Cover of Yoga and the Quest for the True Self

Yoga and the Quest for the True Self

Millions of Americans know yoga as a superb form of exercise and as a potent source of calm in our stress-filled lives. Far fewer are aware of the full promise of yoga as a 4,000-year-old practical path of liberation—a path that fits the needs of modern Western seekers with startling precision. Now Stephen Cope, a Western-trained psychotherapist who has lived and taught for more than ten years at the largest yoga center in America, offers this marvelously lively and irreverent "pilgrim's progress" for today's world. He demystifies the philosophy, psychology, and practice of yoga, and shows how it applies to our most human dilemmas: from loss, disappointment, and addiction, to the eternal conflicts around sex and relationship. And he shows us that in yoga, "liberation" does not require us to leave our everyday lives for some transcendent spiritual plane—life itself is the path. Above all, Cope shows how yoga can heal the suffering of self-estrangement that pervades our society, leading us to a new sense of purpose and to a deeper, more satisfying life in the world.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 384 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Yoga and the Quest for the True Self? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Yoga Tradition Shares yoga, spirituality, nonfiction
  2. Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness Shares yoga, nonfiction, health
  3. The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice Shares yoga, nonfiction, spirituality
  4. Light on Life Shares yoga, spirituality, nonfiction

“People who read Yoga and the Quest for the True Self tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living
  2. Relax and Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times
  3. Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing
  4. Yin Yoga: Outline of a Quiet Practice

“If you want more of the same (health about spirituality), start with these.”

  1. Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga
  2. The Eight Human Talents: Restore the Balance and Serenity within You with Kundalini Yoga
  3. Fierce Medicine: Breakthrough Practices to Heal the Body and Ignite the Spirit
  4. Tending the Heart Fire: Living in Flow with the Pulse of Life

“If it was the yoga that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Light on Yoga
  2. Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life
  3. The Tree of Yoga
  4. Yoga Nidra

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Do Your Om Thing: Bending Yoga Tradition to Fit Your Modern Life
  2. Egyptian Yoga Volume 1: The Philosophy of Enlightenment
  3. Yoga: Discipline of Freedom: The Yoga Sutra Attributed to Patanjali
  4. The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep