Recent scholarship has shown that modern postural yoga is the outcome of a complex process of transcultural exchange and syncretism. This book doubles down on those claims and digs even deeper, looking to uncover the disparate but entangled roots of modern yoga practice. Anya Foxen shows that some of what we call yoga, especially in North America and Europe, is genealogically only slightly related to pre-modern Indian yoga traditions. Rather, it is equally, if not more so, grounded in Hellenistic theories of the subtle body, Western esotericism and magic, pre-modern European medicine, and late-nineteenth-century women's wellness programs. The book begins by examining concepts arising out of Greek philosophy and religion, including Pythagoreanism, Stoicism, Neo-Platonism, Galenic medicine, theurgy, and other cultural currents that have traditionally been categorized as "Western esotericism," as well as the more recent examples which scholars of American traditions have labeled "metaphysical religion." Marshaling these under the umbrella category of "harmonialism," Foxen argues that they represent a history of practices that were gradually subsumed into the language of yoga. Orientalism and gender become important categories of analysis as this narrative moves into the nineteenth century. Women considerably outnumber men in all studies of yoga except those conducted in India, and modern anglophone yoga exhibits important continuities with women's physical culture, feminist reform, and white women's engagement with Orientalism. Foxen's study allows us to recontextualize the peculiarities of American yoga--its focus on aesthetic representation, its privileging of bodily posture and unsystematic incorporation of breathwork, and above all its overwhelmingly white female demographic. In this context it addresses the ongoing conversation about cultural appropriation within the yoga community.
"This book follows up on recent findings that modern postural yoga is the outcome of a complex process of transcultural exchange and syncretism and digs even deeper, looking to uncover the disparate but entangled roots of contemporary yoga practice. In doing so, it proposes that some of what we call yoga, especially when it comes to North America and Europe, is only slightly genealogically related to pre-modern Indian yoga traditions. Rather, they are equally if not more grounded in Hellenistic theories of the subtle body, Western esotericism and magic, pre-modern European medicine, and late-nineteenth-century women's wellness programs. Marshalling these under the umbrella category of "harmonialism," the present book argues that they constitute a history of analogous practices that were gradually subsumed into the language of yoga. This allows us to fundamentally recontextualize the peculiarities of Western, and especially certain mainstream American form of yoga-their focus on aesthetic representation, their privileging of bodily posture and unsystematic incorporation of breathwork, and above all their overwhelmingly privileged female demographics. The initial chapters of the book lay out the basic shape and history of these concepts and practices, while the later chapters explore their development into a spiritualized form of women's physical culture over the course of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, including the ways in which they became increasingly associated with yoga"--
A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020 Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR “A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe. Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.
This book translates Master Wang's original practice instructions and discourses given during training seminars. His system of internal alchemy goes back to two ancient Daoist texts: the 13th-century Lingbao bifa, linked to the immortals Zhongli Quan and L Dongbin; and the 17th-century Taiyi jinhua zongzhi (Secret of the Golden Flower), also connected to L . Together they are known as the Lingbao tong zhineng neigong shu (Arts of Internal Mastery, Wisdom, and Potential, Based on Numinous Treasure). The texts outline the concoction of a golden elixir through the dual cultivation of inner nature and life-destiny. This book follows the classics and presents all different kinds of techniques--including walking, pacing, sleeping, circulating the five phases, absorbing tree energy, and capturing planetary essences--in a systematic format and with a great amount of instructional detail. It contains a wealth of information invaluable to anyone interested in genuine Daoist cultivation and elucidates numerous rather obscure concepts to contextualize each practice.
