Robert Butera - The Pure Heart of Yoga: Ten Essential Steps for Personal Transformation

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

The Pure Heart of Yoga: Ten Essential Steps for Personal Transformation 2009 by Robert Butera, Ph.D.

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First e-book edition 2012

E-book ISBN: 9780738722696

Cover design by Ellen Dahl

Cover image Tetra images/PunchStock

Illustration on by Llewellyn art department

Interior photos by Jeff Gurrier and Karen Batchelder

Editing by Nicole Edman

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Contents

Part I: Foundational Practices

Intention / Samkalpa

Attitude / Bhava

Posture / Asana

Breathing / Pranayama

Part II: Inner Yoga

Archetypes / Purvaja

Energy Centers / Chakras

Concentration / Dharana

Locks and Seals / Bandhas and Mudras

Part III: Self-Exploration and Psychology

Psychological Blocks / Klesas

Emotional Transformation / Bhavana

Part IV: Practice and Poses

Balance

Upward

Forward

Backward

Sideward

Twist

Extremities

Inversion

Relaxation

Meditative

About the Author

Acknowledgments

T his book is dedicated to the members of The Yoga Institute of Santa Cruz East, Mumbai, India; its leaders Shri and Smt. Yogendraji; and Dr. Jayadeva, Hansaji Yogendra, and Patanjali Yogendra, who teach yoga as a total approach to life.

Much gratitude is offered here to the community members and teachers from the YogaLife Institute who assisted in the foundational research and editing of this book: Julie Rost, Kristen Butera, Linda Lyng, Shirley Weaver, Steve Sonnefield, Mythri Menon, Caroline Thomas Barnhart, Carol Elia, Jim Dougherty, and Angela Nevius. Jeff Gurrier and Karen Batchelder took the beautiful yoga pose photos that are included in this book. And a big thank you to my literary agents, Michael Ebeling and Kristina Holmes, for their passion and dedication to this book. Their consistent support and guidance throughout the publishing process has been invaluable and is most appreciated. To Carrie Obry and Nicole Edman of Llewellyn Publications who transformed this work into the appealing, readable, and accessible book.

Finally, to the many members of our yoga programs, who over the years, in weekly classes and teacher-training sessions, shared personal insights that informed our understanding of the complete experience of yoga poses.

Preface

Y oga is a transformational process. This simple fact is something that has become more and more evident to me during the twenty -plus years that I have been teaching yoga. While people practice yoga for many reasons, everyone comes to realize its benefits of self- improvement and healing. Over the years, I have seen people join yoga programs to lose weight, improve their study skills, reduce stress, heal injuries, strengthen their body and mind, find compassion, feel better... and the list goes on. We all face challenges in life and struggle to transcend them. Yoga is a great way of doing just that.

Yoga is far more than just a physical activity. It is a lifestyle that merges esoteric philosophy with the practical realities of daily living. As a philosophy of holistic wellness, yoga leads to profound personal and spiritual growth. As you come to understand yoga as a way of life, practicing yoga both on the mat and in your daily life becomes an immensely powerful tool. The Pure Heart of Yoga offers a step-by-step, integrated mind-body-spirit approach to experiencing the true transformational power of yoga poses. This book gives you the tools you will need to chart a course of personal transformation. All that you need is an open mind and heart, a desire to learn the depth and breadth of yoga, and a sincere willingness to commit to your transformation.

The desire to deepen your yoga practice doesnt come with any other requirements. Students of every level can use the principles outlined in this book. I have been teaching students these principles in beginner, intermediate, and advanced yoga classes for twenty years. I find that most students come to yoga class assuming that they need to either possess or learn how to maintain an extreme, gymnastic-like flexibility, only to discover that their mind was the bigger hurdle. It is at the mental level that feelings of worry, dread, fear, and agitation are generated, feelings that naturally prevent us from being calm, peaceful, and self-assured. Yoga goes straight to those feelings and helps alleviate them. Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of yoga is that it puts the brain to rest.

Remembering my own path, I can see now that as a beginning yoga student, I was seeking deep inner peace, even if I was not able to pinpoint my specific goal at that time. Yoga and meditation studies were not as popular in those days, and I had no idea how to even begin looking for a teacher. As a college student traveling an alternative route to adulthood, it was raw motivation that led me to meet a host of wonderful and sometimes exotic teachers. After studying yoga and meditation intensively in Japan and Taiwan, I discovered The Yoga Institute of Mumbai, India (formerly known as Bombay), where I enrolled in the Institutes six-month teacher-training program. There I received one-on-one training from Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra, the son of the Institutes founder and one of Indias great yoga teachers. During my stay at the Institute, I was introduced to the core principles of this book and I have been working since then to understand and deepen these principles in my own practice and in the lives of all my students.

I went on to earn a Ph.D. in Yoga Philosophy at the California Institute for Integral Studies, a holistic interdisciplinary university founded by Dr. Haridus Chaudhuri. It was here that I continued investigating the psychological aspects of yoga with some of the brightest yoga scholars guiding me. At this institute, I was fortunate to receive an education that explored yoga as a philosophy and way of life, as opposed to many yoga programs in the United States that concentrate primarily on the physical practice of yoga poses. Since then, I have founded the YogaLife Institute in Pennsylvania, where we hold classes for students of every age, ability, and level and also teach students how to become yoga instructors themselves. As the leader of this group, I am always inspired to see so many students motivated to learn the subtle aspects of yoga, which not only tones their bodies but also truly honors the spiritual and psychological forces at work in their lives. I am honored to work with these people, many of whom are just like you, and to be making my own contribution to the world of yoga with The Pure Heart of Yoga , which represents ten years of writing and more than twenty years of research.