Tag Archives: Yoga

5 of my Favorite Books on Yoga

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5.) Sure Ways to Self-Realization by Swami Satyananda Saraswati: All you need to know about meditation and more. The first half of this book examines various yogic approaches to meditation and offers in-depth explanation of said techniques. The second half puts yogic meditation into a larger context by providing a survey of meditative approaches from around the world. It’s as close to one-stop shopping for the yogic meditator as one is likely to find, and the presentation of material on topics such as Jnana Yoga and Tantra is much more balanced and illuminating than many books.

 

4.) Your Brain on Yoga by Sat Bir Singh Khalsa: This Harvard Medical School Guide provides an overview of the scientific evidence for the benefits of yoga practice.

 

3.) A Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton: Brunton traveled India looking for the needles of yogic sagacity amid a haystack of charlatans and posers, and he found a few.

 

2.) Warrior Pose by Brad Willis: As the sub-title suggests, this book is about how yoga saved the life of a war correspondent who suffered from a severe spinal injury that had repercussions beyond his back — re: his state of mind.

 

1.) The Heart of Yoga by T.K.V. Desikachar: This book provides one-stop shopping for building one’s yoga practice, and it does so in a very down-to-earth, secular, and non-doctrinaire way. It also includes a translation and brief commentary of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras — hence, the reason I didn’t need to include that work on this list.

5 Considerations for Sun Salutations

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Sun Salutations (i.e. Surya Namaskara) are a sequence of poses (asana) popular in Hatha Yoga for warming up both the joints and the core — among other reasons. There are a number of variations on this practice. The version I demonstrate in the video is common, and is often associated with Swami Sivananda. Below are a few points for consideration.



5.) Don’t forget the quad when in the Lunge (Ashwa Sanchalanasana): While stepping back and forward into the lunge position (ashwa sanchalanasana), sink the thigh of the backward extended leg down to get a stretch in the hip flexors and quad. This is commonly glossed over, missing a good opportunity. Secondary note: look forward in the lunge or at least not back and down between the legs (the latter suggesting excessive rounding of back.)



4.) Lift up into Plank (Utthita Chataranga Dandasana): If you have a valley between your shoulder blades, engage the serratus anterior, lift the torso up away from the floor, and turn that valley into a small, gentle-sloping hill. In other words, try to get the shoulder blades to come further apart.



3.) Place the ankle under the knee in the return Lunge (Ashwa Sanchalanasana): This is a challenge for many students depending upon a range of factors from flexibility to thigh girth to waist girth. It’s better to put the back knee down and use your hand to pull the lower leg into place than to try to stand up with the knee considerably forward of the toes. The latter puts a lot of load on connective tissues rather than transferring it down the length of the shin into the foot and floor.



2.) Keep hips up in “Knees-Chest-Chin-Down” (Ashtanga Namaskara), if you can safely do so: This is another challenging one for many students, particularly given the common nature of thoracic hyperkyphosis (i.e. excessively rounded upper back.) If one does have hyperkyphosis, one doesn’t want to force the matter. However, this does counteract that forward rounding tendency by stretching tight muscles out.



1.) Keep shoulders down and away from ears in Cobra pose (Bhujangasana): Unlike the previous common errors, this one seems to come down to lack of awareness or effort as much as it does to physical limitations. Of course, thoracic hyperkyphosis can also make Cobra challenging because the spine wants to bend the other way. I see students who have trouble keeping their navel on the ground and their arms bent because they have an almost “S” curve in their backs.

BOOK REVIEW: Jnana Yoga by Swami Vivekananda

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Jnana-YogaJnana-Yoga by Swami Vivekananda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon page

 

For those for whom the term “Jnana Yoga” is unfamiliar, it’s one of the three original branches of yoga. Jnana yoga is the path of knowledge, which sounds more scholarly than apropos and so maybe the alternative translations of path of self-realization or of wisdom might be more informative. For the most part, Jnana yoga isn’t about reading books and collecting facts, although studying texts is traditionally a part of the approach, it’s more about turning inward and expanding understanding through practice and personal inquiry. The other two branches are bhakti yoga, which is the path of devotion followed by pious true believers, and karma yoga, which is the path of [unselfish] action or charitable work.

