Michael Stone - 30 July

Much of the time we are our own fools, caught in a cinema of our minds and moving through conditioned patterns. We are carried by old stories, versions of ourselves that have been reinforced over and over by mostly well-meaning people, our internalizations of those influences, and by our own habitsthese stories have created neurological paths through which we move psychically and physically.

Why is this a problem?

The imagination is like the underside of a stone that you find hiding on the side of a trail you have never taken before. Maybe heading down that trail to begin with is scary, perhaps there are wolves. But what is the alternative? Our culture needs new patterns. We need to remodel old energy. When I find a new way of moving, everything I see changes. When my viewpoint shifts, new things are possible.

In this book, Michael writes that practice is just a blink. Its a single moment, a single trailhead that you decide to take, or that takes you quite by surprise. There may be no map, but surely, you will find others if you walk it long enough.

This is a small book. It is meant to be like a friend on your path, in your practice (whatever your practice is). It is meant to encourage you. Keep it by your bedside or on the windowsill next to your bathtub. Work through it page by page or flip it open and read wherever you find yourself. Read one chapter at a time or the whole thing at once. Theres no right way; each chapter is like a bead on a mala, each nugget a teaching to digest and take along on your journey.

C ARINA S TONE

Autumn 2018, Pender Island

PART ONE

Notes on Practice

Practice is a sensibility toward felt experience. Things in the world touch us, and things inside ourselves touch us, thoughts and sensations touch us. When we allow these things to come and go, this is practice. When we twist them as they come and go, and we notice it, and the noticing stops us, this is practice. When we remember that we can relax and not twist things for our benefit or comfort, even if we have been doing a lot of twisting, this is practice. Everything we experience is living, and some of living is practice, and in that way, all of living can be practice. Even doing the dishes, and greeting your parents. We slide in and out of receptive sensitivity, and we need to so that we can wake up. Then we can apply this learning in many ways for the benefit of ourselves and others.

These writings come out of decades of Michaels yoga and meditation practice, and his own experience of life. Your practice may look similar to his, or it may look very different. Maybe you take moments of pause in your day, or mindfully walk down the hall in the clinic you work in, or maybe you finish your exhale before responding to your childrens requests at the breakfast table. If your practice creates some spaciousness and returns you to a full and generous experience of yourself, your habits, others, and your life, then your practice is a path.

CARINA STONE