Daniel Simpson, The Truth of Yoga: A Comprehensive Guid to Yoga’s History, Texts, Philosophy, and Practices (New York: North Point Press, 2021)
This book presents an overview of the history of yoga, from the earliest recorded references in Vedic texts c.1,500 BCE up to the present. It offers a really useful summary of how yoga has developed over time, and how current iterations of yoga practice are very different from its early forms, even in such key texts as Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, which was published around 400 CE. It’s interesting to note that the asana practice of much modern yoga owes more to the development of nineteenth century Swedish gymnastics and British military stretching exercises, than to anything in the ancient meditative practices. Simpson, however, is not overly judgmental about this, and he’s happy for modern yoga to work if it works. In particular he focuses on the opportunities modern yoga brings for pause and self-reflection in its contribution to making the world a better place. The future of yoga, he concludes, is what we make it.
Religion, Environment, History 