Customer Reviews

Yoga School Dropout. Lucy Edge

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This book is about the adventures of Lucy Edge, a spiritual tourist, in India. That means I am automatically biased against it, since I have little patience with spiritual tourists-- those shallow people who go ashram hopping, expecting "Enlightenment" to come like a bolt from the sky any minute, chatting about chakras and Kundalini the way they'd chat about the latest style of handbags, and really all they want is to get laid or get drunk. Yes, I'm a bit of a snob, and very protective of India's spirituality, which ever since the Beatles "discovered" it has been manipulated by ever more Westerners to fit into their own shallow world-view and expectations. But I was curious, willing to enter the mind of one of them, to give the author a chance, to see what is being read these days, and so I read this book.

The first chapters confirmed my prejudices. The book is written in a chick-litty, Bridget Jones style, kind of a "romp through ashrams", breezily taking note of all the most amusing incidents and characters she meets along the way. That's not hard to do; you'll see a lot of very amusing things in India, and if your funny bone is in the right place you'll laugh at life instead of getting annoyed. Lucy laughs at herself a lot too, about her eyeing up men, including swamis, for their bed-or-husband-potential, her dreams of becoming a Yoga Goddess, and so on. Lucy has a naturally light writing style which flows, and it makes for good page-turning reading. After a while, though it gets tedious, childish, and no longer funny. Her immaturity comes out particularly when she is asked to write a nativity play for a Christmas celebration, and decides to write a spoof. I suppose this is because she, like many people attracted to Indian spirituality, rejects Christianity and so writing a real, deep, moving, beautiful story of the birth of Christ would be beyond her; it's just not cool, and her intended readership might groan.

Instead, I groaned, and so would anyone with an ounce of sensitivity who might have picked up this book hoping for some genuine depth. I think most serious readers would have abandoned the book at this point.

I certainly was ready to give up too, but I persevered, and I'm glad I did. In the second half of the book the tone changes somewhat. She stops throwing hundreds and thousands of pounds at self-appointed gurus (Warning! If Yoga is made into a business it's not Yoga!) and actually visits some places of authentic credentials; she gets a bit deeper into the practice of Yoga beyond the pretzel-poses, and it turns out that she is, after all, serious about her own growth and going further. I was happy to see that she dropped her "this is all such a hilarious lark" attitude and seemed inclined to learn what India truly has to offer.

She still draws some very wrong conclusions. Yes, in meditation the mind does want to return to its source as a cow lured into its stall by grass. But that stage comes only after hours and hours and years and yearsand decades and decades of intensive, dogged, and one-pointed driving it there: in other words, effort. Only spiritual tourists believe that no effort is required. In fact, getting the mind to drop its old habits, to turn inwards instead of outwards, is the hardest thing a human will ever do; it takes complete dedication and the greatest passion; you must want it with all your being, you must make that effort sincerely and consistently, over years, through bad times and good, come what may. You won't find steadiness in meditation overnight. That is for lazy spiritual tourists.

Lucy would have us believe that after only one meditation session she experienced her true Self, the ultimate goal, Enlightenment. Frankly, I don't believe her. She may have had a glimpse of the Self, a tiny foretaste of what could be; many beginners do, as encouragement to go further. If she had reached the goal she would not have come to the conclusion she did: that she had merely been spiritual shopping and had found nothing of value because in the end all she wanted was an ordinary life and ordinary contentment. Nothing is ordinary after experiencing that. Ordinary contentment is not enough. You will hunger and thirst for only THAT. Your life might be ordinary on the outside, but extraordinary on the inside; you are ready for any lemons life might throw at you, because you have THAT; yet you don't talk about it to anyone. You could not experience that and leave the next day to keep an appointment with Marilyn Monroe-cum-Dolly Parton, as Lucy did. You certainly could not go back and write a book about a hilarious romp through the spiritual tourist sites of India, because you would see spiritual tourisn for what it is: a shallow and futile exercize. Spiritual maturity can only come when you have chosen your path, be it Christianity, Advaita, Bhakti or whatever, and follow it to the best of your ability. You cannot go back, only forward.

One more note: I have been going to Lucy's "Ashram of the Year" regularly for the last 35 years, for periods lasting weeks or months, slept in several of their rooms,, and not once have I been offered a one-inch-thick mattress. Though in my early days I also rented huts where I slept on a blanket on bare stone; and it was as nothing.

It's disappointing that such a distorted picture of India's spirituality is put out there and gobbled up by gullible readers. Spiritual tourists do not, cannot, have their fingers on the pulse of India's spirituality. My tip: if you're serious about spiritual growth, avoid books with cartoon pictures of ladies with handbags and high heels on the cover. The trivialisation of a potent wisdom could not be more blatant. There are real books out there; look for them instead.

I have just finished reading this delightful book, `Yoga School Drop Out' by Lucy Edge. I happened upon it `accidentally' (we all know there is no such thing as an accident) at the library when I was looking for something entirely different. I did not manage to find what I was looking for; I did however find exactly what I needed!

Lucy sets out on a Spiritual Quest to India determined to return home a Yoga Goddess. Things do not quite flow as Lucy anticipated and it looked as if she was destined never to return home as the Yoga Goddess she had envisioned. She did, however, gain more inner wisdom and insight than she could have imagined when she first set out.

