Customer Reviews

Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

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Mediations from the Mat is a one-a-day vitamin for the yogic soul. There are 365 essays here designed to nourish you on your journey off and on the mat.

If you practice yoga, you will appreciate this book. If you like thought-provoking quotes, you'll find them here. If you're on a path toward spiritual and emotional well being, this book is for you.

Grasping Patanjali's 8-limb path is a daunting task. Gates, along with gifted writer/editor Katrina Kenison, simplifies these lessons by presenting them through examples of his own life experiences and discoveries.

What I like best about this book is that it's simple and it's Real. Anybody can relate to these stories of suffering, joy, tragedy, and love, regardless of whether they practice yoga. So with each daily reading, we begin to realize that yoga is not some esoteric, mountain-top guru thing, but a means of meeting ourselves and learning our truth -- simply by showing up on our mats and in our lives.

Gates doesn't claim to have answers. He gives us what he has to give: the lessons he has learned through the erratic, grace-filled ride he's had so far. As the essays gradually build on one another, we begin to understand that amid our suffering, fear, and doubt, we can "experience a visceral sense of belonging in a universe held together by love."

If you take in one of these essays each day, you will nourish your soul. No doubt about it. I'm only on Day 31 and I feel the difference already!

I have a dozen yoga pose books gathering dust on my shelf. This book has been in my hands every day since I bought it. Having bought one for a yogi friend, I flipped through it, and had to get a copy for myself -- and also for my friend in recovery, a New Age friend, and several others who don't even do yoga, but who will love the tone and message of this inspiring collection. The authors bring yoga out of the yoga studio and into everyday life. In these 365 short personal essays, Rolf Gates, a young yoga teacher, talks about what it means to really live according the principles of yoga. It is really about living well, and thoughtfully, with compassion for yourself and others. Each day's reflection begins with a quote, and they are great. This must be the only book on the market that quotes from Leonard Skynard, the movie ALmost Famous, the Yoga Sutras, Henry Thoreau, Martin Luther King, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. . .Gates finds his isnpiration everywhere, and that's just the point he makes: We are all living our yoga all the time. Even on days when I don't get near my yoga mat, I am reading this book. Two minutes grounds me for the day. This book is for everyone on any kind of a spiritual path, and for anyone who needs a helping hand staying on track -- which certainly must be all of us.

I am a fairly casual yoga practitioner; I've just begun to try to incorporate asana (posture) practice on an almost daily basis. This book goes beyond the practice of yoga postures and takes you deep into the philosophy behind yoga. It contains a series of essays and reflections, one for each day of the year; each entry begins with a quote derived from yoga texts, popular culture, or yoga students and teachers. The book is broken down into eight sections which correspond to the eight branches of yoga--the postures, or asanas, are just one of these branches, and the essays focus on incorporating yoga into your daily life both on AND off the mat. Although I found most of the essays to be interesting and enjoyed learning more about yogic traditions, I felt that the book had limited applicability to my own practice, which is more limited to asana. However, those who are interested in integrating yoga/yogic philosophy more pervasively into their lives are likely to enjoy this book.

This book Meditations From The Mat by Rolf Gates is a real treasure!

The book is broken up into chapters according to the 8 limbs of Yoga (Yama's, Niyama's, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi) and is sub-divided so that you can read a new essay each day of the year. Each essay is preceded by a quote by an eclectic array of folks, from spiritual teachers/sages, songwriters, yoga students and others.

Rolf really puts these age old yogic limbs into a language that really speaks to contemporary seekers and truly bares his soul (as they say "Warts and all") in sharing his deeply felt perspective on these different limbs.

This book is a true gift to those who would love a very down to earth perspective on these timeless truths of yoga.

Highly recommended!

Namaste

As one who has never attended a Yoga class, I am fascinated by this book because I feel as though I am doing Yoga as I sit and read and think, read and think. Yoga is so much more than being on a mat, although that experience is certainly most central to the discipline. What I am discovering is the meaning of the discipline. I am able to envision the physical movements as I sort out, mentally, the meaning of my imagined activity. Because Gates puts his readers through stages of using their minds, he also expects those readers to repeat those stages over and over. In repeating the exercises, readers bring new thoughts and experiences to the reading activity and each exposure is different from the last one. As such, the book is always new, exciting, provocative, mysterious, riveting.

"Meditations From the Mat" is a wonderful way to learn the eight limbs of yoga. Rolf gates recommends reading one essay a day. Each of them not only outline Gates personal path, but encourages the reader to look into his/her own heart to discover the meaning of these ancient, yet timeless truths for themselves.

Yoga is a personal journey that is never exactly the same for each of us. This simple yet at times deeply profound book is a beautiful, effortless guide to help each yogi find their own way.

This is by far one of the best books on yoga I have ever read. There are no postures, just daily meditations on what it means to follow the path of yoga. Each day is preceded by a quote which illuminates that day's thought. Many of the quotes are taken directly from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. The book also roughly follows Patanjali's sutras in it's basic structure. The author went through a life crisis of alchohol addiction and after getting cleaned up, yoga helped him take control of his life and find spiritual peace. The daily meditations are very uplifting and will make you better appreciate your life, improve your relationships and refine your spiritual path. A highly recommend this book. It may just change your life for the better.

This book is a gift I gave to myself. After reading Part One, I bought several more copies for my friends and family. The book is not just for yogis. It is for anyone on the path to wellness and spiritual discovery. I have learned so much about myself from reading the daily essays and applying them to my own life. As Gates says so eloquently, "the obstacles on the path ARE the path." Think about that for a moment and quite possibly you will begin to see that what happens in life happens for a reason and the first thing you have to do is simply "Show Up."

Read this book, and if your live in the Boston area, try to attend one of Rolf's classes. He will make you weep with joy. Rolf combines spirituality with physicality in a unique way that is truly a life-changing experience. In a culture where we, especially women, experience so much negativity towards our bodies, Rolf is a godsend - helping us love and inhabit ourselves. I have used Amazon.com for years, and this is the first time I have taken the time to write a review.

After checking Meditations from the Mat out of the library numerous times, I decided the only solution was to own this book. Read from one end to the other, it is a beautiful progression in the life of the author, but each offering is a quiet, profound life lesson as well. This is a great gift for someone else or maybe for yourself. I've bought three so far.