Peter Ralston is a founder of the consciousness movement in the San Francisco Bay area and the creator of the Art of Effortless Power, an internal martial art based on effortlessly effective interaction. Born in San Francisco but raised primarily in Asia, he began studying martial arts at the age of 9 in Singapore. By the age of 28 he had black belts or expertise in almost every martial art there is and was developing his own Art of Effortless Power. In 1978 he became the first non-Asian ever to win the World Championship full-contact martial arts tournament held in the Republic of China. The founder of the Cheng Hsin Center and the author of several books, including The Book of Not Knowing, he currently lives outside of San Antonio, Texas.

On the Opportunity of Mastery

Chapter One
Committing to the Pursuit of Mastery

Chapter Two
Mastery—The Short Version A Brief Overview

MASTERY
The Principles of Skill and Effective Interaction
The Long Version

Chapter Three
On the Nature of Mastery What Is Mastery?
Why Should You Pursue Mastery?
Knowledge Useful for Mastery

Chapter Four
The Principle of Effective Interaction
Isolating the Principle of Effective Interaction
Dissecting the Principle of Effective Interaction
Tailoring Your Actions to Your Objective

Chapter FiveTransforming Your Perceptive-Experience
Making Distinctions
Objective Distinctions
Non-Objective Distinctions
Seven Non-Objective Components
Feeling Translation
Reaction versus Response
Rethinking Relationship
Rethinking Learning

Chapter Six
Principles and States That Empower Mastery A Couple Actions Useful for Effective Interaction A Few Essential Principles

Chapter Seven
Powerful Operating Principles for Mastery Foundation Skills for Powerful Operating Principles
Powerful Interactive Operating Principles
Even More Advanced Principles
A World of Operating Principles

Conclusion
Cutting Up an Ox

Addendum
The Art of War
By Peter Ralston

Index

About the Author