Along the way it was the "ordinary" people she met, not the yoga she did, or the gurus she listened to, that held the most lessons. Here are a few pearls that were shared along the way:

On Asana: "Today asana has been made into a `photograph,' ... there is no difference between this and gymnastics ... But asana is not a performance, asana is what happens in the posture and afterwards"

On Change: "Change occurs only when we become what we truly are, not when we are trying to be something we are not. Change can't happen when we are trying to escape our true nature"

On Travel: "Unfortunately, when you travel, you take yourself with you"

On Yoga: "... the reason I found them so inspiring was because their yoga practice stretched way beyond their mat. They saw yoga as a state of mind, an attitude to life, and the world as their school. Yoga was, for all of them, `a harmonious way of living', not a one-off physical goal - they knew all they had to do was look within"

On Practice: "It was an unremarkable thing - Pranayama, meditation and perhaps a few simple sun salutations. It was practiced informally, not in a big class on the instructions of a big name teacher, but at home - quietly without fuss"

On Enlightenment: "Enlightenment was not a trophy to be lifted high in one triumphant moment, it was about seeing clearly, and choosing wisely in daily life"

All round just a great book! Thanks for the deLightful and inspiring read Lucy :-)

I tried. Really, I tried to get through this book. Maybe the next chapter would engage me but it never really happened. Yoga is something I hold very dear to my heart and this book really has nothing to do with it. This made me consider not going to an Ashram in India. If it's full of these people, I will pass.

Dear Lucy,

I have just finished reading your book 'Yoga School Dropout' and I luuuved it sooo much.

When I cam to pages 250 or so, I was reluctent to read fast. I wanted this book not to end.

Not a single boring or uneventful page in your story-book. I kept underlining with a pencil for later reference.

I am a Sports Therapist and dedicated yogini for over 20 years, and an exited and enthusiastic teacher for 10 years.

You have written down my yogis life feelings - while reading your book I kept nodding all the way.

I have learned from many teachers and many styles...

but travelled to India/Pune only, to meet the living legend Mr. BKS Iyengar, my biggest influence on teaching a 'yoga for all people'.

Thank you Lucy, and I truly hope you keep writing books.

I for sure, will read them.

Namaste, Monika

I just received Yoga School Dropout and I AM LOVIN' IT!

I've read Holy Cow, Enlightenment for Idiots, The Yoga Teacher, Eat Pray Love, and I think Edge's book tops them all. Her depictions of yoga in India, the westerners who go to India for yoga, and India itself are all right-on.

I should know because I've studied three times at one of the schools she wrote about it and she nailed it.

Edge's book says it all about traveling to India to study yoga and falling in love with Ma India in the process.

this book is funny, real, humble, and grand. as a 30 year old searching for her own place in the world after working in advertising as well, it wholly resonated.

I am currently reading this book, Yoga School Dropout, w/ eat pray love and the Bhavighad Gita (SP). I again, like the last reviewer, just happend to find this book, literally while traveling on the ground and it has brought me back to my practice. It is very funny and educational. No matter what your experience w/ Yoga, this book rocks.

Loved loved loved this hilarious book. There's a lot of wisdom in Lucy's comedic descriptions of the guru culture (and industry), and a great deal of humility in Lucy's quest as she faces up to her own foibles and human frailties. The yoga world could use a good laugh at itself, and this book is a healthy step in that direction.

I first read this book last year, as I was just beginning to dabble with yoga. Now a year later I just finished re-reading it, and had a much greater appreciation. I daresay this book will land on my "read once a year" shelf. Lucy is an intelligent and self-aware author. She is also warm, quick-witted, and engaging... and at times a little silly. To be honest, the first 100 pages were a bit tough to immerse myself in. It's after Lucy leaves Mysore and starts to explore other areas of both India and her spiritual self that I really got sucked in. Besides wishing the first 100 pages were compressed to 50, my only regret is that the ending feels a bit rushed. In the last 7 pages Lucy seems to really turn a corner in her understanding and seems to find a higher set of goals. I wish this would have been fleshed out more.

For haters who look down on "spiritual tourism", I state again that Lucy is intelligent and self-aware. Also, by the end she realizes that some of her original goals were rather silly and shallow. I appreciate that she told the story the way she did, leaving in these details and not glossing over her imperfections. As a Westerner who is slowly gaining knowledge and appreciation for yoga, I love that she's honest about her journey. Gaining maturity, spirituality, enlightenment, or whatever you want to call it... doesn't happen overnight. It often happens through trial and error, mis-starts, wrong turns, etc.

All in all, I enjoyed sharing in Lucy's journey.

Yoga School Dropout by Lucy Edge was the first book we read for our Twitter YOga Book Club (#YOBC) last November. We now have a few books under our book club belt but this one holds a special space in my yogic heart.

Lucy Edge chronicles her travels from her stressful ad agency job wearing heels and drinking wine in London to India wearing orange Birkies, clutching her new copy of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. I was drawn into Yoga School Dropout immediately by the chapter titles, like my two favorites "1. The violet vibrations blow my crown chakra wide open" and "12. My kleshas really f---ed me." I wanted to read what these delicious nuggets of yogic speak and profanity had to share. Throughout Lucy's adventures I found her English wit and sensibilities painted a funny, honest, and humble portrait of woman in transition ~ she is the 'every yogi' in a sea of super yogis.

From chapter one Lucy Edge fleshes out her characters, based on real people, so that we as the readers know them; they are students on the mat next to us that we all know. Juxtaposition-ed next to them are the actual modern great teachers and their schools of India. Her descriptions put you right there with her amidst the noise, smells, and sights and next to the "grumpy animals". We feel her frustrations, her joys, and, her triumphs.

I liken Lucy Edge's journey to that of Dorothy to the Emerald City; we learn through her that you don't have to venture far to find the home of your true essence. It is a reminder that while you search for expansion to be just who you are and allow yourself to simply experience the experience. If you are looking for the illusion you'll get held down by the crowd.

Yoga School Dropout should be on every yogi's reading list.