Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice - Singleton, Mark Review & Synopsis

Synopsis Yoga is so prevalent in the modern world--practiced by pop stars, taught in schools, and offered in yoga centers, health clubs, and even shopping malls--that we take its presence, and its meaning, for granted. But how did the current yoga boom happen? And is it really rooted in ancient Indian practices, as many of its adherents claim? In this groundbreaking book, Mark Singleton calls into question many commonly held beliefs about the nature and origins of postural yoga (asana) and suggests a radically new way of understanding the meaning of yoga as it is practiced by millions of people across the world today. Singleton shows that, contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence in the Indian tradition for the kind of health and fitness-oriented asana practice that dominates the global yoga scene of the twenty-first century. Singleton's surprising--and surely controversial--thesis is that yoga as it is popularly practiced today owes a greater debt to modern Indian nationalism and, even more surprisingly, to the spiritual aspirations of European bodybuilding and early 20th-century women's gymnastic movements of Europe and America, than it does to any ancient Indian yoga tradition. This discovery enables Singleton to explain, as no one has done before, how the most prevalent forms of postural yoga, like Ashtanga, Bikram and "Hatha" yoga, came to be the hugely popular phenomena they are today. Drawing on a wealth of rare documents from archives in India, the UK and the USA, as well as interviews with the few remaining, now very elderly figures in the 1930s Mysore asana revival, Yoga Body turns the conventional wisdom about yoga on its head. Review Mark Singleton is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia, SOAS, University of London. He is the editor, with Jean Byrne, of Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives. He lives in London. "Singleton's radical, meticulously documented, sensitive analysis makes perfectly clear that what has come to be regarded as a veritable icon of Indic Civilization -- postural yoga -- is, in fact, unambiguously the hybrid product of colonial and post-colonial globalization." --Prof. Joseph S. Alter, University of Pittsburgh. Author of Yoga in Modern India: The Body Between Science and Philosophy "Mark Singleton's Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice is an outstanding scholarly work which brings so much insight and clarity to the historic and cultural background of modern hatha yoga. I highly recommend this book, especially for all sincere students of yoga." --John Friend, Founder of Anusara Yoga "I have been reading yoga texts and practicing yoga for 40 years, and I have taught a university-level academic course on yoga for the last 15 years, so it takes quite a good deal to teach me things about yoga I did not already know. This book has done so. It has been extremely informative and is rich with historical details. The quantity of field research is quite extraordinary, the prose articulate, the diction intelligent, and the narrative sound. It is a must-read among yoga teachers and serious students, and has the potential to transform much of the yoga world. This book will echo loudly through the global yoga community." --Prof. Kenneth Liberman, University of Oregon. Author of Dialectical Practice in Tibetan Philosophical Culture "From the moment I started reading Mark Singleton's Yoga Body I couldn't put it down. It is beautifully written, extensively researched, and full of fascinating information. It stands alone in its depth of insight into a subject which has intrigued me for forty years." --David Williams, Maui, Hawaii. The first non-Indian to learn the complete Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga syllabus. "Mark Singleton has written a sweeping and nuanced account of the origins and development of modern postural yoga in early twentieth-century India and the West, arguing convincingly that yoga as we know it today does not flow directly from the Yoga Sutras or India's medieval ha?ha yoga traditions, but rather emerged out of a confluence of practices, movements and ideologies, ranging from contortionist acts in carnival sideshows, British Army calisthenics and women's stretching exercises to social Darwinism, eugenics, and the Indian nationalist movement. The richly illustrated story he tells is an especially welcome contribution to the history of yoga, demonstrating the ways in which an ancient tradition was reinvented against the backdrop of India's colonial experience." --Prof. David Gordon White, University of California, Santa Barbara. Author of The Alchemical Body, Siddha Traditions in Medieval India "Mark Singleton gives us here a groundbreaking, pioneering work. By carefully tracing the key 'missing links' in the development of contemporary notions of hatha yoga, he presents a far richer and nuanced picture than previously known. Quite simply, this is a book that cannot be ignored, destined to be reckoned with in any further study of the topic. Thoroughly researched, extraordinarily well informed, and lucidly argued, I recommended it very highly to all serious practitioners and students of modern yoga who want a deeper understanding of its evolution." --Carlos Pomeda, founder of Yoga Wisdom for Modern Life. "Mark Singleton's book Yoga Body traces the evolution of the ever expanding practice of asana world-wide. His work offers a much needed historical perspective that will help correct much of the mythology and group-think that is emerging in the modern asana based 'yoga world'. Any serious asana practitioner who wishes to understand the place of asana in the greater tradition of yoga will do well to read it carefully." --Gary Krafstow, the founder of the American Viniyoga Institute, author of Yoga for Wellness and Yoga for Transformation "Yoga Body by Mark Singleton is a scholarly exploration of how modern yoga, as currently practiced in countless studios, gyms, and schools across the country, evolved [...] In essence, this very popular form of yoga was greatly influenced by modern physical