Meditations from the Mat

Zusatztext Utterly different. . . . This is a wonderful (and inexpensive) book for people who are unhappy in their lives and are looking for a healthy way to find peace and a sense of coming home! day by day. USA Today More than just cultivating more vibrant health! yoga is an evolutionary journey. This book reflects the deepening and expansive effect of a dedicated yoga practice. Sifhar Jonathan Foust! President! Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health Rolf Gates is an inspiring teacher who has written an inspiring book. A must for yoga teachers and students alike! Meditations from the Mat brings yoga theory into the 21st century and into our daily lives. Baron Baptiste! author of Journey Into Power In this free-spirited journey to the heart of yoga! Rolf guides us! through daily meditations! to finding the appropriate balance between standing firm and surrendering to flowthe key to peace of mind. Beryl Bender Birch! author of Power Yoga and Beyond Power Yoga Informationen zum Autor Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison Klappentext 365 daily reflections offering a way to integrate the mindfulness that yoga teaches into everyday life! from the acclaimed yoga teacher! Rolf Gates. As more and more people in the West pursue yoga in its various forms! whether at traditional centers! in the high-powered atmosphere of sports clubs! or on their own! they begin to realize that far from being just another exercise routine! yoga is a discipline of the body and the mind. Whether used in the morning to set the tone for the day! during yoga exercise itself! or at the end of the day! during evening reflection! the daily reflections in Meditations from the Mat will support and enhance anyone's yoga journey. PART ONE THE YAMAS The Beginning DAY 1 He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator. Sir Francis Bacon As we move into the twenty-first century, yoga seems to be the West's new remedy. Yet this remedy is in fact over five thousand years oldfar older than Islam, even older than Christianity. Today, in yoga studios throughout the West, Sanskrit, one of the oldest written languages, is used as contemporary classroom jargon. So we might ask, Why yoga? And why now? I believe our hunger for yoga, and our eagerness to embrace yoga as a spiritual practice, are a testament to our growth and our desire for change. In the aftermath of the bloodbath that was the twentieth century, and in the presence of threats posed by more recent events, there is a pressing need for what Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman describes as a "cold revolution." We need a new paradigm, one that will replace our present attachment to imbalance. Yoga is the study of balance, and balance is the aim of all living creatures; it is our home. The flow of this book follows the course of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Written between 500 and 200 b.c., the Sutras codified a spiritual path that was already many centuries old at the time the Sutras were actually written down. Patanjali provides 196 succinct lessons on the nature of the human condition, human potential, and how that potential can be realized. Comprehensive, systematic, and remarkably precise, the Yoga Sutras organize the essence of all spiritual practices into a basic plan for living. You will find nothing in this ancient text that contradicts the precepts of any religion. Instead you will find a step-by-step guide to right living, a guide that complements the goals of any spiritual tradition. A spiritual practice is one that brings us full circlenot to a new self but, rather, back to the essence of our true selves. Yoga is the practice of celebrating what is. At the end of the hero's journey, he finds that he did not need to go anywhere, that all he sought was inside him all alon...

Auteur

Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison

Texte du rabat

365 daily reflections offering a way to integrate the mindfulness that yoga teaches into everyday life, from the acclaimed yoga teacher, Rolf Gates.

As more and more people in the West pursue yoga in its various forms, whether at traditional centers, in the high-powered atmosphere of sports clubs, or on their own, they begin to realize that far from being just another exercise routine, yoga is a discipline of the body and the mind. Whether used in the morning to set the tone for the day, during yoga exercise itself, or at the end of the day, during evening reflection, the daily reflections in Meditations from the Mat will support and enhance anyone's yoga journey.

Échantillon de lecture
PART ONE

THE YAMAS

The Beginning

DAY 1

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.
—Sir Francis Bacon

As we move into the twenty-first century, yoga seems to be the West's new remedy. Yet this remedy is in fact over five thousand years old—far older than Islam, even older than Christianity. Today, in yoga studios throughout the West, Sanskrit, one of the oldest written languages, is used as contemporary classroom jargon. So we might ask, Why yoga? And why now?

I believe our hunger for yoga, and our eagerness to embrace yoga as a spiritual practice, are a testament to our growth and our desire for change. In the aftermath of the bloodbath that was the twentieth century, and in the presence of threats posed by more recent events, there is a pressing need for what Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman describes as a "cold revolution." We need a new paradigm, one that will replace our present attachment to imbalance. Yoga is the study of balance, and balance is the aim of all living creatures; it is our home.

The flow of this book follows the course of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Written between 500 and 200 b.c., the Sutras codified a spiritual path that was already many centuries old at the time the Sutras were actually written down. Patanjali provides 196 succinct lessons on the nature of the human condition, human potential, and how that potential can be realized. Comprehensive, systematic, and remarkably precise, the Yoga Sutras organize the essence of all spiritual practices into a basic plan for living. You will find nothing in this ancient text that contradicts the precepts of any religion. Instead you will find a step-by-step guide to right living, a guide that complements the goals of any spiritual tradition.

A spiritual practice is one that brings us full circle—not to a new self but, rather, back to the essence of our true selves. Yoga is the practice of celebrating what is. At the end of the hero's journey, he finds that he did not need to go anywhere, that all he sought was inside him all along. Dorothy, having traveled across time and space to the land of Oz, and having struggled desperately to find her way back to Kansas, discovers that she could have gone home at any time. In the end, she learns that her adventures have simply brought her to the point where she can believe this. It is the aim of all spiritual seeking to bring us home, home to the understanding that we already have everything we need.

We are far now from home, and weary from our travels. The sun is setting and there is no destination in sight. Yoga is a lamp lit in the window of our home, dimly glimpsed across the spiritual wilderness in which we wander. At a time when we could not feel further from our home, yoga reminds us that we are already there, that we need simply awaken from our dream of separation, our dream of imperfection. Allow this book to awaken you, to be a light that shines in the darkness, guiding you through your days, pointing you home.

DAY 2

Burning zeal in practice, self-study and study of scriptures, and surrender to God are the acts of yoga.
—B. K. S. Iyengar

The Yoga Sutras outline a plan for living that flows from action to knowledge to liberation. This plan, or path, has eight limbs, which work more like spokes on a wheel …