Chip Hartranft, The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali: A New Translation with Commentary (Boston & London Shambhala, 2003) ("[T]he primary purpose of consciousness: to see things as they are and to achieve freedom from suffering." Id. at ix. "[T]he leading form of yoga now practiced, hatha yoga, which was developed in part to temper the bodymind and focus its energies for meditation. In Patanjali's era, though, the yoga posture, or asana, was simply a means of sitting as steady steadily and effortlessly as possible and was not an exercise system of any kind. This older, contemplative yoga has come to be known as raja-yoga--the 'royal' or exalted' path--distinguishing it from the later hatha yoga. ... The yoga of Patanjali is a process of stilling and interiorization, in which utter physical and mental calm is brought to every aspect of human personhood and experience. For him, asana was but the bodily aspect of this process." Id. at x. "Practice, or abhyasa, is the will to repeatedly align and realign attention to the present moment, the only place where the singular process of yoking consciousness into profound stillness can be enacted. Sustained effort is required because the forces of distraction are strong and unrelenting. Furthermore, in the first phase of stillness, they tend to increase the longer one remains immobile, as body sensations build and the impulse to move or think about what's happening intensify. At this point abhyasa is easily misperceived as a struggle against discomfort and restlessness. Soon, though, one begins to regard the very sensations of discomfort and restlessness as indivisible from everything else that can be felt, and they cease to be a problem. For this reason, one must persist in returning to the here and now, holding on to the possibility of calm and lucidity, even in those moments and places where the bodymind fell under siege." Id. at 5-6. "We are wise, [Patanjali] says, to realize that there is suffering everywhere, even in the experiences we enjoy and yearn for. There is no ultimate happiness to be found in external, impermanent things. For every transitory delight we can know, a painful attachment arises. Furthermore, nature's constant transformation are subliminally stressful, relentlessly challenging the self's idea of itself as an enduring entity. And at any time, latent impressions can become activated and emerge as wanting, fear, anger, or sorrow." Id. at 25-26. "In fact, hatha yoga practice may initially be driven to some extent by narcissism. After all, hatha yoga can appeal to us because of the powerful way it addresses some of the self's most cherished preoccupations--health, attractiveness, sexual energy, and longevity. When attachment to these properties lurks subliminally, seeding us with the urge to transcend phenomena life pain and fatigue simply in order to push the body beyond its barriers for its own sake, the potent hatha practice can be self-defeating and injurious. Evan a practice that appears excruciating self-denying can be motivated by a subliminal need to adorn the self with the particular virtue of asceticism, itself but another form of adornment. Highly evolved teachers like Patanjali and the Buddha came to regard the ascetic impulse as a 'near enemy' or awakening, seeming to be a support but actually hindering progress. With wise dedication and self-inquiry though, hatha yoga can become a realization practice, illuminating the nature of our violations and attachments, fostering radical self-acceptance, and weakening the grip of the self and its self-serving perspective." Id. at 78.).
