Okay, I have my bookmarks in several yoga and related-topic books...for some reason or another I have abandoned them. One went missing -- Deepak Chopra's "Creating Health." I was almost done (I was on chapter eight) With each chapter I kept telling myself, "Okay, NOW, he's 'gonna get to his point." Okay, Okay, I'm waiting for the chapter where he talks up the virtues of being vegan or vegetarian -- I keep waiting for this chapter, and in each chapter he keeps telling me that in the next chapter he is really going to give it to us -- you know, the whole "Creating Health Thing" --- well, maybe I left the book on a park bench, or at the car wash or it fell out of my yoga bag, or the post-yoga bag (since I do Hot Yoga -- and I don't have to tell you, YOU NEED another bag after that) -- well somewhere in there the book mysteriously disappeared -- it's been over a month -- as I like to say, at the end of a relationship or meal, "I'm done!" So go ahead read this book if you like being teased through 8 chapters -- but I am sure (well, now not so sure), but he is so darn successful -- that I would think another of his titles must be worthy! I am thinking about the title that escapes me at this moment, but it's about Life After Death (and it may even be titled, "Life After Death" -- now THAT interests me. So has anyone out there read THAT one? If so please let me know -- does he tease you all the way through? Is it worth the time investment? Okay, enough picking on Deepak -- NEXT we have my other bookmark -- currently waiting on the pages of, "Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life" -- this title spoke to me, after all this blog is an attempt to spring off the mat, connect to that place we get to in the yoga room -- here, on the Internet??? Okay, crazy, but that need to discuss and connect the alchemy that happens in the yoga room to the rest of our lives is Judith Lasater's general direction when writing this book. Currently my lonely bookmark is parked on page 89. Why wasn't I crazy about this book? The book translates selections from Pantanjali's Yoga Sutra and THAT I did appreciate. And the writer goes on to illustrate these yoga principles from her own life. The first few anecdotes are somewhat charming. She is a mom and lives, you can imagine, from how she frames things, in a nice home with typical problems, relating to her kids -- I don't know, maybe it's just me, maybe this is an AWESOME book. But I can't finish it. Banal is the word that comes to mind. OKAY book number three -- I REALLY wanted to love this book, I wanted this one to CHANGE MY LIFE. It's by none other then, Thich Nhat Hanh -- a gentle soul, a wise soul. And it was recommended by one of my favorite Forest Yoga Teachers at a weekend workshop. It's called simply,"Anger" -- well it does have a tag-line: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames. So I thought this one will help -- this one will really give me perspective. Currently my bookmark in dozing off on page 83. No, not a banal book in the least -- it's packed with wisdom, insight, meaning, and, yes, as promised (listen up Deepak) ways to overcome anger. The way he writes reminds me of the way Bob the painter would teach us how to paint trees -- oh, so gentle, so kind, his text almost whispers -- problem is:NO ONE in my LIFE whispers! This book would only be helpful if myself and the entire east coast were magically transported to Hanh's retreat center and we were forced to eat out of little bowls and take vows of silence and talk to each other only at discreet moments and in the following manner, "Know that as I sat by the river listening to the water flowing, as I listened to my breath, know that I have done a great deal to make you suffer, know that I suffer too, darling I am not my best right now, let us have a session tomorrow under the blossoms, etc, etc." NO ONE I KNOW SPEAKS LIKE THAT -- maybe we should (no, on second thought I would die of BOREDOM)...I am just not there. In defense of Hanh -- I did incorporate some of his ideas and found that it kept me from saying the f-bomb during an argument. I will give Hanh another go: next chapter is entitled: With Compassion You Don't Make Mistakes -- During those last two dashes I read something great: Nothing can heal anger except compassion (p.83 ) Then, 2 pages later Hahn tells me to embrace my anger -- I like that. Okay, so I've just changed my mind -- I am going to suffer through the stilted dialogue and listen for the lesson, get past the soapy language. It's funny in both these books it's not the life lessons I object to, it's the semi-fictional characters that both Judith and Hanh use in their anecdotes: the children that pepper seemingly the entire book in Judith's case, and this inane couple that speak in, "Darling, I was this, and know that I suffer that..." -- it's the lack of art in their dramatic writing that leaves me -- well that leaves my bookmarks frozen in their pages.
www.DeepakChopra.com
www.judithlasater.com
Thich Nhat Hanh's retreat center -- maybe we can all go!
www.plumvillage.org/
Had to laugh at the title of this post. Yeah....... that happens.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I know just the book to get you our of your rut! "HOW YOGA WORKS"!!! I have a link to it on my blog. It is like, the best yoga book ever. Very simple language, very readable, very engaging - it basically goes through Patanjali's sutras, but in narrative form, so the plot moves it along really smoothly. You will eat it up SO fast. I heard about it from Diane, read it, loved it, and have passed it on to QUITE a few people since then, who all LOVED it too. I loaned it to Michelle M. in Palm Springs and she read it in 3 days, kept skipping cocktail hour so she could go back to our room and read! Diane gave it to Audrey the other day and Audrey read it in like 12 hours, so talk to her if you see her at adv, maybe she can lend you her copy... :D
So, I have to laugh at this blog because I am quite often with you on multiple books with bookmarks. But from the looks of things, you should stick to books with only 80 pages and build up to larger books once you have built some success for yourself!!!! Ha, ha. Just kidding. I currently have going - Autobiography of a Yogi - which I was really into for a while and then trailed off at page 500 (3 months ago) once he started detailing the life of Lahiri Mahasaya. You have to sift through this book for the gems which I would guess is the same with the Anger book it seems. Then I've recently finally finished a sports psychology book that I started a year ago. I finished it on my vacation because I was just in one of those flurries of "I've got to get done all this stuff I haven't finished yet!" moods. It was actually really good and sat there the whole time wondering why I hadn't done it sooner. I remember highlighting important things to remember and now since then haven't looked at it. Funny how important we think things are at the time. Ok, then there is Sound Medicine - chapter 7 or 8 and Ohm - along the same lines - I had an interest in maybe pursuing healing through sound and still do but the books were just too new age at the time. Then I recently just started Lost Symbol by Dan Brown which I was really excited for but after reading the first Chapter - DaVinci Code it is not and it just hasn't gripped me the way that book did. Just bogging me down with too much details - I don't care about the architecture and I'm really sick of hearing about the Tweed coat and I'm sure the woman in the story once I get to her will have a silk blouse that she "sweats" in. Ugh, men. Procrastinating on Re-reading 3 other books - Lamperti's Vocal Wisdom, Miller's Art of Singing, Coach Yourself to Success. I keep meaning to re-read Bikram's Orange book, but alas, it's either read the book or go to class! Anyway, thanks for the blog as always.
ReplyDeleteOkay -- You all got me! My favorite book since Angela's Ashes has got to be The Reader. Read it in 3 sittings --it's got it all -- young love, mistakes, who is the protangonoist -- do we believe him? -- is he too young to trust -- devastating -- can you love a monster? The story is all about the HIM and the movie (which I haven't seen ) is all about HER -- which is great because the whole time reading the book -- I'm like Him -- thinking -- who IS she -- who is this woman I am compelled to be with psychologically -- So yes, there is not one utterance of a yoga sutra in the least -- nothing yoga -- but talk about holding your attention -- if that is not a result of someone practing their karma yoga nothing is -- the is art.
ReplyDeleteWill ask Audrey about "HOW YOGA WORKS!" -- THANKS
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