This is a basic introduction to various yoga paths (hatha yoga, jnana yoga, karma yoga, etc.). I would not call it "comprehensive" or a "guide to daily life." Rather, it's an anthology of Yoga Journal articles that are fine, but more valuable for the beginner.

This book basically is a collection of articles and writings that were published in Yoga Journal, and written by other people that are well respected figures in the Yoga lifestyle. It explains the history and traditions of Yoga, different schools of thought and practice. It is very general, and touches on many different topics, but does not go into much depth about anything, which makes it very easy to read for the beginner of Yoga to get a broad introduction of what's out there, and what it is.

This book covers all the bases and gives you everything you need to know about yoga philosophy and tradition. With all the offshoot yogas around today, it's so nice to find a book that describes traditional yoga philosophy and practice in an inviting, easy-to-read way. I like that it's a collection by dozens of different writers. You get lots of points of view, but not contradiction. I love this book and refer to it time and again.

In the clubby world of American yoga Feurstein is often cited and recommended. Perhaps it is because he has a Ph.D. and quite a number of books published (largely recycling the same material). Maybe its because he has supplied them with effusive blurbs for their own books. Frankly, I don't see what all the fuss is about.

In my opinion, Fuerstein's writing style is ponderous yet is lacking in academic rigor. Nor do I find him to be ispiring or substantial in any practical sense. The question I ask myself is if he is not a good academic writer nor a good practical writer, why should I read him? I can't think of any reason!

One of his most irritating qualities to to present his marginal theories as if they are well accepted in authentic academic circles. Also, he cites some really insignificant writers as if they are renowned scholars, simply because they support his views. One author whom Fuerstein frequently cites has a dubious degree and is self-published. Fuerstein also cites as authoritative a book which he co-authored (a fact that is only mentioned in a foot note)that is academic junk and is published by a theosophical publisher!

On the plus side, this book is handsome and is well designed, with nice graphical images and photos throughout.

Yes, there is some interesting and valuable material contained in The Yoga Tradition. However, in my opinion getting to it is not worth the effort. There is far too much winnowing of chaff required. Still, if you want to impress your friends with the depth of your "knowledge", leave this book lying around. It just may impress them.

This extraordinary work represents a lifetime of devotion to yoga by its preeminent Western scholar. It is at once a distillation and compilation of all that Georg Feuerstein has gleaned in his extensive travels both academically and spiritually. It greatly broadens the usual scope of yoga to include its manifestation in other religions and goes back in time to the edge of the prehistory. Feuerstein understands that yoga is both an ancient practice, and, by itself, a profound and venerable religion. More than anything, however, it is a salient expression of the culture and philosophy, the lifestyle and history of the Indian subcontinent where it was the midwife of the great religions of Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism and of course that great body of belief and practice known as Hinduism.

Feuerstein is in one sense a true believer. He has devoted his life to the study of yoga and attendant phenomena, in particular Hinduism and the broad Tantric tradition. One gets the sense that even here in this lengthy work, he knows much more than he is conveying; that there is a synergistic power in his extensive knowledge that allows him to know things that he cannot express. One feels his intense desire to say something that perhaps cannot be said, something spiritual and personal that can only be experienced.

In another sense he is a hard-working scholar who reports on what he has learned without passing unnecessary judgments or drawing unwarranted conclusions, although he does interpret. He is, in this sense, the American expression of the great French scholar Mircea Eliade with perhaps a pinch of the Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo, on the one hand, and the English tantrist Sir John Woodroffe, on the other, folded in.

