First Book of the Summer

During the summer months, yoga studios tend to get pretty empty and slow. The students are enjoying good weather and more time with kids or on vacation. So, I thought it would be a good idea to get a nice summer reading list of yoga philosophy books deepen my practice off the mat.

The first book I chose was, How Yoga Works, by Geshe Michael Roach. The title excited me as I wanted to understand how these transformations were coming about as I have been practicing yoga. I’ve never been to an official ashram nor have I met any of the more well known yoga philosophy teachers. But, that doesn’t mean I can’t learn how the day to day yoga practices come about.

The teaching comes in the form of a fictional story of a young Tibetan woman traveling across the border into India. She is carrying an old book (the Yoga Sutras) and gets detained and jailed at the crossing. Right off the bat you wonder how this will turn out as her freedom is taken away so unjustly. She doesn’t know why someone put out a notice to be on the lookout for a woman traveling with her dog while transporting an ancient book.

The captain of the station begins to test her about her yoga knowledge and tries to verify that she is the legal owner of this book. Only if she can cure his back pain with yoga will he think about letting her go.

She understands that most people only see the physical postures of yoga. So, she starts with the basics. Breathing and meditating. The meditation focus is to wanting to see other people succeed. The captain isn’t impressed at first.

Day by day she shares basic sutras that apply to daily life and changing the way we all approach how we think about things. She teaches and reveals how all things are connected through the most basic of examples.

In the jail she is treated badly by the sergeant and is even threatened by him. At one point she has to flee and in doing she gets into more serious trouble that only the superintendent can clear her from.

Also in the jail is a fellow detainee that helps street urchins. These young boys bring food for him and for the young woman while they spend day after day, week after week and month after month at this jail.

Eventually, a whole year is going by. But, each person in the jail is learning yoga, meditation, breathing and becoming a better human being. So many sutras are explained and taught in the simplest terms and lessons. The captains back is pain free, the sergeant is tender and caring. Even the absent minded corporal is taking initiative to improve the area without being told.

Towards the end of the year it is as if the woman isn’t even in jail and then the superintendent visits. All seems serious and dire. So much has changed at the jail. There’s more honesty, kindness to others, and even a school for the children that had been living on the street. The jail is full of hope instead of despair. The transformation of the captain is the main focus of the story. The bond the captain and the woman form as she learns how best to teach where she is was such a tender storyline.

I won’t give away the ending. But, the woman finds out who put out the notice for her and just who the other detainee really is. The ending was beautiful encapsulation of just how the full circle of yoga works for each of us and with those around us.

One of the main reason this story works the way it does is the plain wording. So many other books I have read I find my mind wandering as I can’t follow how the author is trying to explain the deep philosophical explanations. It leads to me reading and re-reading the same paragraph over and over again.  This book was easy to digest for something so deep.

I think you might enjoy this read. I’m off to start my next book of the summer.