The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, volume 1, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee from January 1 through December 16, 1984. One message included in this volume was given in 1991. In 1984 Brother Lee spoke eighty-two messages that were published in Life-study of Mark, Life-study of Luke, and Life-study of Acts. These Life-study messages are not included in The Collected Works of Witness Lee. After spending the first few days of 1984 in Irving, Texas, Brother Lee returned to Anaheim, California, and remained there until the end of February. He then traveled to Brazil and spent most of March ministering there. At the end of March he returned from Brazil to Anaheim and remained there until the middle of April. During the last two weeks in April, Brother Lee traveled to Stuttgart, Germany, and on his return to the United States he visited New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Newton, Massachusetts, during the month of May. At the end of May he ministered in Irving, and in the first few days in June he visited Denver, Colorado. At the end of June Brother Lee returned to Anaheim and remained there until the first week in October. From the middle of October until the middle of November, Brother Lee traveled to the Far East and ministered in Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Taipei, Taiwan; and Quezon City, Philippines. He returned to Anaheim for a few days in the middle of November, and near the end of November he traveled to Irving, where he remained until the end of the year. The contents of this volume are divided into fifteen sections, as follows: 1. Four messages given in Irving, Texas, on January 1 and December 2, 8, and 16. These messages are included in this volume under the title Miscellaneous Messages Given in Irving. 2. Two messages given in Anaheim, California, on January 7 and 14. These messages are included in this volume under the title Living Christ and Pursuing the Truth for the Building Up of the Church. 3. Five messages given in Anaheim, California, on January 8 through March 25. These messages are included in this volume under the title Being Built Up in the Truth and Growing in Life for the Spread of the Lord's Testimony. 4. Five messages given in Anaheim, California, on January 16 through November 19. These messages are included in this volume under the title Bringing the Saints into the Lord's Up-to-date Vision and Move in His Recovery. 5. Ten messages given in Anaheim, California, on February 3 through August 18, 1984, and in Alhambra, California, on April 21, 1991. These messages were translated from Chinese and previously published in a book entitled The Four Crucial Elements of the Bible--Christ, the Spirit, Life, and the Church. They are included in this volume under the same title. 6. A message given to a group of co-workers from Taiwan in Anaheim, California, on February 20, 1984. This message was translated from Chinese and has been included in this volume under the title Finding Principles in Our Study of the Bible and the Subjective Line of Life in the Bible. 7. A message given in Brazil on March 3. This message is included in this volume under the title Being Faithful to Be Constituted with the Truth and Experience Life for the Spread of the Lord's Recovery. 8. A message given in Brazil on March 11. It was translated from Chinese and is included in this volume under the title One Stream and a Broad Highway. 9. Two messages given in Anaheim, California, on April 15 and August 8. These messages were translated from Chinese and are included in this volume under the title The Chinese-speaking Meeting and Putting Off Oldness. 10. A message given in New York City on May 6. This message is included in this volume under the title Christ as the Embodiment of God Becoming the Consummation of the Triune God and Our Attitude toward the Believers. 11. A message given in Newton, Massachusetts, on May 10. This message is included in this volume under the title Ministering the Truth, Life, and the Gospel to All Men. 12. Four messages given in a Chinese-speaking conference in New York City on May 11 through 13. They were previously published in a book entitled Christ Revealed in the New Testament and are included in this volume under the same title. 13. A message given in Irving, Texas, on May 28. This message is included in this volume under the title A Word of Recommendation concerning the Life-study Messages and the Footnotes in the New Testament Recovery Version. 14. Five messages given in Denver, Colorado, on June 2 and 3. The records for two of these messages are missing. The remaining three messages are included in this volume under the title Practicing the Genuine Church Life in Spirit, in Love, and in the Truth. 15. Four messages given in Anaheim, California, on June 23 and 25. These messages were previously published in a book entitled Teachers' Training and are included in this volume under the same title.
This issue of The Ministry contains a complete record of the eight messages given during the 2008 International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones in Anaheim, California, April 2-4, 2008. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Vision, Experience, and Practice of the All-inclusive Oneness." These messages are a continuation of the messages given in the previous International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones in Mexico City, Mexico, October 4-6, 2007 (see The Ministry Magazine, vol. 12 no. 2). The final two messages of that training (Messages 8 and 9) are an introduction to this training. In this volume, we will see that the all-inclusive oneness is actually a person--the all-inclusive Christ. The all-inclusive Christ is the all-inclusive Spirit, who is the all-inclusive processed and consummated Triune God. Therefore, the all-inclusive oneness is actually the all-inclusive Spirit as the processed and consummated Triune God, united, mingled, and incorporated with all the genuine believers in Christ. Moreover, we will also see that this all-inclusive oneness is the expression of God. God is expressed as oneness because He is oneness itself. There is no oneness outside of the Triune God; hence, when He is expressed, He is expressed as a marvelous, mysterious, divine, and mystical oneness. We also include a report concerning the Lord's move in Ethiopia.
To Spirit Run is to chase your goals with one-pointed attention and live in the bliss from the success you find at the end. Spearhead your focus on one goal: making 90 percent of obstacles dissolve, showing 10 percent of obstacles exposed opportunity toward your true purpose and enlightenment.
The world began when God, the Creator of everything said, “Let there be light.” As the wonder of the world came to life with all its intricate beauty, the most miraculous moment had yet to become reality. That’s when God breathed into Adam and, with that one breath, shaped humanity. In this thoughtful and inspiring book, Daniel Kooman, the award-winning director of She Has a Name and Dream: Find Your Significance, shares the creation story in a way you have never experienced it before. Breath of Life examines three breaths from God that shaped humanity: The first breath that brought humanity to life; a second breath that redeemed humanity from sin; and a third breath that continues to shape the course of human history as we know it. Original and refreshing, it helps readers rethink something they take for granted every waking moment of the day: the very breath in their lungs.
