Martin Luther King Jr.
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- Henry David Thoreau, American Yogi.
- The genealogy of the Burley or Burleigh family of America;
The purpose of Davis is to examine the manner in which Thoreau comprehended, assimilated and articulated the Hindu classical texts he read during a brief, creative period in his life when his back-to-nature philosophy led him to an over two-year long writing retreat in the woods on the banks of the Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts. The retreat resulted in the completion of Walden.
His books and essays published in journals are replete with eloquent descriptions of the minutiae of nature he observed, which continue to inspire naturalists. No dust has settled on that robe; no time has elapsed since that divinity was revealed. Davis describes how Charles Wilkins and William Jones were assigned the task of translating the Bhagavad Gita and the Manusmriti respectively when they were employed by the East India Company in Calcutta.
The work was commissioned by Warren Hastings after he became the governor general of Bengal, with the objective of governing the territories according to the laws of the land instead of British law. Wilkins was the most adept in learning Sanskrit and he relocated to Banares to work with Sanskrit pundits. To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogin.
The yoga described in the Gita , which Thoreau tried to follow, is not the Hathayoga practiced by millions today, but the self-transformative philosophical vision taught in it; and it is another dimension that Davis adds to his description of xenophilia with reference to Thoreau as a philosopher. It was the first of books; it was as if an empire spoke to me, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us.
Davis explains that Thoreau never set out to aspire to the standard described by Manu for sannyasins; he had never intended to abandon his livelihood. The experiment to live like a yogi translated effectively in the completion of his literary project! The thinker tried to follow the self-transformative path of yoga, inspired by the teachings of the Gita he had studied during his Walden days, even though he did not pursue the life of a yogi till the end of his life. Yet, Thoreau continues to inspire because he strikes a chord with readers across generations as a philosopher who tried to live by his principles.
Become A Supporter. Hindi Marathi Urdu. Terms Privacy About Us. But how many of us browse Instagram and see posts proclaiming that yoga is more than just poses even though the picture in the post is of a yoga pose?
Transformations: The American Yogi
If yoga is more than just poses, what is it? Reese provides an answer to this question, but in the context of his story that contains just enough sex, hinted-at violence, and drugs to make readers feel that they are just vegging out on the couch watching their favorite Netflix special. Maybe good and bad were merely illusions, and maybe life was more about learning, than just trying to always feel good. In this autobiography, Reese brings us with him to his darkest depths and how that pushed him to seek the high vistas and birds-eye perspectives that come along a spiritual path.
The shit is hitting the fan everywhere, all the time, and in fact, that is what propels us towards yoga.
And ultimately toward inner peace. Sex Drugs and Om is an exemplary work on how each individual yogi finds their path to the light, even if they have to go through the most unimaginable darkness. Dear readers - we are beyond excited that our articles resonate with so many of you.
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The Yoga of Critical Thinking. Why Are Yoga Teachers Unionizing? Excerpt from Sex Drugs and Om: An Autobiography of an American Yogi : It was the peak of winter sometime in the middle of the night as I shivered beneath the blankets in a cold sweat, curled up in the fetal position and scribbling mad poetry into a worn and tattered notebook. The whole mystery of my madness had gotten to me. I grew up in a middle-class family, with happy loving parents, in a progressive suburban neighborhood.
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And so by all accounts, I should have been a reasonably well-adjusted human being. I had been struggling with depression and anger for as long as I could remember, and with no idea why. What got me through those nights was my writing.