Reflections on a Life in Training
YOGA BOOKS AND MATERIALS
Books
B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga (Schocken Books, Rev. Ed. 1977)
For many years, off and on, this has been one of my bed-side table books. I bought the book in my late teens or early twenties, so it is now one of those books that holds sentimental value for me beyond what is printed on the pages. But what is printed on the pages is fantastic - like any good yoga book, most of all the pictures, over 600 black and white photos of Mr. Iyengar performing yoga poses. There is ample text to accompany every pose, but you almost don't need it. There is just a clarity to the manner in which Mr. Iyengar does the poses. You can look at the photo and understand what is supposed to be going on in your body as you try to execute a pose yourself. I think that this clarity is attributable to Mr. Iyengar's unrelenting focus on proper alignment.
And then, there is Appendix I. Appendix I outlines a 78-week course of yoga study, setting forth the sequence of poses to be done each day for a year and a half. I have tried to follow Appendix I a couple of times, but I came to the conclusion that it is truly the Mount Everest of yoga. The first several weeks are manageable, but soon the prescription requires a daily yoga practice that, I found, takes well over 90 minutes to complete. Still, part of me longs to complete the whole course, and wonders what my body would be capable of on the other side.
Any way, this is a classic yoga text from which any committed yoga practitioner will undoubtedly gain much.
B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom (Rodale 2005)
Decades after Light on Yoga, Mr. Iyengar produced Light on Life, which is his attempt to share a lifetime's worth of accumulated knowledge gained through his yoga practice and teaching. The book is not esoteric (at least in my view), but it is incredibly rich and dense. I find that I can only read a few pages at a time in order to try to absorb all of the insights and thought-provoking ideas. This is a great book. Truly the product of a lifetime's work and dedication. One can only aspire to the kind of consistent practice over so many years (in yoga or anything else) that would allow you to gain the kind of wisdom to write such a book.
Daniel Lacerda, 2,100 Asanas: The Complete Yoga Poses (Black Dog & Levanthal Pubs., 2015)
This is a gorgeous book. It consists mostly of pictures with only sparse text. Basically, it a catalogue of yoga poses, a fair number of which were unknown to me before seeing them in the book, even after decades of yoga study. My immediate response upon finding the book was that I wanted to try all 2,100 postures, which I have not managed to do. The photography is top-notch. In essence, it is page after page of perfectly chiselled yogis and yoginis, scantily clad entirely in white, executing poses from the simplest to the near impossible at the highest level of skill. Inspiring.
Leslie Kaminoff & Amy Matthews, Yoga Anatomy (Human Kinetics, 2d ed. 2012)
This book provides anatomical drawings of yoga poses, highlighting the muscles which are worked most in a given posture. It's dense, but well worth wading through the general chapters on the mechanics of breathing, how the spine works, and the skeletal and muscular systems. The remainder of the book focuses on specific poses, with detailed descriptions of the anatomical elements of each. Bottom line, the book provides tons of practical insight into what is going on in your body as you do yoga.
Ray Long, The Key Muscles in Yoga: Your Guide to Functional Anatomy in Yoga, Vol. One (Bandha Yoga, 3d ed. 2006)
Another yoga anatomy book, but here the emphasis is on individual muscles and then showing how they are worked in various yoga poses. There are also detailed explanations regarding antagonists and synergists for each muscle. The illustrations are wonderful, and it is easy to just get lost in marveling at how the human body is constructed. I found some of the technical explanations a bit hard to follow, but perhaps I was just not a diligent reader.
Neal Pollack, Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude (Harper Perennial, 2010)
This book is truly laugh-out-loud funny. Pollack begins with his introduction to yoga in his mid-30s, describing his first class this way: "Everyone else in the class was female. As I sat there in my coffee-stained white T-shirt and my paint-spattered cotton shorts with the 'native' Guatemalan pattern embroidered across the hem, I felt self-conscious, hairy, and overly large, an ogre invited to a debutante ball." From there, he chronicles his fairly rapid immersion into yoga study, along with interesting and entertaining forays into various corners of the yoga world. Although Pollack becomes a genuine yoga-devotee, through it all he remains his own man, skewering with his sharp wit a variety of yoga pretensions and fads. It is very enjoyable to read a book by someone who understands the great value of what he is doing, but does not take it or himself too seriously. Highly recommend.
Benjamin Lorr, Hell-Bent: Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga (St. Martin's Press, 2012)
This book is a fascinating read. Yoga is a "big tent," so it is not surprising that there are a variety of yoga sub-cultures pushing in directions that may seem alien to the mainstream. Lorr takes us into the sub-culture of Bikram hot-yoga and the yoga competitions which are its off-shoot. No doubt, it is a weird place and Bikram is a weird person, and the people caught up in this pursuit are pushing themselves to physical and psychological extremes. The author ultimately rejects these extremes, still I don't sense that he regrets the journey through them even though he has moved on. A lot can be discovered on the margins if you are willing to go there.