mayaland
I’ve just finished reading Mark Singleton’s Yoga Body: the Origins of Modern Posture Practice, and I heartily recommend it to anyone seriously interested in yoga.
My sense of it: instead of being a book about yoga, as if ‘yoga’ is a thing out there that can be defined and understood, Yoga Body is a history and exploration of how humans have thought about, and constructed stories about, whatever it is they have called ‘yoga,’ specifically during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Yoga being a human creation, this makes a lot of sense. Backed up by thirty pages of notes and bibliographies, Singleton describes the trajectory of hatha yoga, from the semi-scary, no-caste, wondering, naked, holy-man thing, soundly rejected by educated Hindus and Western scholars of the time, to the medicalized, secularized, physical culture (as in body building and cultivation) that yoga has become, familiar to us in the yoga classes of today.
Particularly, in looking at Krishnamacharya’s time at the Mysore palace in the 20s and 30s, Singleton shows, decisively to my mind, how K, in the context of Indian nationalism, eugenics, the sweeping fad of physical culture, particularly various gymnastics systems from Scandinavia and others, and the history of the performing spectacle of yogins, not to mention the mandate of the Maharaj to make yoga popular, how K invented the yoga we now are familiar with by grafting many of these things together on top of parts of medieval hatha yoga traditions (but not all those unpalatable bits) and calling it yoga. Most particularly to me, Singleton describes how Pattabhi Jois’s (who was as student of K’s at the time) Ashtanga Yoga probably came out of this period of creativity and swirling cultural mixing. This historical analysis is in stark contrast to the Origin Story that is part of Ashtanga yoga, namely that it is an ancient tradition, based on Patanjali and revealed to K by his guru and by an ancient manuscript, since lost to ants, the Yoga Korunta.
Bottom line, this book is FASCINATING.
Reading it, for me, was not unlike reading about the history of Christianity in my early twenties, learning, say, that Christianity lifted much of it’s mythology from another popular (but since largely lost) religion, Mithraism. I was never a Christian, really, but it was the religion I grew up in and the ‘facts’ of where it came from, as presented to me by various exposures in Sunday School, etc. made Christianity’s origins seem unique and magical, even if I didn’t really beleive in that magic. To learn the historical context of the founders of that religion drained away what magic (and semi-consciousness on my part, as is much of what we take in as ‘real’ when we’re kids) there was for me. As in, “Oooh. It was invented, it was a story. It was marketing.”
While I hadn’t totally drunk the Ashtanga yoga kool-aid, I had, in that same semi-conscious way, understood yoga—that is, asana practice—to be an ancient thing, connected to Patanjali, etc. Reading Yoga Body, I have to say, undoes a lot of that for me.
I should add, perhaps, that Singleton is unfailingly respectful of yoga, Krishnamacharya, his work, Jois, etc. This is not a ‘debunking’ book, but an attempt to critically look at the historical record during this period of time, using textual evidence and interviews with those people, still living, who were there.
But it got me feeling a bit down. As if articles of a faith I hadn’t realized I had taken on had been punctured. Interesting. If the asana practice I’m doing really comes from gymnastics and a need to popularize a native physical culture in contrast to the Western methods that habitually put down the British stereotype of the ‘effete Indian man,’ did I really want to do it? A question that got me thinking about how the story I tell myself about what I’m doing gives it its meaning, and gives me the motivation to do it. I realize I semi-consciously liked the idea of participating in the story of a practice that is ‘ancient, sorta-spiritual, even a bit magical’ (I mean, somehow doing these poses confers inner peace and all that…it seems magical, anyway). But I was less attracted to participating in a practice that came from (the story of) gymnastics, even the spirtualized, moral-fiber kind of gymnastics that were what was being copied, in part, by K and others of the time, to make up what we now call asanas.
In other words, even though the practice itself that I am talking about stays exactly the same, if I change the story I tell myself about it, it seems to change it before my eyes—it’s value to me changes, according to whether the story is something I want to live.
