Quotes from B.K.S. Iyengar

The effects of impurity are highly undesirable. They cause us to develop a hard shell around us. If we construct a stiff shell between ourselves and the world outside our skin, we rob ourselves of most of life's possibilities. We are cut off from the free flow of cosmic energy. It becomes difficult in every sense to let nourishment in or to let toxic waste out.

Right pain is not only constructive but also exhilarating and involves challenge, while wrong pain is destructive and causes excruciating suffering.

Does not the American Declaration of Independence talk of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness? If a yogi had written that, he would have said, Life, Happiness, and the Pursuit of Liberty. Sometimes happiness may bring stagnation, but if freedom comes from disciplined happiness, there is the possibility of true liberation.

If you say you are your body, you are wrong. If you say you are not your body, you are also wrong. The truth is that although body is born, lives, and dies, you cannot catch a glimpse of the divine except through the body.

Awareness: Every Pore of the Skin Has to Become an Eye

The challenge of yoga is to go beyond our limits - within reason.

Zoals een boer een veld ploegt en de grond zacht maakt, ploegt een yogi de zenuwen zodat ze kunnen ontkiemen en een beter leven creëren. Deze yogabeoefening is bedoeld om onkruid uit het lichaam te wieden, zodat de tuin kan groeien. Als de grond te hard is, wat kan er dan groeien? Als het lichaam te stijf is en de geest te rigide, wat voor leven heeft het dan?

We continually expand the frame of the mind by using the canvas of the body. It is as if you were to stretch a canvas more and create a larger surface for a paining. But we must respect the present form of our body. If we pull too fast or too much at once, we will rip the canvas. If the practice of today damages the practice of tomorrow, it is not correct practice.

If the practice of today, damages the practice of tomorrow, it is not correct practice.

You must observe and correct the body position (adjusting it from both sides) with the help of the trillions of eyes that you have in the form of cells. This is how you begin to bring awareness to your body and fuse the intelligence of brain and brawn. This intelligence should exist everywhere in your body and throughout the asana. The moment you lose the feeling in the skin, the asana becomes dull, and the flow or current of the intelligence is lost.

Many yoga teachers ask you to do the asanas with ease and comfort and without any stress or true exertion. this ultimately leaves the practitioner living within the limits of his or her mind, with the inevitable fear, attachment, and pettiness.

Your brain may say, "We can do it." But the knee may say, "Who are you to dictate to me? It is for me to say whether I can do it or not." So you have to listen to what the body says. Sometimes the body cooperates with you, and sometimes it thinks things over.

By interweaving, I mean that all the threads and fibers of our being at every level are dawn into contact and communication with each other. This is how the body and the mind learn to work together.

As I have said, while doing yoga, the body must tell one what to do, not the brain. Brain has to cooperate with the message it receives from the body. I will often say to a student, "Your brain is not in your body! That is why you can't get the asana." I mean of course that his intelligence is in his head and not filling his body.

You must learn to move the brain a bit more slowly so that it follows the body, or you have to make the body move faster to match the intelligence of the brain. Let the body be the doer, the brain the observer.

After acting, reflect on what you have done. Has the brain interpreted the action correctly? If the brain does not observe correctly, then there is confusion in action. The duty of the brain is to receive knowledge from the body and then guide the body to further refine the action. Pause and reflect between each movement.

Pausing to reflect on your movement does not mean that you are not reflecting through the movement. There should be constant analysis throughout the action, not just afterward. This leads to true understanding.

When we ask ourselves, "What am I doing?" and "Why am I doing it?" our minds open. This is self-awareness.

Self-awareness is the opposite of self-consciousness. When you are self-aware, you are fully within yourself, not outside yourself looking in. You are aware of what you are doing without ego or pride.

When you cannot hold the body still, you cannot hold the brain still. If you do not know the silence of the body, you cannot understand the silence of the mind. Action and silence have to go together.

You watch yourself from the inside. It is a full silence. Maintain a detached attitude toward the body and, at the same time, do not neglect any part of the body or show haste but remain alert while doing the asana.

Rushing saps the strength, whether you are in Delhi or New York.

The moment you bring attention, you are creating something, and creation has life and energy.

The yogi's life is not measure by the number of his days but by the number of his breaths. Therefore, he follows the proper rhythmic patterns of slow deep breathing. These rhythmic patterns strengthen the respiratory system, soothe the nervous system and reduce craving. As desires and cravings diminish, the mind is set free and becomes a fit vehicle for concentration.