The Spiritual Teachings of Yoga - Softcover

Forstater, Mark; Manuel, Jo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340733160 ISBN 13: 9780340733165

Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks, 2002

The beneficial effect of practising yoga is well-cited and further evident in its phenomenal growth in recent years. The ancient philosophy behind yoga practice, however, is less well known in the west.
In this spiritual book, the authors introduce the wisdom of yoga that leads to a way of life that is at least 5,000 years old in India. The word 'yoga' means union, and the teachings of yoga convey a union on all levels of being as the person is at one with itself, with the divine, and with nature. Presenting the key philosophical texts from the Yoga Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas and the Upanishads in an accessible, poetic manner, this book explores the recurrent themes common to all schools of yoga - explaining how they can be incorporated into our lives to deepen the yoga experience.

Review:

'Forstater and Manuel have done us a great service to put the perspective of Yoga into its classical context. The vastness of the scope of Yoga is clearly elucidated in this thoughtful book, reminding us that Yoga is best understood as the art and science of living spiritual evolution.' (Mukunda Stiles, author of Structural Yoga Therapy )

From the Author:

One reason we wrote this book was to counterbalance the emphasis of the West in looking on yoga as a body and fitness regime. We wanted to make it clear that yoga traditionally was designed to work on the mind and its aim was to achieve liberation, or freedom.

Another motivation in writing this book was to create a clear and accessible introduction to the philosophy of classical yoga. When my co-author (and wife) Jo Manuel did her yoga teacher training, she found it difficult to find a book that explained the theory of yoga in a way that would interest non-specialists. She also noted that in order to read the key yoga texts – the Yoga Sutras, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita, it was necessary to buy 3 separate books. So we decided to write a book that not only explained the theory of yoga but also included readable versions of these texts. In this way we hoped that yoga teachers, their students, and anyone interested in learning more about yoga could find sufficient information in one volume.

• Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0340733160
• ISBN 13: 9780340733165
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304