The book begins with a thorough definition of yoga and then an overview, and then its inescapable conjoining with Hinduism. This is "Part One: Foundations." Then Feuerstein looks at "Pre-Classical Yoga" and overviews the entire Vedic tradition including the yoga of the earliest Upanishads, culminating in its expression in the Bhagavad Gita. Then in "Part Three: Classical Yoga," he comes to Patanjali and the yoga of the eight limbs, the famous yoga of the aphorisms. Part Four is "Post-Classical Yoga" from the later Yoga-Upanishads from the Middle Ages in which the focus is on bhakti, technique, mantra and meditation. It is here that Western readers will find much that is new, or at least not readily available in English. And it is here that a non-dualistic yogic philosophy (as opposed to the dualism of Patanjali) holds sway. Part Five is on tantrism and "Yoga as Spiritual Alchemy." It is in this last part that the so-called "subtle body," with its nadis and pranas, its cakras ("psychoenergetic centers") and the mysterious serpent power of kundalini, is explored in depth. Here too we have the ritualistic practice of the five forbidden things from tantra yoga, the infamous "left-handed path." Here is Feuerstein's take: "Practitioners of the left-hand path ()--vâma means both "left" and "woman"--know they are breaking profound social taboos, and their only justification for their conduct is that their goal is not sensual gratification but self-transcendence in the context of bodily existence." (p. 484)

To me--and I have studied and practiced yoga for 28 years--yoga is first and foremost a profound psychology, a way of life that has evolved along with the human experience, from the prehistory to today, a guide on how to live that has come down to us in part (only in part: so much has been lost) as a philosophic and religious tradition. Feuerstein's book is at once a great reference and a heart-felt exposition on the power of yoga to transcend this world in which we are enveloped in the "food sheath," where we are both the eater and the eaten, but with our eyes on the stars.

The book includes numerous black and white illustrations, passages from yogic works, and an extensive, selected bibliography. There is a chronology, a glossary and an excellent index.

Yoga teachers and practitioners in the USA have needed this book for a long time. Here is an enormous amount of interesting information and quotations from the Indian sources. This is a thoughtful, thoroughly researched book about the yoga tradition and its history

The book does not seem to realise that tantra evolved initially as indigenous to India, especially Bengal, as separate from Vedic influence and was picked up by so-called Hinduism and by Buddhism. However, tantra is still a spiritual science distinct from these religious traditions and distinct from Vedic culture. The Vedic culture took aspects of Tantra because of Vedic deficiencies.

The books is also largely academic giving no insight into personal experience which in a spiritual disciple role is so important to tantra. Tantra is a spiritual science and yet this books still formulates matters by way of considering Vedic, Hindu and Buddhist concepts.

George Feurstein unfortunately may have succumbed to be a popular author but as to actual understanding of tantric meditation techniques, spiritual practices and spiritual science, does not appear up to the mark.

Is his latest book "Yoga for Dummies" any reflection of a new found status?

"The many facets of Tantric psychology and practice are relevant to all who seek to cultivate self-understanding and are sincerely engaged in the whole task of spiritual transformation," writes Georg Feuerstein, director of the Yoga Research Center and author of 30 books. This erudite and illuminating overview of the Hindu Tantric heritage is meant to be a correction to the widespread idea that Tantra yoga is nothing more than "a mere discipline of ritualized or sacred sex."

This spiritual tradition, Feuerstein explains, requires initiation at the hand of a qualified teacher and many years of intensive personal practice. The author describes some of the major lineaments of Tantra with chapters on samsara (cyclic existence), the bondage of time, the secret of embodiment, the divine play of Shiva and Shakti, the disciple-guru relationship, the subtle body, awakening the serpent power, and rituals of Tantra. Feuerstein calls this ancient esoteric tradition "the great spiritual synthesis" thanks to its insights into enlightenment and the body as a temple of the divine. The author concludes: "Tantra is a powerful tool, calling for maturity, self-knowledge, and good-heartedness in its handling."

It's often hard to understand metaphysical books about tantra because there are few scholars who can write in a clear way that's accessible even for practitioners, let alone people who have never had a guru or traveled to India to experience tantric teachings firsthand.

In America, yoga has so often devolved into a physical practice with spiritual pretensions, instead of a deeply spiritual practice.

I returned from India from a six-month trip in 1998, during which time I stumbled into meeting a guru and then spent five weeks studying with him in Benares. When I came home, it was very hard to begin to articulate what had taken place. This book was a godsend, a link to connect my experience with a tradition that extends millennia back in time. And secondly it helped to link my friends and family to the experiences I just had by reading a clear description of the path and experiences involved in Tantra.

I hesitate even to use the word Tantra, given that it's so very, very misused in the West.