Elizabeth De Michelis, A History of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism (New York: Continuum, 2005) ("The way MPY [Modern Postural Yoga] has been practised throughout the twentieth century is of course worlds apart from all forms of classical yoga...." "By the middle of the twentieth century what would become the standard international MPY classroom format was taking shape. This went hand in hand with drastic changes in mores, which in turn brought about changes in popular ideals of body image and identity.... Such developments resulted in increasing attention and importance being given to physical grooming, including fitness and the cultivation of youthful looks. These predilections were not new in themselves.... What was unprecedented, however, was (and is) the attention, value and energy given their cultivation in the later part of the twentieth century and beyond. Quite naturally, the more esoteric aspects of MPY came to play a part in these phenomena, and this discipline thus established itself at the margins of the 'sports and fitness' category." "The other great boost to MPY was provided by the recognition of 'stress' as a specific (if not univocally defined) psychosomatic syndrome.... The constellation 'urban living - stress - MPY' is not random. Modern conditions of urban living are notoriously frustrating, and this type of lifestyle is also highly conducive to sedentariness. Hence the need for fitness and de-stressing, both of which can be supplied by MPY. But there are deeper sources of frustration, insecurity and anxiety, linked to the gradual secularization of developed societies." "Adopted and cultivated in conditions of marked privatization and relativization of religion, MPY is successful...because it provides 'experiential access to the sacred'." "Such experiential access to the sacred, epitomized by the 'secular ritual' of the MPY practice session, represents the third key to understanding the current success of MPY, along with its fitness and de-stressing application. These three elements constitute, guna-like, the 'root contents' and main facets of MPY's polymorphism: the flexibility and adaptability of this discipline depends on their presence and on the multiplicity of their possible combinations." "Analyzed in their religio-philosophical underpinnings, these three elements also reveal the ambiguous polyvalence characteristic of occultistic teachings, The 'fitness' discourse relates to mainstream anatomical and physiological assumptions, but also, at a more esoteric level, to MPY's 'mechanical power to revolutionize our whole being.'... The religio-philosophical discourses that shape and validate the ritual dimensions of the MPY session, finally, bring to bear both traditional religious concepts (God, transcendence, devotion, etc.) and modern understandings of 'spirituality' as awareness of and participation in/attunement to a holistic and evolutionary universe...." "Thus the MPY session becomes a ritual which affords various levels of access to the sacred, starting from a 'safe,' mundane, tangible foundation of body-based practice. In such DIY forms of spiritual practice, there is room for the practitioner to decide whether to experience her practice as 'spirital' or as altogether secular. Except in cases of thoroughly utilitarian (fitness or recreational) performance, however, some notion of healing and personal growth is likely to provide the deepest rationale for practice." Id. at 249-251 (citations omitted).).
Barbara Stoler Miller, Yoga: Discipline of Freedom: The Yoga Sutra Attributed to Patanjali, a translation of the text, with commentary, introduction, and glossary of keywords (New York: Bantam Books, 1995) ("At the heart of all meditative practice in Asia is what Indians call yoga, the system that 'yokes' one's consciousness to a spiritually liberating discipline." Id. at ix. "The aim of yoga is to eliminate the control that material nature exerts over the human spirit, to rediscover through introspective practice what the poet T. S. Eliot called the 'still point of the turning world'." Id. at 1. "[I[n the strictest sense yoga is the absolute detachment of one's spirit from the corruptions of the material world, an interior freedom from the insidious cycle of desire, anger, and delusion." Id. at 4. "Patanjali's eight-limbed [yoga] practice includes moral principles (yama), observances (niyama), posture (asana), breath control (pranayama), withdrawal of he senses (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and pure contemplation (samadhi). The eight limbs are essentially eight stages in the cumulative acquisition of yogic power." Id. at 52. Studio yoga practice, or the economics and business of studio yoga practice, seems to rarely gets beyond the asana, pranayama, and (a little of the) dhyama limbs or stages in the acquisition of yogic power. It is, I think, nearly impossible to get beyond a superficial yoga practice though exclusive studio practice. One has to find a teacher, and take one' practice outside or beyond the studio. And, one can appreciate why it would take a lifetime, even under the best of conditions, to acquire yogic power and be a true yogi. A serious yoga practice is always a work in progress.).
