Friends on a shelf

In response to a request to give a list of books that have influenced me in my yoga practice (and life) I now sit down to carefully inscribe a few of those that have, indeed, helped along the way.  In pondering these tomes I decided that I would not just do "yoga" books, but also pieces of literature that still echo through my being and influence how I am as a past mid-life hominid here on Starship Earth.  There are many and the warning must be given that they may not impress you favorably at all.  Quite possibly they may bore you to tears or they may drive you stark raving mad.  We shall see.

Overall the one book that has influenced from my mothers womb is the the Holy Bible, King James Version. Although not a Christian this book and its literature was what first informed my imagination and fears from my earliest days. The perspective of its various authors give it a powerful and demanding worldview chock full of characters, cause and effect, heroes (and the odd heroine), villains of the worst order, catch phrases, categorical imperatives and a mythology about how things are the way they are second to none.  However, after teaching me to research, that blade turned back on them and I no longer hold to that worldview. Anything by Jonathan Kirsch, Moses, David; Bart Ehrman Misquoting Jesus and Forged; Sam Harris The End of Faith and numerous Youtube sites; Richard Dawkins The God Delusion; and even the late Christopher Hitchens, God is not Great (I hear he is currently suing God for inscrutability) will give you a clear idea on some of the pressing questions concerning the validity of such a Western world view.  I can add a hearty "et al" to the above.  All of them thoroughly researched and immaculately written to guide the reader to a deeper understanding of this bizarre and inexplicable universe we live in.

Going forward to the point where that structure began to crumble under the weight of logic and rationality, it was in Del Mar where I was earning my spurs as a Pilates instructor, that I was given a book written by Ken Wilber titled "A Brief History of Everything".  Profound!  Shocking to my then Christian sensibilities!  How could he, without lightening spewing forth from Zion (or Sinai, Horeb, Gibor or some other sanctified "high place") to consume him and all his descendants forever and ever, say such things!   Whew, got through that one ok.  Singed a bit?  Yup, my eyebrows seem a bit smokey myself.  What I do remember is that Wilber hammered away at all of my presuppositions without pause.  No quarter asked, none given.  Faith or reason?  Current data or mythological grandstanding? At the time I did not know or understand how deeply rooted in the consciousness of our rascally species is the need to know "why" and "how".  Even with all of the data readily available, I still chose blind faith and improbable stories over logic and rationality.  Mind maps don't change easily and if there is a "God Gene" it is indeed a powerful force in our evolution.

I had always had my doubts.  I don't always listen to my intuition and sometimes my intuition is no more than my own projections on the screen of the universe.  I recognize this, but not always in time to prevent heartbreak and the salting of a few fields here and there.  So perhaps something a bit more benign.  Say, perchance, a wonderful tale starting with The Hobbit and followed by The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien or Frank Herberts Dune series, at least the six written by him. Seem a bit odd?  But just read the vast scope of characters!  Very similar to many other tales of the past yet without a brooding deity to damn one and all willy nilly for the most minor infraction (like breaking any one of the Ten Commandments was punishable by death.  And this is what we want posted in our schools?). Staying the course, redemption, forgiveness, heroes of huge stature with fell mien, and  heroines of unassailable integrity and beauty.  Ah, my heart doth pitter patter when I reminisce of the hours I spent curled up on a couch on a cold winters day or lounged under an apple tree in the summer. Time and again running out the door without a pocket kerchief to face Trolls, Orcs, Harkonnens and my own fears (please pause whilst I wipe the tear from my eye).

But on to Yoga.  The literature on this subject is vast and confusing.  That's because "yoga" is not a singular "it" at all.  India has two major linguistic groups and many sub groups and many ethnicities all from a common source that started with the Harrapan-Saravasti civilization a long time ago.  More commonly known as the Indus Valley civilization, it went out with a groan around 1,900 BC (or thereabouts) due to a variety of factors, namely earth quake, foreign invasion and overuse of the land.  So we get Sanskrit, Yogananda and yogasana and yummy curries as a result (ok, I am simplifying!).   But good books to help sort things out?  Start with The Heart of Yoga by DKS Desikchar.  This is a handy tome that will give you what most Westerners (read Americans) are comfortable with.  Non-threatening and easy to read, it is a good companion for your journey.

Much of current Yoga is dualistic.  Not surprising.  We live in a dualistic world.  Dualism was a very handy way to deal with life as it is whilst we were evolving on what our planet had to offer at the time. Non-dualism is a later development and as newer things go, it takes time to shake out the bugs in the system (as in all of the shaking going on as this is written).  So any of the many translations of The Yoga Sutras by Pantajali and numerous commentators are available.  Iyengar and a chap named Satchidananda are two of the more reliable translations that are easy to read and yet hold thought provoking ideas on what is happening in you as you begin the practice of Yoga.

For a review of non-dualism Kashmir style, Odiers Yoga Spandakarika is really good.  Jaideva Singh offers some good technical advise in his translations and Osho (formerly incarnated as Rajneesh until the IRS de-carnated him) has a good go at the Vijnana Bhairava (loosely translated as the Radiance Sutras) in his book titled The Book of Secrets. There are two other books out of Northern India as well.  The Shiva Sutras and the Pratyabhina-hrdayam (Splendor of Recognition) but non-dualism is another blog entirely.  Sometimes these texts are a bit difficult, but given time you can begin to wrap your mind around their basic idea that there is nothing to lose, nothing to gain.  Everything we need is right in front of us including the tools to remove the dross that clouds our vision until we can see that there is no vision and no dross to cloud it.  That baffles me to this day, but occasionally the splendor does leak through.

I'll end with a book that I have mentioned before.  It is Sit Down and Shut Up, by Brad Warner.  That book shocked my sensibilities about my Zen practice and is still fun to peer into on occasion.  Like what I just read:  It's easy to become paralyzed in your practice when you focus on the so-called results.  But there really are no "results" in the real world.  There is only what is, right here and right now.  So refreshingly honest I can't stand it.  Or this powerful warning:  There is nothing that cannot be corrupted and bent into the service of a powerful ego.  Yet reality will always remain just as it is, no matter how hard you try to escape it.  So by the book already or just...yup, you got it, sit down and shut up!

That's about if for tonight folks.  Keep reading, keep studying, appreciate your life as Maezumi Roshi was fond of saying.  There are so many good books available and I have just scratched the surface with a few of my favorites.

  May our mind-flower bloom like the lotus blooms in muddy water.