Selected Books about:
Yoga

10. Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class (2000)
11. Yoga The Spirit And Practice Of Moving Into Stillness (1996)
12. The Heart of Yoga- Developing a Personal Practice (1999)
13. Awakening the Spine (1995)
14. Yoga- The Iyengar Way (1990)
15. Yoga for Wellness- Healing with the Timeless Teachings of Viniyoga (1999)
16. The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga (1995)
17. The Art of Yoga (2002)
18. Yoga Vacations- A Guide to International Yoga Retreats (1999)
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1. Asanas- 608 Yoga Poses (2003)
2. Yoga- The Path To Holistic Health (2001)
3. Yoga (2002)
4. Yoga for Your Type - An Ayurvedic Approach to Your Asana Practice (2001)
5. Yoga for Transformation- Ancient Teachings and Practices for Healing the Body, Mind, and Heart (2002)
6. Structural Yoga Therapy- Adapting to the Individual (2001)
7. Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit- A Return to Wholeness (2000)
8. Light on Yoga- Yoga Dipika (1995)
9. Hatha Yoga- The Hidden Language- Symbols, Secrets, and Metaphor (1996)

holistic retreats | alternative travel | holistic vacation | yoga art photography... artistic yoga photographic... Jivamukti, living liberated in Sanskrit a form of Hatha yoga... New York yoga students including popstar Madonna Ciccone and rockstar Sting... musician Ravi Shankar... kudos to Martin Brading...

Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class
by Bikram Choudhury, Bonnie Jones Reynolds (Contributor), Julian Goldstein (Editor), Biswanath Bisu Ghosh (Photographer)

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Amazon.com Review
Bikram Choudhury, author of the newly revised Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class and yoga guru to the stars, is on a mission to heal America through yoga. Bikram claims that faithfully doing his yoga routine, which consists of 26 hatha yoga asanas (postures) set down by Patanjali over 4,000 years ago, can fix everything from chronic diseases (like heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis) to obesity and depression. According to Bikram, his beginning yoga class exercises 100 percent of the body, increases energy, and leaves you looking and feeling fantastic.
The book contains nearly 200 photographs illustrating each of the poses. Each asana is also accompanied by detailed directions on how to do it the right way. Can't quite twist your leg around your head or touch your nose to your knee? Bikram will tell you how to modify poses so one day you, too, can resemble a pretzel.

This is not an easy workout. Even intermediate students will find Bikram's yoga routine, which requires about an hour to complete, challenging. Need encouragement? Beginning Yoga contains suggestions for maintaining proper yoga practice, a section on the medical benefits of yoga, notes from Bikram's students, and a good dose of Bikram humor and philosophy. If you can't get to one of Bikram's 100 yoga centers and want to give his style of "hot yoga" a try, open up Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class and let Bikram work his magic on your body, mind, and spirit. -- Ellen Albertson
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Yoga The Spirit And Practice Of Moving Into Stillness
by Erich Schiffmann (Author)

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Reader Review
Yoga From the Inside Out, February 2, 2003
Reviewer: An Amazon.com Customer from New York, NY United States
One of the best books on hatha yoga ever. There's nothing difficult to understand or apply. But the material will probably change the way you practice. It certainly did for me. I've been practicing yoga, on and off, for about ten years. I've taken classes with terrific teachers and even an agonizing series of 6 a.m. seminars with K. Pattabhi Jois. Yoga never got beyond the physical for me until I read Schiffman's book. Sometimes I wondered what the real difference was between a good hatha yogi and a contortionist. That question has been answered. Schiffman teaches the internals of yoga. His focus is on mobilizing the body's intrinsic energy--qi or prana--in each posture. The postures act as energy templates, he explains, but it's necessary to understand the lines of flow and circulation. He makes this very easy to understand and apply. And when you do, the external technique improves and you become precise without thinking about every distracting detail. Also, Schiffman's approach is beautiful. He teaches you to sense your limits and learn when you want to stay well within them, and when you want to push them. This is a method of gentle, "occasional healthy pain, tremendous gain." Schiffman is schooled in the Iyengar and Desikachar approaches. Precision is important to him. But he's taken it a quantum step farther. With Iyengar's Light on Yoga and Donna Farhi's Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit, Schiffman's book completes a trinity of the three most impressive, helpful books on hatha yoga I've seen, regardless of which style you practice or your level of skill.

