Yoga of Heart

Book excerpt: Truth is not something we have to seek out. It is not something that is absent and far away, requiring great effort to find. Truth is present within you as the Life that is you. In Yoga of Heart, Los Angeles-based yoga instructor Mark Whitwell takes us back to the time when yoga was first developed--to the shamanic past of the Upanishads, when yoga was practiced as a means of acknowledging, enjoying, and participating in the very source of Life. Whitwell explores the deeper tantric dimensions of hatha yoga--how yoga's purpose is to link the mind to the wonder of our own condition. He shows how hatha yoga is participation in life's polarities already in union--through the male surrender to the female principle. Yoga of Heart shows how we can forge that union of polarities within our body: above and below, front and back, left and right, male and female. Yoga of Heart focuses especially on clearing the energy centers and meridians, fostering dynamic health and allowing practitioners to create a deeper intimacy with both their partners and the energetic life forces in the universe.