Light on Yoga: The Bible of Modern Yoga...
by B. K. S. Iyengar
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Book Summary Information
Author: B. K. S. IyengarForeword: Yehudi Menuhin
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1995-01-03
ISBN: 0805210318
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Schocken
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780805210316
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Light on Yoga: The Bible of Modern Yoga...
Book Review: More room for development in this classic approach to Yoga
Summary: 5 Stars
The thoroughness of guru Iyengar's approach to yogasana is beyond doubt. It is complete, with precautions and adaptation for beginners and challenges to the most advanced practitioners. My opinion is that his approach is the best because it stresses on correct alignment and relaxation (quite unlike power-yoga and heat-yoga that "married" to western culture and "forgotten" the spiritualism of this old Eastern practice). Fair to say, when a body is heated up (or warmed up) it would be easier for one to stretch one's muscles and tendons. This is the western/exercise approach of warming up before the REAL exercise. In Eastern approach, on the other hand, the warm-up is through relaxation/(standing) meditation plus generation of heat through circulation of prana.
Here we come to one interesting point. Mr. Iyengar devoted a full (but small) chapter to pranayama. He even wrote a book separately on the subject. And, in his more recent book Light on Life, he clearly said that prana in Yoga is the same as chi in Chinese. AND, in his Light on Pranayama, he clearly taught us that some important aspect/component of pranayama should be learned in yogasana (for example, on page 97 of Light on Pranayama, he wrote "It (mula bandha) should be learnt while doing various asanas, especially tadasana, sirsasana, sarvangasana, urdhva dhanurasana, ustrasana and paschi mottanasana"). YET, this teaching method of his in Light on Pranayama has not been mentioned in his Light on Yoga.
I think there are two reasons: first, as Mr. Iyengar said in his Light on Life, he had been teaching yogasana for a few years BEFORE he started learning pranayama in 1944. That means what he learned from his guru was that yogasana was taught without pranayama, hence he didn't have that first-hand learning (and consequently teaching) experience of incorporating pranayama into a teaching of yogasana. The second reason, I believe more important, is that there are simply too many asanas to be learned from Mr. Iyengar's system! There simply ain't so many people nowadays who can devote so much time and energy to learn most of Mr. Iyengar's yogasanas!
From Mr. Iyengar's book Light on Life, perhaps of his age, he seems to want to bring in more spirituality into his system of yoga practice. The first step is likely to incorporate his pranayama into his yogasana system, with a radical rationalization/re-organization of his asanas. Perhaps the training method of taoist/chi teaching might be useful reference (quit-pro-quo, many training systems have incorporated some forms of yogasana). Perhaps we shouldn't labour our guru to this new task, perhaps his family or his senior students should be taking over this task, or perhaps it has already be done - that would be good news for all learners of yoga who like to keep the classic eastern tradition (instead of jumping around in a heated room).
Summary of Light on Yoga: The Bible of Modern Yoga...
The definitive guide to the philosophy and practice of Yoga--the ancient healing discipline for body and mind--by its greatest living teacher. Light on Yoga provides complete descriptions and illustrations of all the positions and breathing exercises. Features a foreword by Yehudi Menuhin. Illustrations throughout.Yoga Books
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