Erich Schiffmann, Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness, with photographs by Trish O'Rielly (New York: Pocket Books, 1996) (This is a good, and valuable, book for practicing the asanas/poses. But it is not helpful in terms of engaging in a serious practice of classical yoga. "The simple perspective I have come up with, through all the years and thousands of hours of practicing yoga and meditation since that first exposure, is that yoga makes you feel good. It's relaxing. It's energizing. It's straightening, You feel better at the end of a session than before you began, and life runs more smoothly when you maintain a consistent discipline than when you don't. Yoga enhances your experience of life. It changes your perspective. You thereby find yourself spontaneously embracing a larger, more accurate conception of who you are, how life works, and what God is. You start seeing things differently, with less distortion--which results in more peace of mind, better health, more enthusiasm for life, and an ever-growing authentic sense of inner well-being." "As you practice yoga and meditation regularly, this subtle sense of feeling good gradually becomes so pervasive, so natural and genuine, so much a part of you that it carries overs into the whole of your life. And in doing so it helps clarify your deepest longings, motivations, and aspirations, thereby restoring optimism, hope, meaning, and purpose to life." Id. at 20, THAT IS PURE BULLSHIT. LOW QUALITY, BUT NONETHELESS PURE BULLSHIT. You are not alive to "feel good." If feeling good is your primary aim in life, you are living one sorry life no matter how good you feel about it. Moreover, though a consistent 'yoga' practice may make you feel good, relax you, energize you, strengthen you, it will not change your perspective. It will not make your live run more smoothly. It will not enhance your experience of life. And it certainly will not spontaneously give you a personal introduction to god. Neither will mere meditation. Holy Corndogs! Why do we Westerners, especially we Americans, always think that there is an easy fix. All the world needs is a good five cent cigar. Right. Life is, to a sizable degree, suffering. The best we can hope and strive for is to eliminate the gratuitous (self-inflicted, other-inflicted) suffering. If you want to achieve any of the things Schiffmann attributes to consistent yoga practice and meditation, one will need to do a whole lot of other heavy lifting off the yoga mat and off the meditation pillow. It is said that Siddhartha was a piss poor yoga practitioner; still Siddhartha became the The Buddha. So mere yoga, or not mere modern yoga, is not the path to enlightenment. A serious and consistent yoga practice creates a space, creates an opening, etc., for on to begin to explore a path other than that which one has been on. But modern yoga is neither the path itself nor the real journey along the path to enlightenment.).
Mark Singleton, Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2010) ("However, in spite of the immense popularity of postural yoga worldwide, there is little or no evidence that asana (excepting certain seated postures of meditation) has ever been the primary aspect of any Indian yoga practice tradition--including the medieval, body-oriented hatha yoga--in spite of the self-authenticating claims of many modern yoga schools.... The primacy of asana performance in transnational yoga today is a new phenomenon that has no parallel in premodern times." Id. at 3. "Although it routinely appeals to the tradition of Indian hatha yoga, contemporary posture-based yoga cannot really be considered a direct successor to this tradition." Id. at 5. "A more valid and helpful way of thinking ...might be to consider the term yoga s it refers to modern postural practice as a homonym, and not a synonym, of 'yoga' associated with the philosophical system of Patanjali, or the 'yoga' that forms an integral component of the Saiva Tantras, or the 'yoga' of the Bhagavad Gita, and so on. In other words, although the word 'yoga; as it is used popularly today is identical in spelling and pronunciation in each of these instances, it ha quite different meanings and origins. It is, in short, a homonym, and it should therefore not be assumed that it refers to the same body of beliefs and practices as these other, homonymous terms." Id. at 15. "One thing, however, seems evident: yoga as it is practiced in the globalized world today is the result of a new emphasis on physical culture.... What will become of yoga as it grows and acculturates in the West remains to be seen." Id. at 210.).
Michael Stone, Awake in the World: Teachings from Yoga and Buddhism for Living an Engaged Life (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2011) ("There is nothing holy or religious about Yoga theory or practice. These teachings are most alive in the gardens, alleys, and ravines where those who may not even know they are yogis are challenging the status quo both internally and externally. This is not a practice that thrives in temples or commercial studios. This is a path for those seeking freedom from the psychological and cultural entanglements of mind and body.... In the same way that all freshwater rivers reach toward the saline oceans, your life and your Yoga practice are seamless continuities of one another...." Id. at xi-xii. "I have always been uncomfortable with the way that Yoga has been redefined in contemporary culture as not only a physical health regime but also a mainstream form of physical materialism. There is no doubt that Yoga postures and breathing practice are therapeutic. But cultivating a healthy body has become an obsession with youthful self-image and physical perfection. Look at the ways our culture has superimposed its values on Yoga practice. The commercial operation--and often the large profits that Yoga studios make--seems at odd with some of the basic values of Yoga: nonstealing, nonaccumulation, and the wise use of energy." "But beyond that there is a deeper issue, which is that Yoga has traditionally been subcultural. Yoga has always been a practice at the outskirts of culture because its practices had more to do with undoing habitual patterns than reinforcing the dominant grooves of the culture. As Yoga comes to the West, we need to look beyond the surface and investigate some of the basic axioms of practice not because there is anything wrong with a healthy body or a calm mind but because spiritual practice is always a practice of letting go rather than accumulation. Id. at 144-145.).
