sun square moon: writings on yoga and writing

by Inez Baranay

Writings on yoga practice and writing practice, how yoga and writing reflect, support or conflict with each other, by a widely published author and a long-time yoga practitioner. Practice, discipline, dreams, the body, tradition and life are some of its themes. First published in India and with a review by N Sjoman, author of The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace.

110 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 9, 2006

About the author

I was born in Italy of Hungarian parents who migrated to Australia when I was a baby. It is a bit amazing how often and how recently I am still asked about this. I grew up feeling foreign and now accept feeling foreign wherever i am. I lived for most of my first 40 years in Sydney, with some of my high school years spent in Malaya and later I travelled overseas more and more. After a year in Papua New Guinea I lived in Queensland on my return to Australia, in the Far North then on the Gold Coast. Many of my travels took me to India -- 12 times so far -- where three of my books were first published. In 2007 I moved out of my beachside home with a one-way ticket to USA and Europe: 5 months in Amsterdam, 6 months in Rome then various periods in several places in Europe, India, USA and Australia. Eventually I wanted to live somewhere for a longer time and on my first visit to Istanbul in November 2011 fell in love with this city and now Istanbul is where I live.
You can read more biography at my website http://www.inezbaranay.com/

Reviews

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the proposition of this book, and that exists.

I love reading it while on practice retreat for ashtanga yoga in Mysore, India, 30-some years after the author wrote. This creates an extremely strong feeling of parallel lives - Baranay is two generations back, she is an Iyengar practitioner, she is writing is Pune.

So for me, a diarist and yoga teacher in India in 2016, the book is an extremely rich historical document. There are so many little points of contact. For example, the author worries about the vanity of yoga study trips by westerners - are they just coming for career advancement? She expresses the biases and the personality of her guru, BKS Iyengar, who so clearly is an organizing force in her consciousness.

I didn't particularly enjoy the book. Many questions are introduced, but not explored. Some axes are ground, but not to a very fine point. It's not funny or passionate. The author's rigid feeling around rites and rituals disturbs me a bit. The text often feels hard-nosed, analytical.

And so, my dream of a parallel world soul sister was not fulfilled. Still it is an amazing historical note on yoga and writing by westerners in India. It is the beginning of a genre, and for this reason alone worth a read for many.

This was written at a time when the ideas of body as text was newly sexy. When it was being really felt among some writers that writing necessitates, and implies, the body. The author, before writing, has recently read Helene Cixious. So there is some awareness here of the gritty, animal aspects of writing, especially personal memoir. But for most of this read I felt the author articulating this more as concept than as eros.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking book on the relations between yoga and writing as physical, thoughtful, and ethical practices. A kind of manifesto and journal rolled into a form that makes you want to stretch your body and mind.