For the typical Westerner, the word yoga brings to mind a series of postures designed to increase flexibility and improve strength. But could yoga also have the power to increase awareness, change how you think and act, and provide a guiding set of principles from which to center your life? Stephen Cope shares how in his fascinating book The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker’s Guide to Extraordinary Living. Cope reveals practical principles for living drawn from “a two-thousand-year-old treatise called the Yoga-Sūtra.”

A psychotherapist and yoga teacher at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts, Cope makes the wisdom of the Yoga-Sūtra accessible. Through the experiences of six modern-day yogis—representative of real people and real situations, Cope explores the principles in action. You won’t find instructions on sun salutations here, but rather an insightful beginner’s guide to meditation and its benefits. Through The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker’s Guide to Extraordinary Living, you’ll learn:

• To recognize and tame the “Puppy Mind,” a nickname for the wandering mind
• The difference between the “ego ideal” and the “ideal ego”
• About states of affliction caused by attraction (craving), aversion, and delusion
• To recognize the “Striver” and the “Seer” or “Witness”
• How to tap into the “Illumined Mind,” its characteristics, the subtle levels of an internal world, and the power of concentration and seclusion
• About the unconscious process of the linking of stimuli including “sensations, thoughts, feelings, and memories” – the recognition and appraisal of stimuli, the automatic tendency to be attracted to or to avoid the stimuli, and then to take action
• About the process of de-linking the steps to circumvent afflicted states
• The eight components of yoga from external discipline to oneness, and how following them can contribute to an optimal life