There are an almost unlimited number of yoga related books available, many of them very, very good. In this issue, a number of our members have sent in reviews of some of their favourites, which include a number of the “classics”.
Thinking of which books I would add to that list started off as quite a challenge. I love to read and, over the years, have developed a wide ranging library of yoga books. In April, I was at the Integral Yoga Warehouse, browsing aisle after aisle of some of the best offerings and truly felt like the proverbial kid in a candy shop. I came away with a number of new books and an intriguing list for future purchase. So in selecting books to recommend, where was I to begin?
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Since this is Canadian Yogi, I decided to narrow the field and share with you some of my favourites by Canadian authors. So here are three books, written by Canadians, that stand out as valuable contributions to the international yoga canon.
Threads of Yoga: A Remix of Panajali’s Sutras with Commentary and Reverie
Matthew Remski (2012)
Matthew Remski (2012)
I love this book for both its poetry and relevancy for our modern world and lives. It is a book that calls out for integration and relationship, veering away from the sutras’ original thrust towards dissociation and transcendence. While it is a very personal interpretation, and while “purists” might object, Threads is a wise, spirited take on the yoga sutras.
The purpose of a remix is equal parts homage, adventure, reclamation, and pleasure. It collects the raw beats of the past and brands them, transparently, with the pulse of the present. In a “yoga 2.0” idiom (Petrie and Remski, 2010), this pulse asserts that relationship is more important than meditative bliss, metaphysics distracts from presence, consciousness is evolving new questions, and yoga is always changing, because its practitioners are. (p. 20) |
Weaving together “philosophy, psychotherapy, literary theory, anthropology and aesthetics”, Threads of Yoga is both thoughtful and joyful and deserves a place beside other well-respected modern interpretations of the Sutras.
Consciousness is fulfilled when
it warmly intermingles with matter and awareness.
It delights in being seen.
Being aware of this process imbues individuation
with connection.
This awareness re-integrates the part
and the whole, and feels inexorable.
At this point, alienating thoughts are fleeting memories.
And you already have experience in releasing them.
The exalted is common, and the common exalted,
and living feels like a summer downpour.
Standing in it washes away alienating thoughts and isolated footprints. (p. 214)
it warmly intermingles with matter and awareness.
It delights in being seen.
Being aware of this process imbues individuation
with connection.
This awareness re-integrates the part
and the whole, and feels inexorable.
At this point, alienating thoughts are fleeting memories.
And you already have experience in releasing them.
The exalted is common, and the common exalted,
and living feels like a summer downpour.
Standing in it washes away alienating thoughts and isolated footprints. (p. 214)
By all means, read more traditional translations/interpretations but also explore the possibilities revealed in Threads.
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Yoga for a World Out of Balance: Teachings on Ethics and Social Action
Michael Stone (2009)
Michael Stone (2009)
The present ecological and social crises across the world testify to the importance of responding to the world as being intimately tied to every aspect of our basic nature. Yoga provides us with the guideline for how to live the world as if it was our very self, because at bottom that is exactly how nature operates. There is no separation. (p. 84) |
This is another book that stresses our interconnectedness. Our actions have effects. We need to understand this and that it is our responsibility to live in a sustainable and respectful way. Positive actions become jewels that trickle down through the web of life, because all of our actions have implications for others. (p. 157) Conversely, negative actions create problems throughout the web.
Through the lenses of the yamas, Yoga for a World Out of Balance looks at our need to move beyond individual practice to social engagement.
Yoga is much more than a lifestyle; it’s the reality of a life lived in harmony within the entire web or reality. In addressing well-being only in a personal sense and not in terms of a complex web of relations, we have lost more than we may realize. (p. 183)
The attempt in this book is to understand the yamas as transhistorical suggestions for transformation individually and culturally and for how one can sustain an ethical, sensitive, and compassionate life… The yamas humanize ethical responsibility by sensitizing us to the intentions behind our actions and the consequences of our actions. (p. 111)
The attempt in this book is to understand the yamas as transhistorical suggestions for transformation individually and culturally and for how one can sustain an ethical, sensitive, and compassionate life… The yamas humanize ethical responsibility by sensitizing us to the intentions behind our actions and the consequences of our actions. (p. 111)
Through an examination of each of the yamas, and by relating them to our present historical context, Stone explores the skills we need to take ethical action and create positive change.
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Your Body, Your Yoga
Bernie Clark (2016)
Bernie Clark (2016)
I am often surprised by how little attention is paid to individual anatomy in many yoga classes. We are not all created the same way and thinking that we are leads to injury. Because I teach more fragile populations, where ignoring individual differences could be particularly harmful, I tend to be acutely aware of these differences and intent on making my students aware of them as well.
I believe that most yoga teachers are well intentioned and would in no way choose to harm their students. However, I also believe that many have not been taught enough about basic anatomical variations, tension and compression, or the mechanics of muscles, fascia and the joints. Combine this with the overemphasis on aesthetics in yoga today (think “the perfect posture”) and we have a recipe for disaster.
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Enter Bernie Clark with this wonderful new book that clearly examines all of these things. Your Body, Your Yoga is the ideal resource for yoga teachers and practitioners who want to truly understand what’s going on and customize asana practice to the individual, to be safe, therapeutic and effective.
You are unique! These three words imply something amazing. In the whole universe, there is no one like you. You are not “average” and you are not “normal” — no one is actually average, normal or regular…
Consider what this means: if you are totally unique, then what you need to be healthy and whole will be very different from what someone else needs… Each person has different proportions of body segment lengths, muscle insertion lengths, muscle to tendon length ratios, nerve conductance velocities, intrinsic tissue tolerances, etc.…
There are things you can do right now, there are things that you will be able to do in time, and there are things that you will never be able to do… We need to understand our uniqueness and our natural limitations. (pp. 5-6)
Consider what this means: if you are totally unique, then what you need to be healthy and whole will be very different from what someone else needs… Each person has different proportions of body segment lengths, muscle insertion lengths, muscle to tendon length ratios, nerve conductance velocities, intrinsic tissue tolerances, etc.…
There are things you can do right now, there are things that you will be able to do in time, and there are things that you will never be able to do… We need to understand our uniqueness and our natural limitations. (pp. 5-6)
Read Your Body, Your Yoga to understand what makes each of us unique and to develop yoga practices that recognize our myriad variations.
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None of these books are light summer reads but if you’re taking holidays and have time to sit back and dig into even one of them, your efforts will be well rewarded.
Joanne Preece