Yoga Body
The Origins of Modern Posture Practice
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Narrated by:
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Benjamin Crow
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By:
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Mark Singleton
About this listen
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 21st 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.
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Heaven's Gate: America's UFO Religion
- By: Benjamin E. Zeller
- Narrated by: Eric Burns
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In March 1997, 39 people in Rancho Santa Fe, California, ritually terminated their lives. To outsiders, it was a mass suicide. To insiders, it was a graduation. Benjamin Zeller not only explores the question of why the members of Heaven's Gate committed ritual suicides, but interrogates the origin and evolution of the religion, its appeal, and its practices. By tracking the development of the history, social structure, and worldview of Heaven's Gate, Zeller shows that the movement was both a reflection and a microcosm of larger American culture.
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cult apologia.
- By Avery on 06-01-20
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Culture and Imperialism
- By: Edward Said
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 19 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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A landmark work from the intellectually auspicious author of Orientalism, this book explores the long-overlooked connections between the Western imperial endeavor and the culture that both reflected and reinforced it. This classic study, the direct successor to Said's main work, is read by Peter Ganim ( Orientalism).
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BRAVO, AUDIBLE!! WE NEED MORE SAID!! REAL BOOKS!!
- By AnthonyStevens on 02-27-11
By: Edward Said
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The Shaolin Monastery
- History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts
- By: Meir Shahar
- Narrated by: Kevin Young
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The Shaolin Monastery charts for the first time in any language the history of the Shaolin Temple and the evolution of its world-renowned martial arts. In this meticulously researched and eminently readable study Meir Shahar considers the economic political and religious factors that led Shaolin monks to disregard the Buddhist prohibition against violence and instead create fighting techniques that by the 21st century have spread throughout the world.
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Dry and uninspired
- By Jonathan on 07-18-17
By: Meir Shahar
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Ibn Khaldun
- An Intellectual Biography
- By: Robert Irwin
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is generally regarded as the greatest intellectual ever to have appeared in the Arab world - a genius who ranks as one of the world's great minds. Yet the author of the Muqaddima, the most important study of history ever produced in the Islamic world, is not as well known as he should be, and his ideas are widely misunderstood. In this groundbreaking intellectual biography, Robert Irwin provides an engaging and authoritative account of Ibn Khaldun's extraordinary life, times, writings, and ideas.
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Issues with accuracy, pronounciation
- By Moh 3aly on 01-02-19
By: Robert Irwin
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Secular Buddhism
- Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World
- By: Stephen Batchelor
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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As the practice of mindfulness permeates mainstream western culture, more and more people are engaging in a traditional form of Buddhist meditation. However, many of these people have little interest in the religious aspects of Buddhism, and the practice occurs within secular contexts such as hospitals, schools, and the workplace. Is it possible to recover from the Buddhist teachings a vision of human flourishing that is secular rather than religious without compromising the integrity of the tradition?
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Good, but repetition of old material
- By Ludwig on 02-25-18
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How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization
- By: Thomas E. Woods Jr.
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
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Western civilization has given us modern science, the wealth of free-market economics, the security of law, a sense of human rights and freedom, charity as a virtue, splendid art and music, philosophy grounded in reason, and innumerable other gifts we take for granted.
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Fascinating and informative
- By Michael Kellogg on 09-29-05
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The House of Wisdom
- How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization
- By: Jonathan Lyons
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is the remarkable story of how medieval Arab scholars made dazzling advances in science and philosophy, and of the itinerant Europeans who brought this knowledge back to the West. For centuries following the fall of Rome, Western Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile, Arab culture was thriving, dazzling those Europeans fortunate enough to catch even a glimpse.
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Missing history
- By Robert on 11-26-11
By: Jonathan Lyons
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The Scientist in the Early Roman Empire
- By: Richard Carrier
- Narrated by: Richard Carrier
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In this extensive sequel to Science Education in the Early Roman Empire, Dr. Richard Carrier explores the social history of scientists in the Roman era. Was science in decline or experiencing a revival under the Romans? What was an ancient scientist thought to be and do? Who were they, and who funded their research? And how did pagans differ from their Christian peers in their views toward science and scientists?
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This Book is a Bombshell
- By James on 06-15-18
By: Richard Carrier
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One Simple Idea
- How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life
- By: Mitch Horowitz
- Narrated by: Mitch Horowitz
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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From the millions-strong audiences of Oprah and The Secret to the mass-media ministries of evangelical figures like Joel Osteen and T. D. Jakes, to the motivational bestsellers and New Age seminars to the twelve-step programs and support groups of the recovery movement and to the rise of positive psychology and stress-reduction therapies, this idea - to think positively - is metaphysics morphed into mass belief. This is the biography of that belief.
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Outstanding Popular History of New Thought!
