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21 Feb '12
VIDEO: THE ORIGIN OF VINYASA YOGA
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
Great video, though I mis-speak once here. I say Manju Jois was the “son of Krishnamacharya,” but in fact, he was the son of K. Pattabhi Jois. Othewise, it’s a stack of rarely heard info on the roots of Vinyasa Yoga! Have a look!
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13 Feb '12
VIDEO: THE YOGA OF THE YOGA SUTRAS
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
Please click on the link or pic to play: http://youtu.be/NGkOlehxNwY
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08 Feb '12
THE CONSTANCY OF PROTEST: A TALK AT UNITY CHURCH, 1/29/12
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
With yesterdays big protests in Berkeley, the continuing unrest in Syria and Egypt, and big new gatherings in Russia, it seems that the world is now fully perinatal: something new is coming from the womb. The self-immolation of a 26-year-old Tunisian fruit seller named Mohamed Bouazizi on Dec. 17th, 2010, set off a wave [...]
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07 Feb '12
VIDEO: THE NEW TANTRA
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
Here, Eric gives a quick primer on Tantra in the modern world.
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06 Feb '12
ARTICLE: WHAT DO SEXY TEMPLE STATUES HAVE TO DO WITH YOGA?
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
This article appears in February, 2012′s Common Ground magazine. Please hit “control” and “+” at the same time to read. (You might have to do this seven times!). Or, go to: http://www.sopdigitaledition.com/commonground/#/36/
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04 Feb '12
VIDEO: GORAKHNATH: THE FOUNDER OF HATHA YOGA
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
Gorakhnath lived in the Middle Ages and created the pose-rich system called Hatha Yoga. The practice evolved into the yoga we find in studios around the world today. This video shares his rich life and philosophy–and the meaning behind his unique name.
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23 Jan '12
VIDEO: THE RELATIONSHIP OF YOGA & AYURVEDA
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
Here’s a new talk on how Yoga and the Indian health Science of Ayurveda fit together from the Big Happy Day film series. Enjoy!
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19 Jan '12
THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND THE YOGA SUTRAS COMPARED
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
In comparing the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras, the first general distinction we make is that the Gita offers prescriptions amenable to householders (grhasthas) and the YS offers prescriptions suited for renunciants (sramanas, sanyasis, viras). Indeed, local commentators have suggested that the Gita was written partly to curtail the loss of male social [...]
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17 Jan '12
FURTHER RESOURCES ON SURYA NAMASKAR: THE SUN SALUTATION
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
I teach a workshop called Secrets of the Sun Salutation. Here are more resources. Books: Jois, Sri Krishna Pattabhi, 2005, Suryanamaskara, NY: Ashtanga Yoga New York. This is an excellent little book by Jois with very cool pictures of him doing the practice as a young man. It provides a welter of information that gives [...]
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16 Jan '12
HOW DO HATHA YOGA (PHYSICAL YOGA) AND THE YOGA OF THE YOGA SUTRAS DIFFER?
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
The Yoga Sutras describe Raja Yoga–a mind-focussed yoga practice from around the year 200 CE. It was consistent with the Buddhist methods of the time. It granted profound states of concentration won through consistent practice. In these states, the true nature of Reality (vidya) was evident. Later, around 1300 CE, Hatha Yoga was developed in [...]
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11 Jan '12
A BASIC PRACTICE IN 30 MINUTES (OR LESS!)
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
A private yoga student just asked me for a basic practice, so I made up this chart. The resolution isn’t perfect, but let me know if it is helpful. -Eric
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18 Dec '11
CHRIST, KRISHNA AND CHRISTMAS
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
I was in Bangalore at the time of Krishna’s birthday last year. Called Krishnashtami, It’s a variable holiday, and it fell on August 21 in 2010. By then, I’d been in town for four months and had established sweet friendships. A student invited me to her parent’s home for the holiday, and it felt like [...]
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04 Nov '11
Gary Kissiah’s Illustrated Yoga Sutras
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
There are many beautiful books out there on the spiritual life and yoga. I think of Kathy Phillip’s The Spirit of Yoga and Huston Smith’s The Illustrated World’s Religions. John Friend and I are also at work on such a book–an illustrated history of yoga. But Gary Kissiah has joined this esteemed club quicker than [...]
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29 Aug '11
The Shared Origins of Modern Yoga and Unity Church
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
A (slightly changed) transcription of speech given at Unity Church, Berkeley, Sunday, August 29, 2011 You’ve asked me to speak on the common roots of the Unity Church and Yoga. This puts me in front of a church congregation and it’s comfortable for me. Like one of your founders, Myrtle Fillmore, I was the [...]
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18 Jul '11
Yoga’s Root Tradition: India’s Sacred Books called The Vedas
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
This is an out-take from a lecture called The Sacred Upanishads at the Yoga Garden, San Francisco, 16 July, 2011. We began with the Vedas–the Holy Books that precede the yogic and philosophical Upanishads. Please click on the picture or here to go to the video. Cheers! -Eric Tags: Yoga History, History of Yoga, Yoga [...]
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04 Jul '11
Video: Yoga & Sexuality
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
PLEASE CLICK ON THE PIC FOR THIS VIDEO This video is an out-take from a yoga history and philosophy lecture called “Why the Buddha Burns: Love and the Destruction of the Subtle Body” given June 18, 2011 at the Yoga Garden in San Francisco. In it, I ground a discussion of yoga history and [...]
