Preceptions (2011)

These are notes on a course about yoga ethics by Michael Stone/Centre of Gravity offered in 2011. In the yoga tradition, there are five “yamas” or restraints: non-harming, honesty, non-stealing, the wise use of sexual energy, and generosity. There are chapters on each one, along with fab pics, student responses, riffs from Brit child psychologist Adam Phillips, borrowed poems, and the beautiful drawings of Mina Arakawa and Heather Frise.

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Preceptions table of contents
Prologue – 2
Introductions – 4
Ahimsa: Non-Harming in Speech – 20
Ahimsa 2: Non-Harming in Speech – 36
Satya: Honesty – 62
Asteya: Non-Stealing  – 82
Brahmacharya: Sexual Healing – 96
Brahmacharya 2: Touch the Ghost – 114
Aparigraha: Generosity – 136
Wordless Speech – 158

Credits
Talks by Michael Stone
Writings by Pat Rockman, Marcella Hettinger, Amy Manusow, Rupi Saran, Lori Johnson, Sarah McCarthy, Colin Fleming, Angela Carpenter, Sam Snidal, Nicole McNamara, Melissa Campagnolo
Excellent sentences by Adam Phillips
Copy Editing Elaine Jackson
Images Mina Arakawa, Heather Frise, Rami Schandall, and the mysterious denizens of the internet
Design Rami Schandall/Visual Creative
Editor Mike Hoolboom

“And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life. We substituted good grammar for intellect; we switched habits to simulate maturity; we rearranged lies and called it truth, seeing in the new pattern of an old idea the Revelation and the Word.” The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

“A Zen master’s life is one continuous mistake.” Dogen