Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I wouldn't exactly call this a great read. The introduction is useful for anyone new to yoga but it could probably fill out an entire book on its own so you're really skipping over a lot of ideas in that essay. The bulk of the book is an index of poses and commentary on their usefulness. The index is ESSENTIAL. Particularly the suggested schedule of asanas. This book is defining a trajectory for my practice and basically changing my life. So, yeah, 5 stars for that.
2019 Update:
I've befriended an incongruous (eighty-year) old man at my university gym. He's been instructed by his doctor to regain fitness for his heart and arthritis. He was curious to see what I was doing on the mats, the focus and control in my slow movements. I showed him some very simple poses, told him to find this book and left on holiday for the summer. When I returned, he said he had found it in the library and had started practicing daily in his room and that it made him feel very good and much more flexible in his weaker joints. He is currently working toward sitting on his heels with knees together (devotional pose), and tells me that he does not mind how long it takes him, but just that he gets a little closer each day.
Yoga is great for compassionately connecting people, and am proud to say this book was powerful enough to help me to inspire an elderly newcomer to practice yoga, and has brought him enjoyment in his mind and body.
--------
I've read enough to form an opinion on this book that I will probably continue consulting for life.
As far as I am aware this is the yoga book; the closest thing to an authoritative manual on 'how to practice yoga'. Hundreds of postures described similar to a cooking recipe book with the given spiritual guidance and suggested flows (combinations) in separate chapters. Note that this is a guide will probably be overwhelming for beginners (who I'd advise seek beginner or yin classes first before learning asanas methodically). I am slowly working towards becoming a yoga teacher, but do so earnestly I will need a few more years of mental and physical preparation.
The way I see it the asanas of the Bikram, Moksha or other new Westernized schools are adaptations (sometimes suspiciously hand-wavy simplifications) of these asanas by Iyengar. While I appreciate the newer approach to yoga as being open to modification to one's own body, I think it is important for anyone who is serious about yoga to learn the 'original' way, and then adapt, so to know the direction in which one is going from 'the path' on their own journey. And for a yogi, this book is the path.
I've befriended an incongruous (eighty-year) old man at my university gym. He's been instructed by his doctor to regain fitness for his heart and arthritis. He was curious to see what I was doing on the mats, the focus and control in my slow movements. I showed him some very simple poses, told him to find this book and left on holiday for the summer. When I returned, he said he had found it in the library and had started practicing daily in his room and that it made him feel very good and much more flexible in his weaker joints. He is currently working toward sitting on his heels with knees together (devotional pose), and tells me that he does not mind how long it takes him, but just that he gets a little closer each day.
Yoga is great for compassionately connecting people, and am proud to say this book was powerful enough to help me to inspire an elderly newcomer to practice yoga, and has brought him enjoyment in his mind and body.
--------
I've read enough to form an opinion on this book that I will probably continue consulting for life.
As far as I am aware this is the yoga book; the closest thing to an authoritative manual on 'how to practice yoga'. Hundreds of postures described similar to a cooking recipe book with the given spiritual guidance and suggested flows (combinations) in separate chapters. Note that this is a guide will probably be overwhelming for beginners (who I'd advise seek beginner or yin classes first before learning asanas methodically). I am slowly working towards becoming a yoga teacher, but do so earnestly I will need a few more years of mental and physical preparation.
The way I see it the asanas of the Bikram, Moksha or other new Westernized schools are adaptations (sometimes suspiciously hand-wavy simplifications) of these asanas by Iyengar. While I appreciate the newer approach to yoga as being open to modification to one's own body, I think it is important for anyone who is serious about yoga to learn the 'original' way, and then adapt, so to know the direction in which one is going from 'the path' on their own journey. And for a yogi, this book is the path.
Beautiful book - with all the wisdom behind Yoga, and all yoga poses and sequences explained with photographs.
Heavy. I don't know whether I need to read it 3 more times, or just keep it on hand as a reference item, or both.
It is literally the Bible of modern Yoga. Anyone who practices Hatha (or a derivative) will appreciate the in-depth dissections of the asanas and their proper alignment, the progressions that Iyengar offers, and the meditations on the significance of an informed asana practice.
It's dense, but an excellent reference.
It's dense, but an excellent reference.