Fascinating Yoga Books – BionicOldGuy

I lately learn two fascinating books on Yoga by Alistair Shearer, an skilled translator of Sanskrit and historian of Yoga. The primary is his translation and commentary of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. That is usually used as a justification for Hatha Yoga, which within the West has advanced principally into what Shearer calls “physique yoga” with emphasis on stretching and different bodily workouts. There may be little emphasis on “thoughts yoga”, apart from a brief guided meditation on the finish of lessons, normally whereas mendacity down within the “corpse pose“. This isn’t to say any such class will not be useful, I’ve taken a lot of them and located them very helpful for stress reduction and staying limber as we age. It’s simply that there’s just about no point out of the kind of poses utilized in Hatha Yoga lessons within the Yoga Sutras.

The Sutras are a sequence of brief sayings which add as much as primarily a meditation guide. Eight limbs of yoga are taught. The primary two refer to moral conduct, a sequence of 5 “Dos” and 5 “Don’ts”. The third is about asanas, which is the place the confusion about Hatha Yoga arises. Asanas are poses or postures, that are widespread in Yoga lessons. However within the Sutras it’s fairly clear that what’s being talked about is the right posture for meditation, primarily sitting upright with the backbone erect, able that may be assist comfortably for an prolonged interval, however will not be conducive to falling to sleep. The fourth limb is pranayama, or respiration workouts, supposed to calm us down to organize for meditation. The rest of the eight limbs are successive phases in meditation, beginning with “withdrawal of the senses”, then focus, meditation, and eventually Samadhi or union with our true natures. This union is what Yoga actually refers to and is the purpose of the entire endeavor.

In a second e book The Story of Yoga, Shearer items collectively in addition to doable the whole historical past of Yoga as much as the current day. He makes a transparent distinction within the evolution of “thoughts” and “physique” Yoga within the e book. Tracing the historical past is troublesome as a result of it disappears again into the mists of time and sometimes written information are insufficient. Nevertheless it nonetheless makes for an interesting story. We’re very lucky within the West that this nice reward of perennial knowledge has migrated right here from India.