Michael Stone, ed., Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind: Writings on the Connection Between Yoga and Buddhism, with a foreword by Robert Thurman (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2010) (From Shosan Victoria Austin's essay, "Zen or Yoga: A Teacher Responds": "Buddhism is a religion, with all the forms of social, physical, and mental observance this word implies. Yoga is a path that unites our layers of experience. As B. K. S. Iyengar...has said, 'Yoga is not a religion but a religious subject which enhances the religiousness of mankind.' Buddhism is a yogic religion; Yoga is not a form of Buddhism. Yet both Buddhism and Yoga cover much of the same ground--how to end suffering through orienting to one's true self (Yoga) or our true nature (Buddhism)." Id. at 45. "When we read the old texts on Yoga postures, we find descriptions of the internal pathways of the breath, not the angular or external metric alignment instructions of contemporary asana form. Instead we hear about the ways the mind and breath move together through the internal pathways, as expressed in the meridians (nadis) that run through the subtle body. The various Yoga postures are designed to recirculate, stimulate, and balance the energy moving though the mind-body process. The old images of Yoga postures also focus on the quality of the eyes, particularly illustrating receptive gazing (drsti) and inward focus (pratyahara). Unlike the muscular shapes of modern Yoga photographs, the body appears subtle and at ease, the posture noble and elegant." Id. at 211.).
Michael Stone, The Inner Tradition of Yoga: A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitioner, with a foreword by Richard Freeman (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2008) ("This book is about how to cultivate a yoga practice, what constitutes a yoga practice, how to recognize and work with the different stages on the path, and how to keep the tradition of yoga a living tradition through committed practice and critical engagement." Id. at 12. "There are two themes in this book: (1) The essence of yoga teaches us that all forms of clinging create suffering. Nothing can be owned as 'I, me, and mine.' And (2) a disciplined and appropriate practice leaves no stone unturned. A broad understanding of yoga theory integrated with specific practices takes the formal techniques of yoga to deeper levels but also brings yoga off the mat, out of the meditation hall and into the tangled world of our interpersonal relationships, our habitual psychological holding patterns, and the complexity of ethical action." Id. at 12. "I realized that yoga practice matures, not by adding more and more spectacular postures but by simply paying attention to the movements of the breath in the space of the heart and the role of the mind with the body, not apart from it. The five klesas describe the essence of yoga: a path of freedom from our habitual cycles of discontent." Id. at 6. "If our practice is creating flexibility of the body without corresponding flexibility of the heart, we need to redress the way we conceive of and engage in practice." Id. at 12. "I saw around me people accomplishing great feats of flexibility and wonderful postures practices, but those same practices did not guarantee a commensurate opening of the heart. Perfection in yoga poses did not guarantee psychological or spiritual insight." Id. at 15. "The heart of yoga is the cultivation of equilibrium in mind and body so that one can wake up to the reality of being alive, which includes not just joy and health but impermanence, aging, suffering, and death. A yoga practice that excludes the shadows of illness or aging cuts itself off from the truths of being alive. Similarly, a practice that focuses exclusively on physical culture and the performance of yoga poses at the expense of psychological understanding and transformation is a one-sided practice. Without the balance practice of all eight limbs, and a path rooted in the first limb, yoga practice can easily become another form of materialism." Id. at 63. "When teaching, I almost always read the instructions for dying or these descriptions of the elements during the ten minutes of savasana (Corpse pose) when the students are lying down, the room is dark and the collective breath is coming into stillness. If not treated as a practice of dying, savasana is reduced to as relation exercise and divorced from its purpose as a mediation on impermanence and, by extension, gratitude." Id. at 200. "Attending a yoga class at any popular studio is a fascinating and disconcerting study of the way in which people sculpt yoga into whatever they would like it to be. Many teachers use their certification as a modern 'yoga teacher' to simply articulate their personal philosophy on life, sometimes without ever having had a teacher of their own." Id. at 169.).
