B.K.S. Iyengar: Trending quotes (page 3)

“By drawing our senses of perception inward, we are able to experience the control, silence, and quietness of the mind. This ability to still and gently silence the mind is essential, not only for meditation and the inward journey but also so that the intuitive intelligence can function usefully and in a worthwhile manner in the external world.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 12-13

World , Intelligence , Sense , Silence

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

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 13

Fools

“Do not aim low, you will miss the mark. Aim high and you will be on a threshold of bliss.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 177

“Yoga goes beyond the physical motions. The practice of yogasana for the sake of health, to keep fit, or to maintain flexibility is the external practice of yoga.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Light on Life: B.K.S. Iyengar's Yoga Insights

Health

“My poor health was matched, as it often is when one is sick, by my poor mood. A deep melancholy often overtook me, and at times I asked myself whether life was worth the trouble of living.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Light on Life: B.K.S. Iyengar's Yoga Insights

Life , Health , Mood , Time

“As we explore the soul, it is important to remember that this exploration will take place within nature (the body), for that is where and what we are.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 6

Soul , Nature

“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.
Do not look at others' bodies with envy or with superiority.
All people are born with different constitutions. Never compare with others.
Each one's capacities are a function of his or her internal strength. Know your capacities and continually improve upon them.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 60

People , Way , Envy

“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.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 12

Intelligence , Learning

“Often, we hear people saying they remain active and light when they do just a little bit of asana practice. When a raw beginner experiences this state of well-being, it is not merely the external or anatomical effects of yoga. It is also about the internal physiological and psychological effects of the practice.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Light on Life: B.K.S. Iyengar's Yoga Insights

People , Light

“Nothing can be forced, receptivity is everything.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 12

“When I set off in yoga, I had no understanding of the greater glory of yoga. I too was seeking its physical benefits, and it was these that saved my life. When I say that yoga saved my life, I am not exaggerating. It was yoga that gave me a new birth with health from illness and firmness from infirmity.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, P.xvii

Life , Health , Birth , Understanding

“I can remain thoughtfully thoughtless. It is not an empty mind.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Ellen Barry "B. K. S. Iyengar, Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West, Dies at 95"

“True concentration is an unbroken thread of awareness.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 13

“Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stresses and struggles of life.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p.xv

Life , Peace

“The head is the seat of intelligence. The heart is the seat of emotion. Both have to work in cooperation with the body.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p. 29

Intelligence , Heart

“When I still find some parts of my body that I have not found before, I tell myself, yes I am progressing scientifically… I don't stretch my body as if it is an object. I do yoga from the self towards the body, not the other way around.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: BBC News "India yoga guru BKS Iyengar dies"

Way , Parting

“Because I want to make a good death.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

To a question posed to him “Why do you practise yoga? at the end of his lecture in Bristol quoted in: Silvia Prescott My teacher, Mr Iyengar: a former pupil remembers the yoga master http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/aug/22/my-teacher-bks-iyengar-yoga, The Guardian, 22 August 2014

Death

“Asanas keep the body healthy and strong and in harmony with nature.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: International Society for Phenomenology, Fine Arts, and Aesthetics. Conference Harvard Divinity School) Gardens and the Passion for the Infinite, Volume 78 http://books.google.co.in/books?id=GuImRK8_SRAC&pg=PA87, Springer Science & Business Media, 31 January 2003, p. 87

Nature , Strong

“It took me decades to appreciate the depth and true value of Yoga. Sacred texts supported my discoveries, but it was not that signposted the way. What I learned through yoga, I found out through yoga. I am not however, a “ self made man”. I am only what seventy-two years of devoted yoga sadhana has created out of me. Any contribution I have made to the world has been the fruit of my sadhana.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, P.x

World , Way , Support , Learning

“Yoga transformed my life from a parasitic one to a life of purpose. Later yoga inspired me to partake in the joy and nobility of life, which I carried to many thousands of people without consideration of religion, caste, gender, or nationality.”

B.K.S. Iyengar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, P.xi

Life , People , Religion , Joy