The path of yoga by Georg Feuerstein****

Reading dates: 19 May–3 August 2016

Georg Feuerstein is an authority when it comes to a holistic view of yoga, yoga as it should be understood, with its spiritual and energetic practices as well as the outward asanas. This book discusses the more difficult and misunderstood aspects of yoga and it is a great introduction, with thorough contexts, histories and explanations. However, I must be a little more advanced than I thought in my journey because for most of the book I kept thinking it was too shallow, too much of an overview. Yet, this changed in the chapters about Kundalini shakti (Serpent power) and Tantra yoga, which I found thoughtful and fruitful in terms of making me consider things differently, opening my mind to what these mean to my practice and to enlightenment. His thoughts on teaching and studying yoga are also very useful for those of us embarking on this path. Thankfully, I have other texts to follow on these fascinating topics more in depth. Feuerstein’s book is a fantastic introduction and I would love if he had written whole books unpacking each of the chapters in The Path of Yoga. He has on some aspects (as he shows in his comprehensive bibliography), and I will be following these up.