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ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book is an extraordinary celebration of human achievement — extraordinary not only because one man possessed the grace and prowess to execute so many yoga postures, but because he also had the determination to photograph himself doing them.

For organizational purposes, Asanas groups the postures into eight broad sections. It would be a mistake to take those categories too literally because unlike other exercise regimes, yoga works on both the outside of the body and the inside. While a pose may appear to be a back stretch, it’s likely to also be working the legs and arms, increasing the flow of blood to specific glands and organs, and clarifying the practitioner’s relationship with the cosmos.

The majority of the photos were shot in 1984, when Dharma was 45 years old. In the years since, some of the original negatives were lost or damaged, thus when it came time to put this book together, Dharma had to photograph himself again. It was impossible to replicate the original lighting conditions, so the newer shots have a different, more dense quality. Perhaps it is testimony to the

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