The Essence of Yoga: Essays on the Development of Yogic Philosophy from the Vedas to Modern Times

By Georg Feuerstein and Jeanine Miller

Book Overview

A collection of classic essays by two highly regarded scholars on the development of yoga and its rapport with other religious traditions. Georg Feuerstein, one of the world's foremost scholars of yoga, and Jeanine Miller, long recognized for her insightful commentaries on the RgVeda, here pool their considerable talents in a look at the development of yogic thought across the ages and its similarities with the Christian mysticism of Meister Eckhart. Two of their essays included here, one concerning the essence of yoga and the other looking at the meaning of suffering in yoga, have long been singled out by indologists for correcting prevalent misconceptions and providing a conceptual framework for many of the subsequent studies in that field. The reprinting of these important essays in The Essence of Yoga gives new readers a chance to share some of the authors' earliest insights into yoga and their deep conviction that these discoveries are of the highest significance for a proper understanding of the human condition.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892817380
• ISBN13: 9780892817382
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: Inner Traditions International
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Bedtime reading for philosophers

If you like philosophy and get turned by Yoga, this is a book for you. The chapters are pretty technical and full of yogic terminology, but the presentation is sound and endlessly fascinating. The book has my vote.

Studies the early roots of yoga

If you are a fan of Georg Feuerstein's writings, this book resembles the Philosophy of Classical Yoga in that it is written for the more intermediate, advanced or scholarly yoga student as it reviews yoga's early roots in the Vedic tradition, while relating the study to the Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart. From her expertise in the Vedas, co-author Jeanine Miller offers her insights that help the Vedas come alive for the reader and realize how the yoga of today springs forth from a 5,000 year old tradition.