Stephen Cope

'What a delight to find a book on spiritual practice that's as compelling to read as a good novel. This honest, intelligent, and beautifully written book is required reading for anyone intersted in spiritual practice today.'-Lilias Folan, host of the PVBS series Lilias!

Millions of Americans know yoga as a superb form of exercise and as a potent source of calm in our stress-filled lives. Far fewer are aware of the full promise of yoga as a 4,000-year-old practical path of liberation-a path that fits the needs of modern Western seekers wtih startling precison.

Now Stephen Cope, a Western-trained psychotherapist who has lived and taught for more than ten years at the largest yoga center in America, offers this marvelously lively and irreverent 'pilgrim's progress' for today's world. He demystifies the philosophy, psychology, and practice of yoga, and shows how it applies to our most human dilemmas: from loss, disappointment, and addiction, to the eternal conflicts around sex and relationship. And he shows us that in yoga, 'liberation' does not require us to leave our everyday lives for some transcendent spiritual plane-life itself is the path.

Above all, Cope shows how yoga can heal the suffering of self-estrangement that pervades our society, leading us to a new sense of purpose and to a deeper, more satisying life in the world.

'A tour de force...a book grounded in yoga psychology that will be meaningful and useful to spiritual practitioners in many traditions.'-Sylvia Boorsein, author of It's Easier Tnan You Think and That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist

Contents

Introduction
A note to readers
Prologue: Viveka's Tale
Part One: The discovery of the royal secret
1 Waking up is hard to do
2 To the mountaintop
3 Brahman: Ecstatic union with the one
4 Shakti: The play of the divine mother
Part Two: The self in exile
5 Yo are not who you appear to be
6 A house on fire: The identity project
7 The suffering of the false self
Part Three: Encounters with the mother and the seer
9 The win pillars of the reality project
10 Equanimity: On holding and being held
11 Awareness: On seeing and being seen
12 Awakening the witness
Part Four: The spontaneous wisdom of he body
13 Riding the wave of greath
14 Listening to the voice of the body
15 Meditation in motion
Part Five: The royal road home
16 The rose in the fire
17 The triumph of the real
Appendix: Yoga metaphysics with a light touch
Notes
Acknwledgments
Permissions
Index… (más)

For modern spiritual seekers and yoga students alike, here is an irreverent yet profound guide to the most sophisticated teachings of the yoga wisdom tradition-now brought to contemporary life by a celebrated author, psychotherapist, and leading American yoga instructor.

While many Westerners still think of yoga as an invigorating series of postures and breathing exercises, these physical practices are only part of a vast and ancient spiritual science. For more than three millennia, yoga sages systematically explored the essential questions of our human existence: What are the root causes of suffering, and how can we achieve freedom and happiness? What would it be like to function at the maximum potential of our minds, bodies, and spirits? What is an optimal human life?

Nowhere have their discoveries been more brilliantly distilled than in a short-but famously difficult-treatise called the Yoga-Sutra. This revered text lays out the entire path of inner development in remarkable detail-ranging from practices that build character and mental power to the highest reaches of spiritual realization.

Now Stephen Cope unlocks the teachings of the Yoga-Sutra by showing them at work in the lives of a group of friends and fellow yoga students who are confronting the full modern catastrophe of careers, relationships, and dysfunctional family dynamics. Interweaving their daily dilemmas with insights from modern psychology, neuroscience, religion, and philosophy, he shows the astonishing relevance and practicality of this timeless psychology of awakening.

Leavened with wit and passion, The Wisdom of Yoga is a superb compainion and guide for anyone seeking enhanced creativity, better relationships,and a more ethical and graceful way of living in the world.

Stephen Cope is a psychotherapist, senior Kripalu yoga teacher, and author of Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. He is currently senior Scholar in Residence at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts.

' A Splendid bridge between traditional yoga and the concerns and needs of contemporary Western seekers.'-Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., author of The Yoga Tradition

'Valuable insight into the profound 'why' of this ancient science-plus a totally great read.'-Los Angeles Times

'Intellectually precise, profoundly moving, and gratifyingly accessible.'-Donna Farhi, international yoga teacher

'Beautifully written, full of insght and compassion, and chock-full of stories...a life enhancing and entertaining read.'-Amy Weinraub, author of Yoga for Depression

'Absolutely masterful! Stephen Cope lays out the completse path of youga with stunning clairty, and he dows so in a narrative style that is a riveting to read as a good novel. I simpley could not put it down.'-Sylvia Boorstein, author of It's Easier Than You Think

'Stephen Cope is a conpassionate writer with a talent for bridging ancient wisdom and the modern mind. Artful, heartfelt, and gracioius, The Wisdom of Yoga leads the reader deep into yoga philosophy.'-Particia Walden, international yoga teacher

Contents

Introduction
Prologue: Seekers, then and now
Part One The problem of ordinary unhappiness
Jake: The quest for the firebird
1 The secret strength of disillusionment
2 Close encounters with mind
3 Quiet desperation
Part Two Illumined mind in everyday life
Maggie: the search for authentic celf-expressin
4 Tying the puppy to a post
5 Explorers of inner space
Part Three Karma and character: The bondage to pattern
Susan: Filling the hungry heart
6 The roots of suffering
7 The laws of cause and effect
8 The web of 'I'
Part Four The freedom in skillful action
Kate: The invisible suffering of delusion
9 The hidden power of restraint
10 Practice the opposite
11 At the still point of the turning world
12 Breath, trust, and the transmission of hunger
Part Five Meditative transformations of self
Rudi: Living at ease in the world
13 The vision of sameness
14 Shiva's dance: Insight and dissolution
15 The end of striving
Appendix A: Yoga and buddhism
Appendix B: The Yoga-Sutra in Englisn, translated by Chip Hartranft
Glossary
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index… (más)