Starting Monday, we’ll be discussing the new book Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind: Writings on the Connections Between Yoga & Buddhism in the Tricycle Community Book Club.

Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind Shambhala Publications, 2010, $18.95 paper 

“The main thrust of this book has to do with the possibility of freedom and how great teachers like the Buddha, Patanjali, Dogen, and Nagarjuna, among others, understood freedom and consequently described a path, or at least repeatable techniques, that create the conditions for genuine realization. All of the contributors herein are practitioners first and thinkers second, and we are all writing from personal experience having practiced within and between these two systems for many years.” —from the introduction to Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind

Over the years, I’ve found it increasingly frustrating that Yoga is continually reduced to a body practice and Buddhism to a mind practice. This makes no sense at all. Anyone who has practiced deeply in both traditions knows that the Buddha gave attention to the body and Patanjali to the mind, and that both traditions value ethical precepts and commitments as the foundation of an appropriate livelihood.

Read the rest of Michael Stone’s introduction here. (You need to be a member of the Tricycle Community to view Book Club content, but it’s easy to join, and free!) The book is edited by Michael Stone. The foreword is by Robert Thurman. Contributors include Ajahn Amaro Bhikku, Shosan Victoria Austin, Frank Jude Boccio, Christopher Key Chapple, Eido Shimano Roshi, Ari Goldfield and Rose Taylor, Chip Hatranft, Ming Qing Sifu (Daniel Odier), Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, Sarah Powers, Jill Satterfield, Mu Seong, and Michael Stone
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