Which makes me think of my kids, playing out various stories all the time. Princess being a favorite for Sophie, Kitten and Monster being favorites for Luc…apparently I liked playing the story Yogi.
Huh. What other activities do I tell myself a certain story about to give it a meaning I like? Well, it’s probably more true to ask, is there anything I’m NOT telling myself a story about? These aren’t new thoughts to me exactly, but certainly they are thrown into more light for me by this book.
The writer in me believes in stories, in their reality, in some semi-magical, maybe-Jungain, kind of way. (Another article of faith?) A\I believe a good story can be True even if it isn’t true. But even a really good story loses it’s power if it is presented as true, and then we find out it isn’t. No one likes to get lied to, I guess. Although we are often willing to lie to ourselves about stories we like…or willing to just not look too closely at them. There is some kind of double think going on here that I’m sure people more intelligent than I have worked out in detail. I guess you put something on a pedestal, it’s going to fall, and the bigger the pedestal, the harder the fall is going to be. And a story can be a kind of pedestal.
About yoga (meaning the asana practice I am engaged in), there are unquestionable benefits to me to its practice. Those stand on their own without the legitimizing (or alternately, the undercutting, when false ‘legitimizing’ is seen through) that an ancient pedigree would give. It’s interesting to now tease apart those parts that are real and valuable to me, and those parts that may be a bit of sparkly glamour painted on top. I guess, like many, I want to participate in something larger than myself, thus the appeal of joining in with an activity painted as ancient, or somehow holy. I’m still digesting my thoughts on all of this, but I’m certainly not quitting yoga. Just becoming more conscious of what it means to me. I guess my Ashtanga pedestal wasn’t that high, so the fall isn’t so bad, more of a bump.
Meanwhile, I’m in the market for a new yoga story.
Go read this book!
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39 Responses to Mark Singleton’s Yoga Body: the Origins of Modern Posture Practice
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- MAYA LASSITER is a writer of fantasy novels, an unschooling mom, a yogini, a former goat keeper, a yurt dweller, and an all-around cool person. Except when she's a boring ninny. Hopefully she won't post on those days.
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- friday
May 11, 2012 | 10:09 am…and now we come to lady’s holiday. the weakest week of yoga that ever barely happened.
- thursday
May 11, 2012 | 9:09 amprimary to navasana. can’t seem to get past freaking navasana this week. at least I’m on the mat.
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May 11, 2012 | 9:08 amprimary to navasana with Maria’s vid.
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May 11, 2012 | 9:08 amSKIP. Shame.
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May 11, 2012 | 9:07 amprimary to navasana. am I back in the saddle?
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"Dusi's Wings" April, 2003. . . .
"One thing fantasy can do for us is to give shape to the mysterious in the world; another is to make emotional yearning concrete. The early sections of "Dusi's Wings" do just that...there was a strong grasping towards the spiritual in fantasy here that was very promising, and I look forward to reading more by Lassiter." --review, Tangent Online.twitterage
"the maya report, continuing civil war and unrest, cloudy with an excellent chance of tears: For Mother’s Day we ... http://t.co/YdPYTfRQ"2 days ago"obsessed with lounge pants: It’s probably the Katwise thing (see yesterday’s post), plus Sophie doing a bunch of... http://t.co/Uuv0m9Dt"6 days ago"the technicolor fairy coats of the amazing and inspring katwise: I adore rummaging around Etsy, I always find co... http://t.co/Fi0d7kmN"7 days ago"botanicula — review: Around here we are HUGE fans of Amanita Design and their wonderful games. I have written be... http://t.co/j5H7nAuf"11 days ago"the surprising and convoluted history of a novel, plus some gorgeous cover art: I just got the last editor lette... http://t.co/CPa7AeYb"15 days ago
- MAYA LASSITER is a writer of fantasy novels, an unschooling mom, a yogini, a goat keeper, a yurt dweller, and an all-around cool person. Except when she's a boring ninny. Hopefully she won't post on those days.
Sometimes I am concerned with the fact that yoga was introduced into an entirely different social and cultural arena than mine (British/NW Europe). Wasn’t yoga meant ot be done in the hot sun, outside, under trees, with warmed easy muscles etc? Why am I struggling to do it in a polar opposite context – with the cold, indoors, with cold stiff muscles??? I sometimes feel that yoga isn’t *mine*. Not in my heritage and I should find something else to do as exercise. Am I being ridiculous?
Hi Anna! Thanks so much for stopping by. You should really read Yoga Body. The stuff we’re doing as yoga appears to be a hybrid of various Indian activites/texts, plus Danish/German/British gymnastics (there’s the cold, indoors milieu for you). Westerners were doing yoga-like activities (classes teaching body-centered, spiritually-aimed, exercise) before yoga hit Western shores and mingled with it. Fear not, I say, continue your yoga worry free!
Anna, someone on Napppa’s blog commented that Sharath said Ashtanga shouldn’t be practiced outside, something to do with retaining prana. But this is third hand so he might have said nothing of the sort. Krishnamacharya recommends doing it in a room and not to go outside until after a long savasana.
Maya, this kind of makes me thing of the crisis of faith many wanna be priests go through in the Seminary when confronted with the Arian controversy, that the trinity was decided upon in committee. Most of them still seem to come to terms with that and go on to become priests. Love what you have to say about how we latch on to stories in all aspects of out life.
Here’s a story for you. Krishnamacharya could only teach Yoga at the Mysore palace if he taught it in line with the arising physical culture movement, calisthenics etc. rather than resort to jumping jacks he looked at other Indian arts, prayer, dance, the wrestling tradition etc and took some of the training methods from there. It all looked similar to the swedish exercises but as the italians say, ‘it married’. He took classic Yoga postures and added to them, variations, preparatory poses, linking them together with the breath. He taught this way employing all manner of variations but codified it (lists of asanas divided into four series, this could be verified if we could just get a look at his Yogasanagala) for his assistant teachers, KYPJ included.
Just another story but I’m going with that for now. In the end it doesn’t seem to matter, it’s a beautiful practice and a wonderful way to approach and practice those old asanas. Maybe only a handful of them are traditional (whatever that means) but try practicing them cold, I’m sure those old yogis jumped about a bit on a cold morning in the mountains before trying to chuck their legs behind their heads.
Maya,
Wow, thanks for this profound, thought-provoking post! I love the question: what stories do we tell ourselves. And, why do they matter?
I think many people play on the mystique of yoga. It’s magical, it’s “eastern philosophy”, it’s “other” than our mundane lives and that is why we’re drawn to it. But I guess our generation are proving that the modern practice of Yoga is a western thing, as we see it practiced in vast majority by western people, in western studios, taught by western teachers!
Does a thing lose its magic just because it becomes mundane? Maybe. But for me, it’s kind of like Santa Claus vs Christmas. When you’re little, the myth is what its all about. But as you grow, you learn that the “magic” of Christmas is about giving, not receiving, about families and forgiveness and all that.
I think we can grow into a yoga that is largely shaped by Western cultures and needs. And the fact that thousands of people, every day, maybe some of them at exactly the same time as you are practicing this practice – well, how much larger do you want your story to be?
Hi Grimmly, I like your yoga story. That’s about where I have been with it, too. Do you feel that K’s students from later in his life got a bit more of the breadth of what yoga was to him, once he was away from the palace mandate? I keep thinking that, in the moment (back then), a little marketing spin on teaching those boys and putting on those shows couldn’t have seemed like a big deal to him–no one ever expects that what they are doing will, in fifty or a hundred years, turn into a multinational movement where those stories might come to matter so much to so many. No one expects to be the founder of a world-wide phenomena where your words will carry such weight. (Which makes me think of Monty Python, “no one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition.”) I wonder if he would have done anything differently if he had known that? Interesting to speculate.
LaGitane, what are you trying to say, that Santa Clause isn’t real? Now come on, that’s just silly talk.
