Search results for ""North Point Press""

Yoga is reputed to improve our physical and mental health, and to help us become more productive at work, more caring in relationships, and a more responsible contributor to society and inhabitant on this planet. If yoga does accomplish all that-and most practitioners will swear it's true-how exactly does it do it? Believe it or not, there are answers. And they are based in how the human body/mind functions, how we are built and wired, and how what we do can direct and change that. Drawing on modern neuroscience, ancient wisdom, and decades of practice and teaching, Eddie Stern's One Simple Thing explains how what we do affects who we become, and reveals how a steady routine of physical movements, activities, and attitudes are able to transform not just our bodies but our brain functions and emotions, and how we experience life.

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Sanskrit has been taught in two ways: the age-old Indian technique involves learning language through the central, sacred texts; the formal Western methodology teaches the alphabet, declensions, grammar, and vocabulary building. The burgeoning interest in Sanskrit among yoga practitioners and changes in the academic discipline indicate that a new approach is in order. Zoë Slatoff-Ponté's Yogavataranam integrates traditional and academic methods of learning and allows students to read texts as soon as possible. The first section of the book teaches reading and basic grammar. The second covers more extensive grammar, and by the third section the student begins to look at and understand more complex texts such as the Upanisads. Yogavataranam is appropriate to many levels of study, from those who are new to Sanskrit to students who already have some experience in reading devanagari script, pronunciation, meaning, and grammar.

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Bhakti Yoga explores one of the eight 'limbs' of yoga. In the simplest terms, bhakti yoga is the practice of devotion, which is the essential heart of yoga and of Hinduism in general. In recent times, the term has come to be used in a rather simplistic way to refer to the increasingly popular practice of kirtan, or chanting in a group or at large gatherings. But bhakti yoga is far more complex and ancient than today's growing kirtan audiences are aware, and embraces many strands and practices. Edwin F. Bryant focuses on one famous and important school of bhakti and explores it in depth to show what bhakti is and how it is expressed. And he supplies his own renderings of central texts from that tradition in the form of 'tales and teachings' from an important work called the Bhagavata Purana, or 'The Beautiful Legend of God.' This clarifying work establishes a baseline for understanding, and will be welcomed by all serious students of the spiritual heritage of India.

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Many people think yoga simply means postures and breathing. Not true. The intention of this short guide is practical and straightforward: to say what yoga really is and to apply its principles to everyday life. It leads us through the eight-limbed system, a coherent framework that has been handed down and elaborated upon for thousands of years and consists of five "outer limbs," which pertain to our experience of the social world and the operation of our senses, and three "inner limbs," which focus on the mind. Stuart Ray Sarbacker and Kevin Kimple present the eight-limbed system as something that can be turned to again and again to deepen and expand understanding and practice.

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One of the great yoga figures of our time, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois brought Ashtanga yoga to the West more than thirty years ago. Based on flowing, energetic movement coordinated with the breath, Ashtanga and the many forms of vinyasa yoga that grow directly out of it have become the most widespread and influential styles practiced today. "Yoga Mala" - a 'garland of yoga' - is Jois' authoritative guide to Ashtanga. In it, he outlines the ethical principles and philosophy underlying the discipline, explains important terms and concepts, and guides the reader through Ashtanga's Sun Salutations and the subsequent primary sequence of forty-two asanas, or poses, precisely describing how to execute each position and what benefits each provides. It is a foundational work on yoga by a true master. To coincide with publication of "Guruji: A Portrait of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Through the Eyes of His Students" by Guy Donahaye and Eddie Stern, this new edition of "Yoga Mala" includes a foreword by Jois' grandson Sharath Rangaswamy, currently co-director of the famous school Jois founded in Mysore, the Ashtanga Yoga Institute.

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Much of what is said about yoga is misleading. To take two examples, it is neither five thousand years old, as is commonly claimed, nor does it mean union, at least not exclusively. In perhaps the most famous text-The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali-the aim is separation, isolating consciousness from everything else. And the earliest evidence of practice dates back about twenty-five hundred years. Yoga may well be older, but no one can prove it. Scholars have learned a lot more about the history of yoga in recent years, but their research can be hard to track down. Although their work is insightful, it is aimed more at specialists than at general readers. Daniel Simpson's The Truth of Yoga draws on many of their findings, presented in a format designed for practitioners. The aim is to highlight ideas on which readers can draw to keep traditions alive in the twenty-first century. It offers an overview of yoga's evolution from its earliest origins to the present. It can either be read chronologically or be used as a reference guide to history and philosophy. Each short section addresses one element, quoting from traditional texts and putting their teachings into context. The intention is to keep things clear without oversimplifying.

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Written almost two millennia ago, Patanjali's work focuses on how to attain the direct experience and realization of the purusa: the innermost individual self, or soul. As the classical treatise on the Hindu understanding of mind and consciousness and on the technique of meditation, it has exerted immense influence over the religious practices of Hinduism in India and, more recently, in the West. Edwin F. Bryant's translation is clear, direct, and exact. Each sutra is presented as Sanskrit text, transliteration, and precise English translation, and is followed by Bryant's authoritative commentary, which is grounded in the classical understanding of yoga and conveys the meaning and depth of the sutras in a user-friendly manner for a Western readership without compromising scholarly rigor or traditional authenticity. In addition, Bryant presents insights drawn from the primary traditional commentaries on the sutras written over the last millennium and a half.

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