This book is the product of a spirit of engagement with life and an active examination of the relationship that is shared between the authors and our families, friends, colleagues, and teachers. We could not have written this without the support of a network of people around us who, on various levels, sympathize with our experiments in yoga. Our families have provided an ongoing source of support and inspiration throughout this process, reminding us of the need to ground our ideas in the “real world” experience of daily life. Our friends have also played important roles in helping us develop our ideas, often through late-night conversations and jam sessions. Our academic colleagues and fellow yoga practitioners have helped create a supportive laboratory context in which we have striven to develop our ideas and our practices. Lastly, we wish to acknowledge the collective efforts of our many teachers, whose instruction continues to help us grow into more kind, compassionate, and peaceful human beings. We hope that any fraction of their inspiration and light shines through in this work.
Stuart would especially like to thank his loving and fierce partner, Sara Zeman, and his daughters, Tara and Stella Sarbacker; his parents, John and Margaret Sarbacker; his friends and compatriots Richard Miller and Michael Baker; his friends and colleagues in the School of History, Philosophy, and Religion at Oregon State University; his friends, faculty, and students from the Eugene School of Yoga, especially Kevin Kimple and Dan Cox; and his many mentors and teachers, including Chris Chapple, Ian Whicher, Gerald Larson, Indira Junghare, T. S. Rukmani, David Knipe, John Dunne, Sriram Agashe, and Manju Jois, among many others.
Kevin would like to thank Richard Freeman, to whom he is forever grateful for tolerating his incessant shout-outs and interruptions, for splitting his head wide open and demonstrating how deep the exploration of yoga and relationship can really go, and for leading his way to his studies with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, who insisted that he always practice through his fears and many “bad thoughts.” To Guruji, his deepest thanks for instilling in him the faith that he simply needed to keep practicing and everything else would fall into place. Thanks also to Raymond Hill, his high school principal, who devoted his life to his students and created the context for so many to flourish, and David Wood, who saved him from imminent self-destruction and taught him to dance through life. Kevin sends all his love to his son, Kirpal, whose very presence reminds him daily of what is truly important. Lastly, he thanks all in the great lineage of teachers.
We both would like to thank the eminent yoga author Stefanie Syman for encouraging us to bring the project to FSG; Katie Van Heest at Tweed Editing, who helped bring a shine to the book in the final stages of writing and editing; and Jeff Seroy at FSG, whose adventurous spirit has played a key role in bringing the project to fruitful completion.