Those guys are definitely doing some good work, but I'm not so confident translating more scripture from the Indian tradition will have a noticeable effect on the American yoga culture.

There is already a considerable body of Indian philosophy that 99 percent of the people practicing out there choose to ignore. And for good reason! To really understand the stuff, you need commentaries and lots of them. You also need some grasp of the milieu that gave rise to certain movements (particularly complicated and diffuse movements like Kashmiri Shaivism).

Personally, I'm at the point where I think the West should come out of the closet with the fact that their yoga is their own and is 30 years old at most. It's a fascinating blend of western gymnastics, kushti (Indian wrestling warm-ups) and a couple of asanas mentioned in dualistic texts like the yoga sutra.

We've mixed this new form of physicality primarily with American Buddhism - particularly the insight meditation movement - and produced something all our own. Let's stop making tenuous historical connections and own this baby!!! At the very least, this will put an end toward yoga teachers trying to pretend like they actually find Patanjali interesting!!!!

Well said Chris. I think you captured the whole issue in your phrase"let's stop making tenuous historical connections and own this baby!!!" Thank you. It certainly is about time we North Americans (I'm Canadian) show some pride and accomplishment in our own creative yoga path. Every belief system, religion, spirituality adapts to the culture it is newly introduced to and develops its own unique version (witness asian and latin american christianity, cuban communism, indonesian islam,etc). It would be refreshing and liberating if we could stop all the constant criticizing of western style yoga. Comparing it to ancient Indian yoga and philosophy is not applicable.

Blessings