B.K.S. Iyengar Quotes - Page 6

Illuminated emancipation, freedom, unalloyed and untainted bliss await you, but you have to choose to embark on the Inward Journey to discover it

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. If there is action, there must also be silence. If there is silence, there can be conscious action and not just motion.

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

Our greed comes from our fear that we will not have enough - whether it is money or love that we grasp. Yoga teaches us to let go of these fears and so to realize the abundance around us and within us.

The Yogi conquers the body by the practice of asanas, making the body a fit vehicle for the spirit. The Yogi knows that it is a necessary vehicle for the spirit, for a soul without a body is like a bird deprived of its power to fly.

Be inspired but not proud.

When you see a mistake in somebody else, try to find if you are making the same mistake.

From Freedom of the Body comes Freedom of the Mind and then Ultimate Freedom!

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 judgment and to turn it into improvement.

It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity.

Practice doing yoga with an innocent mind. Then, you will be able to cognize the things happening in your body

As breath stills our mind, our energies are free to unhook from the senses and bend inward.

As long as the body is not in perfect health, you think about it, and that prevents you from thinking of the mind. The sound mind is a sound body.

Breath is the vehicle of consciousness and so, by its slow measured observation and distribution, we learn to tug our attention away from external desires toward a judicious, intelligent awareness.

I think many of my students have followed the advice I gave years ago, to give more than you take.

The best way to overcome fear is to face with equanimity the situation of which one is afraid.

Sirsasana the king of all asanas and the reasons are not hard to find.

Extension brings space, space brings freedom, freedom brings precision. Precision is truth.

Without education, confidence does not come.

Health begins with firmness in the body, deepens to emotional stability, then leads to intellectual clarity, wisdom and finally the unveiling of the soul.

There is no difference in our souls...That is what yoga teaches. When you and I meet together, we forget ourselves -- our cultures and classes. There are no divisions, and we talk mind to mind, soul to soul. We are no different in our deepest needs. We are all humans.

A scientist sets out to conquer nature through knowledge - external nature, external knowledge. By these means he may split the atom and achieve external power. A yogi sets out to explore his own internal nature, to penetrate the atom (atma) of being. He does not gain dominion over wide lands and restless seas, but over his own recalcitrant flesh and febrile mind.

Feeling the movement of movements is wandering to the past or future. Living in the movements of movement is being in the present.

Health is not a commodity to be bargained for. It has to be earned through sweat.

To be dull is easy, to be active requires tremendous work.