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by Donald R. English (Author)
The Octogenarian Yogi
Within a few months after writing The Octogenarian Yogi, the author turned eighty-six. Fortunately, he remains strong enough, healthy enough, and flexible enough that he teaches several weekly yoga classes, and continues to ride his bike between fifty and ninety miles a week. Through yoga, he has found a state of mental, emotional, and spiritual equilibrium.
However, it wasn't always like this. The first fifty-five years of his life resembled a game of Whack-A-Mole as he recovered from crisis after crisis. Sometimes it seemed luck or fate was on his side but most of the times not. Then, when things got very dark, he decided to jolt himself out of his ennui by hitchhiking from Buffalo to California in mid-winter.
Although the trip changed something, he could not then identify what it was. He vaguely realized that his life began to move in a more positive direction. Through a series of serendipitous events, he was accidentally exposed to yoga. He immediately realized he had found something important.
This, then, is the story of how he went from thinking yoga was a waste of time, to becoming its strong advocate. His journey of self-discovery traces those chaotic years to an eventual short visit to India, and later, a three-month Indian odyssey followed by a three-week yoga retreat. As the story unfolds, the reader is introduced to some of those who pointed him toward important insights and lessons. We meet a workshop presenter, an entrepreneur, a truck driver, a war veteran, a tour guide, and others, as the author acquires the tools to monitor his behavior and pilot his way through the ocean of life.
The Octogenarian Yogi is part memoir, part travelogue, and part instruction in some of the less well-known mental and spiritual practices of yoga. It is at heart a chronicle of events that eventually led to major personal insights.
