Quotes from B.K.S. Iyengar

You must purge yourself before finding faults in others. When you see a mistake in somebody else, try to find if you are making the same mistake. This is the way to take judgement and turn it into improvement. Do not look at others' bodies with envy or with superiority. All people are born with different constitutions. Never compare with others. Each one's capacities are a function of his or her internal strength. Know your capacities and continually improve upon them.

You, my readers, must understand that you are already starting from somewhere. You have the beginning already shown to you, and no one knows in what wholeness and felicity you may end. I you take up any noble line and stick to it, you can reach the ultimate. Be inspired but not proud. Do not aim low; you will miss the mark. Aim high; you will be on the threshold of bliss.

Hindus often say the GOD is Generator, Organizer, and Destroyer. Inhalation is the generating power, retention is the organizing power, and exhalation, if the energy is vicious, is the destroyer. This is prana at work. Vigor, power, vitality, life, and spirit are all forms of prana.

What Patanjali said applies to me and will apply to you. He wrote, "With this truth bearing light will begin a new life. Old unwanted impression are discarded and we are protected from the damaging effects of new experiences." (Yoga Sutras, Chapter 1, Verse 50)

To get freedom, you have to bear the pain. this is equally true in life.

Yoga is not meant to be a religion or dogmas for any one culture. While yoga sprang from the soil of India, it is meant as a universal path, a way open to all regardless of their birth and background.

Prana is special because it carries awareness. it is the vehicle of consciousness.

Pain comes only when the body does not understand how to do the asana, which is the case in the beginning. In the correct posture, pain does not come. To learn the right posture, you have to face the pain. There is no other way.

There is no progress toward ultimate freedom without transformation, and this is the key issue in all people's lives, whether they practice yoga or not. If we can understand how our mind and heart works, we have a chance to answer the question, "Why do I keep making the same old mistakes?

The genius of nature's intelligence is self-expression. That is why nature is infinitely varied, infinitely inventive. Prana is out link to this infinite intelligence.

You have to tame your breath to tame your brain. Live from moment to moment absorbed in the unruffled flow of the circular movement of the in- and out-breaths. It's current should be like that of a very full, stately river, whose movements cannot be seen.

It is almost impossible to jump from "bad" to "best" without passing through "good." Also, as ignorance recedes, "good" is an infinitely more comfortable place to be than "bad." What we call "bad" is ignorance in action and, as a strategy for life, thrives only on darkness.

Pranayama is not performed by the power of will. The breath must be enticed or cajoled, like catching a horse in a field, not by chasing after it, but by standing still with an apple in one's hand.

If you want a simple way to remember the relationship between asana and concentration (dharana), it is this: If you learn a lot of little things, one day you may end up knowing a big thing.

In this way, pain can be a great teacher, which educates us how to live with it and eventually say goodbye.

It is not just that yoga is causing all of this pain; the pain is already there. It is hidden. We just live with it or have learned not to be aware of it. It is as if your body is in a coma. When you begin yoga, the unrecognized pains come to the surface. When we are able to use out intelligence to purify our bodies, then the hidden pains are dispersed.

There is a biblical phrase "an eye for an eye," a philosophy of revenge, not justice. But Mahatma Ghandi warned that in a world ruled by an eye for an eye, soon the whole world will be blind.

Internal mistakes such as forcing , acting without observing, tightening the throat, and blocking the ears create habits, and these habits create lack of awareness, constriction, heaviness, tightness, imbalance, and pain.

It is here that yogasana and pranayama practice allow us to understand our mind and reach our soul. To a yogi, the body is a laboratory for life, a field of experimentation and perpetual research.

If citta is the sea, its movements (vrttis) are the ripples. Body, mind and consciousness are in communion with the soul; they are now free from attachments and aversions, memories of place and time. The impurities of body and mind are cleansed, the dawning light of wisdom vanquishes ignorance, innocence replaces arrogance and pride, and the seeker becomes the seer. Vibhuti

There are only two ways to confront pain: to live with the pain forever or to work with the pain and see if you can eradicate it.

We are mortal clay, and we return to dust. All cultures recognize this truth, but nowadays we treat it as a mere metaphor. It is more than that. As you explore your own body, you are in fact exploring this element of nature itself. You are also developing the qualities of earth within yourself: solidity, shape, firmness, and strength.

Sensitivity is not weakness or vulnerability. It is clarity of perception and allow judicious, precise action.

While me must recognize the existence and importance of pain, we must not glorify it. Where pain exists, there must be a reason for it.