The Must-Read Book Club
Jodi Epstein: This was on a recommended reading list by Elena Brower. A yogi friend of mine brought it to my attention and I think what struck me about the description was how Matthew "weaves philosophy" into Patanjali's yoga sutras.
A few years ago I created an online yoga for kids program called "Jodi the Yogi" and found myself up against television industry representatives that tried to dissuade me from using the word "yoga", with the argument that too many parents across our country associate "yoga" with "religion".
I am passionate about sharing the secular, beneficial aspects of yoga and offering it as a philosophical tool and way of thinking. From the reviews I read, I had a feeling that Threads of Yoga would offer the same.
YCNYC: Favorite quote?
JE: "Any translator of the yoga sutra-s is carrying threads across time and culture, through revolutions of sentiment, thought, and technology, to be woven on new looms, into new cloth."
YCNYC: What one person would you recommend this book to?
JE: The children's television industry rep who told me that yoga would be rejected by parents across the country because of it's religious undertones. I would add a personal note in the cover: due to a lack of exposure, people often assume they know know and understand what something is. May this book offer an alternative.
YCNC: What moment or part resonates with you the most?
JE: The opening of the book (literally the first page) - chapter 1 quick-start guide. It explains how Threads of Yoga is "a remix of an ancient book". I am passionately committed, as an educator, to share the elements of yoga that I believe can resonate with anyone and everyone. I connected with Matthew Remski's sentiment that the yoga sutras can be "remixed" for contemporary society. He explains the book best in the opening paragraph when he says "it is an invitation to yoga culture to begin to fully use the philosophical, psychotherapeutic, literary and scientific tools of our age to enhance our self-inquiry and socio-political awareness". I continue to use Threads of yoga as a resource, and refer to it not only for teaching purposes, but to support my own practice.
You can purchase Threads of Yoga here.
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