But really, thanks for stopping by and for your comment. For me, I don’t think the ‘largeness’ that I want has to do with number of people—I mean, millions love NASCAR, right? That ain’t doing it for me either. But I understand what you mean. Still, old religions, with their mysterious texts written in beautiful, unreadable scripts, curious mythologies and rituals…that stuff is so appealing to the story-telling kid in me. I’d love for some of it to be real, you know what I mean? Maybe I’m a mystic at heart, covered by an over-educated, semi-cynical, bullshit-detecting, modern gal. Ha. How can I survive the shearing force of these disparate forces? We’ll never know.
Maya – Thanks so much for your reply – I feel better! It seems so much like everything else in life: we struggle for authenticity and purity and legitimacy yet at heart everything seems to be a mongrel/hybrid. And it appeals to me more somehow that yoga is an eclectic mish mash of an activity!
[...] here for a positive review of Yoga [...]
[...] here for a positive review of Yoga [...]
Hi – Great post! While I totally understand your sense of disillusionment, I think that it’s possible to both think into the real history of contemporary yoga and still hold on to the magic. I could go on and on about this (in fact, am trying to write a book about it
, but will try to keep it at least sorta short . . .
First, I’ve done enough yoga to know that there IS magic there. Sounds like you have too. Ideas are great and important and I love them, but experience comes first. I believe in the power of my yoga practice. Period.
Then, while it’s true that Singleton is not a debunker, he is an academic, and that world demands a type of detached, skeptical tone that clears out any sense of magic and mystery — even if the author in their non-academic life is connected with it. That world demands it; it’s just the way it works. (I used to be a professor, so speak from experience here.)
In fact, I met Singleton’s mentor, Elizabeth DiMichelis, in Oxford, and was stunned to find out that she is totally tapped into the magic of yoga. From reading her book (which is also great, I recommend it), I had no sense of this whatsoever.
Then, in terms of the actual history — K was totally totally steeped in traditional Indian thought, culture, philosophy, etc. He studied yoga with his guru I believe in the mountains of Tibet for 7 years and also had a lot of school-based education. My view is that he was a genius who was able to take all of this knowledge and culture and transmit it into a modernized form of yoga that was appropriate for the 20th century. So, it wasn’t that he ditched tradition and made up this bastardized thing from scratch. Rather, he reinvigorated the tradition by making it relevant to modernity.
This is a great thing because the living spirit of yoga is still there. It may be a different asana practice, different philosophy, whatever. It’s certainly operating in a radically different culture. But the spirit of something bigger, something magical, has been retained. You know it; I know it; we’ve experienced it. K, Iyengar, Jois — all geniuses who recreated the tradition of yoga so that it still lives and breathes — even if it’s really, really different in many ways — in today’s world.
That’s my story (at least for today)!
Hello Carol, Welcome. Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I like your story! I think I have found that there were some supports, like the pillars that hold up a dock, that were being carried by my fantasies (word not meant in a negative way, just…my stories) about the origin of what I was doing, of yoga. Taking those pillars down has caused other pillars to strengthen. I’ve also found some new pillars that are, perhaps, on more solid ground than the previous ones. No need for fantasy, it turns out, to find meaning in this practice. Just cleaning out the cobwebs revealed a solid structure in place. They were pretty cobwebs, but, essentially, unnecessary. Surprise!
Beautifully put, Maya, and thanks! I also felt very nervous when I started seriously looking into the origins of modern yoga because I was worried that it would somehow ruin my practice — take the air out of my tires, burst my bubble, whatever. That hasn’t proven to be true at all. Really quite the opposite. Not only am I more assured that yoga can stand up to my toughest questioning, but I also feel more in touch with and excited about the idea that Spirit is still moving through the world TODAY – rich and beautiful as the Indian roots of the practice are, what keeps yoga vital is that it’s still growing and changing.
Would you be OK with me posting your review of this book on my Facebook page? Because I think that a lot of people could relate to your feelings and it might encourage them to read it (If not, of course that’s fine.) thx.
