Quotes About Yoga

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.

Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one's being, from bodily health to self-realization. Yoga means union—the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one's actions.

The yogi stills his mind by constant study and by freeing himself from desires. The eight stages of Yoga teach him the way.

But a yogi never forgets that health must begin with the body. Your body is the child of the soul. You must nourish and train your child. Physical health is not a commodity to be bargained for. Nor can it be swallowed in the form of drugs and pills. It has to be earned through sweat.

Yoga is about the will, working with intelligence and self-reflexive consciousness, can free us from the inevitability of the wavering mind and outwardly directed senses.

Asanas maintain the strength and health of the body, without which little progress can be made. Asanas keep the body in harmony with nature.

Yoga is the teacher of yoga; yoga is to be understood through yoga. So live in yoga to realize yoga; comprehend yoga through yoga; he who is free from distractions enjoys yoga through yoga.

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

Patañjali is saying that yoga is a preventive healing art, science and philosophy, by which we build up robust health in body and mind and construct a defensive strength with which to deflect or counteract afflictions that are as yet unperceived afflictions.

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

The Six Emotional Disturbances Through yoga we are able to lessen the six emotional disturbances that cause us so much anguish: lust, pride and obsession, anger, hatred, and greed. They are called negative emotions by Western psychology or deadly sins by Christianity, and indeed these emotional reactions are enemies of spiritual growth when they are beyond our control. However, each of these emotions exists for a purpose and can be used wisely.

Religions tell us to get rid of these emotions, but we cannot. They are human emotions that we will feel whether we want to or not. Suppression does not work. George Stevenson invented the steam engine because he noticed that the steam in a boiling kettle lifted the lid. The force was irresistible. yoga is about channeling and transforming that energy to higher purposes, just as Stevenson used the energy of steam to drive locomotives.

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.

There is nevertheless a chance that we can break free from the imprisoning past and individually train ourselves to control this reactive mechanism in such a way that the old patterns are not repeated; new things truly can happen, and real changes can in fact take place. This dawning clarity is, in essence, the path of yoga.

This is the problem with "long termism," a problem yoga identified more than two thousand years ago. When life's rap on the knuckles is not immediate enough to react as a deterrent, or the reward does not come fast enough to act as a spur, we tend to fell and act like children. We seek immediate gratification.

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.

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.

Inhalation is tension, exhalation is freedom.

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

Notice your eyes as well, as you hold the stretch. Tenseness of the eyes also affects the brain. If the eyes are still and silence the brain is still and passive.

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.