Dear Friends,
We have two yoga talk-oriented events coming up this week!
The first, and more important of the two, is a book release. Please join me to celebrate the launch of Dr. Shyam Ranganathan's new book on practicing Yoga as a philosophy, on April 25th, at 7 pm at the Broome Street Ganesha Temple.
Register here: https://eddiestern.com/product/yoga-anticolonial-philosophy/
Dr. Ranganthan's book is called Yoga: The Anti-Colonial Philosophy. An Action Focused Guide to Practice.
What is colonialism? Dr.
Ranganathan, in conversation, has described it as the imposition of a perspective on a people or country, who then either have to conform, resist, or perish to adapt to the external pressure. These ideas about external pressures in Yoga came to Dr. Ranganathan during his research into the history of philosophy. In philosophy, you need to explore options in approaches that require flexibility of mind, and not become beholden to your belief systems to try to understand a philosophical system. In
the West, Yoga is explained through Western philosophy belief systems, and the Indic conclusions on Yoga become secondary.
How do you come to terms with external pressure and external forces? To responsively deal with external pressure is to inhabit yourself, to find sovereignty, which is Yoga. This is essentially the practice of Ishvara Pranidhana, devotion to a principle or consciousness that is transcendent of mental
obstructions, ideas, thoughts, or desires, and inhabits itself purely as the power of seeing.
Dr. Ranganathan's new book explores these ideas and highlights some of the ways that ideas outside of the Yoga tradition have influenced the way that Yoga is discussed, communicated, and taught in the West, and how we can recapture the intended and Indic spirit of Yoga in our practice.
A copy of his book is included in the ticket price.
The second event is this Sunday at 10:30 am and is the second of the monthly Discussions on Yoga that I'm leading after the morning class. You can sign up for that here, and it is available on Zoom as well.
The Sunday class (8:30 am to 10:15 am) is Pranayama, Led Primary, and (a few) Intermediate Asanas. You can register for that class here.
Best,
Eddie