Photo of Tias Little by Robert Sturman
If life-force (prana), or wisdom is something that could be seen, what we could see if we looked at what lives in the heart and mind of teacher and author Tias Little would be as breathtakingly vast as the California coastline. His light has been a guiding star for me. I had spent much of my life, racing up the cliffs in search of such wide vistas. But, Tias’ practices and patience led me deep inside myself, and of course that is where the greatest spaces opened. Tias is one of my all-time heroes and his teachings offer permission to slow down, to drop in, and to go deep.
In his new, utterly comprehensive book: Yoga of the Subtle Body, Tias mines the depths of human anatomy, psychology, and the invisible, indescribable, world beneath and beyond. Tias leads us right into heart of the spiritual practice where we discover buried treasures and the brightest jewels of all.
Yoga of the Subtle Body explores how the most essential healing practices of ancient and modern science offer information about the inexplicable creative forces within us. With poetic language that swirls breath and body together with the mysteries of the mind, Tias connects the wisdom found in Traditional Chinese Medicine with Hindu mythology and Zen Buddhism to the complex matrix of our interconnected neurological webs. He is evocative in his metaphors and imagery. For example, Tias compares the diaphragm muscle to an altar, the functional anatomy of a healthy hip joint to drinking from a wine cup, and inner ear equilibrium to the time space continuum. More than comparisons; these are a few of the intriguing titles of the chapters.
His words conjure the incense of the scared in the temple of the spirit.
Tias Little knows as much about the waves of intuition as he does about movement and the pulsations heart beat and cranial-sacral fluid. His surgical precision lifts the veil of the body to reveal the electricity of life itself that is far more than simple muscle, bone, organ, and liquid. He is a shaman who is the master of the ordinary and the unseen and he uses alchemy to describe the invisible energetics and the microcosmic orbits that encircle us all. This combination of science and sprit gives readers a guide to their most profound and often mysterious self. In this book, Tias has drawn the roadmap to real transformation.
In the book’s forward, Richard Freeman describes Tias Little’s rich resource on the subtle body as a secret source, an outline to optimal health, love, and wisdom. He highlights the markers on Little’s path “as gods, goddesses, wheels, flowers, amazing animals and mythological realms.” We enter this wonderland through the root chakra and travel up the spine, culminating through the bud of the thousand-petaled lotus blossom of the crown chakra. With grace and passion, Little guides us through rivers of lymphatic fluid, the intricate grids of the nadis, sacred geometry and Indian lore. He encourages us to become quiet and still. As much a complete anatomy text as it is a spiritual guide, Yoga of the Subtle body offers encyclopedic thoroughness with the sweetness of love poems. Asana, pranayama, mudra, and meditation practices are all included in this must-read for every serious practitioner.
