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  • Please help me choose a subtit Please help me choose a subtitle for my book

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

      I need some help choosing the subtitle for my book Yoga Demystified.

      Right now it’s an eBook available in its entirety on the website and as a download.  But I’m planning on publishing it in paperback, too, simply because I’ve come to realize that many people aren’t yet comfortable reading books online or downloading them.

      I’m looking for quick reactions.  It’s fine if you haven’t read the eBook, because I’m interested in which subtitle is more likely to draw new people in.  Here are the choices I have in front of me right now, but I’m certainly interested in other suggestions, too:

      Yoga Demystified [no subtitle]

      Yoga Demystified–The Art of Cosmic Joy

      Yoga Demystified–The Wonder of Being Alive

      Yoga Demystified--Each Moment a Precious Diamond

      Please help me out by giving me you opinion.

      Thanks,

      Bob

       

    • Blog post
    • 3 days ago
    • Views: 53
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  • Jumping Across the Span of 250 Jumping Across the Span of 2500 Years

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

      Several days after writing my last blog "Yoga of the Heart", I was astounded to happen upon this verse in the Yoga Sutra:

      Hartranft Yoga Sutra"Focusing with perfect discipline on the heart, one understands the nature of consciousness" (3:35)

      It's like we're jumping across the span of 2500 years to share our experiences with Patanjali.

      Bob Weisenberg YogaDemystified.com 

    • Blog post
    • 4 days ago
    • Views: 40

  • Yoga of the Heart Yoga of the Heart

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

      When I want to reconnect

      With the infinite wonder of the universe

      And remember

      That I'm an integral part

      Of that infinite wonder,

      I often just relax and think

      About the infinite wonder of my heart

      And the way it pumps nourishment

      From the air we breathe

      Throughout our wondrous bodies.

       

      How can anyone doubt

      That body and spirit and universe 

      Are one 

      When we can feel

      The awesome unfathomableness

      Of the heart 

      In all its physical and spiritual wonder

      Embracing, dancing with the breath

      Every moment of our lives?

       

      Bob Weisenberg YogaDemystified.com

      (Inspired by Donna Freeman's article "In Search of a Soft Heart" on Elephant Journal.)

    • Blog post
    • 6 days ago
    • Views: 137
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  • On Yoga and Mozart on Mozart's On Yoga and Mozart on Mozart's Birthday

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

      It's Mozart's birthday. Link to lastest portrait http://bit.ly/dygKL9 & thx to Clutterquake for quoting my "Yoga and Mozart".

      One of my favorite scenes from "Amadeus":

      Mozart composing on pool table--from Amadeus

      Bob Weisenberg YogaDemystified.com

    • Blog post
    • 2 weeks ago
    • Views: 51
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  • An essential video for anyone An essential video for anyone who has ever tried to meditate

  • This Is Like A Big Coffee Hous This Is Like A Big Coffee House Where All Your Yoga Friends Hang Out

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

      I suddenly realized the other day why I love the Yoga Journal Community so much.  It's like a big coffee house where all your Yoga friends hang out.

      Like in a busy coffee house, things are a little chaotic here. 

      You don't expect to be able to be a part of every conversation every day.

      You drop in when you can. 

      You hear snippets here and snippets there as you move about.

      You reconnect with old friends and make new friends.

      Sometimes you start the conversation. 

      Sometimes you jump into a conversation.

      Sometimes you just listen to the conversation.

      If you come back in a few hours the crowd is different.

      You try your best to catch up, even though you know you never really can.

      But whatever you do and whomever you see, it's always just plain fun to hang out here and be part of the action.

      Thanks for walking in, and please drop by again whenever you can.

      Bob Weisenberg YogaDemystified.com

    • Blog post
    • 3 weeks ago
    • Views: 225

  • How Do You Get 48 Comments on How Do You Get 48 Comments on an Article Featuring Rod Stewart "If You Think I

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

      How Do You Get 48 Comments on a Light-Hearted Article Featuring Rod Steward Singing "If You Think I'm Sexy"?

