Marilyn Monroe — Why?

Two days ago I published a blog with all the  known photos of Marilyn Monroe in yoga poses and the tidal wave of response took my server down. I was pleased, but surprised! It revives my wonder as to how beauty–and Marilyn Monroe!– works. Art was my former career, and over the decades I’ve  repeatedly [...]

Marilyn Monroe — The Complete Yoga Poses

Arguably, no movie star past or present is as enchanting as Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jean Mortenson, 1926 – 1962).  Her beauty, projection of joy and innocence, knockout measurements, marriages to two of the greatest men of her time, acting skills, and consummate control of her career arc (including its dramatic end) all make her [...]

RICHARD HITTLEMAN: THE 1960′S ONE-MAN YOGA MOVEMENT

Before there was Rod Stryker or Rusty Wells or Shiva Rea, there was Richard Hittleman (1927 – 1991). At the age of 22, he studied with Ramana Maharshi after learning yoga  basics from a Hindu maintenance man who helped out at his parents at a Catskill retreat called “Utopia.” In 1961, he had the first yoga [...]

Lakshmi — The Wealth Goddess — Her meaning in Yoga and Tantra

Lakshmi is the Goddess of Wealth, hence her name “She of the Hundred Thousands.”  (A “lak” is a unique Indian term meaning “100,000.”). We may compare lak with the word  sahasra, which means “1000.” From sahasra we get sahasrara–the name of the thousand-petaled lotus (or chakra) at the top of the head in the subtle body. [...]

EARLY POSES OF KRISHNAMACHARYA, I

. . . There are a number of image-sets of Krishnamacharya doing poses, as well as a short film that shows him in yogic movement. These images here are from a digital edition of his 1941 composition,  Yoganasalu. —– Another rather full set from a later period can be found in both his biography, published [...]

REVIEW OF INDIA: A SACRED GEOGRAPHY, YOGA JOURNAL, OCTOBER, 2012

MAKING SUKHA (GOOD SPACE) BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE

MAKING SUKHA (GOOD SPACE) BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE BODY   In yoga we open up our body at many levels, not least at the subtle level, where yoga anatomy explains that the body is made of successively more subtle “bodies.” These bodies (including our physical body) are called koshas and yoga leads us through [...]

HINDUISM: ALWAYS ROCK AND ROLL VALUES

I’m writing this 2 minutes past midnight nestled in leafy, brainy Berkeley.  I just hopped off my motorcycle after another adrenaline-downloading blast across the SF Bay Bridge. I’d been at the San Francisco “Yoga Rave” (PR’d with posters of a hyper-mod purple Ganesh, the easy-to-love god of learning, the arts, and the wealth of this [...]

SENSITIVE NEW AGE GUYS NEVER RULED, ELEPHANT JOURNAL, 6/12

Please “like” our facebook pages: Main Page Yoga / Love / Food / Wellness / Spirituality / Family / Culture / Green / Society / Work Enjoy the top 10 blogs of the week free in our e-newsletter. Via Eric Shaw on May 30, 2012 | Edit Sensitive New Age Guys Never Ruled: YOGA, PHILOSOPHY, [...]

YOGA GIVES YOU A FREAKIN HOT BODY (YAAAWWWWNNNN . . .), ELEPHANT JOURNAL, 5/12

Please “like” our facebook pages: Main Page Yoga / Green / Wellness / Spirituality / Society / Food / Culture / Love / Family / Work / Adventure Enjoy the top 10 blogs of the week free in our e-newsletter. Via Eric Shaw on May 23, 2012 Yoga Gives You a Freakin’ Hot Body? Yawn. [...]

UN ABDOMEN LINDO SIGNIFICA UNA MENTA LINDA COMO TRBAJA PRANAYAMA, 4/12

Martaes Flores of Belize was kind enough to translate my Elephant Journal article on Pranayama into Spanish . . . Un abdomen lindo significa una mente linda: Como trabaja Pranayama Que pasaria si los musculos abodominales controlan tu vida? Muchas personas quieren evitar una barriga prominente y desean abdominales de acero porque asi lucen fantasticos, [...]

THE HISTORICAL ARRIVAL OF TANTRA

Pancatyatana-puja (the is the worship the five deities) includes Surya (the Sun God), Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva and Deva (the Goddess).   It co-arose with an advancing theism (focus on Gods) in the later half of the first millennium BCE, and took the form of individualized devotional practice. This Bhakti Yoga was the householder counterpart to the [...]

W. BROAD’S CONTROVERSIAL “SCIENCE OF YOGA”: A REVIEW, ELEPHANT JOURNAL, 3/12

Join our Facebook communities: Main Page Yoga / Green / Wellness / Spirituality / Society / Food / Culture / Love / Family / Work / Adventure Get just our top 10 blogs of the week via our lovely e-newsletter. Via elephantjournal.com on Mar 18, 2012 Book Review: The Science of Yoga. ~ Eric Shaw [...]

A BEAUTIFUL BELLY MEANS A BEAUTIFUL MIND: HOW PRANAYAMA WORKS, ELEPHANT JOURNAL, 3/12

Join our Facebook communities: Main Page Yoga / Green / Wellness / Spirituality / Society / Food / Culture / Love / Family / Work / Adventure Get just our top 10 blogs of the week via our lovely e-newsletter. Via elephantjournal.com on Mar 13, 2012 A Beautiful Belly Means a Beautiful Mind: How Pranayama [...]

THE CONSTANCY OF PROTEST: A TALK AT UNITY CHURCH, 1/29/12

  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 [...]

ARTICLE: WHAT DO SEXY TEMPLE STATUES HAVE TO DO WITH YOGA? COMMON GROUND MAGAZINE, 2/12

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/

Reviews of Sadie Nardini Videos and The White Lama by Douglas Veenhof, Yoga Journal, 8/11

These Reviews were published in Yoga Journal, August, 2011.  Zoom or go to the websites of the Veenhof review here and the Nardini review here.  

THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND THE YOGA SUTRAS COMPARED

  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 [...]

FURTHER RESOURCES ON SURYA NAMASKAR: THE SUN SALUTATION

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 [...]

HOW DO HATHA YOGA (PHYSICAL YOGA) AND THE YOGA OF THE YOGA SUTRAS DIFFER?

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 [...]

A BASIC PRACTICE IN 30 MINUTES (OR LESS!)

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

CHRIST, KRISHNA AND CHRISTMAS

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 [...]

Gary Kissiah’s Illustrated Yoga Sutras

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 [...]

The Shared Origins of Modern Yoga and Unity Church

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 [...]

Yoga’s Root Tradition: India’s Sacred Books called The Vedas

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 [...]

HIGHLIGHT VIDEO: WHAT’S BEHIND YOGA’S STYLES?

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 [...]

DARIAN RODRIGUEZ HEYMAN: ADVANCING NON-PROFITS

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 [...]

A POEM FROM SOUTH INDIA BY THE FEMALE BHAKTA, MAHADEVI

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 [...]

CREATION MYTHS AND STORIES FROM THE VEDA

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 [...]

HOW TO USE THE INDIAN UNDERSTANDING OF VIBRATION TO MAKE A YOGA WORKOUT

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 [...]