Peace on Earth -- Tutsis & Hutus in Rwanda doing Byron Katie's Work.

Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed within a 100 days. It was a genocide of Tutsis perpetrated by the Hutus.

We have received several letters and emails from you, our dear readers, asking us to explain more about Rwanda, and how The Work can be used to help Rwandans.

The five Rwandans came to The School of The Work saying they were Tutsis, but just before the end of School one of them admitted to all of us that he was a Hutu and expressed his shame about the genocide. It was an amazing moment. He made amends and spoke of dedicating his life to taking The Work to the Hutus to help end genocide and the ideas that are the cause of genocide, in the name of peace and in the hope that it will never happen again. He, like the others, wanted to heal the wounds of all Rwandans.

Here is an audio clip (MP3 download) of the Rwandans speaking
http://www.thework.com/audio/hutustutsis.mp3

The genocide in Rwanda has been documented in detail by the UN and Human Rights Watch, so that "the horrors recorded here must remain alive in our heads and hearts; only in that way can we hope to resist the next wave of evil."

Meanwhile, the madness continues in the Congo.

How do you overcame these beliefs?

The truth is your beliefs are your religion, one belief by one by one.
http://www.thework.com/audio/WhatYouBelieveisYourReligion.mp3

It’s impossible to change as long as you believe the negative thoughts that you yourself are thinking.

In this case, the beliefs of the Hutus led them to genocide: “Tutsis are evil,” “Tutsis are tyrants,” “Tutsis are cockroaches,” “Tutsis are our enemies.” What other ideas do you see as contributing to the cause of such violence and fear?

Remember, peace on Earth begins with you. And the four questions and the turnarounds and your examples of these turnarounds are there, within you, to enlighten you and bring you peace.

Before we judge others, let’s remind ourselves that in our thoughts, we all experience what the Hutus were thinking anytime we hate or fear another human being, even ourselves.



Here is a letter from Costa in Rwanda after returning from the school of The Work ( taken from Byron Katie's blog (www.byronkatie.com):

My Dears love,

I am always thinking about you. I was very fortunate to know you from the School for The Work. You are part of my entire family and my entire Rwandan community.

Let this coming year be the year,

Full of Love: love which provides opportunity of knowing ourselves,
Love which wipes up all beliefs which were guiding our lives,
Love of reconciliation,
Love which dominates our bad thoughts,
Love which provides to us peace and relax,
Love which multiply the number of friends and reduces the number of enemies.

Who are my enemies? They were there dwelling in my minds, teaching me hatred, teaching me that what I have is mine and no one have access on it, teaching me that, that one is black or that one is white, teaching that, that one is Christian and the other is not so we are different, teaching me that, I am thin and I cannot negotiate with the obese, I am Obese, I am scared to join other, teaching me that, I am HIV and AIDS positive, I cannot negotiate with the Sero-negatives,

BUT I CAN QUESTION MY THINKING AND STOP TEACHING ME THAT. I HAVE DISCOVERED THAT YOU ARE NOT MY ENEMIES, YOU ARE NOT THE ONES TORTURING MY LIFE. IT WAS ONLY MY UNQUESTONED MIND.

OOOOOH, WHAT THIS YEAR CAN BE A YEAR OF LOVE, WHICH PRODUCES SMILES AND SMILES. I LOVE YOU ALL. DO YOU REMEMBER WHY KATIE GAVE US A MIRROR TO WHATCH?
SUCCESS AND LOVE.
FROM YOUR DEAR AND LOVELY RELATIVE
Costa NDAYISABYE NZARAMBA
RWANDA

Unity and Peace for Development Cooperative-Friendship programme

2nd letter:

Hello Dear lovely relatives,

I am trying (trying because few Rwandese express what they are carrying in their minds) to expand The Work in my community but the powerful (strongest) point TURN AROUND is still a big challenge to me. Even myself (remember the face to face with KATIE in the October School) I find that Question TURN AROUND very Indispensable BUT, BUT Difficult to pronounce. We need to exercise.
As you can see in this web: http://www.groundworkopportunities.org/archives/938 we are now working with love and joy with Jeanne. She accepted to do The Work on a man who killed her husband during the Genocide. (Note: he is among people who were helping to construct the house for Jeanne after pleading guilty he was released from jail), but Jeanne refused totally to TURN AROUND "I hate... because he led the group of people who killed my husband" Emmanuel and Alice did after a long time of The Work they TURNED AROUND,

TURN AROUND is what they are fearing, ASKING TURN AROUND QUESTION IS AUTOMATICALLY BRINGING CRIES AND CRIES.

I have facilitated YVES CLAUDE my wife's brother to do The Work, arriving at TURN AROUND he started crying, looking at me badly, and was the end of The Work. He passed two days without talking to anyone. One day after reading Katie's book "loving what it is" he came to me and said The Work is good but the problem is that It(The Work) stands with his all weight on TURN AROUND. It is very difficult to TURN AROUND without retaining your breathe he added. Yves Claude faced serious problems during the genocide: he lost both parents and siblings. He was watching when his mother was killed. he knows people who were doing that.
Rwandese need to do The Work, more often even. We are now discovering this because of Byron Katie school for The Work. The curtain is drawing out slowly from our face and we are starting to sound the importance of The Work. TURN AROUND a powerful question. Believe yourself and be release. I know, but difficult... I love you.

--2nd letter taken from The Work of Byron Katie's community board.