Yoga and the Dark Night of the Soul by Simon Haas
“Despair is sometimes referred to as a form of yoga,” writes Simon Haas, “the purpose of crisis is to set us on our spiritual journey. . . . Life itself can be an ongoing state of darkness. If I could overcome this underlying dark night of the soul, I could eradicate crisis in my life altogether.”
In addition to having personal experience of the darkness of despair and assisting others through their dark nights, Simon is a master storyteller and insightful spiritual practitioner. He weaves stories with realized insights from the Bhagavad Gita that offer tangible solutions to the visible and invisible dark nights – those passages of life we want to retreat from or intentionally try to ignore through self-destructive behaviors.
I found this book impressive and inspiring.
Catherine L. Schweig, chief editor of Goddess: When She Rules and author of over fifty articles on yoga and the Bhagavad Gita, writes, “From a little girl at Heathrow airport and a dog on the Yorkshire Moors, to holy men in crematoriums and Indian monkeys, we hear inspiring stories sure to open our hearts and minds in learning to appreciate the potential power in darkness to rewrite our own life stories from ones of fear and confusion into those of love and compassion.”
From the back cover
“ . . . this contemporary guide to yoga’s ancient wisdom shows us how to overcome life’s greatest challenges, how to follow our life purpose, how to engage our heart in our yoga practice, and how to write our life story with love and compassion.”