Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga Book

If you do your daily yoga and then read this book afterwords you feel even more of a sense of calm than you would have before. Even if you don't daily practice yoga you can see and feel differences in your attitude and mental health.

Everyone can benefit from "Meditations from the Mat".Each chapter takes you through a section of the eight limbed path of yoga. Over the course of a year the author (Rolf Gates) walks you through his personal meditations as well as educates you using the eight limbed path (the eight limbed path is a plan for living that flows from action, to knowledge, to liberation - the ultimate goal being liberation, freeing yourself from all that inhibits and hold you down).

The eight limbed path consists of the yamas (the five moral restraints: ahimsa - nonviolence, satya - truthfulness, asteya - nonstealing, brahmacarya - nonhoarding), the niyamas (the five observances - sauca - purity, santosa - contentment, tapas - zeal and austerity, svadhyaya - self study, isvara pranidhana - devotion to a higher power), the asana (postures), pranayama (mindful breathing), pratyahara (turning inward), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (union of the self with object of meditation). There is a helpful outline of the eight limbed wheel in the first few pages (I like to make notes next to it).

No other yoga book out there that I have seen is quite like this one. The author is a yoga teacher who began teaching looking at yoga purely as a fitness thing who later learned that it is a way of life (and to some, afterlife). You could compare its format to that of teen study bible, it's very day by day (but the author states that reading a few a day rather than just one will not hinder your benefiting from his words).

Each day also has a wonderful quote to accompany the lesson and just adds to your fire for yoga and to learn more. Yoga is a fire you can never put out that burns deep within you once you light it. Pick up the torch.