      Dhammapada coverEknath Upanishads.jpg                              

       

      Well, you start by ignoring the title of the article:

      “Bad Day? Here’s a reminder not to take yourself too seriously.”

      It all started with my very first comment:

      You see, there it is again–that gaping difference between Buddhism and Yoga, which I keep trying so hard to explain and study away. In spite of their common roots and overwhelming similarities:

      Buddhism concludes we are nothing, a cosmic joke.

      Yoga concludes we are everything, that we are the cosmos itself.

      (Do you think I possibly missed your point of not taking ourselves too seriously?)

      This spark set off a startlingly diverse array of responses, like:

      “This is slanderous–Buddhism isn’t about nothingness at all.”

      “Buddhism is exactly about nothingness.  Get over it.”

      “We don’t need any starry-eyed Yoga hallucinations to face the reality of our lives.”

      and, most accurately:

      “It all depends on which type of Buddhism you’re talking about.”

       

      READ THE REST OF THE ELEPHANT JOURNAL ARTICLE BY CLICKING HERE

      (Bob Weisenberg YogaDemystified.com)

    • Blog post
    • 2 months ago
    • Views: 306

  • My Father: Starting Yoga at 87 My Father: Starting Yoga at 87

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

      I would appreciate it very much if everyone would read my latest article for Elephant Journal and write comments over there:

      My Father: Starting Yoga at 87

      90 year-old Dad in Warrior 2 (He's on the left!)

      I think you'll really enjoy the article and I'm trying to help Elephant Journal expand its audience.

      Thank you all for your Yoga friendship and support.  You're the greatest.

      Bob Weisenberg YogaDemystified.com

       

    • Blog post
    • 2 months ago
    • Views: 220

  • NEWS ALERT YogaDawg Sets New W NEWS ALERT YogaDawg Sets New World Record for Most Things Spoofed in a Single Blog

  • Welcome Back to YJ Community's Welcome Back to YJ Community's 3rd Member

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

      yogirev is back.  Well sort of.  Just to say hello.  Says he's too busy to blog right now.  But I solved that problem for him below in the last paragraph.

      For all you new members out there, yogirev was the third member, yes you're reading that right, the THIRD MEMBER of this Yoga Journal Community!  (Now we have over 13,000 members, not all active, of course, but who have signed up at one time or another.) 

      How do I know that?  I read it in yogirev's third blog entry form just over a year ago:

      When I joined this group, just a couple of days ago, I was the third one. Now look at us! There are twelve and I bet more are on the way.

      I have a lot of affection for yogirev because he helped me get acquainted when I joined a few months later, and because he always wrote the most irreverent and funny blogs.  Here's his fourth post, probably written for 20 members:

      Ok, I want to know if Ahimsa includes snails!  I mean, I just went out to my garden to pick a tomato and the little buggers have eaten all my tomatoes.  I am feeling very violent toward them right now.  I suppose I should practice aparigraha and not be grasping about my tomatoes, but I really wanted one.  I mean, kama is abotu having pleasure in life, right?  I would have had kama while eating a tomato.  Did the snail feel kama?  I bet that little jerk didn't feel a thing. I do think I heard lettle snail giggling as I left the garden in a huff.

      Shanti, shanti. (little jerks!)

      Do yourself a favor and go read some of yogirev's other 47 blogs.  I hope he has time to come back someday.

      Yogirev, could I suggest that you just pick out your favorite blogs from the past and reissue them one every week for awhile.  They will be brand new to the vast majority of readers, and they will love them.

      Thanks, yogirev.

      Bob Weisenberg www.YogaDemystified.com

    • Blog post
    • 2 months ago
    • Views: 180

  • Can you summarize your spiritu Can you summarize your spiritual beliefs in 5-6 sentences?