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02 Jul '11
HIGHLIGHT VIDEO: WHAT’S BEHIND YOGA’S STYLES?
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
PLEASE CLICK THE PIC FOR THIS VIDEO Some Notes and Corrections: This is an out-take from a yoga history lecture given at LuluBhanda’s in Ojai, California on May 29, 2011. The lecture (on Swami Vivekananda) began by giving background on today’s yoga styles. Camera duty credits to Kira Ryder. In the midst of [...]
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01 Jul '11
HIGHLIGHT VIDEO: YOGA FIRST SEEN IN PUBLIC IN 1898
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
(PLEASE CLICK ON THE PIC. A VIDEO WILL APPEAR!) As we review yoga history, we note that the first person to teach yoga postures openly in America was Swami Abhedananda–a gurubhai (brother monk) of Swami Vivekananda. Both were followers of the first publicaly-acknowledged Indian saint of the modern age, Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886), but Vivekananda [...]
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22 Jun '11
DARIAN RODRIGUEZ HEYMAN: ADVANCING NON-PROFITS
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
My associate, Darian Heyman, former executive director of the the Craigslist foundation and MC of the TED talks Presidio, is launching a new initiative to assist non-profits with social media. The Social Media for Nonprofits conference series will tour San Francisco (6/29), Washington, DC (7/14), New York City (8/4), Los Angeles (8/22), Chicago (9/27), Seattle [...]
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21 Jun '11
HIGHLIGHT VIDEO: THE BIRTH OF YOGA ALIGNMENT
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
Clicking on this picture will take you to a video on modern yoga history and what drove the great teacher, B. K. S. Iyengar to invent yogic alignment. Check it out! TAGS: Yoga History, Yoga Philosophy, Eric Shaw Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Yogic Alignment,
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15 Jun '11
A POEM FROM SOUTH INDIA BY THE FEMALE BHAKTA, MAHADEVI
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
One Short Bhakti Poem I have been reading, The Hindus, An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger. In the chapter on Bhakti, she translates this poem: People Male and Female, blush when a cloth covering their shame comes loose. When all the world is the eye of the lord, onlooking everywhere, what can you cover [...]
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14 Jun '11
CREATION MYTHS AND STORIES FROM THE VEDA
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
In the ancient Vedic creation myths, we see an easy understanding of mystic paradoxes that are so much a part of the later tradition. They communicate a sense of play and delight at absurdity. They recognize that logic only explains so much. These lines are from the Rig Veda, composed c. 1200 BCE From [...]
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10 Jun '11
HOW TO USE THE INDIAN UNDERSTANDING OF VIBRATION TO MAKE A YOGA WORKOUT
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
This is a bit on yoga class sequencing I wrote for a yoga manual today. Most people know that the Tao symbol of Ultimate Power (the Tai Ji Tu, seen here) represents the duality of Yin and Yang. Indian culture has a similar concept called the Gunas, but it has three vibrational patterns. It uses [...]
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28 May '11
A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF YOGA, DANCE AND MARTIAL ARTS
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND CLICK THROUGH THE IMAGE SLIDESHOW IN IT’S BIG WINDOW FORM. IT’S WORTH IT . . . DON’T MISS THE “NEXT” BUTTON! IT’S IN SMALL TYPE JUST ABOVE THE FIRST IMAGE! Dance and martial arts have made meaty contributions to yoga history, philosophy, and posework. The 108 Karanas of the Dance [...]
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26 May '11
ALPHA-I: A NEW MEDITATION METHOD
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
A couple friends, Eric Knouse and Patty Klauer, have been deeply involved in I.T. business their whole careers, designing webwork systems and mapping systems. Eric, however, retreated from the world to pursue meditation for awhile and through some intervention that looks like divine from the outside, discovered a slew of concentration technologies that are new [...]
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23 May '11
THE BAPTISTES: AMERICA’S FIRST FAMILY OF YOGA
Posted in Blog, Lectures by Eric Shaw
PLEASE CLICK THROUGH THE SLIDE SHOW BELOW This lecture was given for for Sherri Baptiste’s Yoga Teacher Training Program. She asked that I do some research on her family’s contribution to the practice–which is extensive. Her parents and extended family were yoga pioneers clear back to the Transcendentalist movement in the 1800s. This lecture covered [...]
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23 May '11
THE AGNIS (THE FIRES) OF THE SUBTLE BODY
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
The agnis or “fires” of the energetic layers of the body (the koshas) are guided by our will and can serve desire or love. In turning them toward love, we ignite the subtle body, burn off our attachments and shine with the fire of letting go. Tags: Eric Shaw Yoga, History of Yoga, Yoga Philosophy, [...]
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05 Apr '11
Yoga: A Living History
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
Seven years of investigation and two years of writing . . . have produced 300 pages of carefully researched material on the East-West yoga conversation . . . revealing . . . its strange Asian origins, its conveyance to the West via the Greeks, its discussion by stray travelers in Europe’s Middle Ages, it’s day-to-day [...]
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25 Mar '11
Kali the Trickster
Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw
Kali, I know that you know how to play tricks. You let anyone call you by any name they choose: The Magas call you Pharatara, Europeans call you God; Mughals and Pathans, Saiyids and Qazis all call you Khoda. Shaktas say you are their Shakti, Shaivas call you Shiva. Sauryas think you’re the sun, and [...]
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