Pranayama beyond the Fundamentals: An In-Depth Guide to Yogic Breathing

I own both of Rosen's books on Pranayama and multiple more traditional books. Unlike many other reviewers here, I really like his writing and teaching style. It's simple and straight to the point, without being overly detailed, which makes it very accessible for the Western mindset.Both of Rosen's books are great beginner/intermediate books on Pranayama, especially for the typical 'Do-it-yourself' mindset of Western Yoga students who don't seek out an individual, long-term guru/teacher. Rosen places a strong emphasis on developing your Pranayama practice slowly with as much ease and relaxation as possible, which I find extremely helpful since many people come to Yoga (and life) with a 'striving' and 'pushing' type of attitude.Personally, I do like his light-hearted and funny style of writing, and appreciate the translations of all the classical Pranayama names into English, since I can actually relate to the meaning of the English words, while the original Sanskrit names often remain an exotic conundrum. And unlike some of the other reviewers here, I didn't find Rosen's writing style at all 'ego-centered' or 'arrogant'. Quite on the contrary, he often makes remarks and quips that show that he doesn't take himself super seriously, nor that he would want to be seen as the 'know-it-all' expert on the topic, but simply as a fellow practitioner on the path, who shares whatever he knows from his years of practice and study.I have yet to find a better INTRODUCTION to Pranayama for Western students than Rosen's books, and I can only recommend them as great teaching tools for any Western Yoga teachers. If you don't want to read the books, there is also a seven CD audio-set by Rosen, which gives a similarly good introduction to Pranayama as the books do with many guided breathing practices.If, on the other hand, you already know a bunch about Pranayama, you might prefer Iyengar's 'Light on Pranayama', which in my opinion is not suitable for a beginners at all, since it's very, very detailed and technical with minute details of traditional Pranayama practice. On top of that, it's bone-dry, so not very enjoyable to read. But some might prefer that bare-bones style of writing.

This book was a disappointment upon opening it. I expected a genuine text giving a broader perspective of pranayma. What I found though is a book written in a jargon language difficult to convey the meaning to the reader and a series of exercises reminding a cookbook. The author's style is arrogant and egoistic reminding a self-promoting know-all guru than an author humble enough to respect the reader.

Lerned that Yoga is not for me so returned it. Some yoga is okay for me, just have to pick and choose.

Top notch resource for the yoga professional. Breaks down the basics and introduces higher-level concepts to use as a practitioner and to better understand how to teach to students.

I'll reiterate some of what has already been said but maybe shed some light out there. This book seems more like a continuation of his first book then necessarily going "beyond the fundamentals", which is what you get here. A bunch of fundamental techniques and basic instructions from the classical yogic texts as well as a host of things that he is bringing in from modern sources. It's these points that kind of drive me crazy as Rosen seems full of himself and quite smug as he consistently quotes classical sources and repeatedly dismisses them as invalid for our "modern times" giving no real insight into their meanings since his own teachers ( whom I've studied with as well) really don't know the deeper aspects of yoga and subtle energetics that are quite real. I mean you can't just pick up a classical work and read it like a normal book at all,which is what he does here repeatedly and totally superficially. This will likely impress some people, but having read classical texts both in translation and under real Vedic pundits from traditional lineages there is a huge gap between the two. There are many deep meanings in classical work as well as intentional mistakes given to throw off people. The fact that Rosen consistently urges you to "seek an experienced teacher" but quotes form ancient sources when he has likely never studied with an "experienced teacher" who was versed in these texts ( sorry Mr. Iyengar does not count) is just base hypocrisy. He completely dismisses the idea of working with the nadis/kundalini in our times and instead quotes some people using "modern" channels that are "imaginary", though I've personally experienced teachers with control over such forces and seen them open up my sushumna by mere thought amongst other things most people don't usually experience since they don't seek it out. Sorry but such talk will just further confuse people about yoga, stick to your subject man and don't make crap up if you don't really know about it!For a much better and traditional /authentic approach to the subject you should buy Gregor Maehele book on pranyama which really does go beyond the fundamentals and into very advanced practices for those of you with some background in all of this. With all that said, the book, along with his first one is a good introduction and study guide for people trying to develop a practice with or without a teacher though start with his first book and move here if you want to continue keeping in mind all of the above. But for me it was just a kind of rehash of things I already know and a couple of interesting tidbits along the way to play with. He could of at least touched on the power of mantra or more proper yogic visualizations in conjunction with pranyama which is taking it to the next level and what many more traditional sources do as it opens up whole new worlds of what these sciences can do. For that tip you can maybe check out some of the Bihar school's texts to give you a little bit of an idea, though those are fairly basic as well and you really need a living teacher to open up any of this knowledge properly. Good luck.

I didn't like the author's jokes and wise cracks about the original concepts / results of the breathing techniques. I didn't care for the changes to the names of the pranayama techniques - typical American attitude - our stuff is better than everybody else, so lets not learn to say and use the original names, because ours are easier and better. Just a lazy attitude.

Years ago I bought a book about Yogic breathing which was very beneficial to me, especially for relieving stress, decided to buy this book as it seemed to cover the BREATHING excercise bit, what a waste of time,there are a lot of bodily excercises and very little on Breathing, a lot about how good he is etc, no thanks.