5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A profound Yoga book, February 16, 2009
This review is from: The Inner Tradition of Yoga: A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitioner (Paperback)
Michael Stone's book "The Inner Tradition of Yoga" is a wise and compassionate book. Michael has a gift for taking some of the most abstract concepts of Yoga philosophy (such as purusha/prakriti) and combining them with practical and pragmatic concerns that every person can relate to. He weaves aspects of asana practice together with insights into our psychological tendencies toward clinging (raga) and aversion (dvesa). And he shows with great understanding how our attachments to notions of "I,me and mine" create suffering and misery. He also points to the transformational potential in Yoga that arises from being grounded in clear and calm awareness. This awareness guides us through all eight limbs of Yoga and confronts us with the physical, psychological or spiritual habits which we have cultivated over years. Out of the increased awareness arises an understanding that deep down we are connected to all things and are ultimately "empty".
If there is one problem with the book, it would perhaps be this concept of emptiness. In the final analysis Michael Stone is deeply influenced by Buddhist philosophy and imports many Buddhist concepts into his interpretation of the Yoga Sutras. This may be unorthodox, but it does work in my eyes. It gives a unifying thread to an interpretation that otherwise may not have reached such depth and all-encompassing vision. Thus, if Yoga is read in a non-dualist way it may be less in accordance with the traditional readings of Yogic texts but it is much more aligned with our current-day intuitions and understandings. And as such "The Inner Tradition" simply is a wonderful book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
High Hopes Disappointed, April 13, 2009
This review is from: The Inner Tradition of Yoga: A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitioner (Paperback)
After studying Chip Hartranft's brilliant translation and commentary on the Yoga Sutra, I looked forward to Michael Stone's work. Prior to receiving the book, I discovered audio recordings by Mr. Stone on the Buddhist scripture, Heart Sutra. These I found remarkably superficial and off the mark of the profound teachings on this sutra as found in, e.g., the Tibetan Buddhist lineage teachings. Anyway, I wanted to give the book a fair reading despite this red flag. Unfortunately, I found the same problems in Mr. Stone's book. The problems are subtle and, therefore, the reader who is not well versed in the worldviews of Yoga and Buddhism will likely be left with wrong ideas. The book's presentation on shunyata is a good example of this. Calling shunyata, or emptiness, a tool reflects a fundamental wrong view of the meaning of the term. Same goes for calling the peak vision of dharma megha samadhi from the Yoga Sutra a "technique." In sum, if you're looking for rigorous scholarship from which practical teachings are given, keep looking. On the other hand, if you're not bothered by an author taking very loose license with key concepts taught in the ancient scriptures, you may enjoy.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read for anyone beginning to study yogic philosophy and the sutras., March 5, 2010
This review is from: The Inner Tradition of Yoga: A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitioner (Paperback)
This was one of the best yoga books I have read so far. Here is what I had to say about it on my blog in March 2009:
I have two translations of The Yoga Sutras, and I will admit that for the past three or four years I have been stuck on two of the sutras. The words are simple, but I have not been able to wrap my mind around them. I have discovered that the yoga sutras are not something to read from start to finish. So, how do you even get an overview of what may be in them? Where do you start if you want to learn more about yoga beyond asana and the eight limbs?
I recently finished a book that has given me some more foundational knowledge: The Inner Tradition of Yoga by Michael Stone. He has an understanding to the point where he can apply theory to our everyday living and write about it for those of us just beginning to explore yogic theory in earnest. In Inner Tradition, he unpacks what the sutras say about suffering and brings definition and clarity to them. He also outlines the subtle bodies, or dosas, in a way that is easily understood, accessible, and grounded. In the beginning, he introduces this book to be about the psychological experience of a committed yoga practice and the letting go that must happen if a practice is to deepen and expand. Instead of being about postures and how to deepen them, this book is about how a yoga practice can be experienced and cultivated in our lives. He remains true to his aim, which is to introduce yogic theory to modern day Westerners and apply this theory to what we face in our day to day lives.
Yoga oftentimes is treated as just a physical practice, with the deeper aspects denied or ignored. I think that many are fooled that by practicing postures alone, we will become enlightened, or at the very least wiser. It's like saying that going to an aerobics class makes us wise. It could, but what is required is that we bring a awareness to what we are doing and a willingness to explore ourselves internally. A physical practice without a mindfulness practice only cultivates the separation of who we truly are from what we want to be (a.k.a. narcissism). Physical practice includes any kind of workout, and one form of yoga is a physical workout.
Here is an excerpt from page 12, "This book is about how to cultivate a yoga practice, what constitutes a yoga practice, how to recognize and work with the different stages on the path, and how to keep the tradition of yoga a living tradition through committed practice and critical engagement. On a heart level, this book is about the cultivation of patience, honesty, nonviolence, wisdom, and the ability to meet life as it occurs from moment to moment without habitual forms of clinging"
The message throughout the book is to stay mindful during practice and from this, we begin to understand clearly the dimensions of the self and reality. With breath and asana, we stay grounded as understanding develops. Breath and asana are the classroom. We can pay attention or not, but to pay attention is to discover the richness of life because we are experiencing it directly and not through an emotional filter, a mental block, a belief, or any other construct of the mind.
From page 14, "In the center of the human body we find the center of all things because when breath, mind, and body come together in an instant of experience, reality unfolds. Reality unfolds when the mind can stay completely present in a breath cycle, especially at the completion of an exhale. The exhale completes itself in the pelvic floor, the center of gravity, the resting place of the mind."
I appreciate that despite all the theory and concepts that he lays out, breath and asana are at the center of what each yoga practitioner must do. In the focus on breath and asana, we come to realizations about ourselves, and we come to accept these realizations. Using breath and asana as a vehicle to self realization keeps us grounded and closes the gap between who we truly are and what we want to be.
He defines the causes of suffering and distinguishes them from the symptoms of suffering (also termed poisons of the heart). It is in this area of the sutras where I have gotten bogged down, and now, I can go back to them with more receptivity to what the sutras and their translators have to say about dukkha (suffering) and the klesas (poisons of the heart).
Also, I keep going back to the way he describes how we process information. We receive data through our senses, our brains register the data, then we decide whether or not we like it. From there, we own it and hoard it away somewhere in our body. This can be a vicious cycle if we get stuck on the aversion track. It can also stunt us if it is the pleasure track. He points out that this cycle is the way an addiction forms. Addiction is like a scratched record. Through breath and letting go, we can nudge the needle off the repeating track and onward into the rest of what life experience has to offer us. This was one of the many aha moments that I had while reading the book.
Side note about the broken record: I think we can unknowingly get stuck, even in a yoga practice. For instance, many of us think we aren't doing anything if we don't feel the pose where we think we should feel it. The shoulders and the spine can be a tricky like that. If we reach out, we may take our arms past our spine behind us bending the spine back by tilting the tailbone up thinking we need to feel the stretch in the pectoral muscles of the chest. But, really, just reaching the arms out while keeping the spine in a neutral position is what we need. From this position, we do not overstretch the shoulders, we can engage deep breathing much easier and the actual stretch in the chest will feel more like an unloading. And taking a load off our chests is exactly what we need most of the time.
Since starting this post, I have gone to the sutras that have mystified me and don't know why I got stuck. What I needed was a general picture, which is what Stone has provided with The Inner Tradition of Yoga. Now, I can pick up the sutras and take them one at a time and read the commentaries without feeling like a blind person being led by a stranger across uneven terrain.
Books referred to in this post:
The Inner Tradition of Yoga: A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitioner by Michael Stone
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Translation and Commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda
The Essence of Yoga: Reflections on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Bernard Bouanchaud
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
