The Work of Byron Katie: Bonding Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya with Satya & Santosha

8/31/2020

Yama and Niyamas Activism Teagan Patell de Valverde

Yoga & ANti-Racism Series,
Part 4.1 of 8

Now having reconsidered Satya (propagation of comprehensive truth) together with Santosha (multiple truth reconciliation), and reexamined Brahmacharya (active practice and movement toward unity conscious) in the context of Svadhyaya (self-awareness in reflecting on our separateness or duality), it's time to apply embodied practice with these Yamas and Niyamas to solidify our guiding cairn.

Bonding Brahmacharya & Svadhyaya with Satya & Santosha Coco Yoga & Wellness

The Work of Byron Katie comes to mind as a champion method to apply these first Yama/Niyama principles, identify and unpack our beliefs, and consider new alternatives. While several books and online resources are available to investigate The Work in great depth and at great length, the essential practice is quite simple and straightforward, though it does require a commitment to apply focused process and attention. While The Work may be applied around myriad subjects and can be an excellent tool in navigating our efforts and investigation into anti-racism, I recommend, as Byron Katie suggests, starting first with a personal situation to experience the potency of the practice and how our ideas may shift drastically.

Applying Personal Practice as a Foundation for anti-racism

On Byron Katie's website, The Work is outline in four discrete steps: Notice, Write, Question, and Turn it Around.

Notice:
First we identify a specific situation where we felt angry, hurt, confused, sad, or disappointed with someone. We take time to meditate on the situation, to sit still and relax, to recall the details of the situation as if we are witnessing it in our mind. We identify who or what upset us, and notice, name, and feel the emotion that we experienced at the time. We find the root cause or reason that we were upset.

Write:
Staying rooted in the memory and feeling of the specific situation, we respond to six prompts to capture our stressful thoughts in short, simple sentences.
1. We identify the emotion we feel, with whom, and why. For example, "I am angry with Paul because he lied to me."
2. We identify how we want the person to change and what we want them to do. For example, "I want Paul to see that he is wrong. I want him to stop lying to me."
3.  We write down our advice for the person. For example, "Paul shouldn't frighten me with his behavior. He should take a deep breath."
4.  We write down what we need in order to feel better about the situation. For example, "I need Paul to stop talking over me. I need him to listen."
5. We list our complaints about the person or the situation. For example, "Paul is a liar, arrogant, loud, dishonest, and unaware."
6. We write down what it is about the person or situation that we don't ever want to experience again. For example, "I don't ever want Paul to lie to me again. I don't ever want to be disrespected again."
As we express our feelings in writing, we should allow ourselves to be as petty, judgemental, or childish as we may feel without censorship; this is our opportunity to discover our true emotions from that moment.

Question:
Now, one by one, we isolate each of our statements in response to the six prompts and take time to meditate on its truth. For each statement, we repeat the statement we've made, ask four questions, and listen and wait for genuine answers.
1. Is it true? (yes or no. If no, skip to question 3)
2. Can we absolutely know that it’s true? (yes or no)
3. How do we react, what happens, when we believe that thought?
4. Who would we be without that thought?
Whatever answers come are okay; our aim is to get clear about our true beliefs in relation to our emotional reactions. We may feel that all that we have said is absolutely true, or we may feel that there's space for a different interpretation or further investigation. It is important to recognize how our beliefs affect our own experience and how our experience might shift if our beliefs were to shift.

Turn It Around:
Finally, we practice turning around each of our statements to find multiple opposing statements and consider whether they may be as true as or truer than our original thoughts. A statement often can be turned around to the self, the other, the opposite, and written in contrasting language. Each statement will be different--some have one or two opposites, some have four or more--don't force any that don't make sense. Sometimes to find a good turnaround, we can replace the subject with "my thinking." For example instead of, "My body should be more flexible," we can say, "My thinking should be more flexible." For turnarounds to the sixth prompt about what we never want to experience again, turnarounds can begin with "I welcome..." or "I look forward to..."

For the above example, "Paul lied to me," we may find the following four turnarounds, "I lied to me. I lied to Paul. Paul didn't lie to me. Paul told me the truth." As we consider the truth and validity of the opposing statements, we should stretch ourselves to identify any examples or evidence that could support them. In this example we can explore how the deception was really our own wanting to believe, our own self-deception. We can explore how clear and honest we were with Paul in the situation. We can explore Paul's understanding and intentions, and his own truth in his lived experience.

The Work of Byron Katie binds Satya, Santosha, Svadhyaya, and Brahmacharya as we examine the validity of our beliefs and look for other possibilities (Satya), we exercise mental inversions and create space for opposing viewpoints (Santosha), we recognize the possible differences and disparities between our interpretation of an event and how it may have been experienced by another (Svadhyaya), and we engage with The Work as an active practice in our aim to approach unity consciousness (Brahmacharya.) While The Work is challenging, this contemplative yoga bears beautiful fruits, and I encourage you to apply the practice once or twice a week, and to notice how your beliefs and experiences transform and evolve. Start with whatever experience is most prominent in your awareness, whatever has you most upset in this moment, whatever is most energetically charged, as there you will find the most helpful results. As we continue with the practice and work through different memories and situations, we may then begin to apply the practice to specific Anti-Racism work, checking in with our beliefs about what we're hearing in the news and how we interpret "the facts" of any given situation.

Enjoy the practice, and please let me know how it goes. Namaste ~ Teagan