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The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice
by T. K. V. Desikachar

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Book Description
The first yoga text to outline a step-by-step sequence for developing a complete practice according to viniyoga--yoga adapted to the needs of the individual.

A contemporary classic by a world-renowned teacher.

This new edition adds thirty-two poems by Krishnamacharya that capture the essence of his teachings.

Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who lived to be over 100 years old, was one of the greatest yogis of the modern era. Elements of Krishnamacharya's teaching have become well known around the world through the work of B. K. S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, and Indra Devi, who all studied with Krishnamacharya. Krishnamacharya's son T. K. V. Desikachar lived and studied with his father all his life and now teaches the full spectrum of Krishnamacharya's yoga. Desikachar has based his method on Krishnamacharya's fundamental concept of viniyoga, which maintains that practices must be continually adapted to the individual's changing needs to achieve the maximum therapeutic value.

In The Heart of Yoga Desikachar offers a distillation of his father's system as well as his own practical approach, which he describes as "a program for the spine at every level--physical, mental, and spiritual." This is the first yoga text to outline a step-by-step sequence for developing a complete practice according to the age-old principles of yoga. Desikachar discusses all the elements of yoga--poses and counterposes, conscious breathing, meditation, and philosophy--and shows how the yoga student may develop a practice tailored to his or her current state of health, age, occupation, and lifestyle.

Reader Review
Yoga is more complex then just poses. This book shows you!, December 6, 2002
Reviewer: An Amazon.com Customer from Seattle, WA
This book is a great starting point for an understanding of yoga and what it really is.
Yoga is more then just poses to get skinny. Yoga is a way to make you happier, healthy, and strong.
If you start yoga in a class at a gym you will not learn as much as you could if read his book. Most yoga in the US is the non threatining version. An ex-aerobics instructor who took 20 hours of yoga teaching classes is not fit to teach the real yoga.
This book is not trying to change your religion. Hindus are not expected to do yoga. Any god of your choice (or no god) will do.
Yoga is a philosophy not a religion. This book gives you the why and the how. Holding poses is not yoga. You need this book to know why you do things in yoga. If you read this, your practice of yoga will be better and you will get 100 times more out of it.
Buy the book before you buy any other yoga book.

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Awakening the Spine
by Dr. David Frawley, Sandra Summerfield Kozak

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Book Description
A revolutionary new method of yoga for overall fitness that teaches "if it hurts, it's wrong'"--from a vibrant 83-year-old master.

About the Author
Vanda Scaravelli was born in Florence, Italy. She studied for many years with B.K.S. Iyengar and trains teachers who teach her new form of yoga all over the world.

Reader Review
Yoga's Star Teacher, June 7, 2001
Reviewer: A reader from Ontario Canada
This book is the only one Vanda Scaravelli has written. Her work has been appreciated as well as influenced by Iyengar and Desikarchar. Although few asana illustrations are included, it is a masterpiece in understanding how the breath and gravity and the spine are centerplace to our work in yoga. We have lost Vanda but this book is a fine connection to her brillance. Bravo!

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Yoga: The Iyengar Way
by Silva Mehta, Mira Mehta, Shyam Mehta

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Book Description
A comprehensive, practical, and authoritative guide to the method developed by Iyengar. 100 key postures with detailed step-by-step instructions and photographs. This is our most recently published yoga book and has quickly become a backlist bestseller.

Reader Review
Great Book! The Second Best Book On Hatha Yoga!, November 4, 1999
Reviewer: An Amazon.com Customer
This is a wonderful book based on the teachings of B.K.S. Iyengar. The poses are explained in an easy-to-understand way, with large, color pictures. Highly recommended, especially for beginners who may be intimidated by Mr. Iyengar's more comprehensive book "Light On Yoga."

