Meet Your Internal Wisdom

The Work is meditation. It is a method of inquiry born directly out of Byron Katie’s experience. This practice allows you to access the wisdom that always exists within you.

A Simple Yet Powerful Practice

As we do The Work, not only do we remain alert to our stressful thoughts—the ones that cause all the anger, sadness, and frustration in your world—but we question them, and through that questioning the thoughts lose their power over us. Great spiritual texts describe the what—what it means to be free. The Work is the how. It shows you exactly how to identify and question any thought that would keep you from that freedom.

How to do The Work

The Practice

Every step of The Work is meditation. To begin, drop into stillness and observe what arises in the mind's eye. Now, allow The Work to work you.

More Detailed Guidance

Notice

Who or what upsets, angers, or saddens you? Why? Recall a specific situation.

Painful emotions are the temple bells that wake you up to tell you, "It's time to do The Work."

Write

Capture your stressful thoughts on a Worksheet using short, simple sentences.

Once the mind is stopped on paper, thoughts remain stable and inquiry can easily be applied.

Question

Isolate and question one thought—allow authentic answers to arise.

A question is an invitation to the mind, an opportunity to be shown what is true, beyond what we think we know.

Turn It Around

Find opposites of the thought. Are they as true as or truer than the original thought?

The turnarounds give consciousness an opportunity to expand, rather than being stuck in a limited reality.

Witness The Work

Video Library

Videos offer a way to become familiar with The Work. As you watch, be still and tune in to a similar moment in your life. Notice what arises in your mind. It is possible to do your own Work as you witness other people’s Work. You may come to find that there are no new stressful thoughts.

Visit the Video Library

The 9-Day

School for The Work

The School for The Work is the School of You. Byron Katie is there with you every day, at every session, to guide you into the deep places of The Work.

This is a School of stillness, of presence, and of meditating on the thoughts that have limited you and held you back in your relationships and at work. It’s an opportunity to discover the cause of all suffering and how to end it. Most participants describe these nine days as the most important days of their life.

Learn More

Join Byron Katie

Upcoming Events

Byron Katie offers her experience in The Work at programs ranging in length from two hours to twenty-eight days.

Woodacre, California + Live Webcast

24 Aug. 2019

Spirit Rock Meditation Center

Radical Wisdom—The Work with Byron Katie

Ojai

5—8 Sep. 2019

Byron Katie’s No-Body Intensive

A Four-day Immersion into the End of Suffering

Ojai, California + Facebook Live

3 Oct. 2019

LIVE at Home with Byron Katie

Big Sur, California

11—13 Oct. 2019

Esalen Institute

Loving What Is: The Work with Byron Katie

Ojai, CA

5—14 Nov. 2019

November 2019 School for The Work

The Ultimate Inner Adventure

“Byron Katie’s Work is a great blessing for our planet. It acts like a razor-sharp sword that cuts through illusion and enables you to know for yourself the timeless essence of your being.”

Eckhart Tolle

“A spiritual innovator for the new millennium.”

Time Magazine

“Byron Katie has rocked my world and shaken loose my mind more thoroughly than any other spiritual teacher I’ve ever encountered, living or dead. Using her simple process called The Work, I have managed to liberate myself from thoughts and beliefs that had brought me years of suffering, and that I had honestly feared would never leave me.”

Elizabeth Gilbert

“Byron Katie is an immeasurable gift to the world.”

Martha Beck

“Beyond addressing/dissolving psychological tendencies such as anger and depression, The Work has the singular power to dissolve all beliefs. Undoing one belief at a time, its ultimate impact can dislodge the very center-pole of ego, leading to the realization of who or what we truly are. That is, The Work can bring us home to our true nature, which is universal love, profound wisdom, and freedom from all suffering. ”

Jonathan Herrick, LCSW, psychotherapist and former Buddhist practitioner

“Katie’s events are riveting. Her laser-like tough love burns away all illusions.”

The Times of London

An Invitation to Inquiry

Welcome to The Work

I discovered that when I believed my thoughts I suffered, but 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. That joy is in everyone, always. And I invite you to not to believe me. I invite you to test it for yourself.

– Byron Katie