This book sets the record straight (Tantra does NOT equal sex) and presents the practice and history of Tantra in all its profundity. We are indebted to the author for his great gift to all of us.

For the other reviews that criticize the author's lack of experience in Tantra, you should be aware that the author has a Tantric Buddhist teacher which led him to bring his considerable talents to present the first guide and most helpful explanation of these profoundly important teachings.

I've given numerous copies to family and friends, all of whom have enjoyed it immensely.

Until Karen Armstrong decides to tackle this subject (highly unlikely, given her orientation), this is the best book available. Highest recommendation!

The way I look at these tapes as the best way of reading philosophy while you are driving. Please keep your eyes on the road while you are driving. These series are great. I believe they are not intended to be comprehensive and they could not be in two hours but they give you %60 biography %40 philosophy. Some of them even have accent as they though they were immigrants from original contries to US, Kant speakes with German/English accent. It is fun, entertaining, illuminating. Much better than talk shows. Please this is not a substitute for a real book so judge accordingly.

This brief introduction to Hume is exceptional. I went from this tape to Hume's "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" and "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals". I don't think it would have been such an easy transition without learning how Hume fits into Western philosophical history and what problems concerned him. It startled me to discover that Hume's major point is that inductive thinking (thinking about "matters of fact" ) is irrational: forming general laws about the world has its basis in custom and experience and not by the sort of reasoning used in math and logic ("relations of ideas" in Hume's lexicon).

Hume's political, historical, and ethical ideas are also interesting and I was surprised to learn how much Hume's ideas on the separation of powers in government had influenced James Madison.

Charlton Heston does it again.Another project that I have absolutely fallen in love with.He sounds so smart and sexy,just like those philosophers were,therefore an appropriate choice to narrate.I wonder,if they were alive today,what would these philosophers have to say about guns?Ah,no matter,they'd all agree with me that Mr.Heston did an excellent job on what i'm sure will be a quintessential work on the subject.

A tedious, ponderous, barely readable bore of a book - typical of the the continuing "cut and paste" historical method employed by the other current darlings of fast-food history publishing (Kearns-Goodwin and Burns). Hardly "definitive" - dull juxtaposition of historical documentation with carbon-copy editorializing. The bottom line - Goebbels was a deeply evil, disturbed individual who took his family - Germany - and Europe into the depths of the abyss -----> The only thing "definitive" is yet another author repeating the same message. "Cliche" is a better adjective.
Kudos also to "Kirkus Reviews" for their highly professional review describing how "the author captures post WW-II Germany, and how this desperate country--in which no kind of ability, industry, or talent was a guarantee against poverty--nurtured Goebbels's search for a savior who could galvanize the stricken Volk .." Hmmm , how Goebbles was the product of "Post WW-II Germany" huh --- Wow history real experts there.

This is not a light and fluffy biography. Reuth has put an amazing amount of scholastic work into reconstructing the life of Goebbels. Be warned, however, that the book is slow-going, and often tedious.

Settle in and concentrate on this slow hard look at Goebbels. If you are into detail on National Socialist interparty politics, this is the book. This guy was pure evil. He is the only figure surrounding Hitler that can actually eclipse the Fuhrer's ugliness.

This readable translation was originally published in 1896 (not 1967) and there are two very fine and more recent translations of this book by T.M. Knox and H.B. Nisbet (with slightly different titles).

The book is a fascinating encyclopaedia of human life in all its social dimensions starting from our relation to a thing (property) and going on to relation between states in world history. Hegel's categorisation of social institutions contains some contraversial statements. But they all add to the fascination of reading the book.

Unfortunatelly Knox's translation does make it very difficult to comprehend some crucial passages, especially where Hegel's deals with the concept of Right in refined speculative terms. It also contains some basic mistakes which make a comparative reading of the English and the German text an anoying experience.

Some of the apparent disagreements below stem from the fact that different editions of this book share a review page. The reviewer who gave the date of 1967 was referring to the Knox translation (highly recommended). The "Great Books in Philosophy" edition is indeed based on a much older translation (by Dyde). The reviewer who wrote to "correct" the date was reviewing the Dyde version and was unaware that the earlier reviewer was talking about the Knox.