Sure, Carol, I don’t mind a link at all. Thanks, I’d be honored. I’m glad yous still have bubbles and tires full of air!
Thx! It’s up!
Hi there, I read your review of Marks book with interest, He was my Yoga Teacher in London, and I’m sure he is sadly missed by many. He was a brilliant Astanga teacher and I understand he went on to do the Iyenger Teacher training too. He always taught from a very grounded centered place and had a quiet power about him, I guess this was due in part to his strong meditation practice. In many way it was his teaching that inspired me to become a yoga teacher myself, 10 years ago. I wish him well and look forward to reading his book. Thanks for your Review. Om Greg
Hello Greg, thanks for stopping by. And thanks for you story about Mark as your teacher. I didn’t realize he had taught ashtanga, that’s cool. At first when I was reading your comment, I thought maybe he had died! But then I remembered that he has just moved to the Southwest USA. Phew. I want him to write more books. Yoga Body Part Two!
Hi Maya, I just wanted to express heartfelt thanks for your wonderful review of my book. I don’t think any other reviewer has quite captured its meaning like you have. It means a lot to me.
I know that disillusioned feeling, of course, but I hope it’s not the final place that the book will take you or people to. To tell the modern history of yoga is not to take away from its magic and potency–on the contrary, I think it might be a way in to the process of reimbuing “transnational” yoga with deeper meaning. And of clearing away some of the very questionable stuff that’s written and spoken about it.
Carol is correct that a scholarly approach like this requires a certain dispassionate vision and presentation. It would have been totally wrong to have shared my views on the relative value of contemporary practices, or to pronounce on the worth of various yogas, ancient and modern. Or to emote about my own practice. Some people are now doing exactly that in response to the book, but it wasn’t my job. I tried as far as possible to clearly present the facts, and then set them afloat.
I also tried to make the book as readable and as unpretentious as possible. The Oxford scholar Richard Gombrich once wrote that all academic prose should be accessible to an intelligent sixteen year old, no matter how complex the ideas. I agree completely, and I’ve always tried to bear that in mind when I write. I hope that comes through to some extent.
Hopefully, Yoga Body is a better book for what I intended to be lack judgment regarding modern yoga’s worth. As I say in the intro, it will be shame if the book is just absorbed into the futile debate between those who say “yoga’s ancient and pure” (and attack anyone who says otherwise), and those who say “yoga’s new” (and hence fraudulent and worthless). It’s surely time to move on from that empty debate.
Yes, I’m a yoga teacher and an Ashtanga practitioner (amongst other things). I love what I do, and if there were no magic, I wouldn’t do it. For sure, I’ve had my own periods of disillusionment during the course of the research, but there’s a bottomless well of blessings in these practices. I also want to say that I’m deeply touched by Greg’s comments on my teaching in London: Greg, thanks so much–it means a lot. And do be in touch (Emma has my contact details).
Once again, Maya, I’m really grateful for your insightful reading of the book. From one yurt dweller to another, thanks.
Mark (Singleton)
Hello Mark! Thank you SO MUCH for stopping by and for your lovely comment!! I’m simply delighted to hear from you. And how cool is that that you’re another yurt dweller?!
I am not in a disillusioned place at all regarding yoga. I’m happy as a clam with my daily ashtanga practice and I like the grounded, human (as opposed to semi-divine, if you know what I mean) history of what I’m doing that I now seem to have in my head. Your book is no small part of that history. And I’ve found that clearing away the bits of fantasy I had about it has let the real value/magic of the practice become even more apparent to me. It really is a wonderful practice, and it stands well on its own, sans stars-in-the-eyes origin story. So, thank you for writing your book! I REALLY hope you write another, the continuing story, I would read that in a hot second.
[...] while back I wrote a review of a terrific history-of-yoga book, Yoga Body. The comment thread for that post has remained [...]