This is a hard book to rate. As a book about yoga and the philosophy thereof, I give it four stars and might even give it five in a gleeful moment. However, if I were to rate it as a book specifically on jnana yoga, I’d give it two. The book reads more like a bhakti yogi’s take on jnana yoga than a book on jnana yoga itself. In other words, Swami Vivekananda devotes a lot of space to telling the reader what they should take on faith and relatively little to discussing how one can glean one’s own insight through practice and introspection. I realize that if I were a bhakti yogi, my perspective would be different and I’d likely see the book as insufficient in its efforts to suggest that the reader should sing the praises of the almighty. But I’m not, and I obtained a book entitled “Jnana Yoga” thinking I would learn about the titular subject and so I was a bit disappointed at the approach of the book. There are some insights into jnana yoga here and there, but it’s not the focus. It’s telling that Chapter one is entitled “the necessity of religion” and that it begins by explaining why the existence of God must be taken as axiomatic.

There are sixteen chapters in the book. The general flow goes: a few chapters on “maya” (which is typically translated as illusion / delusion, but which Vivekananda argues is best thought of in a different light, which he goes on to explain in detail), some chapters on the cosmos and its nature, and the last few chapters are on atman (i.e. the self, sometimes translated as “soul.”) It should be said that these topics are consistent with a consideration of jnana yoga. Jnana yogis concern themselves with these big questions such as the nature of reality, the universe, and the self. However, the approach of saying that this is what the Vedas say (and thus it’s the reader’s truth) is inconsistent with the path of the jnana yogi. Swami Vivekananda is clearly highly knowledgeable and he does bring up some thought-provoking approaches. There are occasional errors on matters of science, but one must keep in mind that it was written before the turn of the twentieth century and so the state of knowledge has changed considerably in the intervening years, and so I don’t discount for them — especially, because one is often surprised by the author’s level of understanding of the science.

The book is straight text. The edition that I read had some annotations, but the book neither has nor needs any ancillary material.

My recommendation would be contingent on what the reader is looking for in a book. If one is seeking a general understanding of yogic thought on the nature of reality, the universe, and the nature of self, then this is an insightful book. If, however, one is interested in the path of the jnana yogi and what it entails, I’d suggest you look elsewhere (e.g. Swami Saraswati’s “Sure Ways to Self-Realization.”)

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5 Fun Arm Balance Transitions

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5. Eka Hasta Bhujasana to Astavakrasana




4. Adho Mukha Svanasana to Eka Pada Koundinyasana





3. Bakasana to Salamba Shirshasana II





2. Utthita Ardha Padmasana to Eka Pada Galavasana





1. Parivrtta Utkatasana to Parivrtta Eka Pada Koundinyasana

BOOK REVIEW: Tantric Yoga by Gavin and Yvonne Frost

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Tantric Yoga: The Royal Path to Raising Kundalini PowerTantric Yoga: The Royal Path to Raising Kundalini Power by Gavin Frost
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon page

 

Whenever I review a book about tantra, I have to start by clarifying which tantra I’m talking about. For tantra is one of those concepts that everybody thinks they know the meaning of, but few agree about what it is exactly. There are at least three broad interpretations of tantra. Among old-school Indian Tantrics, tantra involves the use of practices and rituals to elevate one’s consciousness, and at least some of said practices involve activities that mainstream religions (i.e. Hindu, Buddhism and others) consider vices. Two alternatives can be considered in contrast to that baseline view. The first of these is the mainstream religious view of tantra that keeps the unobjectionable practices and dismisses those practices that the fly in the face of religious prohibitions, saying that they are just misunderstandings or misinterpretations and not to be taken literally.

