“Some say they get lost in books, but I find myself, again and again, in the pages of a good book. Humanly speaking, there is no greater teacher, no greater therapist, no greater healer of the soul, than a well-stocked library.”
L.R.Knost
1. Jivamukti Yoga: Practices for Liberating Body and Soul
by Sharon Gannon and David Life
“Yoga practices shift our identity away from the ego-personality and its struggles so that we can begin to reconnect with the essential nature of our being, which is bliss.”
Blessed by their teachers, Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, Swami Nirmalananda, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, Shyamdas, and Shri Milan Goswami, Sharon Gannon and David Life are pioneers in teaching Yoga as spiritual activism, demonstrating that Yoga is a living tradition, a complete method for attaining lasting happiness, that is available to all beings. This book is the ultimate guide to the Jivamukti Yoga Method and all its innovations. It brings the ancient teachings alive, going to the root of Wisdom and making it relevant to our contemporary world.
2. Yoga for Life: A Journey to Inner Peace and Freedom by Colleen Saidman Yee
From learning to cope with a frightening seizure disorder to navigating marriages and divorces to becoming a mother, finding the right life partner, and grieving a beloved parent, Colleen Saidman Yee’s life has been a wild ride that led her to the path of Yoga.
Her story, her insights, and her yoga sequences will improve your emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing. This book will help you overcome life's greatest challenges and lead you onto the path of peace and freedom.
“Yoga peels away layer after layer of debris to uncover what has been there all along. It’s like the Bob Dylan lyric: “How long, babe, will you search for what’s not lost?”
3. Magic is a Shift in Perception
Poems 1972-2019, A memoir of sorts by Sharon Gannon.
Sharon challenges readers to see themselves in her confrontations with the world, to move with her away from conditioned life, to breathe with her the clear air that fills the lungs of the jivan-muktas, spirits who are free even while still in physical form. This book tells of a journey that echoes classical spiritual transformation with a voice that is personal, revealing, and vulnerable.
4. The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali
A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary by Edwin F. Bryant
If you are on any path where you want to be happy, to be free of suffering, and understand the mind and consciousness, the Sutras are a must-read.
Written almost two millennia ago, Patañjali's work focuses on how to attain the direct experience and realization of the Purusa the innermost individual Self, or soul.
Writer and professor Edwin Bryant discusses why the Yoga Sutras are relevant today, and how they can help us overcome suffering. This translation is clear, direct, and exact. Each sutra is presented as Sanskrit text, transliteration, and precise English translation, and is followed by Bryant's authoritative commentary.
Words by Eva Lucie Daniela