B.K.S. Iyengar Quotes - Page 8

The aim of yoga is to calm the chaos of conflicting impulses.

Yoga allows you to rediscover a sense of wholeness in your life, where you do not feel like you are constantly trying to fit broken pieces together.

To do is hard, but to teach is still harder. Do not teach only to teach. Teach to improve the pupil. To be a teacher requires tremendous, vigorous discipline on oneself. We are teachers because somebody demands it from us. But the teacher should first rub his own self, and teach afterwards

Yoga is effort. Only practice is important. The rest of knowledge is only theory.

Ignorance has no beginning, but it has an end. There is a beginning but no end to knowledge.

Hard work and humility are essential for spiritual sadhana.

We often fool ourselves that we are concentrating because we fix our attention on wavering objects.

A yogi's brain extends from the bottom of the foot to the top of his head

In order to find out how to reveal our innermost Being, the sages explored the various sheaths of existence, starting from body and progressing through mind and intelligence, and ultimately to the soul. The yogic journey guides us from our periphery, the body, to the center ofour being, the soul. The aim is to integrate the variouslayers so that the inner divinity shines out as through clear glass.

The physical body is not only a temple for our soul, but the means by which we embark on the inward journey toward the core.

Willpower is concrete, not ethereal. When you do something, you demonstrate your willpower, and it becomes all the easier to have the same power of will the next time.

If the foundation is firm the building can withstand calamities. The practice of yoga is the foundation so that the self is not shaken under any circumstances.

The pose begins when you want to leave it.

Backbends are not poses meant for expressionism. Backbends are meant to understand the back parts of our bodies. The front body can be seen with the eyes, but the back body can only be felt. That's why I say these are the most advanced postures, where the mind begins to look at the back.

Yoga is firstly for individual growth, but through individual growth, society and community develop.

Asanas penetrate deep into each layer of the body and ultimately into the consciousness itself.

Yoga is the music of the soul. So do continue, and the gates of the soul will open.

While doing the postures, your mind should be in half-consciousn ess, which does not mean sleep. It means silence, emptiness, space, which can then be filled with an acute awareness of the sensations given by the posture. You watch yourself from inside. It is a full silence.

How can you know God if you don't know your big toe?

Yoga is an art, a science and a philosophy. It touches the life of man at every level, physical, mental, and spiritual. It is a practical method for making one's life purposeful, useful and noble.

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.

Is it necessary to practice all these asanas, further and further? Is it necessary to develop scientific researches further and further? To a yogi, the body is a laboratory, a field of experiments and perpetual researches.

The conjunction of effort, concentration and balance in asana forces us to live intensely in the present moment, a rare experience in modern life.

We have two physical eyes, but every pore of the body is also an eye.

One has to see oneself through one's actions, works, and mind. Knowing the Self by the self is not as easy as writing that line. A #‎ yogi sees things in every movement he makes, maybe when practicing, maybe when teaching, or maybe when talking to people. You should have courage in your convictions and pursue what is dear to you all these years.