Yoga Assists: A Complete Visual and Inspirational Guide to Yoga Asana Assists

Gannon, Sharon; Life, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1624670547 ISBN 13: 9781624670541

Publisher: Open Road Media, 2014

Let's slow down and ask some basic questions about the whole idea of a yoga assist - because offering and receiving great assists depends first on knowing what an assist is. Back in the old days of yoga assists were called "corrections." The idea was that the student was doing something wrong and the teacher could manipulate the wrongness away. Later came the word "adjustment," which is a little better, conveying the student is on the right track and some adjustments are needed. In this book, world renowned Jivamukti Yoga practitioners Sharon Gannon and David Life use the word "assist" to communicate the idea that in yoga there are actually two beings interacting together on various levels of consciousness to foster a decrease in avidya, "mis-knowing," and an increase in vidya, or the knowing principle. A yoga assist then, is action taken in a microcosmic relationship that reveals macrocosmic truths. It is action undertaken in mutuality with the best of intentions and the blessing of the teacher's teachers. The giving of yoga is an art. Yoga assists are not static; they comprise a flowing dance of body, breath, and energy. They are based on continuous focus and awareness of the relationship between partners in the process. It takes two to Tango! As in Tango, in each encounter with yoga student and teacher there is an equation of reciprocity. Whether we receive or give an assist is an active process in the resolution of a relationship, a transmission, a dance. In this sense, the relationship between teacher and student is a microcosm of the flowing inter-relation among all people, all species, all living beings. Through this book, with the "assistance" of Sharon and David, practitioners will deepen their understanding of the fundamental principles of yoga assists and apply them in practice and in service to others.

About the Author:

Sharon Gannon is a twenty-first-century Renaissance woman who excels in many spiritual, artistic, and social mediums. She is best known for creating, along with David Life, the Jivamukti Yoga Method—a path to enlightenment through compassion for all beings.
 
A student of Brahmananda Sarasvati, Swami Nirmalananda, and K. Pattabhi Jois, she is a pioneer in teaching yoga as spiritual activism and is credited for making yoga cool and hip—relating the ancient teachings of yoga to the modern world. Gannon is a musician and is a featured vocalist on many albums, including Sharanam, her solo work. She has produced numerous yoga-related DVDs and is the author of several books, including Jivamukti Yoga, The Art of Yoga, Cats and Dogs Are People Too!, and Yoga and Vegetarianism. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Toward 2012, Arcana V: Music, Magic and Mysticism, What Comes after Money, Semiotexte, Yoga Journal, and Origin. She writes a monthly essay called the Focus of the Month. She resides in a one-hundred-twenty-five-acre wild forest sanctuary in upstate New York.
 
David Life was born on the 1980 summer solstice in New York City after living for thirty years with a different identity. He has a university degree in fine arts and became an influential performer, artist, and spokesperson in the political and social foment and lively arts community in the 1980s on the Lower East Side of New York City. In New York, he created Life Café—an artists’ and poets’ space featured in Newsweek, various international arts and literary magazines, and in the Broadway play Rent as the setting for “La Vie Boheme.” Near Life Café, on Avenue B, the Jivamukti Yoga Society was the first of many yoga schools that he and Sharon Gannon created since 1986, with the current amazing school and café located on Broadway, and a one-hundred-twenty-fve-acre wild sanctuary and ashram in the mountains of upstate New York.
 
Together with Sharon Gannon, and through the blessings of his gurus Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, Shri Swami Nirmalananda, and Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, Life has participated in the creation of Jivamukti Yoga. He has taught Jivamukti Yoga throughout the world since his first trip to India in 1986.
 
Geshe Michael Roach and Christy McNally are the founders of the Yoga Studios Institute and Diamond Mountain University in Arizona. They are respected scholars of Sanskrit and Tibetan and have taught together worldwide, authoring many books on the subject of yoga and Buddhism, with works including The Tibetan Book of Yoga, The Essential Yoga Sutra, and How Yoga Works. Geshe Michael Roach is a fully ordained Buddhist monk who received his geshe degree from Sera May Tibetan Monastery after twenty-two years of study.
 
The photographic works of artistic duo Constance and Russell Hansen, known as Guzman, include award-winning advertisements, dramatic editorial spreads, and portraits of cultural icons including Philip Johnson, Sting, and Snoop Dogg. Known for their sense of humor and hyperbolic portrayals, Guzman has created a singular vision throughout their career that blurs the line between commercial advertising and fine art. They are longtime yoga practitioners.