Book Review: The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seekers Guilde to Extraordinary Living by Stephen Cope

8/7/06 Stephen Cope, a psychotherapist and Yoga teacher has written a great book on Yoga. It is not a how to book based on the American version of Yoga as physical exercise. It is a well written and thoughtful book on the basic philsophy of Yoga as a spiritual science whose intention is to help individuals trancend the little mind (monkey mind) and experience their true nature. I espcially appreciate how he has integrated personal stories with philosophy and psychology. He brings to life how Yoga if practiced with discipline and courage can open individual's to deepen their own experience of their life, connect more fully with friends, family and co-workers and find true inner peace and happiness. It is not a new agey book that is full of fluff and feel good fiction. It shows how the practice of Yoga (there are many different schools of Yoga) can bring true happiness but this experience of happiness is not one that does not include suffering and pain. It is one that changes the practitioners relationship to suffering and pain. As a transpersonal, cogntive-behavioral and somatically trained psychotherapist myself who although does not practice as such, still tries to keep up with the literature, I would recommend this book to new and old therapists a like.