Yoga and the Quest for the True Self
Stephen Cope
Language: English
Pages: 384
ISBN: 055337835X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Millions of Americans know yoga as a superb form of exercise and as a potent source of calm in our stress-filled lives. Far fewer are aware of the full promise of yoga as a 4,000-year-old practical path of liberation—a path that fits the needs of modern Western seekers with startling precision. Now Stephen Cope, a Western-trained psychotherapist who has lived and taught for more than ten years at the largest yoga center in America, offers this marvelously lively and irreverent "pilgrim's progress" for today's world. He demystifies the philosophy, psychology, and practice of yoga, and shows how it applies to our most human dilemmas: from loss, disappointment, and addiction, to the eternal conflicts around sex and relationship. And he shows us that in yoga, "liberation" does not require us to leave our everyday lives for some transcendent spiritual plane—life itself is the path. Above all, Cope shows how yoga can heal the suffering of self-estrangement that pervades our society, leading us to a new sense of purpose and to a deeper, more satisfying life in the world.
A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga
Tantra Yoga Secrets: Eighteen Transformational Lessons to Serenity, Radiance, and Bliss
Yogalosophy: 28 Days to the Ultimate Mind-Body Makeover
Yoga Abs: Moving from Your Core (Rodmell Press Yoga Shorts)
DIVINE DESCENT As I learned more about yoga philosophy and psychology, I discovered that for millennia, yogis have been preoccupied with questions about the relationship between the human and the divine, matter and spirit, the immanent and the transcendent, the phenomenal world and the unmanifest realms, the One and the many. Indeed, most archetypal yoga stories emerge somehow out of the tension between these two polarities. One of the classics of this genre is the story of the divine descent,
Amrit's movements reached a peak in a moment of quiet frenzy that seemed remarkably like an orgasm and then slowly dissolved. His body entered a deep quiet as he came back into lotus pose for meditation. The room was drawn deeply into a state of absorption by some subtle ineffable pull. Down, and down. When at last Amrit opened his eyes and looked up, the room was still. Several people sobbed quietly. Others had discovered their own bodies entering into spontaneous postures. I found that I had
reflections to maintain his sense of self, despite decades of living and traveling alone, and many years of spiritual practice. As Freud pointed out, we mostly look for ourselves in two places: work and love. In early adulthood we experiment with relationships and commitments. We may try on a number of different roles and functions, a number of different relationships, to see both how we do, and whether they enhance our sense of being who we think we are. In these years, being recognized as a
immense oakpaneled staircase and library, long dark hallway upstairs, ancient myste rious ancestors staring down from portraits on the wall, and cavernous attic filled with trunks of antique clothes and toys, covered with dusty sheets. I can still remember the utter and complete safety of that house—my little bed, tucked in a corner of a big room and covered with stuffed animals. Mostly, I remember the big warm lap of my grandmother, her beautiful face, her soft breasts, into which I was welcome
told me that she felt that while "the spiritual part" of her was her true self, this was a lower self she needed to exile once again. It came into her harmonious spiritual life as an intruder, and she did not want it. She worried that she might be a multiple personality. "Steve, this thing just takes me over. I'm powerless. Am I, I don't know, like, schizophrenic, or something?" As it turned out, of course, Connie had neither a multiple personality disorder nor schizophrenia. In fact, she was