Lino Miele's 'New' book : Primary to Advanced B, Ashtanga Yoga - The Yoga of Breath

It seems I bought Lino's new book the other day. I know I was thinking about it, hovering over the BUY button, taking it in and out of the Yogamatters basket but I really don't remember actually ordering it. Big surprise today then when it turned up as I was actually expecting Lino's 2nd and Advanced A series DVD with Gwendolyn Hunt which I knew I had bought ( that one should arrive tomorrow).

I've been hearing about Lino's new book for about a year, since it came out in Italian, but there's been virtually no information on it, no look inside anywhere. So here is my very own preview as well as a comparison with his previous book.

Basically the new book is the old one but with some extras and a couple of small changes.

Here they are side by side. The earlier book, Primary and 2nd series, was a hard back, the new book is a paperback but still nicely bound, I actually prefer it.


Substantially thicker as the new book contains all the Vinyasa for Advanced A and B in the same layout as for the previous book.






 The introduction is important, it outlines how the book came about. I knew that Lino had prepared the vinyasa from Primary to Advanced B but that in the 90's Pattabhi Jois had asked him only to publish the Primary and second series. What I didn't know was that Pattabhi Jois had given his blessing for the publication of the other two series a few years before he passed away. There's a nice moment ( on the third page below) where Lino mentions how much things had changed with the new shala but that after he had done teaching in the new Shala Pattabhi Jois would teach at the old shala and invited Lino along, he says he practiced there in the space where he used to place his old mat, just like in the old days.

Yes I know, the pictures aren't great but I just want to give you an idea of the book rather than spoil it for when you buy it ( I notice somebody has already 'stolen' the Italian version and posted it in Scribd, thankfully it's an awful photocopy).






The famous poster, Lino found these old pictures of the young Pattabhi Jois, notice though that in Chataranga we have him in his 80's, supposedly the original was so damaged that Lino had to ask to take a new photo.




And in place of the pictures of Sharath from the first book we again have Lino. If you've never seen a copy of the book below is how Lino presents the vinyasa throughout. Very clear, clean presentation, he mentions in the interview section that he worked with Pattabhi Jois for hours each day after class and asked him three times at least to explain the vinyasa to make sure he explained it the same way each time.

I should add that for the Primary series (only) Lino includes the health benefits for each posture as told to him by Pattabhi Jois.


Remember I mentioned that Lino wrote the book Primary to Advanced B ( although only Primary to 2nd series was published) back in the 90s, at the time he had only just begun Advanced B. Annie pace offered to help out with the pictures for that series and these have been included in the book (as well as a short introduction to that section by her which was rather sweet ).