The only thing I got out of "The Natural"

"Experience makes good people better."

She was staring at the lake. "How does it do that?" "Through their suffering." "I had enough of that," he said in disgust. "We have two lives, Roy, the life we learn with and the life we live with after that. Suffering is what brings us toward happiness."

Seriously, I am the only person I know who's read this "best baseball book ever" and not liked it. I just, ummm, didn't get it. But don't let that stop you from reading it. Maybe i'll try it again in a few years. For now, the reminder that "Suffering is what brings us toward happiness" was all I needed from this book.

Bikram (the man) says pretty much the same thing, several times over the course of the recorded class that I occasionally practice with at home. (He also hammers it in his books, particularly the newer, orange one.) For all of the disenchanting stuff that I hear about the man, he seems fine in the class. If you haven't listened to the CD class, I highly recommend it. It's available at iTunes, and probably your studio.