A Thousand Names for Joy, subtitled, Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are, by Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell. This book was inspired by one of the Wisest books ever written, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu. Using the template of the 81 chapters of the Tao Te Ching, Mrs. Katie delivers an inspiring and pragmatic approach to achieving an awakened mind. Katie and Mitchell decoded Lao Tzu’s Wisdom into what they called: “A Thousand Names for Joy. 

Byron Kathleen Mitchell, better known as Byron Katie, is an American speaker, writer, and author of two bestselling books, Loving What Is,

And I Need Your Love—Is That True?    But more so, she’s the founder of a method of self-inquiry called The Work of Byron Katie or simply The Work. You can visit her website, www.TheWork.com, where you’ll find her blog, schedule, free hotline, audio and video clips, articles, and basic information about The Work. 

Stephen Mitchell has written many books, including a translation of the bestselling, The Tao Te Ching, The Gospel According to Jesus and Gilgamesh. You can read extensive excerpts from all of his books on his website, www.stephenmitchellbooks.com

A thousand names for Joy, is a book that shows us the way to inner peace, living fearlessly, relentlessly, and with the utmost generosity. Mrs. Katie talks about her experience of living in harmony with the way things are and the mental freedom she’d discovered after years of battling depression and self-hatred. So, without further delays, I present you, ‘A Thousand Names for Joy.’ 
Please enjoy 😊 

A Thousand Names for Joy Book Summary

1

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao

  -The key takeaways.

Reality cannot be expressed in words because this would be a limitation of what you are trying to describe. 

Byron Katie pinpoints that when the mind believes what it thinks, it names what cannot be named and tries to make it real through a name.

The Tao that can be told isn’t the eternal Tao because you’ll bring it into time by trying to tell it.  As Katie remarked, once anything is named, it’s no longer eternal. “Eternal” means free, without limit, without a position in time or space, lived without obstacle.

It’s the space where everything is already answered in joyful silence.

2

When people see some things as good, other things become bad.

  -The key takeaways from passage #2

To a clear mind, everything in the world is beautiful in its own way. Only by believing your own thoughts can you make the real unreal.

Once you no longer believe your thoughts, you act without doing anything because there’s no other possibility.

Things seem to arise, and the Master lets them go because they’re already gone.

Byron Katie goes on by saying, “How could she not let go of what doesn’t exist except as the story of a past or a future?”

A mind that doesn’t question its judgment makes the world very small and dangerous.

3

Practice not-doing, and everything will Fall into place 

  -The key takeaways from passage #3

The Master leads simply by being. “Being” looks like doing the dishes, answering the phone, driving, feeding the dog, and doing one thing at a time, without a past or future.

Reality unfolds without desire, bringing with it more beauty, more luxury, and more exquisite surprises than the imagination could ever devise.

Even when we get what we want, we want it to last. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Because it cannot. But when you allow life to flow like water, you become water. And you watch life lived to the ultimate, always giving you more than you need.

4

It is like the Eternal Void: filled with infinite possibilities.

–  The key takeaways from passage #4

The mind is a natural resource that never comes to an end. We can call the Tao “reality.” We can also call it “mind.” When it no longer believes its thoughts, it has entered the dimension of the unlimited. Katie compares it to a bottomless well: you can always draw from it, which will always give you the water of life.

You give birth to it every time your own mind opens to what is beyond what you think you know.

5

The Tao doesn’t take sides; it gives birth to both good and evil.

  The key takeaways from passage #5

The master can’t take sides. she’s in love with reality which includes everything—both sides of everything.

She finds everything in herself: all crimes, all holiness. She doesn’t see saints as saints or sinners as sinners; they’re just people who are suffering or not, believing their thoughts or not. 

Katie reminds us that to live without a stressful story, to be a lover of what is, even in pain, should be considered heaven. But to be in pain and believe that you shouldn’t be in pain—that’s hell.

All suffering is mental. Explains Katie; it has nothing to do with the body or with a person’s circumstance.

6

Empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds.

-Key takeaways from passage #6.

Byron Katie acknowledges that the mind gives birth to infinite worlds—of this and that, loss and sorrow, good and evil. It’s complete from the beginning, yet it’s inexhaustible or endless in producing what isn’t.

There is no peace in the world until there’s peace within you.

Why? Because you are the world, you are the earth. 

You may not yet realize this phenomenon, but once you begin to see it, it will leave you with nothing but peace and joy.

It’s fulfilling to be aware of everything unfolding in front of you… as you.

7

It was never born; thus, it can never die.

-key takeaways from passage #7

If you question your mind deeply enough, you’ll see that what you are is beyond life and death.

When the mind is no longer seeking, it then becomes free to travel limitlessly. it understands that since it was never born, it can never die.

It’s infinite because it has no desires for itself. It withholds nothing. It’s unconditional, unceasing, fearless, tireless, and without reservations. it has to give. That’s its nature.

Since all beings are their reflected self, it’s constantly receiving and giving itself back to itself.

She is detached from all things; when they come, that’s what she wants. And when they go, that’s what she wants. it’s all fine with her. She is in love with it as it comes and goes. She is one with it all.

8

The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to. It is content with the low places that people disdain.

-The key takeaways from passage #7

Katie wants to remind us that the supreme good is like water. It is transparent; it sparkles, and it flows everywhere without obstruction.

It is beautiful and profound, the nourishment that feeds all things internally without trying to.

Katie strongly believes that you don’t have to be someone else when we all can walk up a staircase, stand, and move in our own way. She argued that no one has more or less opportunity to be himself, to love and be content with himself.

Comparing is nothing more than believing the story that the past would invent as a future. It’s so much simpler to be what you are. 

