The Book
Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosophy
During a study trip to the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore in 1996, I asked the Ashtanga master K. Pattabhi Jois about the relevance of different scriptures for the Ashtanga Vinyasa method. With the words ’This is Patanjali Yoga’, he pointed out that the text of prime importance for this school was the Yoga Sutra compiled by the ancient seer Patanjali. He said it was a difficult text, and only sincere study could lead to an understanding. He urged me to undertake daily study of the Yoga Sutra for a long time.
The combination of these studies with daily Ashtanga Vinyasa practice led me eventually to realise that the Yoga Sutra and the vinyasa method are really only two sides of the same coin.
That is the central theme of this book. For yoga practice to be successful, there can be no separation of practice and philosophy. Indeed, new approaches to practice have always come out of philosophy, while practice prepares the intellect for philosophy. In fact the Yoga Sutra suggests that philosophical enquiry – svadhyaya, or vichara as Shankara calls it – is itself a form of practice, and an essential ingredient of the path to freedom.
This book is dedicated to bringing the two aspects back together and to restoring what historically was one system, lost through the lapse of time.
