Sun Salute King, Thrive Global, August 13, 2019

Posted in Articles, Blog, Inspiration by Eric Shaw

A darling of the international body-building set, Iyer’s teaching of Sun Salute and articles on other topics showed up in the era’s “muscle cult” magazines–and his own chiseled form was acclaimed the most lovely in India.

In his day, Iyer’s worldly fame seemed likely to endure, and the more orthodox Krishnamacharya seemed headed to history’s ash-heap, but K’s deep study, practice, and teaching has proved lastingly influential, and we now know of Iyer only from a few books and blogposts–like this one.

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America’s First Yoga: The Fad of 1898, August 2019, Thrive Global

Posted in Articles, Blog, Inspiration by Eric Shaw

Sometimes it takes the kiss of a Judas to spread divinity.

Lousy Leon Landsberg did this for asana–and for us.

If he hadn’t surrendered to his lesser desires to write this overly-critical Herald piece, we might never know the historical moment when asana first hit America’s shores.

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Sleep is the First Yoga: 19 Ways to Make it Work, BLOG MAY 2017

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

A few days ago, a student asked me how she could improve her sleep. I get this all the time. Lots of folks are dogged by difficult sleep patterns—and yogis are no exception. The great teacher, Krishnamacharya famously said, “Food is the first yoga.” But I think if he’d reflected a minute, sleep would’ve jumped in front […]

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Stories of My Practice: A Yoga Interview by Carolyn Arnold, BLOG OCTOBER 2016

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

MCMP Eric Shaw Interview 9/18/16 Union City, CA How did you live on the inside in your mind before “winning” on the outside in the world? “This is a question that goes to the heart of my technique. I feel like I did develop a technique to live the life that I wanted, and it […]

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The Web of Angles: Yoga’s Warrior Pose, BAHIRANGA.COM AUGUST 2016

Posted in Articles, Blog by Eric Shaw

by Eric Shaw for bahiranga.com (figure 1) Its Source Indian artists made careful choices about how to position Indian gods and goddesses in painting and sculpture. They meditated to discover what deities looked like, finding familiar bodily positions in their visions. These arrangements became well-known “power poses,” called pratimas in the tradition. Many of these poses […]

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The Southwest, The Asian East, and a Horde of Memories, THE GALLUP JOURNEY MAGAZINE, JULY 2016

Posted in Articles, Blog by Eric Shaw

After I turned 30, I drove across the Southwest with my outrageous buddy, Brian, in 1993. B’s social skills were retrograde—just as mine were. The little Mazda stationwagon that shepherded our crumbling friendship along, stuttered forward indestructibly while we quibbled over radio stations, eating arrangements or whatever else caught our fancy. We had an emotional […]

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Krishnamacharya’s Yoga Rahasya, SUTRA JOURNAL JULY 2016

Posted in Articles, Blog by Eric Shaw

    Many students of the yoga tradition know that Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888 – 1989) is credited with being the father of modern yoga, but most remain foggy about the details of his life and even foggier about the books he wrote. It is understandable why his writings are widely unknown. His books have […]

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The History and Philosophy of Sun Salute: Our Surya Namaskar,
ELEPHANT JOURNAL JUNE 2016

Posted in Articles, Blog by Eric Shaw

The Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar) is a basic movement sequence in Vinyasa yoga. It became central to our modern practice in the early 20th century; however, it is rooted further back in time than our contemporary yoga of the body. New research by Chris Tompkins discovered the series of movements in the Tantra tradition (450–1200 […]

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The Yoga Sutras and its Supporting Philosophy, BLOG JANUARY 2016

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

The Yoga Sutras and its Supporting Philosophy This is a note to clarify my thinking on a small part of classical yoga history that comes as a result of reading Gerald James Larson. Larson has written important reflections on Samkhya philosophy, a worldview that undergirds the Yoga Sutras. Probably 99% of my readers won’t get […]

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Going for the Gusto: Getting Travel-Legal in Indonesia, BLOG DECEMBER 2015

