Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy

I don't understand the reviewer who said that this was a poorly organized book. It is extremely well organized in both practical and metaphysical terms. It is an overview, however, and for particular interests the student should follow up with studies in the appropriate literature. The five appendices augment the text with well selected examples from different schools.

This book expanded many horizons for me. I would recommend it to anyone who intends to change their view of yoga from that of a workout to a spiritual journey. Phillips is experienced in the subject matter and teaches a great course at UT Austin that references this book!

I must admit at first glance and preliminary reading this book appeared sloppily written and incomprehensive, yet if you're brave enough to venture past the first chapter you are in for a journey into the world of Vedic wonder. This overview has the truth of the Vedic scriptures but written in twenty first century language, balancing that fine line between academic and comprehensive.In just a few chapter and two hundred pages, Phillips manages to create a in-depth understanding of what exactly the ancient Yogis thought about Yoga, meditation and aeschetic practice, in addition to a thorough analysis of such universal concepts as the Self, the Soul, the Bardo, the after life and Right mind (or highest mind).I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you want to know what exactly Yoga is for, or about, and what can be accomplished through it's use.If I should subtract any 'points' it would be about this latter notion: Phillips clearly believes that Yoga can create almost supernatural "powers" (his words, not mine) which at times seems a bit over the top; He even admits that a large part of the Yoga community are sceptical of these supposed powers. But, naturally any such publication must take Some form of stand, if for nothing else than to Guide the reader, or make clear the distinction between the different school of thoughts.Though Yoga is practised by both Hindus and Buddhists, but beware that Phillips clearly takes the view of the Hindus - i.e accepting the notion of a permanent soul - and though I do so myself, and even though Phillips also - briefly - sketches the ideas of Buddhist Yoga, he obviously has a "bee in his bonnet" regarding Buddhist denial of the Self within Yoga and, again, I do agree with him, but it should be made clear that this is a book for aspiring Hindus, and less for aspiring Buddhist.I implore you to read this concise and in-depth overview of universal ideas in Vedic and Yoga culture.

Stephen Phillips is obviously a well-read, well-intentioned scholar. He has spent his academic life studying the Sanskrit literature of ancient India and has also taken a lot of yoga classes (about which we hear in some detail in Chapter 1). The posted reviews of this book induced me to purchase it. The reviews suggested that this was a closely reasoned and penetrating analysis of the doctrine of karma and yogic philosophy. What we have instead is a heterogenous collection of material prepared for an upper division course at the University of Texas, bundled together with excerpts from philosophical newsletters, encyclopedia articles and congress proceedings, with re-casting of work published elsewhere. To this is attached a series of translations of excerpts from the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, tantric texts from Kashmir, the Yoga Sutras and selections from Hatha Yoga Pradipaka. The book itself is a scant 162 pages followed by 190 pages of appendices, glossaries, bibliography and index.Yoga in this volume is not the yoga of the Yoga Sutras, but any thread of Indian thought that has ever used the word Yoga or concepts concerning or related to Yogic practices. This involves everything from the Tibetan Book of the Dead to Sri Aurobindo and reflections on Rawls's theory of justice in the context of re-birth.The writing style is extremely parenthetic: no idea is presented in a simple declarative sentence. Everything he thinks seems to make him think of something else, and this makes him think of something else. One senses here the difficulty that many academics experience in writing for popular audiences: imagining an army of colleagues over his shoulder criticizing what he has just said and noting the obvious exceptions. These qualifications and exceptions end up in almost every paragraph.There is plenty of information in this book but it is confusingly presented. If one wanted information about karma, yoga and rebirth, one might do better with Christopher Chapple's *Karma and Creativity*, 1986.

Haven't read it yet, but just as I expected and looking forward to reading it. I feel it provides an excellent overview of the subject areas the term yoga conveys to the eastern mind.