Michael Stone - Yoga for a World Out of Balance: Teachings on Ethics and Social Action

Thought-provoking. Stone is unusually passionate and sophisticated in his approach. The book needs to be digested slowly, because in it Stone calls on us to change our minds and lives. Fortunately, he not only provides guidance on this path but also inspires us to follow it.

Yoga Journal

An essential read for anyone trying to seriously practice yoga today.

Yoga Magazine

Yoga for a World Out of Balance provides guiding principles with a holistic vision that sees beyond simple black-and-white into todays more complex issues.

Elephant Journal

The world has been calling out for a book like this. Michael Stone affirms the potential of yoga in our world, and the book is necessary reading for anyone who is looking to do an engaged, authentic practice with integrity, intelligence, and sensitivity.

Its All Yoga, Baby blog

The careening horror of our environmental dissent has all of us off balance. Michael Stone provides some excellent advice about how to find a place on which to stand.

Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy

If up until now yoga has been something you do on a mat, this book will lift you off your feet. I know of no book with such an elevated, informed, and inspiring perspective on how yoga belongs in our world and how the world belongs in our yoga.

Chip Hartranft, author and translator, The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali

Spiritual awakening and fruition do not come from fleeing our suffering world but from opening up to it and being transformed by that encounter. Michael Stones new book demonstrates clearly and persuasively that social engagement is an essential part of genuine yogic practice. His work continues to be at the cutting edge of Western yoga.

David Loy, author of Money, Sex, War, Karma

The nurturing flow of life, extreme intelligence, beauty, and perfect harmony are active in every one of us. Yoga was developed in ancient wisdom culture to gently reveal what we already have. Read this book.

Mark Whitwell, author of Yoga of the Heart

Reverence for life up-ends the typical narcissism of spiritual literature; what we are offered here instead is a literate and deeply devotional integration of individual practice and social awareness. Yoga has always meant union, but here in Michael Stones world, the profound philosophy of yoga permeates the dying earth and our living hearts with insights that are ancient, scintillating, and incisive. This is not a rehash of prior teachings, but a highly original uncloaking of the deepest meanings that await us in our practice.

Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest

An important new work of great clarity that brilliantly explores the core concern of human existence: the coming together of spirit and action.

Velcrow Ripper, director of the films Scared Sacred and Fierce Light

Michael Stone provides the clarity and direction that can result in a yoga practice that is not limited to the time on the mat but that moves out into the world and embraces it.

Spirituality & Health

ABOUT THE BOOK

Every aspect of our life has a part to play in the greater ecological system, Michael Stone explains in this book. How do we bring this large view to our yoga practice? According to Stone, our responsibility as human beings is to live in a sustainable and respectful way. He says two things need to change. First, we need to understand the relationship between our actions and the effects of our actions. Second, once we see the effect of our actions in the human and non-human world, we need practical skills for learning how to make changes.

Using the five principles (yama) described in the Yoga-Sutra attributed to Patanjali, Michael Stone offers a basis for rethinking ethical action and the spiritual path.

MICHAEL STONE is a teacher of yoga and Buddhist meditation (in the vipassana tradition) and a psychotherapist in private practice. He is the founder and director of the Centre of Gravity Sangha, a community of yoga and Buddhist practitioners based in Toronto, where he lives. He is also the author of The Inner Tradition of Yoga and Yoga for a World Out of Balance. For more information visit www.centreofgravity.org.

Sign up to learn more about our books and receive special offers from Shambhala Publications.

Or visit us online to sign up at shambhala.com/eshambhala.

Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

www.shambhala.com

2009 by Michael Stone

Cover design by 6x9design.

The page constitutes a continuation of the copyright page.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Distributed in the United States by Random House, Inc.,

and in Canada by Random House of Canada Ltd

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stone, Michael, 1974

Yoga for a world out of balance: teachings on ethics and social action / Michael Stone

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2323-5

ISBN 978-1-59030-705-2 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Yoga. I. Title

B132.Y6S7645 2009

181.45dc22

2009008426

We are all framed of flaps and patches and of so shapeless and diverse a contexture that every piece and every moment playeth its part.

MONTAIGNE, Essays

Questions are better than answers.

WALLACE STEVENS

I HAVE TRIED to keep technical terms to a minimum in this book although there are some Sanskrit terms for which there are no accurate English translations.

The transliteration of Sanskrit into English is always an approximation at best. The short a in Sanskrit is pronounced like the u in the English word but, and the long is pronounced like the a in father. In terms of the family of consonants, an easy approximation is possible by pronouncing c as in the ch in church, j as in jump, as in the sh in shut, s as in sun, and as something halfway between the previous two. Aspirated consonants are quite distinct: bh as in cab horse, dh as in madhouse, gh as in doghouse, ph as in top hat, and th as in goatherd. is a vowel, pronounced somewhere between the ri in rim and the er in mother. The transliterated letter and character found in a word like Patajali can be pronounced like the ni in onion, and when found with the letter j as in the word praja, can be pronounced like the gn in the word igneous. Sometimes I pluralize a word like yama by simply adding an s, resulting in yamas, which is unacceptable for the academic or Sanskritist, but essential for simple reading for those unfamiliar with the language.

Unless otherwise attributed, the translations are my own. Try your best to pronounce these new soundsas one gets used to them they open the palate and help concentrate the mind. Enjoy!

I AM PRIVILEGED to read Michael Stones book, Yoga for a World Out of Balance: Teachings on Ethics and Social Action. He emphasizes the importance of the five principles of the yama, which are the first basic teachings of the eight aspects of yoga, and which are designed for all of us to live peacefully in dignity and honor (