Customer Reviews

Yoga in America

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's great to read about so many different perspectives from people who practice various forms of yoga (beyond just asana). It's also nice to read about it from yoga teachers who are not all superstars/ celebriyogis. Definitely a great book to have in the collection of any yoga student and teacher. After reading all these anecdotes, it's a good way to also reflect on a personal level what does yoga mean to ME?

I found I connected on some level to pretty much every single person's story, and it always brought a smile to my face. Highly recommended book, a very worthwhile purchase.

The book is a collection of articles on Yoga, written by various experts and edited by Deborah and Bob. The content and style of the articles is so variable (especially since each contributor was given full freedom) that the editors had their task cut out to bring some semblance of continuity in the book. Even after their best efforts, the result is a little disconcerting to the reader. But if you persist and finish the book, you are sure to get a really wide perspective of the state of Yoga in America. It is like getting a good bird's eye view.

If you are already into Yoga, you may find confirmation of what you are doing and also fresh perspectives of the other systems of Yoga practices. If you are new to Yoga, you will get a sort of guided tour and you can pick the style that appeals to you.

I would have edited the book a little differently at some places and there are a couple of errors that slipped the keen eyes of the editors, but overall, they have done a very good job of keeping errors out.

I recommend this book to you in either case.

What a great collection of stories and responses to the one simple question "What is Yoga?". I read this book as part of my teacher training requirement "to do a book report on a book that is not part of the required reading". Instead of repeating myself, again... I'd like to include an excerpt from the report I turned in... The short response is that this is a great collection of stories and information from all over the world of yoga.

"Yoga in America" is an experiment in building the overall view of yoga through a collective response to the simple yet complex question of: "what is yoga".
As you read the different answers, it becomes evident that much like each of our own personal journeys, everyone else's journey is equally unique. That no matter how you feel about yoga, or how you would answer the question "what is yoga" there are probably a myriad of others out there that would include some or all of your same answers.

But I found myself wondering why I was reading the book and more importantly, why it was worth the time to collect the answers and write the book in the first place. The more I read the more I realized that I could relate to each and every story in some way. The various pieces of my personality, my being, could relate to each and every one of the authors at some level. And it dawned on me, the union of people, the union of struggles, and the union of experiences is what brings us all together and ultimately why we practice yoga.