, whenever my friend found himself mentally at war with reality and experiencing pain or fear, he inquired into the thought he was believing at that moment, and returned to a calm and cheerful state of mind. He came to know for himself that the only possible problem he could have was his unquestioned thinking. His wife gave him everything he needed for his own freedom.
Extracted from A Thousand Names for Joy, © 2007 by Byron Kathleen Mitchell (published in the UK by Rider), and from www.thework.com
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