- By Robert Ready on 01-11-14
By: Mitch Horowitz
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The Twilight of the American Enlightenment
- The 1950s and the Crisis of Liberal Belief
- By: George M. Marsden
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In the aftermath of World War II, the United States stood at a precipice. The forces of modernity unleashed by the war had led to astonishing advances in daily life, but technology and mass culture also threatened to erode the country's traditional moral character. As award-winning historian George M. Marsden explains in The Twilight of the American Enlightenment, postwar Americans looked to the country's secular liberalelites for guidance in this precarious time, but these intellectuals proved unable to articulate a coherent common cause by which America could chart its course.
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Such a relevant book to our current world
- By Adam Shields on 09-14-16
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The Yugas
- Keys to Understanding Our Hidden Past, Emerging Energy Age and Enlightened Future
- By: Joseph Selbie, David Steinmetz, Swami Kriyananda - foreword
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Today's view of history cannot account for ancient anomalies, such as the Pyramids and advanced knowledge contained in India's Vedas. But in 1894, an Indian sage gave us an explanation not only for our hidden past but for the trends of today and for our future enlightenment - the 24,000-year yuga cycle.
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Excellent book but one slight problem
- By Z on 02-19-19
By: Joseph Selbie, and others
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Unlistenable
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Excellent overview of yoga
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Magnificent! Pure wisdom!
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Worst monotone narrator-
- By Jill on 10-18-21
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The History and Practices of Hatha Yoga with Dr James Mallinson
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Great starter course
- By The Companion on 06-28-23
By: Dr. James Mallinson, and others
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Living Your Yoga
- Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life
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If you think that you have to retreat to a cave in the Himalayas to find the enlightenment that yoga promises, think again. In this second edition of Living Your Yoga, Judith Hanson Lasater stretches the meaning of yoga beyond its familiar poses and breathing techniques to include the events of daily life - all of them - as ways to practice. Using the time-honored wisdom of the Yoga Sutra and the Bhagavad Gita to steer the course, she serves up off-the-mat practices to guide you in deepening your relationships with yourself, your family and friends, and the world around you.
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Almost offensively diluted (VERY basic)
- By 1Ralph on 12-20-20
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Unlistenable
- By Tim Mills on 06-20-21
By: James Mallinson, and others
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Overall
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Performance
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Scholars have learned a lot more about the history of yoga in recent years, but their research can be hard to track down. Although their work is insightful, it is aimed more at specialists than at a general audience. The Truth of Yoga draws on many of their findings, presented in a format designed for practitioners. The aim is to highlight ideas on which listeners can draw to keep traditions alive in the 21st century.
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Excellent overview of yoga
- By 1Ralph on 02-23-21
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Magnificent! Pure wisdom!
- By Vladislav Georgiev on 07-13-24
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Worst monotone narrator-
- By Jill on 10-18-21
By: Stephen Cope
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The History and Practices of Hatha Yoga with Dr James Mallinson
- By: Dr. James Mallinson, Wise Studies
- Narrated by: Dr. James Mallinson
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
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Great starter course
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By: Dr. James Mallinson, and others
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Almost offensively diluted (VERY basic)
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What listeners say about Yoga Body
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- nina pina
- 03-01-24
Much needed history lesson
Great overall historical look into a mostly mysterious spiritual practice. The transformation for century to century was quite fascinating and informative
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- Duncan Honeycutt
- 01-09-23
Compelling yet contrary scholarship
This brought great clarity to my perspective on the origins of yoga. As a generally skeptical, academic reader of religious histories, this work was interesting, relevant, and also modest in its assertions. Though there is some insinuation that the popular historical narrative was partly fabricated by a few key 20th century figures, the book is free of defamatory or condemnatory remarks. It also helped me square my knowledge of Patanjali and his western interpreters (esp. Crowley) with the modern, movement-based yoga I see all around me.
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- P.Thomas
- 08-14-22
I am pleasantly surprised
This book is one of the best books to bridge the gap of ancient yoga to modern yoga history.
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- Anonymous
- 04-25-23
Such a fun history
This is an eclectic and compelling history of yoga between the late 1800s to the early 1900s. It’s assigned in teacher training programs and university classrooms.
I found this book more concise than I expected, and much more fun. There were many new connections I hadn’t even considered. And there are so many interesting people in this history.
If you speed up the audio’s playback speed, the narration isn’t a problem.
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- mhs
- 08-08-23
Unforgiving mispronounciation
Because this is written by a scholar to people that care for yoga and or are interested in going beyond common knowledge, I find it hard to accept the mistakes the narrator makes. Even the key words like asana, Patanjali and Krishnamacharya are mispronounced. If you can over that, it’s a wonderful book and very valuable missing piece in the history of yoga.
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- H. Oliver
- 01-13-23
Infuriating narration
3.5 stars for the content which was interesting, there were just too many disparate topics linked together with little transition, and that made it hard to stay focused on the book, let alone actually recall the information.
The narration was very distracting, and made the already dry writing style even drier. It was bad enough to hear the narrator mispronounce names and yoga terminology, but the narrator also mispronounced English words. If I had to do it all over again, I’d pass.
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1 person found this helpful