You're going to be riveted by this story, told in prose so deliciously relaxed and chatty that you'll feel like you're sitting next to the author.
Even if you think you have no interest in yoga, you're going to love this book, because it's about the life journey that we're all on!
With wit and honesty and a refreshing lack of pretention, Paul McQuillan doesn't just tell it like it is, he tells it like it could be. Take a deep breath, open to page 1, read. It could change your life. No kidding.
- Richard Ouzounian (Columnist for the Toronto Star)
Summary of
I Hate Yoga
I Hate Yoga poses an intriguing question: How is it possible to become so disenchanted with an
age-old activity that historically offers so much healing and serenity? Sadly, even yoga can fall prey to the dark influences of western society.
Social media, a bad boy guru, religion, competitive yoga and “a multiplying spawn of self-righteous yoga knowers” are just a few of the culprits that are scrutinized in showing that yoga has lost its path. But it’s not too late to put it back on the
Buddha-bus to paradise. How? With an exorcism that humorously and earnestly rids yoga of its imposed impurities.
Then, as author Paul McQuillan explains, “Once we have cathartically performed our
ugly yoga striptease and thrown down each garment of bogus credibility and confusion, we will then focus on watching the Yoga-Phoenix rise from the ashes…this will take place only after the affectations surrounding yoga have been laid bare and exposed as nothing more than a societal red herring, distracting us from the beauty of
a profoundly beneficial art form.”
Such a transformational journey doesn’t happen easily, but once it begins, you may just find that there is an unlikely and surprising beneficiary: You.
Excerpt - INTRODUCTION
I love you and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling
you the truth than adore me for telling you lies. ~ Pietro Aretino
I hate yoga.
I really do. I don’t state this for effect.
Being grateful for something that has given me healing, prosperity, purpose
and meaningful relationships would be the evolved disclosure here.
But it isn’t. Because I hate it.
I’m too alarmingly focused on what contemporary western society has done to
yoga to find solace or understanding in the word anymore. Like many things in
the western world, yoga has been bastardized beyond recognition—to the point
where saying it’s an authentic form of healing would be a great disservice to
the sacred origin of the word. But after all, going to McDonald’s for a salad is
like going to a hooker for a hug.
North America is the hooker. Yoga is the hug. Just clarifying.
So few people in North America, especially teachers of yoga and supposed
“gurus”, actually know what yoga really is.
I certainly don’t and I’ve been teaching it for nine years, but I know this:
I hate it. I have to. It’s the only way to love it again.
The multiplying spawn of self-righteous yoga “knowers” must be obliterated. A
yoga war must ensue and I will begin by turning the gun on myself.
Being a card-carrying member, I know what it will take to destroy such a
breed. An exorcism must be performed; one that holds me and all “yoga experts”
out there accountable for what we’re doing.
If it seems like I’m tossing blame by starting the healing with yoga-hate,
let me explain my theory for therapy.
Sometimes, it’s necessary to hate something in order to revive its
credibility and actually benefit from it. It’s not unlike the feelings many of
us have experienced at the end of a nasty relationship. We hate that person—for
a while, anyway. Then, after a varying amount of time passes, that feeling
dissipates, the vitriol subsides, the whole experience just becomes information,
and we can look at it all with some insight and clarity.
Then, if the stars align, as they should, we learn.
Only then can we proceed responsibly and progressively with regards to the
subject, person or situation that has been a tainted aspect of our history.
It’s important to understand something: The first half of this book isn’t
about waxing poetic over the merits of yoga—pretentiousness cannot be part of
the blueprint here.
It’s about dismantling the pseudo-merits so that that we can uncover what’s
truly useful and start fresh.
Don’t worry. We’ll get the hate out of way quickly enough, but it’s an
integral part of the path.
In the teachings of Buddhism, one is told, “if you meet the Buddha, kill the
Buddha.” In other words, we are always on a journey with no destination. If we
ever feel like we’ve arrived, we didn’t really get the point. To name it is to
not really know it.
Let’s kill yoga and all of the bullshit that has manifested around it. It’s
time to let it die in our blood-soaked hands on our bullet-ridden yoga mats.
We’re going to do this together because here’s another admission: This book
isn’t about me. It’s about you—and what you can get from this increasingly
tarnished word by simply stripping it of all its labels and ludicrous
expectations.
And then, by practicing it.
I think I can help. As a matter of fact, I know I can.
Once we have cathartically performed our ugly yoga striptease and thrown down
each garment of bogus credibility and confusion, we will then focus on watching
the Yoga-Phoenix rise from the ashes.
We’ll remove the bewildering fear-factor surrounding yoga and explore the
truth behind the practice, revealing it to be a great healer. While on this
journey, we will discover that yoga is wonderfully accessible to all of us.
This will take place only after the affectations surrounding yoga have been
laid bare and exposed as nothing more than a societal red herring, distracting
us from the beauty of a profoundly beneficial art form.
I want
you to be the beneficiary.
Hang on, though. This first part could get a little ugly.
Available on
Amazon!
