The Real Cause of Your Suffering (& How To Let Go) | Byron Katie | Align Podcast #546

Align Podcast

Aaron Alexander

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8 • 923 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At 30, Byron Katie spent a decade trapped in depression and self-hatred. Then one morning, she woke up with a single realization… and everything changed. In this episode, author and speaker Byron Katie joins us for a powerful conversation on how questioning your thoughts can transform suffering. She shares her process called The Work and explores how ego, identity, love, trauma, and forgiveness all relate to self-inquiry. Aaron and Katie discuss real-world examples (from relationships to world conflict) to illustrate how understanding our beliefs can change everything. OUR GUEST In 1986, at the bottom of a ten-year spiral into depression and self-loathing, Byron Katie woke up one morning in a state of joy. She realized that when she believed her stressful thoughts, she suffered, but that when she questioned them, she didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Her simple yet powerful process of self-inquiry, which she calls The Work, consists of four questions and the turnaround, which is a way of experiencing the opposite of what you believe. Byron Katie has been bringing The Work to millions of people for more than thirty years. Please join her at https://athomewithbk.com/ for At Home with BK on Zoom every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 9–10 a.m. Pacific Time. Her books include the bestselling Loving What Is now in a revised edition, I Need Your Love—Is That True?, A Thousand Names for Joy, and A Mind at Home with Itself. For more information, visit https://thework.com/. BYRON KATIE 🔷 LI ▶ https://www.linkedin.com/in/byronkatie 📸 IG ▶ https://www.instagram.com/byron.katie/ 📘 FB ▶ https://www.facebook.com/theworkofbyronkatie 🌐 Web ▶ https://thework.com/ AARON ALEXANDER 📸 IG ▶ https://www.instagram.com/aaronalexander/ 🤳 TIKTOK ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@alignmethod 👉 SUBSCRIBE ▶ https://www.youtube.com/@AlignPodcast?sub_confirmation=1 🌐 WEBSITE ▶ https://www.alignpodcast.com ABOUT Aaron Alexander is a pioneering manual therapist and movement coach with over 5 years experience. He is the founder and creator of The Align Method, author of The Align Method book, and host of The Align Podcast which has ranked #1 in Nutrition on Apple Podcasts. Aaron has worked with some of the world’s greatest professional athletes, performers, and celebrities to help relieve pain, improve strength, better flexibility, and ease the mind and body. On this channel, Aaron interviews renowned experts in a range of fields focused on improving the mind and body. This mind and body podcast will teach you all that you need to know to become the healthiest version of yourself by integrating simplified ancient techniques and the foundational principles of The Align Method to strengthen your body, balance the mind, and activate healing systems in daily life. The mission? To be the best personal growth podcast about healthy habits, redefine functional movement, and make fitness who you are; not what you do. TOPICS 1. Ego and identity 2. The Work by Byron Katie 3. Self-inquiry 4. Inner Peace 5. Forgiveness https://www.alignpodcast.com/quiz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Byron, Katie, thank you for being here.
0:02.3	Thank you for making time for this.
0:04.0	Oh, gosh.
0:05.5	It's just always so good to be with you, Aaron.
0:10.0	I wanted to start off with a light lift of a question and ask, is evil real?
0:18.0	No.
0:19.0	What is evil? What is the concept of evil? Life as we or another human being,
0:25.6	as we imagine them to be. We all know right from wrong. It's like guilt is the gift that lets us know.
0:35.6	You know, but we can always, you know, just go back, you know, admit it,
0:42.3	apologize, start over, you know, life, life. We're all students here. I'm not the teacher. Life just kind of shows me where to go.
0:56.0	What is it the root of every person? If there is a way to put into language, the root of the essence of a person, how do you describe that?
1:04.0	Love. You know, anything that goes against that feels like stress. It's the ego's power over us, you know. It's, it's
1:18.5	distressful. It's, it's, it is the maker of stress. It's, um, leads us into, you know, a false identification of our true nature.
1:33.3	It, the ego is something that can justify any behavior.
1:38.3	And when it's being so kind and beautiful, it wants someone to see it, talk about it, pass it on.
1:47.0	It's just, you know, the ego's world, it's fascinating. It's something that I've come to love.
1:57.0	You know, it's like an immature child going, look at me, look at me, I know, I know.
2:02.6	And it's, it's to be understood and open to, and to believe our thoughts is, you know, our stressful thoughts, you know, to believe them is,
2:20.7	it's kind of a magical thing.
2:24.8	It's a state of mind the ego requires for us to identify as I am the ones, you know, talking to Aaron now.
2:33.6	And I'm the one sitting in this chair.
2:35.4	I, I, I, I, I, I.
	...

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