Beyond Power Yoga: 8 Levels of Practice for Body and Soul [Paperback]

Beryl Bender Birch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2000

FROM SWEAT TO SAMADHI: The Path of ASTANGA YOGA

Beyond Power Yoga presents and explores the complete journey of the classical astanga yoga system, from power yoga to meditation and liberation. Bender Birch's first book, the groundbreaking Power Yoga, introduced one level of astanga yoga to mainstream America -- a high-heat, high-energy mind/body workout. Now, Beyond Power Yoga presents all eight levels, or limbs, of this ancient method -- a total practice for body and soul.

Drawing a parallel between astanga yoga's eight limbs and the mind/body energy centers (chakras) of Eastern philosophy, Bender Birch shows us how we can balance and heal our body, focus and relax our mind, amplify and direct our energy (prana), and ultimately reclaim our spiritual connection to Universal Consciousness. Each chapter offers specific practices to help the reader uncover and experience the insights of the astanga yoga journey.

0. The YAMAS: Exploring the Fundamentals
1. The NIYAMAS: Doing the Work
2. ASANA: Practicing the Postures
3. PRANAYAMA: Breathing Mindfully
4. PRATYAHARA: Turning Inward
5. DHARANA: Developing Concentration
6. DHYANA: Experiencing Meditation
7. SAMADHI: Living Joyfully

Presented in the down-to-earth illuminating style and inspiring voice of the author, illustrated with easy-to-follow photos, plus a special wall chart of the asana sequences, Beyond Power Yoga offers a short form of the dynamic mind/body power yoga method, then journeys through the deeper levels of spiritual practice.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Yoga poses, or asanas, are just part of a traditional yoga practice, although this fact has largely been overlooked by the masses who've taken up yoga in the past several years. In astanga yoga, for example, there are eight branches, or "limbs," of yoga that each correspond to a body chakra, or energy center, which combine physical and spiritual activities to balance the energy of the body and mind. (The third limb encompasses the asanas familiar to most yoga students; the other limbs include pranayama, or mindful breathing; dharana, or concentration; dhyana, meditation; and samadhi, living joyfully.)

Learning about the eight limbs in Beyond Power Yoga, Beryl Bender Birch's follow-up to her 1995 bestseller, Power Yoga, could have been a dry and almost scholarly project, but rather is thankfully as rejuvenating as a Hawaiian yoga retreat. Birch's writing style is at once confident and soothing, and often humorous. A prime example is her explanation of the yoga concept of dharma (if you follow your dharma, you're following your universal path, or calling). Birch was newly married and mourning the passing of her dog. She was "just looking" at the pound for a Siberian husky and saw "in the flesh, the very dog I had been 'seeing' and searching for--thoroughly gorgeous, completely show quality, perfect markings, fit, strong, outgoing and very friendly, but totally wild. The dog came bounding over to me and jumped into my arms, all fifty pounds of him. There was no question God wanted me to have this dog." There was also an older, matted, underweight, crabby husky there too, which she couldn't bear to leave. So she bought both of them from the pound for $17.43, but then spent $400 at the veterinarian to have them dewormed and immunized. She and her husband needed that money for rent, and he lambasted her for her irresponsibility. The day their rent was due, they received a $400 gift from a former student, thanking the Birches for ridding him of his back pain. Birch says that the thought never occurred to her that the rent money would be a problem: "If I had been plugged into the perception that it was going to take a long time to get that $400 back, then it would have taken a long time to get the $400 back, and I could never have had those dogs."

Beyond Power Yoga includes dozens of photographs of Birch demonstrating basic asanas, including the Sun Salutation series, but for the reader looking for a full "power yoga" workout to get you good and sweaty, her first book will still be a necessity. But beginning- through advanced-yoga practitioners serious about using yoga as a path to self-fulfillment should find the information in Beyond Power Yoga to be positively life altering. --Erica Jorgensen

Review

The New York Times Yoga that mixes sweat with serenity.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (January 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684855267
• ISBN-13: 978-0684855264
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A clear intro to the 8 limbs of Astanga Yoga, September 5, 2000

By 

Michele Gill (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beyond Power Yoga: 8 Levels of Practice for Body and Soul (Paperback)

Power Yoga, Beryl Bender Birch's first book, is a great introduction to developing a strong asana practice. In Beyond Power Yoga, Beryl reminds us that true astanga yoga is about more than physical health; rather it includes ethical living, a disciplined mind and body, and openness to that which is larger than ourselves. Beryl presents this information in a conversational, friendly manner, similar to how she spoke at a workshop I recently attended. Asanas, of course, are at the core of this work, and BPY gives us a good overview of a mixed primary and secondary series of practice. However, BPY goes beyond the asanas by linking the chakras to the 8 limbs of astanga yoga practice as detailed in the Yoga Sutras. The section on pranayama is exceptional--she brings a relatively obscure practice down to earth in a way that reveals not only how to do it, but *why* it's important to practice in our lives. This is a book for those interested in the larger picture of yoga and how it fits into a spiritual/philosophical worldview of how to live rightly on this earth. Highly recommended for those who like to sweat but are ready for even more from their practice, as well as those from other hatha yoga traditions, if just to prove that astanga yoga is rooted in spirit as well as matter.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars speaks to the whole mind/body continuum, January 27, 2000

By 

wiccacat (Bayport, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Beyond Power Yoga: 8 Levels of Practice for Body and Soul (Paperback)

As a committed beginning yoga student--6+ months practicing--this is exactly what I have been looking for. In the West few yoga teachers are willing to make the spiritual and ehthical connections that are an essential part of yoga--union--mind and body, world and spirit. Perhaps they feel that American students are only looking for a "workout." But as the body bends and becomes more flexible, so can the mind. The energy that makes you physically strong also can liberate your spirit from the many weights that drag it down. Birch's writing is not only clear and helpful, but very moving. Reading this book, and starting to integrate the practices into one's whole life, will open up a lot of unexplored places in your life. She interprets the yoga philosophy in terms that speak directly to the student. I think she is especially helpful to women practitioners, since so much of the traditional yoga culture has been male. Wonderful--very highly recommended!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even better than Power Yoga, if that's possible, December 27, 1999

By 

Amy Knox (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Power Yoga: 8 Levels of Practice for Body and Soul (Paperback)

BBB does it again! What a find. I read Power Yoga a year ago and was very pleased to find Beyond... on the shelf last week. This book will give you a thorough introduction to astanga yoga, or deepen your already existing practice. But more than that, it takes you deeper into WHY practicing yoga is so challenging, why you run into hurdles/blocks, why they are good for you, and how to overcome them. Exactly why I was browsing the yoga shelf that day.....