Out of the Story

Through inquiry, we discover how attachment to a belief or story causes suffering. Before the story there is peace. Then a thought enters, we believe it, and the peace seems to disappear. We notice the feeling of stress in the moment, investigate the story behind it, and realize that it isn’t true. The feeling let us know that we’re opposing what is by believing the thought. It tells us that we’re at war with reality. When we notice that we’re believing a lie and living as if it were true, we become present outside our story. Then the story falls away in the light of awareness, and only the awareness of what really is remains. Peace is who we are without a story, until the next stressful story appears. Eventually inquiry becomes alive in us as the natural, wordless response of awareness to the thoughts and stories that arise.

Byron Katie

3 Replies to “Out of the Story”

  1. Despite what I think, feel and experience about everything in this (dream) life, all I ever attach to are just stories (or thoughts) whether they are stressful or stressless ones.

    That’s good news because if there is a calling for freedom or non-attachment, the only focus would be inquiring the story at the moment. If there is an experience of detachment, it’s the story detaching from me and not the other way.

    Receptive to feeling (of the body); inquire the story (of the mind).

  2. Despite what I think, feel and experience about everything in this (dream) life, all I ever attach to are just stories (or thoughts) whether they are stressful or stressless ones.

    That’s good news because if there is a calling for freedom or non-attachment, the only focus would be inquiring the story at the moment. If there is an experience of detachment, it’s the story detaching from me and not the other way.

    Receptive to feeling (of the body); inquire the story (of the mind).

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