practices, not just traditional spiritual or mystical ones. Singleton makes a cogent argument backed up by references from many studies and sources [...] a work of merit that sheds a great deal of light on the development of modern yoga [...] an important contribution to our understanding of yoga." --San Francisco Book Review "Mark Singleton [...] asks a big question: Where did modern yoga come from? His reply will no doubt disturb a lot of folks [...] as Singleton clearly and convincingly demonstrates, the physical practice of today is less than 100 years old, and it has very little to do with either Patanjali's or Krishna's teaching. Instead, it's the product of such disparate elements as British colonialist policies in India, 19th century physical health movements in Europe and India, the invention of the camera, and the reformist programs of Indian yoga teachers like Shri Yogendra and T. Krishnamacharya. This book, an invaluable source on modern yoga, should be on the reading list of every serious student and teacher training program." --Richard Rosen in Yoga Journal." Yoga Body Most people assume that 'postural' yoga is an ancient Indian tradition. But in fact, as Singleton shows, this type of yoga is quite a recent development. Singleton presents a study of the origins of postural yoga, challenging many current notions about its nature and origins. But in fact, as Singleton shows, this type of yoga is quite a recent development. Singleton presents a study of the origins of postural yoga, challenging many current notions about its nature and origins." Roots of Yoga 'An indispensable companion for all interested in yoga, both scholars and practitioners' Professor Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson Despite yoga's huge global popularity, relatively little of its roots is known among practitioners. This compendium includes a wide range of texts from different schools of yoga, languages and eras: among others, key passages from the early Upanisads and the Mahabharata, and from the Tantric, Buddhist and Jaina traditions, with many pieces in scholarly translation for the first time. Covering yoga's varying definitions, its most important practices, such as posture, breath control, sensory withdrawal and meditation, as well as models of the esoteric and physical bodies, Roots of Yoga is a unique and essential source of knowledge. Translated and Edited with an Introduction by James Mallinson and Mark Singleton Covering yoga's varying definitions, its most important practices, such as posture, breath control, sensory withdrawal and meditation, as well as models of the esoteric and physical bodies, Roots of Yoga is a unique and essential source of ..." The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Practice Traditions of asceticism, yoga, and devotion (bhakti), including dance and music, developed in Hinduism over long periods of time. Some of these practices, notably those denoted by the term yoga, are orientated towards salvation from the cycle of reincarnation and go back several thousand years. These practices, borne witness to in ancient texts called Upaniṣads, as well as in other traditions, notably early Buddhism and Jainism, are the subject of this volume in the Oxford History of Hinduism. Practices of meditation are also linked to asceticism (tapas) and its institutional articulation in renunciation (saṃnyăsa). There is a range of practices or disciplines from ascetic fasting to taking a vow (vrata) for a deity in return for a favour. There are also devotional practices that might involve ritual, making an offering to a deity and receiving a blessing, dancing, or visualization of the master (guru). The overall theme—the history of religious practices—might even be seen as being within a broader intellectual trajectory of cultural history. In the substantial introduction by the editor this broad history is sketched, paying particular attention to what we might call the medieval period (post-Gupta) through to modernity when traditions had significantly developed in relation to each other. The chapters in the book chart the history of Hindu practice, paying particular attention to indigenous terms and recognizing indigenous distinctions such as between the ritual life of the householder and the renouncer seeking liberation, between 'inner' practices of and 'external' practices of ritual, and between those desirous of liberation (mumukṣu) and those desirous of pleasure and worldly success (bubhukṣu). This whole range of meditative and devotional practices that have developed in the history of Hinduism are represented in this book. “ The Revival of Yoga in Contemporary India , Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion ( online entry ) ... Modern Yoga Revolutionary ? Edited by Mark Singleton and Ellen Goldberg . ... Yoga Body : The Origins of Modern Posture Practice ." Yoga Traveling This book focuses on yoga’s transcultural dissemination in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In the course of this process, the term “yoga” has been associated with various distinctive blends of mental and physical exercises performed in order to achieve some sort of improvement, whether understood in terms of esotericism, fitness, self-actualization, body aesthetics, or health care. The essays in this volume explore some of the turning points in yoga’s historico-spatial evolution and their relevance to its current appeal. The authors focus on central motivations, sites, and agents in the spread of posture-based yoga as well as on its successive (re-)interpretation and diversification, addressing questions such as: Why has yoga taken its various forms? How do time and place influence its meanings, social roles, and associated experiences? How does the transfer into new settings affect the ways in which yogic practice has been conceptualized as a system, and on what basis is it still identified as (Indian) yoga? The initial section of the volume concentrates on the re-evaluation of yoga in Indian and Western settings in the first half of the twentieth century. The following chapters link global discourses to particular local settings and explore meaning production at the micro-social level, taking Germany as the focal site. The final part of the book focuses on yoga advertising and consumption across national, social, and discursive boundaries, taking a closer look at transnational and deterritorialized yoga markets, as well as at various classes of mobile yoga practitioners. Singleton , Mark . 