The second view, and the one relevant to his book, is the modern and mostly Western notion of tantra as being all about sex. This isn’t to suggest that these modern Tantrics are just guided by base desire and are only seeking tips to be better in the bedroom. Most of them see tantra as a road to an altered state of consciousness, but that alpha and the omega of that route is in sexual activity. I’d like to read a book dealing in the first view, but either that is dying out or those kind of tantrics don’t write books. This has left me with books on the alternative perspectives. I’ve already reviewed one on the mainstream religious perspective, and so here is one on the modern / Western sex-centric approach. It should be noted that the authors are aware of the differences in strains and refer to the branch they are offering as “Reconstructed Yoga” or “Neo-Tantric Yoga.”

The book that Frost and Frost deliver is designed to be one-stop shopping for those who would like to join or start a “tantric house.” A tantric house is sort of like an ashram, but smaller and focused on the “Neo-Tantric Yoga” (sexually-oriented) practices. Needless to say, there is a great deal of protocol to consider when living under such conditions. The book is logically organized. It starts with sort of philosophical and conceptual background and progresses to delving into the specific details of various practices. The ten chapters are arranged into three parts that deal, respectively, with basic precepts, preparation, and the details of the practices.

I should point out that it’s not just in the emphasis on sexually-based practices that this book differs from the traditional view of tantra. One of the best examples of this can be seen in the first sentence of a preface entitled “How to Use this Book” which says, “Many believe that teaching requires gurus, but that belief became obsolete centuries ago with the invention of printing. This book will be your personal guru…” In the old-school view of tantra, the importance of an actual teacher is considered paramount both because ritual and practice are so central to the activity and because there is so much opportunity to lose oneself in the weeds.

The book includes a great deal of ancillary matter. There are many black-and-white line drawings and diagrams. There are two appendices. The first appendix delves into the logistics of a tantric house from pet ownership to floor plans to issues to consider in considering applicants (needless to say many of these items wouldn’t be appropriate – or legal – to ask about when considering a prospective roommate or employee.) The other appendix is offered for gay participants because the rituals described throughout the book anticipate heterosexual coupling. There is a short bibliography and some brief assorted front matter as well.

This book is well written and organized for delivering what it’s intended to deliver. While it covers a lot of background information, it’s put together in a “how-to” format. This means that there are a lot of step-by-step instructions that could be useful if you intend to carry out the practices, but aren’t the most pleasant reading if one is trying to get a feel for the subject and / or to compare and contrast it to approaches with which one might be more familiar. There is certainly some intriguing food-for-thought peppered throughout, but it’s a how-to manual through-and-through.

I’d recommend this book for anyone who is interested in getting insights about life in a tantric household – particularly if one is interested in the details of ritual as well as the logistics and practical issues of such living. I’m sure there are more entertaining accounts of living in such a house, but which will not provide as much systematic explanation.

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2017: My Year in Review

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Lilla and I return to Bangalore on New Years Eve from a trip to Hungary by way of Vienna, Austria. It was my first time in Vienna since a similar overnight trip that I believe was over 20 years ago (i.e. my first trip to Budapest in 1994-ish, if memory serves–which it seldom does anymore.) Of course, the parts of the city that attract the eye look the same–the classic Viennese architecture. I’d be lying if I said I had any great recollections from the prior trip except that the weather was cold and drizzly and Vienna’s legendary cafes were much in need. (Fun fact: there’s a Cafe Coffee Day in Vienna. That will mean nothing to my non-Indian friends, but may be interesting to my Indian friends.) This time we had beautiful blue skies and a tolerable dry cold.

January was fairly unremarkable except for several trips to the dentist to get a tooth fixed that shattered upon eating a piece of hard but delicious food. Thankfully, the fracture of previously capped tooth was painless–as long as I didn’t drink beverages of extreme temperatures. And Lilla began her busy season that runs through the first few months of each year.