  • MIA--Working on my e-Book MIA--Working on my e-Book

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

      Monks on a Roller CoasterYou may have noticed (or not!) that I've kind of been MIA the last few weeks.

      That's because I've been on an e-binge working on my e-book and website, www.YogaDemystified.com.

      The free e-book is now available for download and/or printing.  

      I've also added a lot a great photos (like the one on the left--click on the photo) to illustrate my essays and poems, so the whole site has a new look and feel that I hope you will enjoy.

      Now that I've got it done, I'm hungry for feedback and suggestions.  Please take a look and let me know what you think.

      Thanks,

      Bob Weisenberg www.YogaDemystified.com   

    • Blog post
    • 3 months ago
    • Views: 169
    • Not yet rated

  • First It Was "Yobo", Now There First It Was "Yobo", Now There is Ratra Yoga

  • The Meaning of Life--Who Cares The Meaning of Life--Who Cares?

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

       

      According to the ancient Yoga sages

      Questioning the meaning of life

      While living

      Is like questioning the meaning of a roller coaster

      In the middle of a roller coaster ride

       

      Or like questioning the meaning of love

      In the middle of lovemaking.

       

      Who cares when something is so amazing?

       

      The amazement IS the meaning.

      The amazement IS the ultimate reality.

      The amazement IS the life-force of the universe

      All around us and within us

      Far beyond our ability

      To absorb or comprehend.

       

      The amazement IS what some call God

      And the ancient sages called Brahman.

       

      In the midst of the ups and downs

      Of life and love

      Just relax, breathe deeply 

      And experience the infinite thrill

      Of the amazing ride.

       

      Bob Weisenberg www.YogaDemystified.com

    • Blog post
    • 4 months ago
    • Views: 355

  • In Praise of Jane In Praise of Jane

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

      My wife Jane does a Yoga routine with a Jason Crandell DVD almost every morning before I even wake up. She’s does it purely for the exercise and relaxation. She couldn’t care less about all my philosophizing and spiritualizing (except that she’s happy for me that I’ve found something I love so much). I don’t think she’s ever read “Yoga Demystified” or “Yoga in America.”

      It’s partly Jane that makes me jump to the defense of what many in the Yoga blogging community deride as “just workout Yoga”. I embrace diversity because we have both extreme ends of the Yoga spectrum right here in my home–Yoga as workout and Yoga as ancient spirituality.

      Jane doesn’t need Yoga spirituality because she already embodies all its ideals without even calling it spirituality, much less Yoga. I would call Jane an extreme karma Yogini who would never describe herself that way, partly because she wouldn’t have any idea what I was talking about. She is ALWAYS helping other people and making their lives better, just by being herself. It’s just the way she thinks and acts.

      She lives in the present, cooks like an Ayurvedist, and is the a natural practioner of all the yamas and niyamas, without even knowing or caring what they are.

      Everyday Jane goes out to Milwaukee schools, including some of the toughest schools in the city, and inspires teachers to get excited about their profession again, and to become the best they can be, all for the benefit of the kids they serve.

      I practice Yoga partly so I can learn to be as karmic and egoless as Jane already is.

      Bob Weisenberg www.YogaDemystified.com

       

    • Blog post
    • 4 months ago
    • Views: 214

  • Don't Miss This YogaDork Post Don't Miss This YogaDork Post

  • Your Next Masterpiece Your Next Masterpiece

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

       

      What is it like to see the world

      Through the eyes of a famous painter?

      Suppose you are Monet or Van Gogh

      Or Rembrandt or Picasso.

       

      For the next fifteen minutes

      Look at every scene passing in front of your eyes

      As the frame for your next masterpiece.

      Can you see twenty-five different paintings

      In the same simple country haystack?

       

      Look at the rich array of details that emerge

      From scenes you didn’t even notice before.

      How vivid do the colors become 

      Or even the countless colorless subtle shades of grey

      When you need to match them to your palette?

       

      How infinitely fascinating is any scene

      When you need to interpret

      Every line and shape and texture and nuance

      With your charcol or brush?