2009. Yoga body: The origins of modern posture practice . Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sjoman, Norman. 1999. The yoga tradition of the Mysore Palace. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications. Smith, Benjamin R. 2007. Body ..." Biography of a Yogi With over four million copies in print, Paramahansa Yogananda's autobiography has served as a gateway into yoga and alternative spirituality for North American practitioners since 1946. Balancing traditional yoga, metaphysical spirituality, and a flair for the stage, Yogananda inspired countless people to practice Yogoda, his own brand of yoga. His method combined the spiritual and superhuman aspirations of Indian traditions with the health-oriented sensibilities of Western practice. Because the Yogoda program does not rely on recognizable postures and poses, it has remained under the radar of yoga scholarship. Biography of a Yogi examines Yogananda's career and Yogoda in the wider context of the development of yoga in the twentieth century. Focusing on Yogis during this early period of transnational popularization, Foxen highlights the continuities in the concept of the Yogi as superhuman and traces the transformation of yoga from a holistic and spiritual practice to its present-day postural practice. “The Commodification and Exchange of Knowledge in the Case of Transnational Commercial Yoga. ... Govindan , Marshall . 1991. Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition . Montreal: Kriya Yoga Publication. Gupta, Sanjukta. 1972." Pop Culture Yoga Pop Culture Yoga: A Communication Remix was born out of a series of questions about the paradoxical nature of yoga: How do individuals and groups define yoga? What does it mean to "practice yoga\ Flavorwire. October 12, 2016. http://flavorwire.com/590304/namaste-screw-you. Shilling, Christopher. The Body and Social Theory, 2nd Edition. London: Sage, 2003. Singleton , Mark . Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice ." Inhaling Spirit 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. “ Yoga , Eugenics, and Spiritual Darwinism in the Early Twentieth Century.” International Journal of Hindu Studies 11(2): 125–46. Singleton , Mark . 2010. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice . New York: Oxford University Press." Yoga in Modern Hinduism The Sāṃkhyayoga institution of Kāpil Maṭh is a religious organisation with a small tradition of followers which emerged in the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century in Bengal in India around the renunciant and yogin Hariharānanda Āraṇya. This tradition developed during the same period in which modern yoga was born and forms a chapter in the expansion of yoga traditions in modern Hinduism. The book analyses the yoga teaching of Hariharānanda Āraṇya (1869-1947) and the Kāpil Maṭh tradition, its origin, history and contemporary manifestations, and this tradition’s connection to the expansion of yoga and the Yogasūtra in modern Hinduism. The Sāṃkhyayoga of the Kāpil Maṭh tradition is based on the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, on a number of texts in Sanskrit and Bengali written by their gurus, and on the lifestyle of the renunciant yogin living isolated in a cave. The book investigates Hariharānanda Āraṇya’s connection to pre-modern yoga traditions and the impact of modern production and transmission of knowledge on his interpretations of yoga. The book connects the Kāpil Maṭh tradition to the nineteenth century transformations of Bengali religious culture of the educated upper class that led to the production of a new type of yogin. The book analyses Sāṃkhyayoga as a living tradition, its current teachings and practices, and looks at what Sāṃkhyayogins do and what Sāṃkhyayoga is as a yoga practice. A valuable contribution to recent and ongoing debates, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Religious Studies, Anthropology, Asian Studies, Indology, Indian philosophy, Hindu Studies and Yoga Studies. Singleton , Mark (2010) Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice . New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Singleton , Mark (2013) “ Body at the Centre: The Postural Yoga Renaissance and ..." Handbook of Hinduism in Europe (2 vols) The Handbook of Hinduism in Europe portrays and analyses Hindu traditions in every country in Europe. It presents the main Hindu communities, religious groups, forms and teachings present in the continent and shows that Hinduism have become a major religion in Europe. Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives, 77–99. London: Routledge. Singleton , Mark (2010) Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice . New York: Oxford University Press. Smith, Benjamin Richard (2007) “ Body , ..." The Routledge Companion to Performance Philosophy The Routledge Companion to Performance Philosophy is a volume of especially commissioned critical essays, conversations, collaborative, creative and performative writing mapping the key contexts, debates, methods, discourses and practices in this developing field. Firstly, the collection offers new insights on the fundamental question of how thinking happens: where, when, how and by whom philosophy is performed. Secondly, it provides a plurality of new accounts of performance and performativity – as the production of ideas, bodies and knowledges – in the arts and beyond. Comprising texts written by international artists, philosophers and scholars from multiple disciplines, the essays engage with questions of how performance thinks and how thought is performed in a wide range of philosophies and performances, from the ancient to the contemporary. Concepts and practices from diverse geographical regions and cultural traditions are analysed to draw conclusions about how performance operates across art, philosophy and everyday life. The collection both contributes to and critiques the philosophy of music, dance, theatre and performance, exploring the idea of a philosophy from the arts. It is crucial reading material for those interested in the hierarchy of the relationship between philosophy and the arts, advancing debates on philosophical method, and the relation between Performance and Philosophy more broadly. Leckey, Mark . 