....And, in conjunction with that statement, "straight talk" does not necessarily indicate the revelation of some Great Truths.

Of course, I realize that the rebuttal to my statements is that I did not read with an open mind or heart, or even soul, when, in fact, I was more than willing to discover something outside myself that I could accept as Truth. More than that, I am generally considered so openminded that sometimes my brains leak out my ears.

That said, I did find this book helpful in a way that I did not expect - it gave me pause, and forced me to contemplate what I really believed about the way the Universe works, and about how I really felt about Love and all the other assorted relationships I have with others.

There was a lot of hidden, backhanded misogyny in this book, coated in the usual talk of "duality" and "worship of the archetypal Woman," but recommending "service," a "culture of women," and various other outmoded ideas. Funny, how I heard about all these same things in church as I was growing up, and in almost exactly the same terminology....

In the end, I would suggest that anyone seeking to find a deeper way of loving, or of living life, to look within him/herself, because, ultimately, that's where the real answers tend to rest.

This book is wonderful. It really wakes up your senses and gets you thinking about the simplest of things that have been right in front of you your whole life! Like the basic implications of what it means to be male or female, and how this relates to the mind. Never dogmatic, but often challenging and even confrontational, you will learn something from this book.
And like some of the people reviewing this book here, you may not like it! But then just because our ego doesnt like something doesnt mean it isn't true.
Speaking of truth I have to say this book has the fewest errors of any spiritual book I've read. It really cuts to the heart of the matter and drops all the nonsense and Eastern verbage that put me to sleep in Buddhist books.
Heartily recommended!

What I appreciate about this book is Lee's refusual to sugar coat his convictions. With crazy-wise eccentric humor, and a few expletives to boot...; Lee calls it as he see's it. A close reading will reveal that this man could care less about signing up a bunch of feel good New Ager's desiring to avoid the dirt and crap that also are a BIG part of the spiritual path. "The Alchemy of Love and Sex" elucidates, with not a little humor, the dynamics that obscure men and women from living in a harmonious relationship, what creates dissonance and what creates resonance. The book will prove to be immensely unpopular as it offers no easy answers, except the obvious, that relationship is hard work. Just try treating your mate with the respect, awe, and supersensitive conscience that you would your Spiritual Master, or your favorite movie star, or anyone else you want to serve and impress. Try this for the rest of both of your lives. This book offers none of the usual rhetoric. It was Umberto Eco who said: "Common sense, even when true is always vague." In this book Mr. Lee exhibits a startling knack for bringing the vaguaries of common sense to the forefront. John Gray's "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" is rated G for commonsense Compared to Lee's "Alchemy" which is rated X for explicit common sense. It is perhaps Lee's unique contribution that he has retrieved spirituality from all the "All is One" or "There is nothing to attain, you already are Buddha or Jesus, and instead replaced it with an overall context of common sense. If you spill the milk, clean it up! This is more revelatory than many of us seem to want to admit. Then again there's alot we don't want to admit. This book admits alot, and to the extent that you will also, then this book will admit you to it's "secrets."

i admire art books that are intelligently written, present a representative and rich survey of the artist's works, and are beautifully printed. kallir's book on schiele has all this and more.

after wading through the fatuous, abstract and self absorbed writing that passes for art criticism nowadays it is deeply refreshing to encounter an author like jane kallir, who knows her stuff down to the most intricate footnoted fact but presents the main story with verve, clarity, insight and sympathy. as a portrait of the artist and as a history of art trends in prewar vienna, kallir's telling is searching and well told.

the reproductions of several dozens of schiele's major works -- paintings and drawings -- are presented full page and full color, beautifully printed: it's possible to see the texture variations of schiele's line and the nuances of his color. browsing the work is a joy in itself. however, the real adventure is the catalog raisonne, which presents smaller format black and white images of every known work by schiele's hand (and even a few forgeries). though reduced in size -- six or so works are shown on each page -- the catalog images of the drawings are large enough to be easily legible, and the breakthroughs, variations, detours and consolidations in schiele's style are a fascinating visual story in themselves.

the price is high, but the book is big and heavy, and made to very high standards, so the price is fair. i'm very picky about books, and this book impressed me a lot.

