Book excerpt: This book will open your life to the surprising depth of the simple and ordinary. For most of us, life is often a humdrum course of the same-old and the nothing-new. We may dream about running away to exotic lands or retreating to distant monasteries, but the whirligig of life won't let us out of its clutches. Stairway of Surprise has become a new classic of anthroposophic spiritual practice. Dr. Michael Lipson re-visions Rudolf Steiner's six basic exercises to make them relevant to our lives today. With examples drawn from world literature and from his psychotherapy practice, Lipson shows how these exercises stretch from common events in daily life to the depths of spiritual experience. The path of meditation offered here is experiential from start to finish: not something to think only, but something to live. By practicing these exercises for a few minutes each day, we can discover the surprise in the universe, which is usually hidden from us by our stale, habitual attitudes. CONTENTS: Introduction I. Thinking II. Doing III. Feeling IV. Loving V. Opening VI. Thanking