A Thousand Names for Joy

December 11, 2006
This unusual collaboration brings together the Way (the Tao) and the
\t\t Work, Katie's form of self-inquiry and path to joy. Katie is the author of
\t\t Loving What Is, and Mitchell, the noted
\t\t translator of the Tao, is her husband. In each chapter of this new book,
\t\t Mitchell has presented Katie with a passage from the Tao and noted down her
\t\t exposition on the theme. (This oral format can result in choppy, repetitive
\t\t text.) Katie's own "awakening" came in 1986, after 10 years of depression. One
\t\t morning she felt a sense of freedom from her overwhelming distress, a feeling
\t\t she calls "a falling-away of the self." This freedom, she claims, is available
\t\t to anyone who practices the Work, which consists of asking oneself four
\t\t questions intended to turn around fixed ideas and dismantle painful, knotted
\t\t thoughts about the past. Four dialogues Katie has conducted with seekers
\t\t illustrate the Work in action. Her belief that reality is good and can only be
\t\t grasped if we live in the present moment resonates with many traditional
\t\t spiritual teachings, and in this genuine and fresh spiritual manifesto, Katie's
\t\t engaging personality springs from the page.