Quotes About Balance

When we free ourselves from physical disabilities, emotional disturbances, and mental distractions, we open the gates to our soul.

Asana is perfect firmness of body, steadiness of intelligence, and benevolence of spirit.

The mind (manas) and the breath (prana) are intimately connected and the activity or the cessation of activity of one affects the other.

For one who lacks ethical discipline and perfect physical health, there can be no spiritual illumination. Body, mind and spirit are inseparable: if the body is asleep, the soul is asleep. The

Stability-The Physical Body (Asana)

I am fanatical with myself when I practice yoga. It is true. You should be fanatical with yourself, but not with others.

All illness fragments and so whatever integrates also heals. It is axiomatic in yoga that illness has its origin in the consciousness. Self-cultivation really begins only with total self-absorption, so anything that facilitates concentration, reflection, and inward absorption, is going to begin to heal the problems of the fissured, imbalanced self.

hallar un equilibrio de polaridad, no el antagonismo de la dualidad.

Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher, said, "Know yourself. Know what is good. Know when to stop.

From head to heels, you must find your center, and from this center you must extend and expand longitudinally and latitudinally. If extension is from the intelligence of the brain, expansion is from the intelligence of the heart. While doing asana, both the intellectual intelligence and the emotional intelligence have to meet and work together. Extension is attention, and expansion is awareness, I often say.

When most people stretch, they simply stretch to the point that they are trying to reach, but they forget to extend and expand from where they are. When you extend and expand, you are not only stretching to, you are also stretching from.

Overstretching occurs when one loses contact with one's center, with the divine core. Instead, the ego wants simply to stretch further, to reach the floor, regardless of its ability, rather than extending gradually from the center. Each movement must be an art. It is an art in which the Self is the only spectator.

One should not overstretch, nor understretch. If one thing is overstretched, something else get understretched. If overstretching comes from a swollen ego, then understretching results from lack of confidence. If overstretching is exhibitionism, understretching is escapism. Overstretching and understretching are both wrong: Always stretch from the source, the core, and the foundation of each asana.

Extend the energy of the asana out through your extremities. Let the river flow through you.

The mind does not balance when you force.

Inhalation is tension, exhalation is freedom.

Although I final asana can be judged objectively only from the exterior, it is sustained from within.

Relaxation begins from the outer layer of the body and penetrates the deep layers of our existence.

When an asana is done correctly, the body movements are smooth, and there is lightness in the body and freedom in the mind.

in all asanas, ascend to descend and descend to ascend.

As a farmer ploughs a field and makes the ground soft, a yogi ploughs his nerves so they can germinate and make a better life. This practice of yoga is to remove weeds from the body so that the garden can grow. If the ground it too hard, what life can grow there? If the body is too stiff and the mind is too rigid, what life can it live?

In contrast to rigidity, tension is not good or bad. it has to be present at the right time in the right amount. Weighing or balancing it evenly is life. There is nothing in this world where yogis say there should be no tension at all. Even dead bodies have tension. You have to find the right amount of tension in your body. The right amount will keep all of your energy in your body. Too much tension is aggression.

You must keep your balance by using the intelligence of the body (whether instinct, feeling, or ability) but not by strength. When you keep the balance by strength, it is physical action; when by intelligence of the body, it is relaxation in action. Evenness is harmony, and in that evenness alone you learn.

When performing asanas, no part of the body should be idle, no part should be neglected.