André Van Lysebeth

André Van Lysebeth (born November 11, 1919 , † January 28, 2004 in Perpignan ) was a Belgian yogi and one of the pioneers of yoga in the West. He has written several standard works on yoga and one on tantra . His books have been translated into dozens of languages ​​and some have a circulation of millions. His teaching activity shaped a whole generation of yoga teachers.

biography

André Van Lysebeth began to practice yoga when he was about 26 years old. Since 1949 he was a student of Swami Sivananda , from whom he received letter instructions. It was not until 1963, shortly before his death, that Van Lysebeth met his master personally in Rishikesh , India . Sivananda awarded him the diploma of the "Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy" in Rishikesh and encouraged him to publish a yoga magazine for "the West". This has been published in French since 1963 under the title Yoga until today (2008). From 1964 he studied asanas with Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois . In 1965 he founded the Belgian Yoga Society and in 1972 together with Gérard Blitz (founder of the Club Méditerranée) the European Union of Yoga , the European branch of the International Yoga Federation . In 1967 Lysebeth traveled to South India to get to know the local yoga traditions.

André Van Lysebeth's first book J'apprends le Yoga (German title Yoga for People of Today ) was published in 1968 and is tailored to the Western way of life. According to the basic breathing and relaxation techniques, it describes the Rishikesh series compiled by Sivananda (contains 12 yoga basic positions), the sun salutation and cleansing techniques . The description of the asanas and their variants is meticulous and, due to the many references to possible errors, well suited for self-taught study. In contrast to the techniques of pranayama , they are harmless. A trademark of Van Lysebeth's books are the black and white photos, which nowadays seem a bit old-fashioned, in which the author and his wife Denise Van Lysebeth perform the asanas. Another trademark is the consistent Germanization of all Sanskrit terms : Tschakra instead of Chakra , Ujjay instead of Ujjayi , etc. Yoga for today's people also contains nutritional information: Van Lysebeth did not want his students to copy the daily routine of Indian yogis, but they should be holistic to practice healthy living. His next book Je perfectionne mon Yoga (1969, German title Through yoga to one's own self ) described further asanas and also "yogic cleansing techniques " Kriyas . The following book Pranayama - le dynamique du souffle describes the different breathing techniques of yoga. According to Van Lysebeth, he was the first to document certain advanced breathing exercises in a Western language and also to publish photos of exercises in Indian ashrams . The book offers a thorough explanation of the Indian conceptions of Prana / Apana and the chakras and is probably the only book on this subject that contains a note that all attempts to identify nadis and chakras with structures of the physical body have failed.

Works

• 1963. Founding and editing of the French-language magazine Yoga , which appeared every two months (sometimes in double and triple numbers). Issue 303 was published in March 2004.
• 1968. J'apprends le yoga , [dt.] Yoga for people of today - learn, practice, master , translated by Gabriel Plattner, 320 p., Gütersloh: Bertelsmann 1970, ISBN 3-570-00464-3
• 1969. Je perfectionne mon Yoga , [Ger.] Through yoga to one's own self , translated by Werner von Grünau, 330 p., Munich: Barth 1973
• 1971. Pranayama - la dynamique du souffle , [Eng.] Pranayama - the great power of the breath , translated by Gabriel Plattner, 278 S. Bern: Scherz 1972
• 1977. Ma séance de Yoga , together with Denise Van Lysebeth, [German] My daily yoga lesson , translated by Fritz Müser, 293 pages, Stuttgart: Hippokrates-Verlag 1981, ISBN 3-7773-0538-3
• 1988. Tantra, le culte de la féminité , [German] Tantra for people of today , translated by Stefan Barmann, 476 pages, Munich: Mosaik 1990, ISBN 3-570-03549-2
• 2002. 2 × 7 jours pour rajeunir , ISBN 2-08-201353-7 , (no German translation yet)

literature

• Laudation for his 80th birthday, from his son Willy Van Lysebeth in the Schweizer Yoga-Journal (can be ordered from the publisher)

Web links

• Website yogavanlysebeth.com (French)
• Literature by and about André Van Lysebeth in the catalog of the German National Library