Yoga Connections

Discover the connections between yoga and the traditions expressed in Himalayan art.

Yoga is a system of philosophy and practice that seeks to help people align their body and mind in order to transform their experience. One translation of yoga is “yoke,” the tool used to connect an ox to a plough. Like yoga, the art objects in our collection, intended for ritual purposes as well as aesthetic ones, seek to link the worldly and the transcendent.

This month Alison West joins us to discuss a work of art that will inspire a conversation about yoga, its philosophies, and its visual representations. A breathing exercise will allow participants to internalize the discussed concepts.

About the Speaker

Alison West, PhD, ERYT, was recently named one of the most influential yoga teachers in America and is the director of Yoga Union and the Yoga Union Backcare and Scoliosis Center. She first established Yoga Union in 1996 in SoHo after studying widely and teaching yoga in New York for ten years, inspired by the Sivananda, Astanga, and Iyengar traditions. Her spiritual teachers include Ramana Maharshi, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Ayang Rinpoche. She is currently writing her first yoga book, Yoga for Backcare, which will be followed by Yoga for Scoliosis. Her art history research has been published by Cambridge University Press.