2015. 'In The Long Tail.' In Lauren Cornell, Ed Halter and Lisa Phillips (eds.) ... Mallinson, James, and Mark Singleton . 2017. Roots of ... Yoga Body the Origins of Modern Posture Practice (Oxford University Press: Oxford) ..." Gurus of Modern Yoga Gurus of Modern Yoga explores the contributions that individual gurus have made to the formation of the practices and discourses of yoga in today's world. Available at http://kpjayi.org/the- practice /parampara (accessed February 15, 2011). Prabhavananda, Swami. 2003. The Spiritual Heritage of India. New Delhi: Indigo Books. Singleton , Mark . 2010. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture ..." Yoga, Meditation, and Mysticism Contemplative experience is central to Hindu yoga traditions, Buddhist meditation practices, and Catholic mystical theology, and, despite doctrinal differences, it expresses itself in suggestively similar meditative landmarks in each of these three meditative systems. In Yoga, Meditation and Mysticism, Kenneth Rose shifts the dominant focus of contemporary religious studies away from tradition-specific studies of individual religious traditions, communities, and practices to examine the 'contemplative universals' that arise globally in meditative experience. Through a comparative exploration of the itineraries detailed in the contemplative manuals of Theravada Buddhism, Patañjalian Yoga, and Catholic mystical theology, Rose identifies in each tradition a moment of sharply focused awareness that marks the threshold between immersion in mundane consciousness and contemplative insight. As concentration deepens, the meditator steps through this threshold onto a globally shared contemplative itinerary, which leads through a series of virtually identical stages to mental stillness and insight. Rose argues that these contemplative universals, familiar to experienced contemplatives in multiple traditions, point to a common spiritual, mental, and biological heritage. Pioneering the exploration of contemplative practice and experience with a comparative perspective that ranges over multiple religious traditions, religious studies, philosophy, neuroscience, and the cognitive science of religion, this book is a landmark contribution to the fields of contemplative practice and religious studies. ... Raja- Yoga , 267, also quoted in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood , How to Know God : The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali , pbk. ed. (Hollywood, CA; Vedanta Press, 1983; orig. pub., 1953), 221–22. See Feuerstein, The Philosophy ..." Yoga in Practice Primary texts in yoga, from ancient times to today Yoga is a body of practice that spans two millennia and transcends the boundaries of any single religion, geographic region, or teaching lineage. In fact, over the centuries there have been many "yogas"—yogas of battlefield warriors, of itinerant minstrels and beggars, of religious reformers, and of course, the yogas of mind and body so popular today. Yoga in Practice is an anthology of primary texts drawn from the diverse yoga traditions of India, greater Asia, and the West. This one-of-a-kind sourcebook features elegant translations of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and even Islamic yogic writings, many of them being made available in English for the very first time. Collected here are ancient, colonial, and modern texts reflecting a broad range of genres, from an early medical treatise in Sanskrit to Upanishadic verses on sacred sounds; from a Tibetan catechetical dialogue to funerary and devotional songs still sung in India today; and from a 1930s instructional guide by the grandfather of contemporary yoga to the private papers of a pioneer of tantric yoga in America. Emphasizing the lived experiences to be found in the many worlds of yoga, Yoga in Practice includes David Gordon White's informative general introduction as well as concise introductions to each reading by the book's contributors. ... Śrītattvanidhi and Vyāyāmadīpikā. chapter 9 of Mark Singleton's Yoga Body, The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (new York: oxford university Press, 2010) contextualizes Krishnamacharya's teaching during the Mysore period within ..." Transnational Yoga at Work In this ethnography, Laurah E. Klepinger examines wageworkers, yoga practitioners, and spiritual tourists in a transnational yoga institution. Klepinger argues that the institution’s peacebuilding mission obscures the patterns of injustice and social inequality it reproduces. Singleton , Mark . 2007b. “Suggestive Therapeutics: New Thought's Relationship to Modern Yoga .” Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 3: 64–84. Singleton , Mark . 2010. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice ." Teaching Contemporary Yoga Teaching Contemporary Yoga provides a novel look at how modern yoga is understood, practiced, and taught globally. Utilising perspectives from several academic disciplines, the authors offer an analysis of the current state of modern yoga and the possibilities for future experimentation and innovation. The authors draw on anthropological, performance, and embodiment theories to understand yoga practice as a potentially powerful ritual of transformation as well as a cultural product steeped in the process of meaning making. They craft a unique analysis that contrasts asana with the largely unexamined philosophy underlying the practice of vinyasa, while imagining a vibrant future for the evolution of yoga through excellence in teaching. Unlike other writings about yoga, the authors offer a critique of the current practice of yoga as both diminished and utilitarian, while providing a path to reinvigorating the discipline based on current scientific knowledge and methods for teaching and practice. Along with these theoretical perspectives and the analysis of contemporary yoga in the West, the authors offer practical applications to address the challenges of teaching yoga in a society where individualism and materialism are core values. Open-ended exercises in reflection and experimentation offer opportunities for readers to apply what they have learned to their teaching and personal practice. This is a vital guide for any yoga-oriented scholar, teacher, or practitioner and is an essential companion for contemporary teacher training. Singleton , Mark . Yoga body: the origins of modern posture practice . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Sinh, Pancham, trans. Hatha Yoga Pradipika. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd, 5th Edition, 1997. Staal, Frits." Somaesthetics and Sport The contributors to Somaesthetics and Sport explore our embodied experiences of watching and playing sport, including sport’s beauty; the place of exercise in our sense of living a good life; and how we cope with pain and suffering. Mark Singleton described the putatively Hindu, explicitly nationalist project of modern transnational yoga , ... British “physical culture” ( Mark Singleton , Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (Oxford: Oxford up, 2010))." What a Body Can Do In What a Body Can Do, Ben Spatz develops, for the first time, a rigorous theory of embodied technique as knowledge. He argues that viewing technique as both training and research has much to offer current debates over the role of practice in the university, including the debates around "practice as research." Drawing on critical perspectives from the sociology of knowledge, phenomenology, dance studies, enactive cognition, and other areas, Spatz argues that technique is a major area of historical and ongoing research in physical culture, performing arts, and everyday life. It is not a direct continuation of ancient yogic tradition, but rather a conscious invention of modern times. In Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice , Mark Singleton describes the relationship of modern postural yoga to ..." Branding Bhakti How do religious groups reinvent themselves in order to attract new audiences? How do they rebrand their messages and recast their rituals in order to make their followers more diverse? In Branding Bhakti, Nicole Karapanagiotis considers the new branding of the Hare Krishna Movement, or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Known primarily for their orange robes, shaved heads, ecstatic dancing on the streets, and exuberant Hindu-style temple worship, many contemporary ISKCON groups are radically reinventing their public presentation and their style of worship in order to attract a global audience to their movement. Karapanagiotis explores their innovative and complex approaches in both the United States and India by following three new ISKCON brands aimed at gathering new followers. Each is led by a world-renowned ISKCON guru and his global disciples, and each is promoted through a mix of digital and social media and the construction of an innovative "worship-scape." These new spaces trade ISKCON's traditional temples for corporate work-life balance programs, posh yoga studios, urban spiritual lounges, edgy mantra clubs/lofts, and rural meditative retreat facilities. Branding Bhakti not only investigates the methods the ISKCON movement uses to position itself for growth but also highlights devotees' painful and complicated struggles as they work to transform their shrinking, sectarian movement into one with global religious appeal. Modern Hindu Personalism: The History , Life, and Thought of Bhaktisiddhānta Saravatiī. ... Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice . New York: Oxford University Press. Singleton , Mark , and Ellen Goldberg, eds. 2014." Spiritual and Corporeal Selves in India This volume offers a number of images of contemporary India where glocalization is undoubtedly present. The twelve chapters included here provide different perspectives on the relationship between the corporeal and the spiritual, highlighting the union of both soul and body, which has been present from the very beginning of the Indian civilization. This volume offers clues to understand the differences and similarities that characterise the East-West encounter through artistic representations in the era of globalisation. It also enhances the importance of re-inscribing the fusion of the spiritual and the corporeal into the academic research agenda. In Western theory, the body has been arguably dismembered and separated from the spiritual. As such, this text opens up a range of possibilities to tackle and debunk the dualism of both the corporeal and the spiritual suggesting a rupture of the “logic” of binary thinking. The contributors specifically focus on Indian culture and analyse how we can empirically and theoretically reconcile mind and body in order to promote active and reciprocal exchanges among educators, students, researchers, social activists, and those professionally and spiritually engaged with Indian studies. Singleton , Mark , and Jean Byrne (eds.). 2008. Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge. Singleton , Mark . 2010. Yoga Body: the Origins of Modern Posture Practice . Oxford: Oxford University Press ..." Mimetic Desires Through an exploration of subjects such as Gandhi impersonators, performance artists, and ritual participants, Mimetic Desires makes an intervention toward understanding the phenomenon of impersonation and guising in South Asia and the world. This volume defines impersonation as the temporary assumption of an identity or guise in social and aesthetic performance that is perceived as not one’s own, and guising as sartorial and kinetic play more generally. Interrogating the legitimacy of the purported dialectic between the “real/original” and “fake/dupe,” Mimetic Desires refutes the ordering of identity along the lines of a binary or dichotomy that presupposes the myth of an original identity. By peeling back the layers of performative masks to reveal the process of the masquerade itself, we can see that those with the most social capital are often those