In the later half of February and through early March, I was in Rangsit, Thailand at the Muay Thai Institute to complete the third level of their Fundamentals course. Thailand is always fun and friendly, and I finally picked the right time of year for Thai-boxing training. [I’ve done the rainy season, and that’s no fun –when you sweat as intensely as I– because nothing ever dries, including one’s shoes. I’ve also trained during the hottest time of year, and the suckiness of that will be self-explanatory to anyone who knows how hot and humid Thailand can get.] On Sundays, I got to see a few new sites around Bangkok (e.g. the Zoo and the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall) in addition to watching the fights at the Rangsit Arena, but mostly this trip was training four hours per day, six days a week– leaving little time or energy for touring.

In April, Lilla and I traveled through four states of India’s Northeast (Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Manipur.) This is a fascinating part of the country because it feels like a different country–except for Assam. It’s very tribal, and if one can imagine what Burma would be like if Christian missionaries converted most of the population instead of Buddhists having done so, that’s what Nagaland feels like.  Highlights of the trip included seeing Indian Rhinos from elephant-back and drinking tea with a group of tattoo-faced old men who’d once taken part in internecine killing. (FYI-This was cannibal country once-upon-a-time.)

 Our Northeast excursion continued into the early part of May. May was also notable for our participation in the TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) 10K run. This was the first time I’d run such a race and probably the first time Lilla ran 10 consecutive kilometers without stopping in her life. (This was not Lilla’s first race though, she’d participated in a shorter race (a 7k) earlier in the year.)

We also returned to stay at the Golden Mist Coffee Plantation Homestay near Madikeri. This is a quiet estate where they grow coffee, tea, and various spices, and it makes for a relaxing weekend away from the chaos that reigns in Bangalore. Golden Mist was one of the first excursions we made when we came to India, and the food and experience was true to our memory of it.

In June we returned to Zambia, and made short side trips to Botswana and Kenya. (The latter because the Kenyan Airline allows one to stay over at no additional cost.) This time Lilla and I made it to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls. During our previous trip to Lusaka, there wasn’t time, and so we were glad we got an opportunity to go back. (To put it in context, going to Lusaka and not going see Victoria Falls is like going to Flagstaff and not going to see the Grand Canyon.)

The trip to Botswana was to Chobe National Park which sits just across the border / Zambezi River. There is actually a point in the middle of the Zambezi River where four countries’ boundaries touch (Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia [which has a little negotiated neck of land that stretches to the Zambezi for water access]) and which I would have passed quite close to when crossing at the Kazungula border checkpoint.

In Kenya, I made a trip to Amboseli National Park. This park is most famous for: a.) its spectacular view of Mt. Kilimanjaro which many argue is better than the view in Tanzania (the country in which the mountain actually resides) At any rate, the volcanic cone was entirely socked in with clouds, and so I didn’t get this benefit the view at all. b.) the Maasai people, famous both as warriors and cattle-herders. and c.) the wildlife–and most especially a huge group of elephants who’re supported by the vegetation of a marsh created by Kilimanjaro glacial runoff. The wildlife more than made up for the lack of view of the mountain. In fact, the experience of viewing wildlife in Africa was mind-blowing–dare I say, life-changing. Being on the savanna in Kenya and reflecting on the origins of our species put the world in perspective.

July and August were fairly quiet, though we had an intense rainy season in Bangalore this year. In our first few years in India, the most intense rains all came after the rainy season should have been over. Not so this year.

In September I resumed teaching yoga. I’d been on a hiatus because our plans had been up in the air. Previously, we were supposed to be returning home to United States sometime in the summer or early fall of this year. At any rate, we found out that we’d be staying here almost until our five-year anniversary in India– beyond which Indian visa law prohibits residency. In other words, we are now scheduled to leave India in the summer of next year–i.e. July-ish of 2018. Where we will go remains anyone’s guess, but the Indian government–taking a line from Semisonic’s “Closing Time” says, “we don’t have to go home, but we can’t stay here.”  Anyhow, I co-taught a  shatkarma (cleansing practices) workshop for a teacher’s training with Amrutha Bindu Yoga Shala. That was a new experience for me, but mostly I’ve been teaching small classes and private lessons on asana (postural practice), pranayama (breath), and yoganidra (relaxation.)

Also in September, we made our first trip to Gujarat to visit Ahmedabad and some of the nearby historic sites. We saw some awesome temples and step-wells, some of which dated back as far as the eleventh century. Ahmedabad was in festival season splendor, heightened by having recently been chosen as India’s first UNESCO Heritage City.

In November I participated in National Novel Writing Month, and for the first time successfully completed the challenge of drafting a 50,000 word novel (novella) in one calendar month. I’ve started this challenge before, but it never really worked either because of ideas failing me or scheduling, but this year we only had one long weekend trip to Rishikesh and my teaching schedule, and so I was able to keep the required daily writing. This time I had the sense to work on a much less convoluted story than the draft that sits on my hard-drive, mocking me like some hallow-souled demon of the abyss.

Rishikesh was awesome and relaxing. We did some rafting on the Ganges, and saw a number of huge ashrams and temples.

That brings me to December. Lilla and I will be going to the Philippines in the latter half of the month for the holidays, with a day-long layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the way back. This will be our first time in the Philippines, but our second time to KL. Besides a couple days in Manila, we’ll be in the Visayas, which is the quiet belt of small islands in the middle of the country–as opposed to Luzon (the big island to the North where Manila is located) or Mindanao (the big island to the South in which Muslim rebels are said to be active.)

As with this year, we should be back in Bangalore in time to ring in 2018.

DAILY PHOTO: Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh

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Taken on November 24, 2017 in Rishikesh

5 Facts about Hyperkyphosis

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Source: William Crochot via Wikipedia

 

Hyperkyphosis (a.k.a. Excessive Thoracic Kyphosis, “Dowager’s Hump”, or often just called Kyphosis) is an excessive outward curve of the thoracic (chest) region of the spine. There are many causes and contributors to this problem, but–for the purposes of this post–I’ll be focusing on postural kyphosis. There is a natural curvature in this part of the spine that is healthy. However, as is also true of the lumbar spine, the amount of curvature can become excessive, leading to a number of health conditions.

 

5.) Hyperkyphosis increases the risk of injurious falls in older people. Having one’s head forward, when combined with a lack of capacity to respond quickly to loss of balance, makes it more likely one will fall and hurt oneself.

Source: Kado, D.M., et. al. 2007. Hyperkyphotic posture and risk of injurious falls in older persons: the Rancho Bernardo Study. J Gerontol A Bio Sci Med Sci. Vol. 62: 652-657.

 

4.) As far as the muscles of your upper back and neck are concerned, an 11 pound head can weigh 40 to 50 pounds when it’s forward positioned. Hyperkyphosis and forward head position tend to go hand in hand. If you purposely slump your back you’ll see why.

Source: Hansraj, K.K. 2014. Assessment of stresses in the cervical spine caused by posture and position of head. Surg Technol Int. Vol. 25(Nov): 277-279.

 

3.) There is reason to believe the young are becoming more prone to hyperkyphosis in conjunction with “text neck” from spending lots of time slumped over their phones.

Source: in addition to the Hansraj journal article above, see also: Ward, Victoria.2015. Children ‘becoming hunchbacks’ due to addiction to smart phones. The Telegraph. October 16. Online edition; last accessed Nov. 7, 2017.

 

2.) Yoga can help reduce hyperkyphosis. A test group who practiced hour-long sessions of yoga three days a week for 24 weeks showed an improvement in the flexicurve angle of kyphosis.

Source: Greendale, G.A., et. al. 2013. Yoga decreases kyphosis in senior women and men with adult onset hyperkyphosis: results of a randomized controlled trial. J Am Geriatr Soc. 57(9): 1569-1579

 

1.) Older individuals may be at risk for fractures, particularly when doing spine flexing movements, but careful use of spinal extensions (e.g. hands free cobra or superman shalabasana [locust]) can build strength and reduce fracture risk.

