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Geshe Michael Roach's The Tibetan Book of Yoga is an excellent second yoga book for someone who is interested in Buddhism and is looking to deepen his or her yoga practice. The slim volume--based on Heart Yoga from the Gelukpa tradition of the Dalai Lamas--delves more into the philosophy behind the poses than their practice. In the first four chapters Roach provides a quick history of Heart Yoga and introduces the uniquely Tibetan Buddhist aspects of the practice. Drawing on Tibetan conceptions of human physiology, Heart Yoga imagines five levels to work in each yoga pose. These levels include the physical body and the breath but also encompass the "inner winds" (internal energy channels), thoughts, and "world-seeds" (each seed is a part of karma that "ripens when we look at something, and colors how we see it"). Heart Yoga is infused with tong-len, a Tibetan meditation of "giving and taking" where the practitioner generates compassion through a mental image of taking away pain from others and giving joy. In later chapters, Roach walks his readers through the 10 exercises that form the core of the daily, 30-minute Heart Yoga practice. Each exercise is described in modest detail (with a few accompanying black-and-white photographs) before Geshe Roach offers his commentary on how the exercise serves the development of the five levels. Throughout, he remains centered on the fifth level, world-seeds, and the generation of compassion, as the vital foundation for successful, long-term practice. Roach, the first American to receive the title "Geshe," has done a valuable service in bringing these ancient Tibetan traditions to a wider, English-speaking audience. But The Tibetan Book of Yoga is not a comprehensive guide for a yoga beginner. Roach suggests in the text that readers "piggy back" on other yoga teachers and teachings to learn correct pose form and avoid injury. In the end, The Tibetan Book of Yoga fills an important niche in Western yoga as an introduction to Tibetan philosophy of yoga, an introduction that may well spawn a new generation of books, videos and schools to expand on its teaching. --Patrick O'Kelley
From Publishers Weekly
Roach, a Buddhist monk, spent three years in "deepretreat" in the Arizona desert pairing yoga postures with ancientTibetan Buddhist philosophical texts to reveal a program of "HeartYoga," a practice that strengthens the physical and spiritualcenter. Part of the Gelukpa tradition of the Dalai Lamas of Tibet,Heart Yoga combines rejuvenating breathing exercises and physicalposes with meditative thoughts. As with karmic Buddhist teaching,Roach says the best way to ensure one’s own well-being is bymeditating for someone else’s happiness; in that act, one plants a"world-seed" so that, in time, joy will come full-circle. Heincludes only 10 yoga exercises, designed to take just a half-hourwhen performed each day, six days a week. Many of these will befamiliar to anyone who has taken a yoga class. However, theinstructions for some poses are three pages long or more, and mayrequire readers to stop and refer to the book for step-by-stepdirections. (Although there are photographs and drawings—not seenby PW—an accompanying video would benefit both experienced andnovice students alike.) Roach touts Heart Yoga’s ability to "removeexcess fat at the waistline" and its positive effects on one’s"sexual and digestive energy"—additional, if odd, perks to aWesterner in the quest of spiritual renewal. But his enthusiasm forthis yoga practice is infectious, and his promise of "a cheerfulmind throughout the day, just like the Dalai Lama with his bigirrepressible smile" is genuinely appealing.
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
