Richard Jewell, College Writing Specialist

This translation of the famous Hindu Yoga Sutras restores author Patanjali's practical advice, nature metaphors, and kindness. It also shows his reliance on the ancient Rig Veda and early Buddhist scriptures. The translator, editor, and commentary author has meditated using the book's practices for over fifty years and has used the most modern resources for translation, including the newest Sanskrit dictionaries, the Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, and the University of Texas-Austin's recent "Base Form Dictionary from [the] Rig Veda."

Richard Jewell has practiced meditation since 1962 as a young teenager, driving his father's tractor up and down long fields. In those rows of corn and soybeans, he learned to hold an image in his mind and let other pictures and words come to it--a practice he later learned is a method in Hindu jnana yoga.

In his mid-teens, he began studying and practicing several Christian, New Age, and Buddhist meditation techniques. In college, after studying Hindu philosophy and religion for two terms under Dr. V. Madhusudan Reddy, a visiting professor, he began practicing the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo Ghose, an Indian scholar, saint, and revolutionary war hero.

He has continued this practice through the present, while also researching and experimenting with a variety of other practices in Hinduism, Christianity, New Age meditation, Buddhism, and Judaism. After retirement, he began writing books about meditation. These now include an online dictionary of Western meditation, www.Meditationary.org; and an introduction to Hindu practices, www.BodyMeditation.org. He continues working on several more, one of which, half completed and online, is an updated translation of Patanjali's 2000-year-old meditation handbook called Yoga Sutras, the first two chapters of which are at www.YogaSutras.org).

Richard also finished a fictional reimagining of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, The 5th Gospel, www.5thGospel.org, based on the readings of 20th century seer Edgar Cayce and on Richard's years of Biblical research. And since 2017, he has been writing a mix of Eastern- and Western-based spiritual poems; and, for the large downtown-Minneapolis Plymouth Congregational Church, one or two yearly "Lenten Meditations."

In retirement, he has increased his practice of meditation. Richard Jewell has practiced meditation since 1962 as a young teenager, driving his father's tractor up and down long fields. In those rows of corn and soybeans, he learned to hold an image in his mind and let other pictures and words come to it--a practice he later learned is a method in Hindu jnana yoga.

Home page: http://richardjewell.org (also http://richard.jewell.net or http://richardjewell.net). You may find this page by Googling "richard jewell meditation" or "richard jewell college teaching." Questions? Email richard at jewell dot net (change "at" to "@" and "dot" to a period).

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