01/11/2022
"I understand spiritual teachers who are silent, and this one speaks. It had to go all the way. It had to take all the risks. It wouldn't let any concept of "I shouldn't say anything at all because no words are true" stop it. It says "you and I," and that's where the scam begins.
Just after my experience at the halfway house in 1986, it was difficult for me to say anything. Table was a lie. Bird was a lie. Tree was a lie. Every word separated the world into parts and seemed to teach what didn't exist. I couldn't say the word I without feeling a loss of integrity. Eventually, I found a way of speaking that felt less untrue. Instead of "I want a glass of water," I would say, " She thinks she wants a glass of water now"; instead of "I'm hungry," I would say, "It thinks it's hungry now." That was as close as I could get to integrity and still be able to communicate. Later, when the communication became more mature, I began to say "I'm hungry" or "I want a glass of water." This seemed like an incredible act of deceit and courage at the same time. I felt as if, through language, I would be teaching a lie and become lost in the non-existent again. But I used the word I because I wanted to join with other people. It was a way of giving myself to them. I surrendered into that language out of love. I will still sometimes refer to myself as she or we or you. I will take on any pronoun, and sometimes it's hard for people to grasp that. I can't see any separation as real.
So it originally appeared as a liar—for love. It would do anything for love, it would say anything. It would die for it, over and over and over. It would sell its peace, if that were possible. It has no caring for itself. It dies for itself; it lives for itself. It will internally join anyone and anything. It will join because it is the other already."
— Byron Katie, “A Thousand Names for Joy”