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

Going for the Gusto::  GETTING TRAVEL-LEGAL IN INDONESIA It doesn’t feel tons like Christmas here in the South Seas. This is the story of how I’ve flung myself at 5 government agencies belonging to 3 different countries on one December Friday to get a teeny holiday gift: my government-snatched U.S. passport. As the holidays begin, the bad Santa of Indonesian customs still […]

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Bad American! Eric is Booted Back to Bali, BLOG OCTOBER 2015

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

After a lecturing around Bali, I popped back to Perth, Australia on October 14th. I love Aussie immigration. Your poke your passport in a friendly kiosk. It flashes a welcome green. You stroll through saloon-door scanners. A guard smiles warmly there, peeks carefully at your customs card and waves you through. Easiest border crossing on […]

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The Difference Between Power and Morality in Yoga, BLOG MAY 2015

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

The Difference Between Power and Morality in Yoga “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” –Rumi “The basic rule of yama and niyama are . . . very difficult for the average person. Those rules are really for those who have exhausted most of their samskaras […]

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A Sermon Exploring Shared Themes of Yoga and Christianity given at St. Leonard’s Church, in the City of Denmark, Australia, BLOG MAY 2015

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

God Will Catch You A Sermon Integrating the Yoga Tradition at St. Leonard’s Anglican Church, Denmark, Australia, 3 May, 2015 To listen to the sermon. please download from this Link: 01 Track 1 This week’s reading from John gives us agricultural metaphors familiar to the people of the time and place of the gospel writing.  […]

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Yoga’s Science of Sound and Listening, BLOG APRIL 2015

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

  Yoga’s Science of Sound and Listening These statements about listening–or more appropriately, hearing speech and sound–are, of course, epistemological–they are about “how we know”–and on those grounds–especially if someone privileges subjectivity–they are often credible. But in the truest sense, these statements are ontological–they say something about “what we know” and the nature of the […]

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Krishna’s Beer-Drinking Bro, Balarama, and the First Appearance of Warrior Pose in India, BLOG JANUARY 2015

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

  Indian artists were very serious about this how they chose to position Indian gods and goddesss in painting and sculpture. They went into states of meditation[i]  and saw familiar bodily patterns in their visions.  These are now stock “power poses” called pratimas in the tradition.[ii] Many of these poses are also yoga asanas. Because […]

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Ancient Days with the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, BLOG NOVEMBER 2014

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

Ancient Days with the Hatha Yoga Pradipika   I’d like to give my community something meaty—something that connects us to the longer record of practice—six centuries back and into India. Can we talk about the 14th century Hatha Yoga Pradipika (HYP)?  Can we talk about a paper-bound yoga companion that’s been a true guide to […]

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How to Meditate if you Are a Hatha Yogi, BLOG JUNE 2014

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

It’s my experience that people who are tied to movement need unmoving mediation even more than others. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and commonly our strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin. If you are very strong in movement, it is wise to exploit that, but it is also wise to […]

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Krishnamacharya’s Business Card and the Place of Marketing in Yoga, BLOG MAY 2014

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

     Krishnamacharya had a business card and advertised his work with posters.  He had photographers shoot pics of his most athletic yoga poses with glamorous lighting.  He took “propaganda tours” to advertise the benefits of yoga to the youth of India.      It is not wrong for yogis to embrace the market and the world.  […]

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Heat, Wealth and Wonder: Yoga’s California-India Connection, at the Asian Art Museum, BLOG MARCH 2014

Posted in Blog, Lectures by Eric Shaw

California’s fightin’ female namesake (Queen Califa), and the state’s long yoga dance with India through the ages, was the subject of my talk at SF’s Asian Art Museum on March 6th, 2014.   Reporting on-site from the Eureka State, this is how the story goes . . ——————————————————————————————- A diamond-shaped land protected by oceans and […]

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Marilyn Monroe — The Complete Yoga Poses, BLOG, APRIL 2013

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

Arguably, no movie star past or present is as enchanting as Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jean Mortenson, 1926 – 1962). Her classic beauty, projection of joy and innocence, knockout measurements, marriages to great men, acting skills, and consummate control of her career arc (including its dramatic end) make her biography both tragic and triumphant. Monroe’s […]