Buy both books. Study them daily, do the poses, and in every way your life will begin changing for the better.

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Yoga for Wellness: Healing with the Timeless Teachings of Viniyoga
by Gary Kraftsow

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Book Description
A fully illustrated, step-by-step guide to achieve wellness through Viniyoga.
Mainstream America is finally catching on to what Eastern countries have known for thousands of years--that yoga is not only a great, low-impact way to increase flexibility and reduce stress, it is also useful in healing any number of afflictions, from common aches and pains to chronic diseases and emotional setbacks. In this easy to follow guide for practitioners at all levels, America's leading teacher of Viniyoga emphasizes the physical as well as the spiritual components of healing through yoga. Beginning with a general introduction, he then includes case studies and specific yoga sequences designed to address individual ailments. Best of all, each step of each posture in a sequence is clearly illustrated with its own photograph. The exercises in this book are truly transformative and certain to help those searching for alternatives to mainstream medicine and those looking for a way of becoming more involved in their own physical well-being.

About the Author
Founder of the American Viniyoga Institute, Gary Kraftsow is one of the few Westerners certified to train teachers and therapists in the Viniyoga lineage of T. Krishnamacharya and T. K. V. Desikachar. He conducts seminars and retreats throughout the United States and Europe and makes his home in Maui, Hawaii.

Amazon.com Review
There's more to yoga than stretching and bending and twisting. In Yoga for Wellness, one of America's top yoga teachers gives a clinic on the holistic nature of yoga practice, especially in regard to healing and well-being. With over a thousand photographs, Gary Kraftsow covers the basic postures, the specific movements of each posture, and how to sequence postures in a routine. More importantly, he moves from form to function, showing how sequences of postures can alleviate ailments in each system of the body, from lower back pain to hypertension--even depression and multiple sclerosis. In case studies of his own clients, we see how Kraftsow's holistic approach has him recommending not only posture prescriptions, but breathing exercises, sound techniques, and visualizations, not to mention such commonly neglected wisdom as eating a healthy breakfast and getting closer to nature. Yoga for Wellness is the rare yoga instruction manual that teaches the basics of yoga while also paying more than just lip service to the original intention of yoga--achieving a balance of mental, physical, and spiritual wellness. -- Brian Bruya
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Reader Review
One of the best....., July 3, 2002
Reviewer: An Amazon.com Customer from Batavia, IL United States
As a yoga instructor, I use many yoga books for reference. After taking a workshop with Kraftsow, I bought this book and have not been disappointed. I find that I refer to this book over and over again, even over my Iyengar books.

Kraftsow's advice on modifying asanas for health reasons or physical limitations is right-on. Too many yoga classes nowadays are seen purely as another type of aerobics class with no value placed on "honoring the body". In my opinion, too many yoga teachers nowadays are approaching asanas from the "one size fits all" perspective, without taking into account an individual's capabilities or limitations.

I believe that Kraftsow's advice and the photos on how to modify asanas to prevent or help injuries is invaluable. This book should be required reading in every yoga teacher training class.

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The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga
by Vishnudevananda, Swami Vishnu-Devananda, Swami Vishnudervananda

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Book Description
Since 1960, more than 1 million people have used this classic guide to tap the incredible power of yoga. The attractive new edition, in a new size, will appeal to a wide audience of contemporary yoga students.

Reader Review
One of the best popular books on yoga, September 14, 2001
Reviewer: Dennis Littrell (see more about me at Amazon.com) from SoCal
This book was my first yoga book; as such it is close to my heart. I read it (in another edition) in 1974 and used it as a guide to my practice for many years thereafter. It is not, of course, "complete." No "complete book of" ever is. That is a publisher's fiction. It is however, very thorough in presenting the yoga of Patanjali and the classical Hatha Yoga Pradipika to the English speaking reader. Much of the book is devoted to asana, highlighted by 146 photos of demonstration by an unidentified young man, who is as good as, if not better than (if that is possible), the accomplished and illustrious B. K. S. Iyengar in showing the sort of suppleness and precision that can achieved. The photos really are extraordinary. There is an excellent and lengthy chapter on pranayama and several on the philosophy and spiritual aspects of yoga. Consequently this goes beyond hatha yoga and becomes a treatise on raja yoga, the so-called "king's yoga" or "ashtanga yoga," or "eight-limbed" yoga--the yoga codified and outlined by Patanjali about eighteen hundred years ago. Raja yoga, which is a continuation of hatha yoga, is to be distinguished from the three other yogas of the ancients, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, and jnana yoga, respectively the yogas of selfless action, devotion, and knowledge. (There is also tantric yoga, the so-called "left-handed path," the beginnings of which are lost in antiquity. Following the example of the Bhagavad Gita, tantric yoga is not mentioned in this book.) Raja yoga is sometimes called "the science of mental control," as it is here on page 220.