with the most power and opportunities to impersonate “up” and “down” social hierarchies. The book’s twelve chapters disclose sites and processes of sociopolitical power facilitated by normative markers of social status relating to race, ethnicity, gender, caste, class, and religion—and how those markers can be manipulated to express and enhance individual and group power. The first comprehensive study to focus on impersonation in South Asia, Mimetic Desires expands on previous scholarship on impersonation and guising in vernacular theatre, dance, public processions, and religious rituals. It is particularly in conversation with the robust scholarship on gender performance in South Asia’s theatrical and dance forms. Mimetic Desires explores some of the contexts and forms of impersonation in South Asia, with its remarkable array of performing arts, to gain insight into the very human and quotidian practices of impersonation and guising. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice . Oxford: Oxford University Press. Singleton , Mark , and Tara Fraser. 2013. “T. Krishnamacharya: Founder of Modern Yoga .” In Gurus of Modern India, edited by Mark Singleton and Ellen ..." Yoga and Tantra: History, Philosophy & Mythology The stories about how old yoga is as a practice, where it originated from and who it belongs to are as many as they are conflicting. Yoga practitioners often have to navigate through a jungle of information in order to seek answers to their questions. What exactly is the goal of yoga? Is it relevant for contemporary yoga practitioners to study the Yoga Sutra? What do the various Indian gods and goddesses really symbolise? And what do yogic and tantric traditions have in common? This book offers its readers a clear overview of the origin and historical development of yoga and tantra and an in-depth understanding of the various philosophical systems and concepts used under the name "yoga philosophy". The book also provides insight into how the classical literature often referenced in yoga can be understood contextually, i.e., how it relates to and reflects the time and place it originated in. As well as how yogic mythology and its many deities can be used to put words on an inner experience or shed light on aspects of ourselves. The book is a must-read for yoga teachers, curious practitioners, as well as knowledge seekers. About The Author: TOVA OLSSON is a yoga teacher, religious scholar and writer. She has been published in scientific journals and lectures internationally on the history, philosophy and mythology of yoga and tantra. She holds an MA in history of religions from Gothenburg University and is currently working on her PhD at Umeà University. The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Cambridge University Press. Sarbacker, Stuart Ray (2021). Tracing the Path of Yoga . Suny Press. Singleton , Mark (2010) Yogabody. The origins of Modern Posture Practice . Oxford University Press." Bodies and Culture Bodies and Culture is a collection of contemporary interdisciplinary research on bodies from emerging scholars in the humanities and social sciences disciplines that addresses issues relating to a range of historical and contemporary contexts, theories, and methods. Examining the diversity and capabilities of bodies, this volume focuses on the role of culture in shaping forms and conceptions of the corporeal. In particular, these essays interrogate the role of the body in articulating and reinforcing social differences, especially the effects of racist, colonialist, and other hegemonic ideologies on the agency and diversity of bodies. Bodies and Culture also considers the place of the body in forming identities, images, and narratives of individuals, and the practices of modifying bodies and social roles through physical activities from exercise to artistic performance. This collection will appeal to scholars in a wide range of areas, including literature, anthropology, sociology, art history, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, and fat studies. locates the origins of the practice in 500 BCE.5 As noted by Mark Singleton in Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice , there are many ancient texts that mention yoga , including one that lists 112 types of yogic practice ." Sacred Matters Explores how objects shape the worlds of religious participants across a range of South Asian traditions. Sacred Matters explores the lives of material objects in South Asian religions. Spanning a range of traditions including Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism, and Christianity, the book demonstrates how sacred items influence and enliven the worlds of religious participants across South Asia and into the diaspora. Contributors examine a variety of objects to describe the ways sacred materials derive and confer meaning and efficacy, emerging from and giving shape to religious and nonreligious realms alike. Material forms of deity and divine power are considered along with commonplace ritual items, including images, clay pots, and camphor. The work also attends to materiality’s complex role within the “materially suspicious” contexts of Islam, Theravada Buddhism, and Roman Catholicism. This engaging collection presents new frameworks for contemplating the ways in which historical, social, and sacred processes intertwine and collectively shape human and divine activity. Tracy Pintchman is Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the International Studies Program at Loyola University Chicago. Her books include The Rise of the Goddess in the Hindu Tradition and Guests at God’s Wedding: Celebrating Kartik among the Women of Benares, both published by SUNY Press. Corinne G. Dempsey is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Nazareth College. She is the author of Bringing the Sacred Down to Earth: Adventures in Comparative Religion and The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York: Breaking Convention and Making Home at a North American Hindu Temple. In Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Mark Singleton and Jean Byrne, 77–99. London: Routledge. ———. 2010. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice . New York: Oxford University Press." Retreat Retreat takes us on a stunning journey through the many ways humans step back from daily life, both in today's world and in our past. 'A vivid personal quest...rich and almost eerily timely' William Fiennes From mindfulness and meditation to yoga breaks and spiritual bootcamps, stepping back from daily life remains a human obsession. In this endlessly enlightening book, Nat Segnit experiences retreats around the world as he investigates why we seek solitude, what we get out of it, and what is going on in our brains and bodies when we achieve it. Along the way, he meets yogic scholars, scientists, religious leaders, philosophers and artists, gaining fascinating - and often startling - insights. 'With a charming blend of sincerity and intellectual curiosity, Segnit leads us sure-footedly into the wilderness' Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment 'Open-minded, elegantly written and comprehensive' Daily Telegraph The Risks and Rewards of Stepping Back from the World Nat Segnit ... Eric and Rosenberg, Jonathan, How Google Works ( John Murray, 2014) Turner, Fred, From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand , the Whole Earth Network, ..." Becoming a Yoga Instructor The must-have book for any yogi or yogini who’s curious about taking the next step and becoming a yoga instructor. Choosing a profession begins with imagining yourself in a career. Whether you see yoga as a side gig or your life calling, Becoming a Yoga Instructor is the perfect resource to help you figure out how to get there—and what it’ll really be like once you do. Journalist Elizabeth Greenwood has been practicing yoga for over twenty years. Now, she takes you along as she studies with teachers across the country to figure out how these women and men rose to the top of their profession—and how they stay there. In these pages, you’ll take a private lesson with Abbie Galvin, a rock star instructor whom other yoga teachers fly around the world to learn from. You’ll visit a small business owner as she opens up her very first studio, and meet newbies hustling as they figure out how to stand out from the competition, whether by leading yoga retreats to Costa Rica, helping veterans struggling with PTSD, or teaching classes over YouTube. Bursting with inside information about the yoga industry, and the spiritual, physical, and psychological benefits that daily practice can bring to your life, Becoming a Yoga Instructor is a perfect virtual internship for anyone contemplating turning their love of yoga into a career. 7 “This Day in History (11-September-1893): Swami Vivekananda Presented Hinduism at Chicago's Parliament of the ... 9 Mark Singleton , Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 71." Dharma Dharma is central to all the major religious traditions which originated on the Indian subcontinent. Such is its importance that these traditions cannot adequately be understood apart from it. Often translated as "ethics," "religion," "law," or "social order," dharma possesses elements of each of these but is not confined to any single category familiar to Western thought. Neither is it the straightforward equivalent of what many in the West might usually consider to be "a philosophy". This much-needed analysis of the history and heritage of dharma shows that it is instead a multi-faceted religious force, or paradigm, that has defined and that continues to shape the different cultures and civilizations of South Asia in a whole multitude of forms, organizing many aspects of life. Experts in the fields of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh studies here bring fresh insights to dharma in terms both of its distinctiveness and its commonality as these are expressed across, and between, the several religions of the subcontinent. Exploring ethics, practice, history and social and gender issues, the contributors engage critically with some prevalent and often problematic interpretations of dharma, and point to new ways of appreciating these traditions in a manner that is appropriate to and thoroughly consistent with their varied internal debates, practices and self-representations. The term “ modern postural yoga ” was coined by religion scholar Mark Singleton . See: Mark Singleton , Mark , Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). The most prominent of these is probably ..." Proceedings of the Yoga & Psyche Conference (2014) This volume represents a selection of papers that were presented at the Yoga & Psyche Conference: The Future of Psychology, held in San Francisco, USA, in April 2014. This was the first academic conference in the Western world focused on the integration of Western psychology and yoga, and attracted an international presence from over 15 countries. With the increasingly widespread permeation of Eastern philosophy into Western society and the spread of Western values around the world, the time was ripe for a deeper investigation into the intersection of these subjects. This collection of articles serves as a foundational text for an emerging field. This inquiry begins to integrate the vast context of yoga – which includes ethics, the study of canonical texts, self-inquiry, breath management, physical postures and meditation – with Western psychological theory and clinical practice, including the breakthroughs in somatic psychology and trauma research, and insights from neuroscience. This book will appeal to psychologists, yoga teachers and practitioners, neuroscientists and researchers, sociologists, scholars of comparative religion and Indic studies, physicians and health practitioners interested in complementary medicine, and those interested in joining the conversation of a new field of investigation that integrates the perennial wisdom of yoga with the practice of modern Western psychology. He has published more than 15 books, including studies of yoga traditions, Asian religions, and ecology, such as Reconciling Yogas (2003), ... Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice . ... Singleton , Mark , and Jean Byrne, eds." Routledge Handbook of the History of Colonialism in South Asia The Routledge Handbook of the History of Colonialism in South Asia provides a comprehensive overview of the historiographical specialisation and sophistication of the history of colonialism in South Asia. It explores the classic works of earlier generations of historians and offers an introduction to the rapid and multifaceted development of historical research on colonial South Asia since the 1990s. Covering economic history, political history, and social history and offering insights from other disciplines and ‘turns’ within the mainstream of history, the handbook is structured in six parts: Overarching Themes and Debates The World of Economy and Labour Creating and Keeping Order: Science, Race, Religion, Law, and Education Environment and Space Culture, Media, and the Everyday Colonial South Asia in the World The editors have assembled a group of leading international scholars of South Asian history and related disciplines to introduce a broad readership into the respective subfields and research topics. Designed to serve as a comprehensive and nuanced yet readable introduction to the vast field of the history of colonialism in the Indian subcontinent, the handbook will be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of South Asian history, imperial and colonial history, and global and world history. See also Joseph McQuade's chapter in this volume. 15. See Mark Singleton , Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (Oxford, New York: OUP, 2010), for information on the debates about yoga , hatha yoga , ..." Intelligent Yoga In Intelligent Yoga, Peter Blackaby describes his humanistic approach to yoga, firmly rooted in the here and now and underpinned by scientific research. Oxford University Press, USA Sacks, Oliver. 2011. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Picador Classics. Singleton , Mark . 2010. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice . Oxford University Press, US Muscles Alive ..." Religion Despite religion being a core theme of many contemporary debates, a solid and settled definition of the concept has not yet been reached. Nevertheless, it is regularly assumed that, because of their common characteristics, we are able to recognize religious phenomena when we see them. For example, it is often supposed that religion is primarily based on faith, that religion conflicts with science, and that the world would be a lot less violent without religions. Yet, no matter how widespread such assumptions might be, in the end, they turn out to be incorrect. What we think about religion does not correspond to what religion really is. Offering many concrete examples from different traditions, Religion: Reality Behind the Myths dispels the main misunderstandings, breaches the contemporary opposition between secular versus religious and presents a novel view on the essence of religion. Mark Singleton , Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice , Oxford University Press, 2010, Kindle edition. 77. ... Elliott Goldberg, The Path of Modern Yoga : The History of an Embodied Spiritual Practice , Inner Traditions, 2016." The Runner's Guide to Yoga Yoga will make you a better runner. Millions of runners practice yoga daily because it cuts injuries and leads to more fluid, enjoyable running. In The Runner's Guide to Yoga, Sage Rountree--America's leading expert on yoga for athletes--shows you the poses and practices for stronger, healthier running. Filled with color photographs, clear instruction, and easy-to-follow routines, The Runner's Guide to Yoga offers simple ways to make yoga a part of your everyday training, even if you have never set foot in a yoga studio. This practical guide highlights the routines that ease tightness in the hamstrings and hips, strengthen the core, build strength and flexibility throughout your body, and speed recovery from minor injuries. Rountree highlights over 100 key poses modeled by real runners and includes focused routines as well as key pre- and post-race yoga sequences. The Runner's Guide to Yoga will complement your running every day, all season long. Discover how yoga can improve your running with Dynamic warm-ups and cooldowns for your workouts Poses that target typical trouble spots, such as hips, calves, and hamstrings Self-tests to determine areas of weakness or imbalance Breath and meditation exercises to sharpen mental focus The Bhagavad Gita in a modern translation with a wonderful, clear introduction. Singleton , Mark . Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice . New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. An investigation into the roots of the modern ..." Freedom Beyond Conditioning If we live in the Western world we are said to be free. But are we? To what degree are we bound by our thoughts and emotions? What fuses us to habitual patterns of thinking and behaving? Are we ever really free of conditioning? Freedom Beyond Conditioning: East–West researches the complex world of emotional life. It looks at the multifaceted relationships between body and mind; and the body-mind fusion that is emotion. Using empirical data, this book investigates the correlations between emotional life and mental freedom: analysing the experiential nature of a conditioned existence, while answering some difficult philosophical questions. Freedom Beyond Conditioning presents an interesting anthology of some of the world’s most critical thinkers. It suggests that freedom is defined through its etymological links to friendship and justice, revealing the quintessential paradox of “responsible freedom”. This book blends the subtleties of Eastern theories of energy, and their relationship to freedom, with the Western world’s science-based approach to mind and body. Ultimately, Freedom Beyond Conditioning synthesises a healthy expression of emotional energy with the achievement of balance and wellbeing, and offers it as a true representation of freedom, one that is revealed through the paradoxical freedom of restraint. Mark Singleton observes, in Yoga body: the origins of modern Yoga practice that the Yoga -Snjtras have gained considerable popularity due to the interest of European scholars but this does not mean that it is the only authoritative ..."