Sleeping Bag Yoga: Stretch! Relax! Energize! for Hikers, Bikers and Kayakers Book

Not a decolonized look at yoga. Detailed review to come.

***Full Review***

Georg Feuerstein is definitely a scholar and he know a lot more about the academic study of yoga than me. Now that I got that out of the way, I found Deeper Dimension of Yoga an uneven collection of essays that feels dated due in part to the internet and the author's colonial and patriarchal perspective of yoga.

Some essays devoted to answering questions like what yoga publications to read (Yoga Journal lol) and how to find a yoga teacher seemed like random blog articles while others were very long rambles that made vague and generic points about terrorism and environmentalism. I much preferred the essays where Feuerstein is educational but even these are somewhat tedious, encompassing lists of translated words, which I guess are handy as a quick reference.

I took a lot of issue with the guru chapter that was a shrug roll that stacks a teacher's abuse against a teacher's skill. No no no. Gurus who abuse their students are not gurus and leaders absolutely need to be held accountable to their actions. Ahimsa, non-harming, is the first yama, ethical code to observe with other life forms.

I'm just disappointed because despite Feurestein's wealth of learning and knowledge, it is simply an adequate look at the theory and practice of yoga. It is nothing essential or immediate to read. Some essays are powerful such as his discussions on the yamas and niyamas, but overall I was happy to finish the book and move on.