There are many experts on asana; and there are many academics whose knowledge of yoga and yoga culture is extensive. But there are few public teachers of yoga who have mastered all aspects of yoga and can be said to be truly accomplished. Vishnu-devananda is one of them, that is clear from this book. B. K. S. Iyengar is another. I have read nearly a hundred books on yoga in English, and I would not be able to identify more than a handful of other authors as "siddhas," or "accomplished ones." Usually, a yogi who realizes samadhi ceases to be a public person. It is only the few--perhaps taking their inspiration from the Buddha, who returned from bliss to instruct humankind--that actually take the trouble to write books. I believe that Vishnu-devananda may be one of them. Certainly the knowledge and wisdom emanating from these pages suggests as much. Incidentally, "Vishnu" is one of the deities of Hinduism ("the Preserver"); a "deva" is a personal divine (such as Krishna, a manifestation of Vishnu); and "ananda" is bliss itself.

Yoga, fully realized, is a mystical and religious practice--be sure and understand that it is a practice: mere knowledge will not be efficacious. Its ultimate purpose is the realization of the Absolute, or to be joined with the Ineffable, or to live continually in the state of samadhi (three ways of saying what is essentially the same thing). Nonetheless, physical health and well-being can be gotten along the way (indeed they are prerequisites to samadhi), and sufficient in themselves as reasons for taking up the practice.

One of the auxiliary strengths of this book is in its presentation of the Vedic and Hindu viewpoint through the study and practice of yoga. Swami Vishnu-devananda reveals himself here as an accomplished jnana yogi as well as a master of raja yoga. While I do not agree with everything written here, and could easily point to some exaggerations (hyperbole, of course, is part of the tradition of yogic literature, fulfilling an "intentional" purpose) as well as to some ideas that are perhaps more central to Hinduism than to yoga itself, I nonetheless believe that what Vishnu-devananda writes is wise and measured and worth careful study. I don't think one can really understand yoga or appreciate its place in our world without not only a long practice but also a concomitant study of its origins and historical development in the Hindu, Buddhist, Tantric, Jainist and other traditions. This book is an excellent beginning.

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The Art of Yoga
by Sharon Gannon, David Life, Martin Brading (Photographer), Anoushka Shankar

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Reader Review
The Art of Yoga, December 4, 2002
Reviewer: A reader from Seattle, WA USA
I am in awe at the beauty and grace presented in this book. If I am feeling down, or sad, I open the book, observe the grace and beauty and read the text that is opposite the photograph- and in an instant my mind clears and once again I feel grounded

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Yoga Vacations: A Guide to International Yoga Retreats
by Annalisa Cunningham

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Book Description
More and more people are seeking vacations that are relaxing rather than chaotic, that help them renew their sense of health rather than keep them running frantically from sight to sight. Yoga Vacations highlights over 100 different vacation centers and retreats for both the beginner and advanced yoga practitioner. It includes detailed, thoughtfully written entries providing information on teachers' styles and philosophies, recommended levels of experience, and activities and services, as well as the basics on accommodations, meals, and fees. The author, a 15-year yoga instructor, makes a distinction between yoga vacations and retreats to help readers customize their perfect getaway. Some destinations are strictly retreats - places for quiet, in-depth yoga study - while the vacation settings listed allow free time for nearby shopping and sightseeing.

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