The Tree of Yoga [Paperback]

B.K.S. Iyengar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 1989

In this book, one of the world's foremost teachers of yoga offers his thoughts on many practical and philosophical subjects, ranging from the place of yoga in daily life to insights from Patañjali's Yoga Sutras. He includes chapters on family life, love and sexuality, health and the healing arts, meditation, death, and advice to teachers. Based on lectures and discussions with his students, the text is enlivened by many of the author's personal experiences in the practice of yoga postures and breathing as well as in putting spiritual principles into action.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Valuable insights into the therapeutic nature of yoga. . . . Those already familiar with Iyengar's work will find subtlety and depth here that will increase with each rereading."— Yoga Journal



"The well known Iyengar, a yoga teacher for fifty years and family man with six children, offers valuable teachings that are consistently lucid, inspiring, and instructive."— East West --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

One of the world's foremost teachers of yoga offers his thoughts on many practical and philosophical subjects, ranging from the place of yoga in daily life to insights from Patanjali's "Yoga Sutras".

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 194 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala (February 18, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087773464X
• ISBN-13: 978-0877734642
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,239,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

B.K.S. Iyengar was born in India in 1918 and has been teaching yoga since of the age of 17. He has been one of the world's leading teachers of yoga for over 70 years and is internationally recognized as a leading authority of hatha yoga. His own style of teaching, "Iyengar Yoga", is followed by certified teachers across the world. Iyengar was the first person to teach yoga to large groups of students; he lays great emphasis on precision and alignment, a style that is faithfully followed by his students. He is also the only person to teach the highest aspects of yoga - Atma Darshan - through asanas. Through his work, Iyengar has established the relevance of yoga to the treatment and cure of many illnesses, and has received a Doctorate from the United Nations Charter for Peace. At the age of 90, Iyengar still practices and teaches yoga, and also travels the world teaching and lecturing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars foundational understanding of the simplicity of yoga, September 18, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tree of Yoga (Paperback)

Mr. Iyengar brings the practice and understanding of yoga into everday people terms. He weaves the intricacies of yoga into a picture beginning with the tree and connecting the tree's parts to all the different parts of yoga. It is filled with simplicity and humanness. His knowledge and experience of 80 plus years is weaved together to create a complete understanding of the history of yoga to how to practice it with more wisdom. Mr. Iyengar is an inspiration to those of us who don't intend to give up family, career and laptops to live on mountain tops. He assures us that living as a married man and as a father has not diminished his practice but has enhanced it. A must for beginner and advanced students and teachers for your bookshelf.

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read on yoga principles, September 15, 2001

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"cattykitt99" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tree of Yoga (Paperback)

While being an avid yoga practicioner, the first time I got to know anything about B.K.S. Iyengar was when I picked up this book. Since then, I have done much more reading by him. Tree of Yoga was wonderful in explaining some basic principles of yoga, and the concepts behind it. The book didn't go into explaining or documenting the various asanas (for that read Light on Yoga), but instead spoke of the history of yoga, the concepts, types, what it was about, etc.

I read this book within a night, and have reread it many times since then. It's simple and inspiring, and will forever be a part of my collection.

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Light from one of the great teachers of yoga, August 28, 2001

By 

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tree of Yoga (Paperback)

B. K. S. Iyengar achieved an international reputation with the publication of his classic Light on Yoga in 1966, which today stands as the definitive work on hatha yoga, a work made distinctive not only by the 602 photographs of Iyengar himself demonstrating the various poses, but by the detailed manner in which they are explained. He was then 38-years-old. Since then he has written several other books on yoga and lectured widely while continuing his teaching practice. He is today recognized as one the greatest of all yoga teachers.

In this book, editor Daniel Rivers-Moore has taken it upon himself to construct a narrative by Iyengar, gleaned from lectures given by the master in Europe and India during the nineteen-eighties. Rivers-Moore has done an admirable job of bringing the voice of Iyengar to the many readers who have not had the opportunity to hear him speak. The continuity of expression is maintained throughout, and the book reads as though Iyengar wrote it himself.

One sees that Iyengar is speaking to teachers of yoga as well as students. The extended metaphor of yoga as a tree is an apt one since when our practice is strong we are like a tree, solid and unshaken by the vicissitudes of life. But it is only a metaphor, one of many used by Iyengar in his teaching practice. His metaphor is not related to what is one of the most profound metaphorical images in yoga, that of the tree upside down with its branches in the earth and its roots exposed to the sun. It is said that this is the way we will see the world after becoming firmly established in yoga. Much of what we once believed (as children and young adults), we will now disbelieve and embrace the very opposite.

The value of asana, pranayama, and meditation in preventing disease and maintaining health has been established beyond doubt, and is one of the great boons humankind has gotten from yoga, and is under no circumstances to be underestimated. However, I took Iyengar's prescriptions for the further medicinal value of yoga with the proverbial grain of salt, just as I take the ancient claims of superpowers developed through the practice of yoga. His is a way of speaking that is native to India and has a long and honored tradition in the literature. One recalls the miraculous claims of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika of Svatmarama and the Siva Samhita, in which all disease is cured, and understands that the authors are speaking in a symbolic and intentional manner. What is most interesting and valuable in this book are the chapters on meditation and pranayama, and on the advice and warnings that Iyengar extends to teachers of yoga.

Iyengar's yoga is the yoga of Patanjali, whom he reveres as "the noblest of sages." It is a yoga of discipline and dedication, a yoga of power and grace developed over at least several thousand years of practice. Of the four traditional yogas of India--bhakti, jnana, and karma--it is perhaps the oldest. It is certainly the one with the widest international application since it melds well into any and every way of life, from the monastery to the streets of the city.

Iyengar has been described by some as a teacher of physical yoga only--an unfair description that he recalls and rejects in two different places in this book. On the contrary he demonstrates here that he is also a master of raja yoga, and in particular a man who understands that the prerequisites of hatha yoga are essential to the achievement of samadhi.

Those who are familiar with Light on Yoga and Iyengar's other works, will find this volume a fine addition to their library and of value because of the light it sheds on the personality and understanding of one of the great teachers of the ancient art of yoga.