The Truth of Yoga
Description
Scholars have learned a lot more about the history of yoga in recent years, but their research can be hard to track down. Although their work is insightful, it is aimed more at specialists than at general readers. Daniel Simpson's The Truth of Yoga draws on many of their findings, presented in a format designed for practitioners. The aim is to highlight ideas on which readers can draw to keep traditions alive in the twenty-first century. It offers an overview of yoga's evolution from its earliest origins to the present. It can either be read chronologically or be used as a reference guide to history and philosophy. Each short section addresses one element, quoting from traditional texts and putting their teachings into context. The intention is to keep things clear without oversimplifying.
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Person
Content
Introduction
Seeking Truth
About this Book
What is Yoga?
Note on Sanskrit
1. Early Yoga
Ancient Roots
Ascetics and Tapas
Seers and Soma
Restraint and Ritual
Mystic Mantras
Saluting the Sun
Vedas and Brahmins
Is this Hinduism?
Cyclical Time
Karma, Rebirth and Liberation
Renunciation
The End of the Vedas
Early Upanishads
Self-Realization
Not This, Not That...
Lead Me to the Real!
Internalized Focus
Rewinding Creation
Breath and Consciousness
Om and Oneness
Seeds of Yoga
2. Classical Yoga
Embodied Liberation?
Epic Methods
Devotional Chanting
Gods and Yogis
The Meaning of Life
War and Peace
Acting Wisely
Seeing Clearly
Meditative Insight
The Power of Love
Practical Bhakti
Trippy Visions
Fate and Free Will
Finding our Way
The Seer and the Seen
Nature's Web
Sister Systems
Patanjali's Yoga
Whose Sutras?
Reducing Suffering
Changing Patterns
First Do No Harm
Ashtanga and Asana
One-Pointed Focus
Seeing the Light
Divine Awareness
Magic Powers
Splendid Isolation?
Rival Theories
3. Hatha Yoga
Transformation
What is Tantra?
Gurus and Gods
Tantric Mantras
Mystical Images
Six-Part Yoga
The Yogic Body
Invisible Nadis
Imaginary Chakras
Raising Kundalini
Sacred Geography
Uniting Opposites
What is Hatha?
Yoga for All
King of Yogas
A Body of Knowledge
Practice, Practice...
Complex Postures
Bodily Remedies
Cleansing Actions
Breathing and Bandhas
Potent Mudras
Sex and Yoga
Sounds of Silence
4. Modern Yoga
Proliferating Postures
Expanded Manuals
Copy-Paste Primers
Missing Links
Hidden Inventions
Reviving Tradition
National Pride
Gymnastic Aspects
Holistic Health
Relax and Revive
Indigenous Arts
Postural Focus
Adjustments and Props
Alternative Methods
Authenticity vs. Utility
What's Appropriate?
Power Yoga
Yoga Therapy
New Directions
Conclusion
Adaptation
Integration