Book Reviews from the Reading List: Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness

I'm moving through a lot of reading material both online and off as part of my immersion class. There is a lot to try out and a lot to process but all of it is fascinating in its own right on some level. But up to this point I haven't really found a book or video that broke the experience of yoga down and delivered it from a beginner's perspective.  Most assume prior knowledge and can even be intimidating, showing fairly advance poses with little build up or advice on how to get there. Even more just cover the asanas, ignoring the breathing and meditation, which is fine, I guess, but not I think yoga is more like a recipe and why would you leave an ingredient out of a recipe and still expect the certain results?

Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillnesscame up on the reading list and I think the title had me expecting a little more philosophy and less practical application. But as it turns out, I think I found the textbook that should go with any yoga course. It breaks down the hows and whys and wherefores from the very beginning, answering some questions I didn't even know I had. It is very quotable and an easy and engrossing read and very thorough in its approach.  If someone didn't have access to a teacher, I think this book would be enough to get a student started on their own. A teacher is always preferable of course but the layout of the information in this book could easily lend itself to self-study.

He covers philosophy (without getting sappy) and breathing and "playing with the edge" in terms of how far you should push a pose. I think my favorite section so far is "How to Combine Breath and Movement". Good, clear advice on how to coordinate movement and breath which gets a little tricky for me sometimes. My focus often locks on one or the other, the movement or the breath, and then I can't remember if I was breathing in or out and then I'm falling over. It's a learning process of course and an interesting part of the challenge.

The majority of the book is devoted to step by step instructions to the asanas, including what they work, what they are intended for, how to do the pose and the benefits of the pose. I like that the tone stays very casual and conversational. It could have become just another encyclopedia of poses but it stays friendly and approachable all the way through.

I still have a lot more books and other materials to move through so I not ready to award the "If You Buy One Book on Yoga" prize just yet but this one is a strong contender for that most coveted award. But I'm still reading.

A word of warning: Some of the reviews on Amazon mention that the pictures were kicked to the back of the Kindle version instead of the picture of each pose appearing next to its description. This will not work. The pictures need to go with the poses. I'm normally a fan of the Kindle versions but in this instance I would avoid it.

Music for a Rainy Day

I have rediscovered some of my favorite music on recent rainy day.

I think I've mentioned before that my tastes are eclectic and the modern music distribution system hasn't helped me settle to a particular genre. I really don't believe in the genres anyway. I believe in the artists and the Internet has given us, the listeners, almost immediate access to their work without the filter of corporate marketing.

So I offer my rainy day rediscoveries. Perfect for lounging and reading with the white noise of a storm outside. These are primarily independent artists and I'll direct you to their websites where you can purchase the music directly from them. I believe everything is available on iTunes as well.

First up is Kalpataru Tree, a mix of ambient sounds and guitars with a bit of psy dub. It has the down-tempo pacing with an electronic base interspersed with the organic sounds of guitars. I use this alot when I'm on a full creative burn since the tempo isn't intrusive but the melody is invigorating. I have two or three albums purchased at this point and there is not a song I skip on any of them. Play it and sit by a window while the rain pelts and runs down the glass and see where it puts you. Pretty amazing stuff.

Then we have Inlakesh.  I saw this group at an art fair where they were showcasing their didgeridoos. I quickly bought their CD because I had no idea that didgeridoos could sound like that.  It's difficult to explain but their music is primitive in the most sophisticated way possible. Each song takes you on a journey and grounds you out with the bass of the didgeridoos while interweaving mixes of melody and percussion that make you want to dance. They sometimes throw on a voice over and the voice is calm and soothing but it pulls me out of the experience. That happens only rarely though.

Byron Metcalf provides us with a shamanistic based rhythmic experience if you're looking for something to bring a sharp focus to a meditative experience. A lot of his tracks are long which I like. It gives you time to really sink into the rhythm and hang there for a minute. He's been around for a while and has a substantial body of work. Lots to explore.

Which brings us to the happy discovery on the rainy day.  Byron Metcalf and Rob Thomas of Inlakesh collaborated on a new release called Medicine Work. So you have shamanistic trance drumming enhanced with didgeridoos.

Take a listen:



Musically, it's an incredibly deep experience and I think this will be my new go-to music for meditations and drumming.

So that was my Sunday. I went looking for Kalpataru and remembered Inlakesh. Went looking for Inlakesh and rediscovered Metcalf. And then learned that Metcalf and Thomas had new music out.

The Internet is the best thing that ever happened to music.

Here are all the links just for convenience:

Kalpataru Tree

Inlakesh

Byron Metcalf

Medicine Work

A Great Find...

The Kid was looking for books on samurai so we went to the local library and I stumbled across Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve in the young adult section. The cover had a great illustration of airships and a steampunk looking city which answered to my burgeoning steampunk fetish. So I checked it out along with the Kid's samurai books and read it at bedtime over the course of a week and, I must say, it's a damn good read. Not as steampunky as the cover would suggest and a bit dark for young adult but I stayed up a bit too late many a night because I couldn't put it down and that's a huge compliment coming from me.

I'm a bit hard on books for many reasons. I'll give a book one chapter and if the writer can't get my attention then I'm done. I don't buy the whole "the second half is better than the first" arguement. The writer should have started with the second half if that was the case.

This book is not very long and if I had to say anything bad, it would be that I wanted some scenes to go a bit longer. That's also odd for me since my main complaint with most books is the writer's excessive use of words. But this was written with a quick, almost break-neck pace and finished almost too quickly. I can easily forgive that though since there are three more books in the series and I'm on the hunt to find them.