from dust jacket

Drawing on the poetic wisdom of the Tao Te Ching, American sensei Wendy Palmer translates the powerful teachings of aiido for use in everyday life-all wothout practicing the vigorous exercises of this martial art itself. With poignant reflections on her own life, including her Conscious Embodiment work and teaching inmates in a women's federal prison, she describes how we can lose our sense of freedom, vitality, and integrity when under the duress of life's 'attacks.' She explores a process that responds to the question How? How do we transform our negativity into budo, or love, and how do we move from reactivity to freedom?

The Practice of Freedom is invaluable not only for students of aikido and other movement and martial arts, but also for those who seek to live with confidence and self-reliance, to establish clear and compassionate boundaries, and to deepen their capacities for relationships.

Wendy Palmer, a fith-degree black belt and cofounder of Aikido of Tamalpais, in Mill Valley, California, has been teaching aikido since 1974. In 1980, she developed Conscious embodiment, which uses aikido principles as a way to study boundaries, relationships, and leadership. She directed the Prison Integrated Health Program from 1990 to 1997. This is a volunteer project that provides classes in behavioral medicine at the Federal correctional Institution in Dublin, California, and serves as a model for health promotion programs in prisons throughout the United States. She is the author of The Intuitive Body: Aikido as a Clairsentient Practice (North Atlantic Books, 2000), and teaches Conscious Embodiment in its companion video.

Contents

Foreword by Jack Kornfield
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Initial Stages
1 Anarchy
An Early Sense of Anarchy
Pushing the Boundaries
Separation from Unconditional Love
Trapped and imprisoned
Staying Positive in the Face of Difficulties
Experiencing Resistance
Pain
Acceptance of Limitations
Emotional Pain
Physical Pain
Chronic Pain
Pain of Separation and Isolation
Facing and Accepting Our Pain
Impoverishment versus the Larger View
Achievement as a Sabotage Pattern
Movement Toward Etiquette
2 Etiquette
Etiquette as Form
Maai
Social Etiquette
evolution
Learning to Fall
Historical Etiquette
Contemporary Etiquette
Aikido as Etiquette
Etiquette as a Codependent Web
The beginnng of Morality
3 Morality
The Difficulty of Knowing What is Right
Centering and Opening to a Deeper Truth
The Gap Between Belief and Action
Choosing the Good
Discipline Leads to Fulfillment
Right Livelihood
Paying Attention to Our Thoughts
Saints and Mystics as Hints
Our Moral Compass
Respect
Exploring Our Fear
Ordeals: Testing the Perimeters of Our Development
Readjusting to Increased Abilities
Responsiability
Responsibility to Self
Responsibiility to Others
4 Compassion
Nurturing the Seed of Compassion
Cultivating Openness under Pressure
Kindness
Building a Reservoir of Positive Feelings
Extending Ourselves to Others
The Qualities of Compassion
Compassionate Leadership
Responsiability and Ambition
Mindfulness
Repetition fo Pracitce
Relationship with Ourselves
Form and Improvisation
The Present I an Acquitted Taste
Practicing Loving Kindness
Working with Prayer
Part Two: Refinement
5 Cultivating Virtue: Inner Stillness
Shugyu
The Foundation of Virtue
Relaxing under Pressure
Training
Breath
Stillness
Seeing from Another Point of View
Learning to Be Effective
Cultivating Stillness
Moments of Stillness
Three Levels of Practice
Circulation
Finding Balance
6 Cultivating the Way: Surrender
Surrender
Differeing Views of Ego and Spirit
The Ego's View of Surrender
Surrender as Empowerment
Surrendering to a Different Way of Life
Surrendering to Etiquette, Morality, and Compassion
Surrendering to a Teacher
Teachers as Catalysts
The Responsibility of Teacher and Student
Experiencing the Presence of a Living Teacher
Surrenderint to a Teaching
Surrendering to Internal Conflict
Truth Brings Strength and Energy
Voluntary Surrender
7 The Open Door to Freedom: Nonresistance
A Feeling of LIquid Flow
Internal Practices
Redirecting Energy
Levels of Nonresistance
The Power of the Circle and the Triangle
Working with Shapes
Faith and Doubt
Faith and Meaning
Faith in a Higher Power
Faith and Selfishness
Faith and Practice
8 Time, Space, and Energy
Balancing Time, Space, and Energy
Time: Etiquette
Space: Morality
Energy: Compassion
Energy, Expression, and Containment
The Connecting Thread: Awareness
9 Understanding the Vertical
Between Heaven and Earth
Vertical and Horizontal Energy Flows
Balancing the Horizontal with the Vertical
Cultivationg Our Vertical Core
Levels of Excellence
Part Three: Fruition
10 Freedom
Differing Views of Freedom
Freedom as Discipline
Freedom as Space
Freedom as Responsibility
11 The Way: Self-Cultivation
Happiness
Our Inner Terrain
Difficulties as Opportunities
Accepting Who We Are
Magic Is Practice
Inspiration and Commitment
Service
Love
The Rediant Essence
Afterword
Notes
Appeciations
From the Publisher
Index