9

Do your work, then step back—the only path to serenity.

-The key takeaways from passage #8

Do your work and step back from it because it never did belong to you in the first place.

Most people think that the world is outside them. They live life backward, running after security and approval as if by making enough money or getting enough praise, they could be happy once and for all. But that is far from the truth, Katie said. Nothing outside of us can give us what we’re really looking for.

Serenity is an open door.

10

Can you coax your mind from its wandering and keep to the original oneness?

  -The key takeaways from this passage 

Byron Katie clarifies that when you don’t believe your thoughts, what is, is what you are.

There’s no separation in it.

The center of the universe is wherever you are, and it’s everywhere.

Realizing that you’ve never left the original oneness means that you were never born, and you can never die. 

“I don’t know what’s best for me or you or the world. I don’t try to impose my will on you or anyone else. I don’t want to change, improve, convert, or help or heal you. I welcome things as they come and go. That’s true love. The best way of leading people is to let them find their own way.” – Byron Katie.

11

we work with being, but non-being is what we use.

  The key takeaways from passage #11

When you realize that you’re no one, you’re comfortable with everyone, no matter how desperate or depraved they may seem.

The wonderful thing about knowing who you are is that you’re always in a state of grace and gratitude for the abundance of the apparent world.

As Katie puts it, the bottom line is that when the mind is closed, the heart is closed; when the mind is open, the heart is open. So, if you want to open your heart, question your thinking.

12

The Master observes the world but trusts her inner vision.

  -The key takeaways from passage #12

The Master observes the colors of the world, its sounds, flavor, and thoughts. Since they are all reflections of the mind and her realization is precise and indisputable, she is never fooled.

She watches things as they come and go.

The nature of things is to come and go, with or without her permission.

13

Love the world as yourself; then you can care for all things.

  -The key takeaways from passage #13

When you are a lover of what it is, it’s evident that the world is your face in the mirror.

It can go anywhere without a position to defend or an identity to protect. There’s never anything to lose because nothing exists in the first place.

Laughter pours out of it, and tears of gratitude from the experience of its own nature.

14

Seamless, and unnamable, it returns to the realm of nothing.

  -The key takeaways from passage #14

The mind becomes frightened when considering what it was born from since that can never be controlled or known.

As Katie clarified, what is real can’t be seen, heard, thought, or grasped. You’re just seeing your own eyes, hearing your own ears, reacting to the world of your own imagination.

It’s all created by your mind in the first place. You name it; you create it, and you give it meaning upon meaning. You add the what to reality, and then you add the why. It’s all you.

Without identification as a body, the mind is left to die, and death never comes for it because what never lived can never die.

The original is wiped out in the wave of the new, which is already old. Thought deletes anything outside itself.

Your attachment to it is the only suffering.

15

Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?

  -The key takeaways from passage #15

when you have what you want, as Katie explains—when you are what you want—there’s no impulse to seek anything outside yourself.

Seeking is the movement away from the awareness that your life is already complete.

The Master can’t seek fulfillment. She’s already filled to the brim; there isn’t room for a drop more.

When you don’t look for approval outside of yourself, you remain approved. You will find the love you can never lose only by seeking the truth within. And when you see it, your natural response is appreciation.

16

Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.

  -The key takeaways from passage #16

If you look before, between, and after your thoughts, you’ll see that there is only a vast openness. That’s the space of don’t-know.

 It’s who we really are.

It’s the source of everything; it contains everything: life and death, beginning, middle, and end.

17

The Master doesn’t talk; she acts. When her work is done, the people say, “Amazing: we did it all by ourselves!”

  The key takeaways from passage #17

Baron Katie emphasizes the concept of being “invisible.” she mentions how important it is to always be the student. There’s no responsibility in it, no one to save or teach.

The most attractive thing about the Buddha was that he saved one person—himself. It’s like the instructions on an airplane for when the pressure drops: first, pull down the mask and put it over your own face, then put it over your child’s. 

18

When the great Tao is forgotten, goodness and piety appear.

  -The key takeaways from passage #18

Baron Katie mentions the reason she loves rules and plans and religions are that people feel safe in them for a while. And, personally, she doesn’t have any rules. Katie says, “Why would I resist the spontaneously beautiful by trying to impose an artificial order onto it?”

The earth gives, without condition, unnoticed, and that’s proof of love.

She doesn’t ever withhold. She doesn’t compromise.

The way she speaks is through the wind and the rain, the sand, the rocks, the sounds of her creatures.

She sings her song without meaning and continues giving without any expectation of return.

19

Throw away holiness and wisdom, and people will be a hundred times happier.

  -The key takeaways from passage #19

Katie refers to “Holiness” and “Wisdom” as concepts that separate us from ourselves. We think there’s some ideal we have to strive for as if Jesus were any holier or the Buddha any wiser than we are right now.

  You are the wisdom you seek, and inquiry is a way to make that wisdom available whenever you want.

We’re all doing the best we can. And if you feel that you’ve hurt someone, make amends, and thank the experience for showing you how not to live. No one would ever hurt another human being if he or she weren’t confused. 

The things in the world that we think are so terrible are actually great teachers. There’s no mistake, and nothing is lacking.

20

I alone possess nothing.

  -The key takeaways from passage #20

Things come to me only when I need them and only for as long as I need them, and the way I know I need them is that I have them. When something’s over, it’s over.

You can’t have an up without a down. You can’t have left without a right. This is duality. If you have a problem, you must already have the solution, or do you want to perpetuate the problem?

The solution is always there. Write down the problem, question it, turn it around, and you have the answer.

This summary is not intended as a replacement for the original book. All quotes and Insights are credited to the above-mentioned author and publisher.

Thank you for reading!

PART 2 Here.

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