Yoga

Found this in some used book store in the early 80s. Many yoga books and years of twisting and turning later, this is still one of my favorites (Patanjali's Sutras is in its own category). Wood was in India and practising yoga before it had even appeared on our shores. His deep understanding of Indian culture and its intersections with yogic philosophies is unparallelled, and taught me more about the real world relevance of the karmic cycle concept than any other book. He also puts the caste system in a spiritual context that is very interesting indeed. All of that plus seriously in-depth discussion of many, many asanas--both their execution and their spiritual purpose--makes for a classic in its field. By the time you've finished this book you won't need to pay ridiculous sums to your local yoga "teacher" for some bastardized aerobics form that has nothing to do with real yoga. You'll be able to stay at home and do it right. Even if you never plan to do a Plough in your life, this book has a lot to say about living a healthy, happy life. Highly recommended.