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Richard Hittleman: The 1960’s One-Man Yoga Movement, BLOG, MARCH 2013

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

    Before there was Rod Stryker Ana Forrest or Shiva Rea, there was Richard Hittleman (1927 – 1991). At age 22, he studied the written works of Ramana Maharshi after learning some yoga  basics from a Hindu maintenance man who helped his parents at a Catskill retreat called “Utopia.” In 1961, he had the first yoga […]

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Lakshmi — The Wealth Goddess — Her meaning in Yoga and Tantra, BLOG JANUARY 2013

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

Lakshmi is the Goddess of Wealth, hence her name “She of the Hundred Thousands.”  (A “lak” is a unique Indian term meaning “100,000.”). We may compare lak with the word  sahasra, which means “1000.” From sahasra we get sahasrara–the name of the thousand-petaled lotus (or chakra) at the top of the head in the subtle body. […]

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Early Poses Of Krishnamacharya, I, BLOG DECEMBER 2012

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

. . . There are a number of image-sets of Krishnamacharya doing poses, as well as a short film that shows him in yogic movement. These images here are from a digital edition of his 1941 composition,  Yoganasalu. —– Another rather full set from a later period can be found in both his biography, published […]

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Making Sukha (Good Space) Both Inside And Outside, BLOG NOVEMBER 2012

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

MAKING SUKHA (GOOD SPACE) BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE BODY   In yoga we open up our body at many levels, not least at the subtle level, where yoga anatomy explains that the body is made of successively more subtle “bodies.” These bodies (including our physical body) are called koshas and yoga leads us through […]

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The Historical Arrival Of Tantra, BLOG MARCH 2012

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

Pancatyatana-puja, “The worship the five deities,” is an ancient practice which honors Surya (the Sun God), Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva and Deva (the Goddess). It co-arose with an advancing theism (a focus on the gods) in the later half of the first millennium BCE, as worship took the form of individualized devotional practice. This form of Bhakti […]

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The Constancy of Protest, A Sermon given at Unity Church, Berkeley, BLOG JANUARY 2012

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

  With yesterdays big protests in Berkeley, the continuing unrest in Syria and Egypt, and big new gatherings in Russia, it seems that the world is now fully perinatal:  something new is coming from the womb. The self-immolation of a 26-year-old Tunisian    fruit seller named Mohamed Bouazizi on Dec. 17th, 2010, set off a wave […]

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The Bhagavad Gita And The Yoga Sutras Compared, BLOG JANUARY 2012

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND THE YOGA SUTRAS COMPARED In comparing the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras, the first general distinction we make is that the Gita offers prescriptions amenable to householders (grhasthas) and the YS offers prescriptions suited for renunciants (sramanas, sanyasis, viras). Indeed, local commentators have suggested that the Gita was written partly […]

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Further Resources On Surya Namaskar: The Sun Salutation, BLOG JANUARY 2012

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

I teach a workshop called Secrets of the Sun Salutation.  Here are more resources. Books: Jois, Sri Krishna Pattabhi, 2005, Suryanamaskara, NY: Ashtanga Yoga New York. This is an excellent little book with very cool pictures of Jois doing the practice as a young man. It provides a welter of information that gives rarely found […]

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How Do Hatha Yoga (Physical Yoga) And The Yoga Of The Yoga Sutras Differ?, BLOG JANUARY 2012

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

The Yoga Sutras describe Raja Yoga–a mind-focussed yoga practice from around the year 200 CE. It was consistent with the Buddhist methods of the time.  It granted profound states of concentration won through consistent practice. In these states, the true nature of Reality (vidya) was evident. Later, around 1300 CE, Hatha Yoga was developed in […]

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Christ, Krishna And Christmas, BLOG DECEMBER 2011

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

I was in Bangalore on Krishna’s birthday last year. Called Krishnashtami, it’s a variable holiday.  It fell on August 21 in 2010. By then, I’d been in town four months and had established sweet friendships. A student invited me to her parent’s home for the holiday, and it felt like Christmas. The house was festively decorated.  […]