As someone new to yoga (less than a year), and experimenting with Ashtanga (less than six months), my observation is that the truth is in the practice. It’s in the internal, not so much in the external. No matter when yoga as we know it was created, and no matter who (singular or plural) did the creating, it is a powerful thing for the mind as well as the body, as well as for the soul and spirit. I plan on reading Mark’s book this weekend, so I can better understand what it is that draws me (and the rest of us) to yoga, and better grasp the philosopy — some might say religion –that has evolved with the physical aspects.
Hi, Tom, nice to meet you. I hope you find the book as interesting as I did!
[...] Maya Lassiter’s blog post from this April where she writes about her thoughts on the book: http://mayalassiter.com/2010/04/mark-singletons-yoga-body-the-origins-of-modern-posture-practice/. All I have to say about the book is that it left me feeling a little bit disappointed. Like [...]
Yoga Body – A short critique of “Yoga Body” by Mark Singleton (Oxford University Press)
To “identify the factors that initially contributed to the shape transnational yoga has taken today” without anything but a few casual mentions of Buddhism, (and I could not find anything on Jainism) is a bit like writing about the history of the motor car without writing about Daimler-Benz or the Ford Motor Company.
http://yoga-eu.net/bin/view/English/BlindMansBluff
This shows how the Indians and Hindus have stolen a great system of exercise from Westerners and have been presenting it to us as an invention of their own. When I first learned about Yoga, I was amazed at how such a wonderful system of exercise was developed in ancient times in an undeveloped third world country. Because all great inventions, discoveries and philosophies have come from the West. The result is Western Nations are well advanced, civilized and have excellent human rights records. Now Mark Singleton has proved that it was not the Indians, but really the Scandinavians who discovered and developed this system of exercises. Credit should be given to the Scandinavian gymnasts and these Ks and BKS people should be sued for stealing it and renaming it as Yoga.
I really don’t think that’s Mark’s point at all, nor that any ‘credit’ needs to be placed or replaced. My take on it is that Mark is just looking at the spicy, international soup that was Mysore, 100 years ago, and how Krishnamacharya fit into and was a part of that.
Maya, you are being very kind and respectful of everyone and everything. That is good. But some truths have to be revealed. Haven’t some Yoga teachers claimed that their tradition is 5000 years old? History tells us that 5000 years ago people in that part of the continent will living in caves and trees. They did have some form of exercise called Yoga, which was probably 1000 years old or so. But that definitely did not come down to us. Mark Singleton makes this very clear in his book. I have read his book Yoga Body, where he explains how H.C.Buck of YMCA introduced western exercises into India. The Indians took over these exercises and called it Yoga and sold it back to us. Also, my friend went to India and attended classes with Pattabhi Jois. She said he was very mean and was like a boot camp drill seargent. Jois even kicked her out of class one day, as she was not able to hold a pose correctly. How about Bikram Choudray of Hot Yoga? He is the bad boy of Yoga. Do these comply with the teachings of Yoga? No, Yoga asks you to be very accommodative, kind and forgiving. The original Yoga and the Yogis are gone. These are just business men making money out of western exercises, by calling them Yoga.
There doesn’t seem to be any mention of where the western gymnastic movement (started by P. H. Ling ) came out of which was the translation of “The Cong Fou” by the Jesuit P. M. Cibot.
He returned from his missionary work in china and presented the taoist system of exercise and breathe work to European medical societies in 1779. see Science and Civilization in China: Chemistry and chemical …, Volume 5, Part 5 By Joseph Needham.
http://books.google.com/books?id=f3s2IA2onvEC&pg=PA170&dq=cong+fou&hl=en&ei=YuznTJSHN8L6lwf4gpTfCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=cong%20fou&f=false
Does Dr. Singleton discuss this in his book? I haven’t got around to reading it yet.
Hello David, I don’t remember there being any mention of Cong Fou/Kung Fu, but it’s been a while since I read it and my memory is like a steel thing with lots of holes in it. Looks like an interesting book you link to. More book than I can bite off and chew at the moment, but the little bit I just read on google was fascinating.
[...] Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice by Mark Singleton Book review and some good comments on mayaland. [...]
[...] Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice by Mark Singleton Book review and some good comments on mayaland. [...]
