The Dao De Jing (or Tao Te Ching) is the quintessential Daoist text that one can study for a lifetime and continue to find powerful personal relevance in. Having read, re-read and in some cases memorized its chapters, I am always delighted when I find new meaning in it’s familiar passages that transform how I view myself and my world. Byron Katie’s A Thousand Names for Joy is a deep dive into mastering the mind through selected verses from the timeless 2,500 year old classic Dao De Jing.
Being a very physically oriented person, most of my past readings of the Dao De Jing (DDJ) resonated as interpretations of my physical rather than mental world. Byron Katie’s take on this literary classic have helped free my mind using the same words that have helped me free my body. I started reading the DDJ when my SiFu told me it was the only text to bother with and contained everything one needed to know about the martial arts and chi. For years I read from it every morning before my sunrise qigong practice. Doing so taught me through it’s words to appreciate my body for what it is, not desiring it to be something else. This appreciation for my physical self helped heal my relationship with my body and I believe is one of the reasons I remain mostly pain-free despite my numerous injuries from a Generation X lifestyle.
For the past 2 months I have read and re-read A Thousand Names for Joy by Byron Katie every morning before qigong and it has helped me use my practice to heal my thoughts as well as my body. In each chapter of her book, Katie elaborates on a single line or two from DDJ from her perspective not of a tai chi practitioner or martial artist, but that of someone who has mastered her mind and brought herself to a place of pure wisdom. Many notable people (including Wayne Dyer and Eckhart Tolle) have called Katie "enlightened." Her insights into the meanings of this Chinese classic have helped free my mind by appreciating reality for what it is, not desiring it to be something else.
In the past, my thoughts have betrayed me into believing that the world should be something other than what it is. A great deal of my past unrest has come from believing the general themes of “This shouldn’t be happening,” and “Life and people aren’t fair.” Bryon Katie’s work has helped free my mind from being caught in the trap of longing for what isn’t and brought my thoughts back into what is, living in the present moment not the past or a future that may never exist. “I shouldn’t have gotten evicted when I always pay my rent on time” became “I got to move again and experience something new and different.” The distinction between these two frames of mind is obvious. The first is based on believing the world should be different than it is. The second is the actual reality of the situation. My mind is now free of the burden that I was somehow slighted or wronged by the world. My war with reality is over and I can use that energy for something more fulfilling.
The on-going quest to know myself led me first to The Work of Byron Katie as a form of cognitive behavioral therapy. When I discovered she had a book based on DDJ, I ordered it immediately and am profoundly grateful I found it. It has helped me know myself on a very deep level of mind that I was unaware of before. As Eckhart Tolle’s review of A Thousand Names for Joy states, it “. . .acts like a razor-sharp sword that cuts through illusion and enables you to know for yourself the timeless essence of your being.” I can attest that this sword often hurts as it cuts away outer layers of mental illusion, some of which may have been in place since childhood. Not everyone will appreciate these teachings; occasionally they may resemble the world of a mad woman, making us question what is real. Not all minds are ready to be free. When we begin to understand our own mental processes and where our defenses come from, we unravel one of the great lies of our time that binds minds and keeps many in mental slavery. The world has never been broken or against us or anyone else. Rather it supports us all and has done so all our lives.
A Thousand Names for Joy has inspired me to pursue my own mental freedom further than I ever have before. It has also brought another layer of meaning to the timeless Dao De Jing for me that hadn’t existed prior to reading Byron Katie’s work. Gratefully, I will never be the same since reading both of these books and will continue to study them for years to come.
“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.” Bob Marley