Learning about our practice’s Western cultural and spiritual heritage shows us how we bring our own understandings and misunderstandings, hopes and concerns to our interpretation of tradition… It also changes our perspective on our own practice, inviting us to really consider what we’re doing when we practice yoga, what its meaning is for us.
— Mark Singleton, author of Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice
Looking Back on What We’ve Learned
In this class we will look back over the past semester and contemplate the implications of our studies on our understanding and practice of yoga. How has this class changed your understanding of what yoga is?
Required Assignments:
Read Yoga’s Greater Truth by Mark Singleton, a contemporary scholar of the history of yoga.
Read this excerpt from Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses, by Claire Dederer. A contemporary American yoga student writes about her first encounter with Indian philosophy.
Experiential assignment: Every yogic tradition has had its own vision and description of the ultimate goal of human life. What is your description of our highest human potential?
Thou Art That 