Stephen CopeRezensionen

Half as long would be more than twice as good.

I wanted to love this book; I really enjoyed the last of his that I read. I loved the idea of this type of story-sharing & weaving in the Gita, but something didn’t work for me.

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

'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

The Wisdom of Yoga is a unique book that examines yogic philosophy through the lens of Western psychology. The premise is a writer working on a book about yogic philosophy who grows closer to the students in his yoga classes. They all have problems, to which they apply yogic principles. This results in interesting, real-life scenarios in which the abstract ideas of yoga (nonattachment, nonreactivity, restraint, etc.) are applied in a concrete way. The reason I am not giving it five stars is the somewhat contrived feeling at times, but this book is going to stay on my bedside table for a while.

Dharma is our vocation or calling and it gives us the "blue print" for being our true self. In The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna teaches Arjuna to find his purpose and the importance of living to his full potential. In The Great Work of Your Life, the author uses the lessons of The Bhagavad Gita to explain the importance of dharma in our modern life. He gives detailed examples of how both great and ordinary people have used the Path of Inaction-in-Action (the four pillars) to discover their dharma and lead a rich life.

Learning your dharma requires the flexibility to reinvent yourself periodically through your life. You need to first discover who you are meant to be and then be that fully. All of our actions flow from our understanding of who we are and our dharma is what allows us to stay connected to our true nature. When you know who you are, you'll know how to act.

The author doesn't go into a lot of detail around the text of The Bhagavad Gita. Instead, he pulls a few key concepts and spends a lot of time connecting them to well-known personalities like Henry David Thoreau and Harriet Tubman. I went into this book with no knowledge of The Bhagavad Gita but now I'm planning on reading it in its entirety.

I've read Stephen's other books prior to this and greatly anticipated this new work. The wait was worth it. This book, done in his accessible and conversational style is perhaps his best work. He has "translated" the Bhagavad Gita into language that is really understandable and most importantly to me, practical and applicable to my life. Books don't give you answers, but this book will certainly help you to start paying attention to what is important to you and hopefully help you realize you already have the answers. Thought provoking and well written.

I've read Stephen's other books prior to this and greatly anticipated this new work. The wait was worth it. This book, done in his accessible and conversational style is perhaps his best work. He has "translated" the Bhagavad Gita into language that is really understandable and most importantly to me, practical and applicable to my life. Books don't give you answers, but this book will certainly help you to start paying attention to what is important to you and hopefully help you realize you already have the answers. Thought provoking and well written.

This was a very interesting book but it was difficult to read. It just seemed a bIt too long and drawn out.

Published in the mid 1990s after spending over a decade as a yogi at the Kripalu Center in Massachusettes, Cope sets out to write an ambitious text about his journey. I found his own story the most interesting, but unfortunately, there's too much other stuff going on to call this a true memoir. There' a lot here for serious students of yoga, of the Kripalu Center, of yoga's history both in the East and in the West, of it's relationship with Jung, let's say. But, ultimately, left this yogi waiting to exhale.

A beautiful and thoughtful use of the Bhagavad Gita as a guide to sorting through the essential questions of your vocation.

I really enjoyed reading this book, even though it took me forever and a day to get through it. It is written in the style of a novel which makes it a fairly easy read for those who are not 100% familiar with yoga philosophy. There are a few sections that are a bit too technical at times, but it balances out with the rest of the book. Anyone interested in more than just the physical side of yoga may enjoy this...I definitely reccommend it.

This book was great fun. The question, whether and how practice is really transformative, is perfect. There is a nice consistency among the people interviewed - they're all like my big brothers and sisters, people in their fifties or sixties, Americans who started practicing in the 1970s or thereabouts. They're also folks who mostly straddle the line between Buddhism and Yoga. I think I have met five of these people over the years.

I am fascinated by the question of the effectiveness of transformative practice, and particularly the methodological challenge. Real transformation takes decades of dedicated practice. The people interviewed here are all teachers. That must create a selection bias. Surely it is common enough for someone who has practiced for thirty years also to be teaching, sharing what they have learned. But wouldn't some folks be working more quietly, just engaged in whatever sort of work and teaching more by example and just helping people less programatically?

There are some fascinating currents and contrasts in the book, though these are hardly brought out for explicit discussion. Each interview here stands on its own and it is up to the reader to compare and draw conclusions or at least extract issues.

One issue: does practice free one from the problems and troubles of life, or does it more change the way one relates to those? Of course this distinction is itself tricky. But we sure do meet a couple folks here who seem engage life from a blissful angle. I seem to recall a dissenting voice too, a voice that wonders if all that bliss isn't more like a candy coating that leaves underlying problems unresolved. Anyway, this issue provides a nice axis along which these various interviews can be contrasted.

Another issue is that of formal versus informal practice. It's a curious puzzle how someone who teaches can themselves let go of formal practice. Of course one solution is that formal practice is more for beginners and then at a more advanced level informal practice is more appropriate. To some extent an informal practice can simply be a widely diverse and spontaneous practice, i.e. a smorgasboard of formal practices. Some teachers do seem to teach in diverse settings, so each mode of teaching has a distinct form but then when adding up their totality the boundaries cross and blur enough that the overall form is difficult to discern.

These interviews are nicely short, so quite easy to digest in one sitting. Each interview seems to touch some core concern - we seem to be getting below the surface.

If you want a picture of what is happening in America where Yoga and Buddhism meeting, this book gives a clear and balanced picture.

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 Yogasutra. 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 Yogasutra 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 companion and guide for anyone seeking enhanced creativity, better relationships, and a more ethical and graceful way of living in the world.

The author asked the teachers of a retreat to share their stories of how the long-term practice of yoga has changed their lives. I found the stories inspiring.

This quotation which leads off the book I am reading entitled “The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker’s Guide to Extraordinary Living,” by Stephen Cope so resonates with me and damned be the religious bigots among us who want to force their way of understanding upon us all:

“There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been: a people busy and powerful, knowledgeable, ambivalent, important, fearful, and self-aware; a people who scheme, promote, deceive, and conquer; who pray for their loved ones, and long to flee misery and skip death. It is a weakening and discoloring idea, that rustic people knew God personally once upon a time–or even knew selflesness or courage or literature–but that it is too late for us. In fact, the absolute is available to everyone in every age. There was a more holy age than ours, and never a less.” –Annie Dillard, “For the Time Being (1999).”

The Introduction on page xiii begins: “Mircea Eliade, one of the greatest students of religion in the twentieth century, once declared. [We go] to the past only in order to learn about such authentic possibilities of human existence as may be repeatable in the present.”

What a puzzling planet we tread on. And physicists tell us that time is an illusion. There are a hundred billion stars in this galaxy and the Hubble Space Telescope has found there may be 125 billion galaxies in the universe. To grasp the concept of a billion, consider this: Counting non-stop, at one number a second, it would take you 31 years,251 days, 7 hours, 46 minutes, and 39 seconds to count to 1 billion. (Roll the Carl Sagan tapes here).

Yoga, Spiritual