Mindfulness Yoga: The Awakened Union of Breath, Body, and Mind

by Frank Jude Boccio, Georg Feuerstein Ph.D. (Foreword by)

Overview

Whether you have no background in meditation or yoga or have been practicing for years, Mindfulness Yoga is for you. This groundbreaking book introduces an entirely new form of yoga, Mindfulness Yoga, which seamlessly integrates the Buddha's teachings on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness with traditional asana yoga practice.

Mindfulness Yoga emphasizes the spiritual side of yoga practice, an aspect often overlooked in a culture that tends to fixate solely on the physical benefits of yoga. Unlike any other Buddhism-meets-yoga book, Mindfulness Yoga presents the two disciplines as a single practice that brings health to the body and liberates the mind and spirit, awakening compassion and fostering equanimity and joy. Mindfulness Yoga will appeal to the many people who have an interest in yoga, Buddhism, and meditation, but who may not have been able to find a teacher who could bring these practices together in a meaningful, practical way.

In the first part of the book, author Frank Jude Boccio offers a superb and lively introduction to the Buddha's teachings and locates them within the larger context of the Indian spiritual traditions. Then, in the second half of the book, Boccio offers three complete Mindfulness Yoga sequences, including over 100 pictures, with detailed guidance for body, breath, and mind. Special lay-flat binding makes this book even more useful as a practice aid.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780861713356
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	01/09/1993
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	8.25(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Frank Jude Boccio, author of the foreword, is an interfaith minister who integrates the practice and philosophy of yoga, Buddhism, and Ayurveda. He is a certified yoga teacher/therapist through the Bateman Institute on New York City and is the author of the bestselling Mindfulness Yoga.

Georg Feuerstein is the author of many books about the theory and practice of Yoga, including The Yoga Tradition.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	ix
	Acknowledgments	xiv
	How to Use This Book	xviii
	Some Words about the Asanas	xix
	A Word about Words	xxi
	Introduction	1
Part 1	Putting It in Context
Chapter 1	The Buddha's Yoga	13
Chapter 2	The Yoga Practice of the Four Noble Truths	25
Chapter 3	The Eightfold Paths	33
Part 2	Cultivating Mindfulness: Remembering the Present
Chapter 4	What Is Mindfulness?	57
Chapter 5	Beginning Mindfulness Meditation	67
Chapter 6	An Introduction to the Sutras	77
Part 3	The Practice of Mindfulness Yoga
Chapter 7	Body as Body	85
	Mindfulness Yoga: Sequence One	93
Chapter 8	Feelings as Feelings	137
	Mindfulness Yoga: Sequence Two	145
Chapter 9	Mindfully Aware of the Mind	187
	Mindfulness Yoga: Sequence Three	200
Chapter 10	Awareness of Objects of Mind: Dharmas in the Dharmas	251
	Mindfulness Yoga: Sequence Four	263
Appendix A	The Seven Factors of Awakening	309
Appendix B	Text of Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing	314
Appendix C	Establishing Your Seat: Seated Postures for Meditation	321
Appendix D	Alphabetical List of Poses	324
	Notes	326
	Suggested Resources	330
	Index	335

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"EDITOR'S CHOICE! Boccio shows that Buddhist practice is itself a form of yoga, presenting a meditational approach to asana practice."—Yoga Journal

"A must-have for all mindfulness practitioners who also practice or teach yoga. "—The Mindfulness Bell

"The author invites practitioners of yoga and meditation to experience yoga's poses as occasions for mindulness meditation. This relationship is both novel and logical. .. A welcome and ambitious synthesis. "—Publishers Weekly

"I highly recommend this book...elegant, lucid, astonishingly comprehensive, thoroughly accessible, designed — refreshingly — for real human beings! Bravo!"—Stephen Cope, senior Kripalu Yoga teacher and author of Yoga and the Quest for the True Self

"It's about time somebody wrote this!"—Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are

"In Mindfulness Yoga, Frank Boccio inspires us to join those who have walked the integrated path of yoga and mindfulness with a true teacher's voice of clarity, compassion and common sense."—Cyndi Lee, author of OM Yoga and founder of OM Yoga Center

"A terrific book for both meditators and new yoga students. Highly recommended." —Josh Baran, author of 365 Nirvana Here and Now

"Clear, intelligent, and much-needed. I'm delighted Frank Jude Boccio wrote this book. I now have something to recommend to my students."—Larry Rosenberg, Founder of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center and author of Breath by Breath

"A wonderful and invaluable book!"—Wendy Cook, Yeshe Yoga instructor and director of Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies

"A book to be savored."—Martha Stoodley, Yoga Instructor

"Anyone seeking to live a richer and more awakened life will be served by this wise and gentle book."—Melissa Blacker, MA, co-director of Professional Training and Senior Teacher, Stress Reduction Program, Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA.

"Boccio persuasively argues that Buddhism IS yoga. His explanation of the Four Noble Truths is the best I have read, and his advice, in general, is sound and subtle. Mindfulness Yoga helped my practice."—Chronogram

"Boccio reminds us to focus not just on the physical postures but also on what they teach us about the deepest truth of our lives. This is a welcome approach at a time when yoga is too often seems as just another way to get fit. ... The most erudite of the recent offerings."—Tricycle

"Mindfulness Yoga, with its warm, accessible style, is the first good introduction to yoga from a Buddhist standpoint, seamlessly integrating the Buddha's teachings on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness with traditional asana yoga practice."—Branches of Light

"GRADE: A. A delightful introduction to the Buddhist spirituality which has enhanced yoga through the centuries. Boccio's lessons are clear, cogent and precise, and Mindfulness Yoga is a highly recommended guide to self-empowerment."—EDGE Boston

"Mindfulness Yoga is a great inspiration for any yoga practitioner."—Mountain Record: The Zen Practitioner's Journal

Editorial Reviews

"EDITOR'S CHOICE! Boccio shows that Buddhist practice is itself a form of yoga, presenting a meditational approach to asana practice."