Source: Katzman, W.B., et. al. 2010. Age-related hyperkyphosis: its causes, consequences, and management. J Orthop Sports Ther. 40(6): 352-360

BOOK REVIEW: A South Indian Treatise on the Kamasastra ed. by Swami Sivapriyananda

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A South Indian Treatise On The KamasastraA South Indian Treatise On The Kamasastra by Swami Sivapriyananda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon page (note: they have a different edition, I can’t comment on its commentary and art.)

 

This book was originally entitled “Rati Ratna Pradipika.” It’s an unfinished manuscript penned by a member of the Wadiyar (Wodeyar) Kingdom over 350 years ago. The Wadiyars were a south Indian royal family that ruled out of Mysore from 1399 to 1950. Like the “Kamasutra,” which heavily influenced this text, it’s a sex manual. Readers of the “Kamasutra” will not find anything new herein. This book serves more as a window into sexuality, culture, and their overlap for the place and time written. That said, it’s a quick read to appease one’s curiosity. The edition I read was only slightly more than 100 pages and that includes extensive commentary, artworks, and front and back matter.

This treatise consists of seven chapters. Chapter one is largely about astrology and what sex acts are most auspiciously practiced on which days of the month, but it starts with a brief classification of women with regards sexual promise. There’s not much content in this chapter that has any validity outside of the culture and times of its writing, and one wouldn’t want to consider this information to be a relevant guide to one’s behavior in the present day.

Chapter two delves into greater detail in classifying women and men (by body type, demeanor, and genital size / characteristics.) Women are classified as gazelle, mare, and elephant and men as hare, bull, and horse. There’s a brief discussion of which classes are ideally paired. The influence of dosha (i.e. kapha, pitta, vata)–a three-fold classification scheme broadly referenced in yoga and ayurveda—is also described herein.

Chapter three describes “outer play” which—as the name suggests—consists of acts that don’t involve bodily penetration (at least not beyond the so-called “French kiss.”) There are subsections for embracing, kissing, nail marks, and bite marks. The nexus of pain and pleasure is seen in the discussion.

Chapters four and five both concern the practice of “inner love.” The first of these chapters discusses 27 styles of intercourse. The 27 ways of intercourse are functions of genital size, time to orgasm, and level of passion. Chapter five elaborates on the subject that most people think of when they think of Indian sex manuals, and that is the physical positions. As with the “Kamasutra,” these postures range from simple and straight-forward to contortionistic.

Chapter six describes sixteen varieties of oral sex (i.e. eight female to male, and the same number vice versa.) Perhaps reflective of the misogyny of the times, the male to female varieties reflect different physical approaches, whereas female-on-male oral includes varieties such as “post-quarrel.”

Chapter seven is sort of a miscellany chapter that describes approaches to “love blows,” sounds, and a tour of the traits of women of various regions of India. As with the rest of the book, there are some entries that read comedically. (e.g. “While the woman is either sitting on his knee or on a bed the man lovingly punches her with his fist.”… “In response to this cruel violence she will cry like a goose, cuckoo, or duck.” However, the commentary clarifies and reduces confusion over what is presumably an attempt to translate as literally as possible.

The edition that I read (ed. by Swami Sivapriyananda with art by Raghupati Bhatta) was well done. The commentary did a great job of elaborating on confusing elements in the text as well as clarifying points which are incongruous with what we’ve come to know about sex and sexuality through the lens of modern science.

As mentioned, the edition I read had artworks to help clarify the text. These paintings / drawings are exaggerated (not unlike Japanese erotic artwork) and stylistic, but give one the gist of what the author was trying to convey. Most of the pictures are in chapters five and six where they are most helpful, but a few are placed for aesthetic purposes in other chapters. There’s also a brief bibliography in the edition that I read.

I’d recommend this book for anyone who’s interested in the nexus of sex, culture, and yogic / ayurvedic thought.

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POEM: Pratyahara

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Silence
Ears ring
Inventing a monotonous tone
to thwart
Silence

on inner eyelids
a dragon dance plays out
in purple & black

a flower scent
too faint for a human nose
swells to a garland market
and becomes
the taste
of
rosewater on the tongue

as the mind wonders,
was it a real
flower
or a
phantosmia?