Michael Stone, Yoga for a World Out of Balance: Teachings on Ethics and Social Action, with a foreword by B. K. S. Iyengar (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2009) ("The practice of yoga is a practice of being with the reality of what is. Arriving in the present moment is sometimes painful because we stop and see our past choices and the unconsciousness in many of our activities. When we see the shadow of our actions, we can get motivate to change our habits." Id. at 64. "When we are caught up in denial, our perceptual abilities are obscured. We should not underestimate the power of grounded observation, or bearing witness. The first step of yoga is to start where we are, and this usually means recognizing where there is discontent or suffering. When we begin with the truth of suffering both in the human, nonhuman, and human-built realms, we begin to move out of the denial or apathy that most cultural media perpetuates." Id. at 94. "When we take more than we need, we are, in effect, stealing. Of the five yamas, asteya, not taking what is not freely given, casts the widest net, especially for those of us embedded in cultures devoted to accumulation and consumerism. What is consumerism? The core notion of consumerism is that people subject to consumerism overbuy; they purchase goods that they 'clearly do not need for subsistence or for traditional display'--more than an objective observer would judge that they need and perhaps more than they themselves, upon sober reflection, would admit that they need. But who is going to be the 'objective' observer? People overbuy, according to most descriptions, to emulate others, to indulge themselves sensually, to escape feeling the reality of their circumstances, to fill up lack. Consumerism does not refer to basic subsistence nor to a general life of enjoyment or pleasure but rather to seeking satisfaction through buying things. This is more than being caught by the sensuality of goods; we are caught in a mythology in which there is a correlation between duhkha and consumption whereby consuming things, we imagine, will overcome or even satisfy our unsatisfied mental states." Id. at 106-107.).
Sarah Strauss, Positioning Yoga: Balancing Acts Across Cultures (Oxford & New York: Berg, 2005) ("In this book, I have tried to tell a fairly simple story about the ways that certain ideas and practices of yoga, primarily those of Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, have moved from India to elsewhere in the world and back. In the telling, I explain how, over the past century, the practice of yoga has transformed from a regional, male-oriented religious activity to a globalized and largely secular phenomenon." Id. at xix. "The original goal of classical yoga, kaivalya, or isolation of the self, is a far cry from the contemporary goals of health, stress reduction, and flexibility that are frequently encountered with both Indian and non-Indian communities." Id. at 4. "The high percentage of yoga practitioners in the 'helping professions' ... can be interpreted as an effort by these individuals to resist domination by technocrats and other organizational specialists of modernity.... These professions may appeal to certain individuals precisely because the fact of providing service seems to overshadow their complicity with market forces, thus allowing their practitioners to feel as if they are escaping 'direct implications in capitalist economic relations.' These helping professions then provide a rationale for living in the world while attempting to transcend its desires. They are another 'middle way' between the horns of a dilemma, a sustainable choice which seeks a compromise between physical comfort and spiritual satisfaction...." Id. at 83 (citations omitted). "I argue that this community has constituted itself in part through its efforts to ind a happy medium; they come mostly from the 'middle' class not only by virtue of their socioeconomic status, and self-descriptions, but also by their mediating strategies. The search for balance dominates the lives of all of the people I have described here. Almost without exception, they see yoga as a strategy for helping them cope with the stress of being pulled between the poles of personal happiness and family or other societal responsibilities. Most work in service occupations, where the welfare of others is in their hands; they have chosen to practice yoga primarily because they find that it gives them a way to foster the internal strength necessary to continue helping people around them.").
BOTTOM LINE: PRACTICE YOGA. DEVELOP A SERIOUS PRACTICE. HOWEVER, BE CAUTIOUS IN DRINKING THE MODERN POSTURAL YOGA'S LEMONADE. MUCH OF MODERN POSTURAL YOGA IN THE WEST IS, THOUGH IT NEED NOT BE, CONSUMPTION CAPITALISM WITH A SMILEY FACE. :-) OR TO PUT IT ANOTHER WAY, MODERN POSTURAL YOGA MAY NOT BE THE MEANS OR PATH TO THE WAY.