Ommmmmm. Practice Practice Practice ‘All’ is coming. Ommmmm
[...] Want to read an excellent summary of & beautiful reflection on the book? Check out this blog. Care to share?Like this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]
Hi Maya, I found this post while writing my own and added a link to here at the end. Thanks for this great summary and beautiful reflection on Singleton’s book.
OK, new blogger here and learning how to show the link! Let’s try again.
http://manypathsyoga.net/2011/09/08/toddler-yoga/
Hi Ginny, so nice to meet you. Thanks for your comment and your link. Glad this review was of use to you!
Wonderful post & comments. I’m so grateful to have found your blog and this post in particular.
I’m experiencing a major shift as a yoga instructor as I read this book.
I visited India a few years ago to study yoga and found that Western yoga is vastly different than the yoga tradition I experienced in India. Now, what I found-out about yoga has been confirmed by what is presented in this book.
Nice to hear from others who have read it and who have/are going through a similar paradigm shift.
Thank you!
Firstly I’d like to say that Singleton’s book has attracted exactly the kind of attention he didn’t want – from closet bigots like Regina. Secondly, Singleton is obviously not well versed with the Darshana Shastras – Nyaya-Vaisesika, Uttara and Purva Mimamsa, Sankhya, Yoga and Vedanta, or he would not have focused primarily on Asanas as the whole and soul of ‘Yoga’. Thirdly, Maya’s contention that the ‘semi-divine’ origins of yoga having been disproved was ‘disappointing’ to her shows exactly the kind of adolescent infatuation that is pervading this ancient complex system of psychophysical purification today. If you go through Sankhya and Patanjali’s yoga sutras, you will clearly see how the gross, physical body is just the most apparent, visible stage in a series of layers that envelope the ‘self i.e the Panchakoshas, Tridoshas, three Gunas, five sense organs and so on…The very purpose of Yoga is to raise the Kundalini through the sushumna Naadi, from the Muladhara, at the base of the spine, to the crown – Sahasrara. Nadanusandhana and Sabdabrahman, the theory of sound through Mantra repetition are integral parts of any yogic practice. All the conclusions of the Vedas and Upanishads are being verified by latest findings in Astrophysics, Quantum mechanics and molecular biology. Einstein once remarked that if he had been born in a Brahmin family in India, would have comprehended the theory of Relativity at the age of 12!
Clearly Singleton, in spite of his alleged yoga practice hasn’t gotten beyond the elementary levels of the Yoga tradition. I would strongly recommend Mikel Burley, Arthur Avalon (John Woodroffe) and Georg Fuerstein as far more reliable authorities on this eternal science. Om Namo Narayana
Recommended reading : Hatharatnavali, a 15th century manuscript translated by Dr.M.L Gharote and Yantra Yoga by Vairochana, (which includes detailed Asana and Vinyasa instruction), transmitted in the 8th century by Padmasambhava to the Dzogchen masters of Tibet.
Clearly Stebbins ‘Harmonious Gymnastics’ were influenced by esoteric eastern traditions and not vice versa as Singleton claims.
Dear Viz,
Mark Singleton is a practised meditator, Satyananda Yoga and Iyengar Yoga qualified teacher. I believe he has gone beyond the elementary levels of Yoga, as you put it. In his book he is addressing the contemporary pervasive expression of Yoga as bodily Asana based. Even the glib spirit, mind, body tag does no justice to the subtle depths of authentic traditional yoga practices.
Unfortunately, there is another use of word Yoga now, “Modern Yoga”. Huh!
Swami Vivekananda is also misunderstood. His is the only translation of Patanjali Sutras where you will find that the first aphorism (Patanjali sutra) is translated as, “Now concentration is explained”. It was his translation that made Yoga as something tangible and real to me and I think that alone was his aim. His goal was to have Yoga be recognized as a science. He discouraged the indulgence in physical practice by putting aside the real goal of Yoga. But that should not be taken literally as him considering Hatha Yoga to be mere gymnastics.
Research is good and I hope it continues!