An excerpt from 'How Yoga Works,' by Geshe Roach & Christie McNally.
"You see, in the old days- even before paper- people who wanted to learn to keep these different forms of self-control on a very fine level would go out say to the bank of a river and collect a good-sized handful of smooth pebbles. Half the pebbles would be white, and help would be black. Just little pebbles, you see-about the size of a pea.
They'd keep these pebbles say in a little bag, and they'd keep that and another, smaller pouch with them all day. And then if they caught themselves telling even a small lie or something like that they'd right away reach in and take a black pebble out of the bigger bag and put it in the little pouch.
If on the other hand, they did something to protect life, say-maybe showed someone how to do a yoga pose- or anything else that was good, well then they'd stop and put a white pebble in with the black one. And then at the end of the day they'd empty out the little pouch, count the white and black pebbles, and see if they'd taken a step ahead or a step back in trying to fill their minds with good seeds."
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