There are many ways to approach a book of this kind. One way would be to plunge directly into practice, to take a headlong dive into do-it-yourself mode. But then this book doesn’t claim to be a self-help manual. It has a strong practical orientation, but there’s more to it than that.
Another way would be to turn theoretical. But this book is not an exercise in scholarship either. I have never read any of the yogic treatises in their entirety. I never had to. I come from inner experience. It was only late in my life when I skimmed through some of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, those significant yogic texts, that I realized that I had a certain access to their inner core. This is because I approach them experientially, rather than theoretically. To reduce a sophisticated science, like yoga, to mere doctrine is just as tragic as turning it into a cardiovascular workout.
And so, this book has finally been divided into two sections. The first maps the terrain; the second offers you a way to navigate it.