Yoga Journal

"It's about time somebody wrote this!"

Jon Kabat-Zinn

"A must-have for all mindfulness practitioners who also practice or teach yoga."

The Mindfulness Bell

"A terrific book for both meditators and new yoga students. Highly recommended."

Josh Baran

"A wonderful and invaluable book!"

Wendy Cook

"Clear, intelligent, and much-needed. I'm delighted Frank Jude Boccio wrote this book. I now have something to recommend to my students."

Larry Rosenberg

"In Mindfulness Yoga, Frank Boccio inspires us to join those who have walked the integrated path of yoga and mindfulness with a true teacher's voice of clarity, compassion and common sense."

Cyndi Lee

"I highly recommend this book...elegant, lucid, astonishingly comprehensive, thoroughly accessible, designed — refreshingly — for real human beings! Bravo!"

Stephen Cope

"Boccio reminds us to focus not just on the physical postures but also on what they teach us about the deepest truth of our lives. This is a welcome approach at a time when yoga is too often seems as just another way to get fit. ... The most erudite of the recent offerings."—

Tricycle

"EDITOR'S CHOICE! Boccio shows that Buddhist practice is itself a form of yoga, presenting a meditational approach to asana practice."

Yoga Journal

"EDITOR'S CHOICE! Boccio shows that Buddhist practice is itself a form of yoga, presenting a meditational approach to asana practice."—Yoga Journal

"A must-have for all mindfulness practitioners who also practice or teach yoga. "—The Mindfulness Bell

"The author invites practitioners of yoga and meditation to experience yoga's poses as occasions for mindulness meditation. This relationship is both novel and logical. .. A welcome and ambitious synthesis. "—Publishers Weekly

"I highly recommend this book...elegant, lucid, astonishingly comprehensive, thoroughly accessible, designed -- refreshingly -- for real human beings! Bravo!"—Stephen Cope, senior Kripalu Yoga teacher and author of Yoga and the Quest for the True Self

"It's about time somebody wrote this!"—Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are

"In Mindfulness Yoga, Frank Boccio inspires us to join those who have walked the integrated path of yoga and mindfulness with a true teacher's voice of clarity, compassion and common sense."—Cyndi Lee, author of OM Yoga and founder of OM Yoga Center

"A terrific book for both meditators and new yoga students. Highly recommended." —Josh Baran, author of 365 Nirvana Here and Now

"Clear, intelligent, and much-needed. I'm delighted Frank Jude Boccio wrote this book. I now have something to recommend to my students."—Larry Rosenberg, Founder of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center and author of Breath by Breath

"A wonderful and invaluable book!"—Wendy Cook, Yeshe Yoga instructor and director of Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies

"A book to be savored."—Martha Stoodley, Yoga Instructor

"Anyone seeking to live a richer and more awakened life will be served by this wise and gentle book."—Melissa Blacker, MA, co-director of Professional Training and Senior Teacher, Stress Reduction Program, Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA.

"Boccio persuasively argues that Buddhism IS yoga. His explanation of the Four Noble Truths is the best I have read, and his advice, in general, is sound and subtle. Mindfulness Yoga helped my practice."—Chronogram

"Boccio reminds us to focus not just on the physical postures but also on what they teach us about the deepest truth of our lives. This is a welcome approach at a time when yoga is too often seems as just another way to get fit. ... The most erudite of the recent offerings."—Tricycle

"Mindfulness Yoga, with its warm, accessible style, is the first good introduction to yoga from a Buddhist standpoint, seamlessly integrating the Buddha's teachings on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness with traditional asana yoga practice."—Branches of Light

"GRADE: A. A delightful introduction to the Buddhist spirituality which has enhanced yoga through the centuries. Boccio's lessons are clear, cogent and precise, and Mindfulness Yoga is a highly recommended guide to self-empowerment."—EDGE Boston

"Mindfulness Yoga is a great inspiration for any yoga practitioner."—Mountain Record: The Zen Practitioner's Journal

From the Publisher

This book by yoga teacher and mindfulness meditator Boccio offers a welcome and ambitious synthesis that is unevenly executed. Relating the Indian sage Patanjali's teachings on yoga to Buddhist teachings, the author invites practitioners of yoga and meditation to experience yoga's asanas, or poses, as occasions for mindfulness meditation. This relationship is both novel and logical. Buddhism grew from Hindu-yoga roots, and yoga, certainly as understood in America, could use a greater appreciation of its spiritual significance. Following a discussion of Buddhist teachings grounded on some central discourses (sutras) and heavily indebted to Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who supplies a foreword, Boccio provides four sequences of poses. The sequences generally repeat poses but are intended to lead the student to new understandings of those poses, thus encouraging growth in the discipline of yoga. As can be the case with yoga texts, this one has problems with its pictures. When poses are given in sequence, the accompanying sequence of pictures can be hard to follow, because not all steps are illustrated. Also, the instructions are not always obvious ("lift your sitting bones up as you drape your torso over your legs"). Because this book tries to do so much, it's not for beginning yoga students or meditators, but those with established practices may benefit from seeing the postures in a surprising and more spiritual light. (Feb.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly