Book Description

Yoga therapy holds the key to effectively addressing stress and lifestyle diseases. Conventional medicine is useful for alleviating symptoms, but yoga therapy that is grounded in traditional theory identifies and addresses causes deeper than the physical body. Yoga therapy practices build resistance to stress and increase resilience. Kazuo Keishin Kimura is a Raja Yoga Acharya who has devoted himself to making traditional yogic wisdom accessible in Japan. With this English translation of his book, he hopes to contribute internationally to yoga therapy's development as a respected modality. In this book, Kimura points out how traditional yoga theory is missing from modern-day yoga instruction. He then explains traditional yoga's view of the mind-body complex as five koshas (sheaths), each with specific functions and attributes. Just as medical doctors examine patients before deciding on treatment, yoga therapists must obtain informed consent and assess the conditions of all koshas. Understanding yoga's horse-drawn chariot metaphor for human structure and function is also helpful to see beyond symptoms and to identify root causes of disease. Kimura skillfully guides readers to understand these two theories of human structure and function, and illustrates how they can be incorporated into both yoga therapy assessment and practice.