Review: Thinking in Āsana: Movement and Philosophy in Viniyoga, Iyengar Yoga, and Ashtanga Yoga, by Matylda Ciołkosz

Abstract

Book Review| November 01 2023 Review: Thinking in Āsana: Movement and Philosophy in Viniyoga, Iyengar Yoga, and Ashtanga Yoga, by Matylda Ciołkosz Thinking in Āsana: Movement and Philosophy in Viniyoga, Iyengar Yoga, and Ashtanga Yoga. By Matylda Ciołkosz. Equinox Publishing, 2022. 235 pages. $90.00 hardcover; $35.00 softcover; ebook available. Travis Vande Berg Travis Vande Berg Tompkins Cortland Community College Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2023) 27 (2): 114–116. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.114 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Travis Vande Berg; Review: Thinking in Āsana: Movement and Philosophy in Viniyoga, Iyengar Yoga, and Ashtanga Yoga, by Matylda Ciołkosz. Nova Religio 1 November 2023; 27 (2): 114–116. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.114 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search In Thinking in Āsana, Matylda Ciołkosz compares three of the most popular systems of postural yoga—Viniyoga (founded by T. K. V. Desikachar), Iyengar Yoga (founded by B. K. S. Iyengar), and Ashtanga Yoga (founded by K. Pattabhi Jois). She demonstrates how the systems’ different “yoga philosophies”—learned within social environments consisting of physical spaces, other practitioners, and teachers rooted in each system—lead to different experiences, understandings, and meanings for each system’s practitioners. Despite their founders’ shared roots as students of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, the three systems diverge from one another in practice, experience, and philosophy of yoga. Ciołkosz examines these divergences and their effects on the creation and understanding of yoga bodies and practice within each system. The book is divided into two primary sections. In the first, Ciołkosz provides an overview of enactive cognition, the idea that cognition develops through interactions with one’s environment and, importantly for her argument, the... You do not currently have access to this content.