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The Shared Origins of Modern Yoga and Unity Church, A Sermon given at Unity Church, Berkeley, AUGUST 2011

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

A transcription of a sermon given at Unity Church, Berkeley, Sunday, August 29, 2011   You’ve asked me to speak on the common roots of the Unity Church and Yoga. This puts me in front of a church congregation and it’s comfortable for me.  Like one of your founders, Myrtle Fillmore, I was the son […]

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A Poem From South India By The Female Bhakta, Mahadevi, BLOG JUNE 2011

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

One  Short Bhakti Poem I have been reading, The Hindus, An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger.  In the chapter on Bhakti, she translates this poem:   People Male and Female, blush when a cloth covering their shame comes loose. When all the world is the eye of the lord, onlooking everywhere, what can you cover […]

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Creation Myths And Stories From The Veda, BLOG JUNE 2011

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

In the ancient Vedic creation myths, we see an easy understanding of mystic paradoxes that are so much a part of the later tradition.  They communicate a sense of play and delight at absurdity.   They recognize that logic only explains so much. These lines are from the Rig Veda, composed c. 1200 BCE   From […]

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How To Use The Indian Understanding Of Vibration To Make A Yoga Workout, BLOG JUNE 2011

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

This is a bit on yoga class sequencing I wrote for a yoga manual today. Most people know that the Tao symbol of Ultimate Power (the Tai Ji Tu, seen here) represents the duality of Yin and Yang.  Indian culture has a similar concept called the Gunas, but it has three vibrational patterns. It uses […]

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A Pictorial History Of Yoga, Dance And Martial Arts, BLOG MAY 2011

Posted in Blog, Lectures by Eric Shaw

  PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND CLICK THROUGH THE IMAGE SLIDESHOW IN IT’S BIG WINDOW FORM. IT’S WORTH IT . . . DON’T MISS THE “NEXT” BUTTON!  IT’S IN SMALL TYPE JUST ABOVE THE FIRST IMAGE! Dance and martial arts have made meaty contributions to yoga history, philosophy, and posework. The 108 Karanas of the Dance […]

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The Baptistes: America’s First Family Of Yoga, BLOG MAY 2011

Posted in Blog, Lectures by Eric Shaw

PLEASE CLICK THROUGH THE SLIDE SHOW BELOW This lecture was given for for Sherri Baptiste’s Yoga Teacher Training Program. She asked that I do some research on her family’s contribution to the practice–which is extensive.  Her parents and extended family were yoga pioneers clear back to the Transcendentalist movement in the 1800s.  This lecture covered […]

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The Agnis (The Fires) Of The Subtle Body, BLOG MAY 2011

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

The agnis or “fires” of the energetic layers of the body (the koshas) are guided by our will and can serve desire or love. In turning them toward love, we ignite the subtle body, burn off our attachments and shine with the fire of letting go. Tags:  Eric Shaw Yoga, History of Yoga, Yoga Philosophy, […]

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Yoga Flows In History: A Lecture For The California Institute Of Integral Studies, BLOG MAY 2011

Posted in Blog, Lectures by Eric Shaw

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR IMAGES   I gave this lecture on Wednesday, and just wanted to present the first 11 images in one post. Some of these have been published before, but many are new. I don’t have time to caption them, but they offer a silently interesting storyline about the early part of yoga’s […]

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Kali–Calm, Cool Trickster, BLOG MARCH 2011

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

Kali, I know that you know how to play tricks. You let anyone call you by any name they choose: The Magas call you Pharatara, Europeans call you God; Mughals and Pathans, Saiyids and Qazis all call you Khoda. Shaktas say you are their Shakti, Shaivas call you Shiva. Sauryas think you’re the sun, and […]

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An Exhaustive Bibliography of the Books of B. K. S. Iyengar, BLOG DECEMBER 2010

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

              I needed to make a slide on Iyengar’s works for a lecture.  Though I searched widely, I could not find an Iyengar bibliography.  Hence, I made this catalog.  I believe it is complete.  If some reader knows otherwise, please inform me!   An Exhaustive Bibliography of the Books […]

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