ART OF YOGA (Hb) - Tapa dura

A beautiful and inspirational book, The Art of Yoga presents stunning images that capture more than 100 asanas (physical postures) as exhibited by two of the world's best known and most respected teachers of the discipline. The Jivamukti Yoga method is a style of yoga created by Sharon Gannon and David Life in 1984. It is a vigorously physical and intellectually stimulating practice leading to spiritual awareness. The name jivamukti means "liberation while living." Jivamukti is one of the nine internationally recognized styles of Hatha Yoga. Gannon and Life have taught such high-profile celebrities as Sting, Madonna, and Christy Turlington, and literally thousands of students regularly attend classes at the Jivamukti Yoga Center in downtown Manhattan. The Art of Yoga represents the culmination of an almost ten-year collaboration by the authors with noted British-born photographer Martin Brading. As each of the magnificent black-and-white images captures the physical intricacy of the position, a brief accompanying text crystallizes its spiritual essence through texts from the Sanskrit.

Sharon Gannon has studied ballet, modern, classical and Indian dance, music, and Eastern philosophy and views art as a means for uplifting the soul. Since 1976 she has studied yoga with many teachers around the world, most noteworthy being Shri Brahmananda Saraswati, Swami Nirmalananda, Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, Swami Shankarananda, Shyam Das, and Bhagavan Das. David Life spent several years as an initiate of a lineage of yogic monks, and has received initiation by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. He has studied yoga around the world with many teachers since 1984, including Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, from whom he received certification in the advanced Ashtanga Yoga series. David has taught yoga all over the world. Photographer Martin Brading, whose work has been featured in magazines such as Elle, ID, and The Face, began his yoga practice in 1992 with Gannon and Life at the Jivamukti Yoga Center and continues to study intensely with them. Ravi Shankar was hailed by George Harrison as the godfather of World music. The legendary sitarist and composer is India's most esteemed musical ambassador and a singular phenomenon in the classical music worlds of East and West. Anoushka Shankar is Ravi's extremely talented 18-year-old daughter who has studied with her father since age 9.