Emotional Yoga : How the Body Can Heal the Mind

Rating:
Summary: a meaningful life
Review: A Meaningful Life

This book provides a bit of warm guidance in seeking a deeper sense of Self and Awareness, to what We Are Inside.

In the passage of time, filled with the diverse and sometimes strange nature of stress and change, challenges and rewards, the divine inner quality of Life is always about, yet a bit hidden, needing only a small door to be Opened and Seen.

From the mystic soul, the ever silent wind of Grace,... there is that timeless call to stop the ignorance, quiet the mind, and Become one with the Infinite, if only for a magical second.

That is all. Be still and Behold.

From the music of Santana or Coltrane, to the smile of the Zen Master or the words of the Sages of past and present, the message is always the same.

Go Within.

Be it the towering winds of Chicago, the classes of UCLA, the villages of Europe and India, to the hills of San Francisco, to the sands of San Diego or the slopes of Sun Valley,... we merge into the river (dharma) of life, where ever we are.

Be it dance, meditation or yoga, the message is the same.

B. Bennett shows us an easy beginning to an Endless journey.

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Approach to the 8 Limbs
Review: Bija Bennett has a unique voice in her interpretation of the 8 Limbs of Yoga and overall I found it was valuable food for thought. This is a book that many Western practitioners of yoga might find speaks to them in very clear language. This book focuses on the more viceral emotional elements of Yoga as a practice that is not only based on the postures.

Though this is not an in depth manual for learning the physical postures, it does have some sequenced practices that can be used for different purposes (such as energizing, or tonifying etc.). Her asana practice sections are very sound incorporating dynamic movement (where you move into and out of poses several times with the breath). This stays true to her viniyoga roots (she is a student of Gary Kraftsow I believe who is the most well known teacher of Viniyoga in the west). Viniyoga is a practice taught by TKV Desikachar (which was developed by Deskachar's father T. Krishnamacharya who was also the teacher of B.K.S. Iyengar, P. Jois and others).

I particularly like her section on Pranayama. It's simple and concise and very user friendly. You can apply the techniques quite easily whereas some books on Pranayama are a bit "long winded" :)

Also, she has a section called "An Emotional Walkabout" which is a series of questions that relate to her eight limbed approach and I think it is very helpful. It helps you work through any particular situation you may be dealing with.

Basically you really look at whatever you are dealing with from various angles (there are options within each eight steps so that you can use that which is most suitable to your situation) and the purpose is that it helps you really integrate the situation in a skillful "real life" way. This may be used to come to grips with (perhaps accepting) something you are dealing with or it may be used to let go of unskillful emotions regarding something. This lets you integrate it, learn from it and move on from it.

Anyway, If you are interested in giving yourself another way of looking at the deeper practices of Yoga, then I think this would be a very worthwhile book for you. Bija Bennett definitely has a distinctive personality and perspective to this ancient practice.

Also recommended are Stephen Copes "Yoga and The Quest For The True Self" (and his companion CD's "Yoga For Emotional Flow" which are excellent), Darren John Main's "Yoga and The Path of The Urban Mystic" and Donna Farhi's "Bringing Yoga To Life". All the previous books are not on asana but rather the internal practice of Yoga.

Namaste

Rating:
Summary: Emotional Yoga
Review: This is a masterpiece, a guide for all time, on our sacred journey from self-absorbed, egoisic narcissism to an entirely new level of SELFHOOD, freed from all negative limitations such as duty, honor, integrity, devotion, trust, promise and other platitudes which were designed by the oblivious, and which have nothing to do with our true dharma and kharma -- to free humanity from the heavy bonds of traditionalism and to inspire a new cosmic consciousness, a new realm of enlightened being in which each of us is GOD, truly and forever.