I used to go to the library for years just to look through this book (it was out of print for a while). It is a wonderful book chronicling all the works of Egon Schiele, and you get a chance to see his growth as an artist. I wish all the drawings in the catalog were printed a lot bigger than the 2"x2", but that would make the book too expensive for anyone but outright scholars because Egon Schiele was such a prolific artist. Still, the details are not completely lost and Jane Kallir is an authority on Egon Schiele's work. The Gallerie St. Ettiene is a wonderful gallery and I got the chance to see many of the drawings in this book there. To look again that the drawings in the book after seeing the real ones, one isn't really disappointed. It is wonderful to have all the works by an artist cataloged this way.

As an avid fan of the works of Egon Schilee I found the complete works to be the best thing I've picked up. Like stepping out of a dream the work of Schiele captures any reader. Thisd is a must for the serious persuer or any lover of art. It is simply delicious

Hegel was immensely popular in his time but I do not think his ideas hold up well today. I believe that his greatness lies in his influence to be found in the even greater philosophers who followed him. I'd be lying if I said that some of the ideas he brings up in this work aren't interesting, but I wouldn't be if I said that the prose itself isn't.

Hegel is considered a notoriously difficult author to understand, and justly so. But his thorny prose is as much a creation of his as his philosophy itself; it was not because he could not write well that he wrote as he did, but because he wrote in such a way as to communicate ideas that did not come easily to language. That said, it is best to start with Hegel with something like this, rather than the Phenomenology, simply to get an idea of what's at stake in his writings; Hegel's philosophy is essentially recursive, and so the patterns that emerge in one area of his thought are often applicable to others (his ideas on history cross over with his ideas on art which cross over with his ideas on religion, and so on). But if you bother to read this, then go on to read the Philosophy of History itself, to get a better idea of what Hegel really saw in history; because his vision of it was essentially based upon the actual history of the world which he knew (which is now, admitedly, outdated in some regards, but the superstructure of the pattern does not suffer much for this), and the full exposition of his ideas on this subject are only to be found there.

This brief work may be the single best introduction to the philosophy of Hegel in my experience with my college students. The introduction by the translator/editor is a nice synopsis of this area of Hegel's thinking also. Central concepts are the notions of logic in history, the development of the state, and concept of world history. The work is brief and should only be used as introduction.

I was disappointed in this book. The title certainly grabbed my attention and the preface and first chapter were intriguing, but the remainder of the book delivered little. The sub-title could have been "How I escaped from an American POW camp and lived a wonderful life in the best country in the world". Proving once again: you can't judge a book by its cover.

I found this book fascinating. Okay, it's not a war story. But it offers some wonderful insights into American society as it was half a century ago. It's also a wonderful reminder for Americans of just how free we are, and how precious our freedom is.
My only complaints about this book are (1) that my copy lacked the listed illustrations, and (2) that it didn't have an epilogue. I'd love to hear the rest of Gaertner's story, i.e., what happened to him after 1985.
One other thing about the story that I found remarkable is its resemblance to another one. Fugitive enters the U.S. surreptitiously, gets job as a draftsman, puts down roots on the West Coast. Bit of an inventor, but his ideas get him nowhere. He marries and adopts a family. Quite the outdoorsman. His greatest fear is being recognized, as he occasionally is. But late in life, he finally admits who he was and writes an autobiography. So who am I talking about? Georg Gaertner? Or Butch Cassidy?

Egads! I can't believe that this stellar book is out of print. What you've got here is the true story of a German who was taken prisoner in Africa by the U.S. during WWII, and brought to a prison camp in the U.S. One night he manages to escape, and has to start his whole life over again with a fake identity and background.

It's just like the movie "Fugitive", with several close calls early on on his new life in California. He doesn't live as a recluse, eventually getting married and living a very active life. I won't ruin the ending, but you won't be disappointed...as long as you can find this! A great book that shows once again that German soldiers were people just like you and me.