       

      How convincingly does this reflect

      The startling infinite fascinating wonder

      Of the workaday universe itself?

       

      Bob Weisenberg (www.YogaDemystified.com)

       

    • Blog post
    • 4 months ago
    • Views: 181
    • Not yet rated

  • Deepak Chopra--Modern Yoga Sag Deepak Chopra--Modern Yoga Sage or New Age Hype?

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

      I just wrote this long comment on a blog in Elephant Journal .  The blog referred to a couple of Deepak Chopra's books as "New Age Quackery":

      "Ageless Body/Timeless Mind" is actually an excellent book. But it's excellent because the inside doesn't begin to match the promise of the cover and title. So your derision of the title is entirely justified.

      Chopra is a real puzzle. If you look at the actual content of his work, he is a modern sage of the Upanishads (one of the three main ancient Yoga texts, along with the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutra). He comes across the same way in his presentations, which are just dripping in the one-with-the-universe message of the Upanishads and Gita.

      "Ageless Body/Timeless Mind" is actually a well thought-out and deeply inspirational update of the philosophy of the ancient Yoga sages. "Timeless Mind" makes perfect sense in this context, because according to Yoga philosophy we are all part of the ocean already, not just a wave, and since the ocean (the universe) is timeless, so are we.

      When you get inside the book "ageless body" means not living forever, but rather the fact that our molecules all turn into other things and continue on, with a lot of detail from modern quantum physics, and the fact that we might someday figure out how to arrest aging. Certainly not what's implied by the cover.

      I believe Chopra is, in fact, a modern Yoga sage, carrying on the central message of the ancient sages in a modern context. But he either creates or allows a marketing effort that can make him look like a quack.

      I like his writing so much I'm willing to put up with the silly upfront hype. The books I've read so far are really terrific and not at all quackery.

      I would love to hear other opinions about this, because I've only read a few of his many books.

      For a quick summary of what I mean by ancient Yoga philosophy, see: "What Is It That Brings Us Happiness?"

      For more on Chopra and others as modern sages of ancient Yoga philosophy, see Pure Yoga by Another Name

      Bob Weisenberg (www.YogaDemystified.com)

    • Blog post
    • 4 months ago
    • Views: 313
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  • Elvis in Yoga Class? Here's th Elvis in Yoga Class? Here's the Proof!

  • A Funny Thing Happened on My W A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to Learn About Buddhism

    • From: reweis
    • Description:

       

      I have to tell you a very funny story. At least I hope you'll think it's funny!

      See, I decide I want to know more about Buddhism. 

      So first I read several books and a bunch of stuff on the web. Need more.

      I go talk to my Zen Buddhist priest neighbor, but he's hard to talk to because he's very into making no effort, and talking about Buddhism is an effort, and everything is illusory anyway, so why talk about it.

      Then I decide to go to the source, the Dhammapada, becauses Eknath Easwaran's Upanishads is wonderful, and if he likes the Dhammapada, that's for me.

      But the Dhammapada leaves me flat. I have notes all over the margins saying, This could be Ben Franklin--do good things, don't do bad things, be earnest, spend time with good people, don't spend time with bad people, master all your thoughts, never be angry, etc.

      What have you got against Ben Franklin, you ask. Nothing, I say. I like Ben Franklin. I'm just looking for something a little more, shall we say, transcendental.

      So next I go to my online friend Linda for advice. She is very helpful with perspective and further reading suggestions. 

      Linda also recommends I connect with her Buddhist teacher through Facebook. He has the very musical and evocative name Lama Surya Das.

      I pull up his profile on Facebook, and what do you think is the first thing I see, right at the very top of Lama Surya Das' Facebook page?

      A quote from Ben Frankin! 

      "Contentment makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor." 

      I'm still in stitches. 

       

      Bob Weisenberg (www.YogaDemystified.com)

    • Blog post
    • 4 months ago
    • Views: 430
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