Top 100 B.K.S. Iyengar Quotes
#1. Feeling the movement of movements is wandering to the past or future. Living in the movements of movement is being in the present.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#2. 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.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#3. People say that steadiness of mind is an end; no, it is a beginning. I am there; I can explain everything up to that point. Then I struggle to discover what comes after, so this steadiness is not an end, it is the beginning and the instrument.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#4. There is a universal reality in ourselves that aligns us with a universal reality that is everywhere.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#5. Life itself seeks fulfillment as plants seek sunlight.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#6. 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.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#7. How can you know God if you don't know your big toe?
B.K.S. Iyengar
#8. If you open the armpits, the brain becomes light. You cannot brood or become depressed.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#9. The whole thrust of yogic philosophical and scientific inquiry has therefore been to examine the nature of being, with a view to learning to respond to the stresses of life without so many tremors and troubles.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#10. One day you too may experience what I have experienced. So right away go and practise.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#11. Not all practitioners can jump to that highest level. They have to climb, step by step from the physical sphere to reach the spiritual sphere. If it is treated as exercise it is not the fault of yoga but of the practitioners.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#12. When we free ourselves from physical disabilities, emotional disturbances, and mental distractions, we open the gates to our soul.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#13. When you are practicing, do not just do that for the sake of doing. Learn to reflect while you are practising. Make your mind and brain observe and relearn what you are doing. Doing is mechanical; learning is dynamic.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#14. This practice of yoga is to remove the weeds from the body so that the garden can grow.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#15. After a session of yoga, the mind becomes tranquil and passive.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#16. The mind is the king of the senses, and the breath is the king of the mind
B.K.S. Iyengar
#17. The art of teaching is tolerance. Humbleness is the art of learning.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#18. There is only one reality, but there are many ways that reality can be interpreted.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#19. Practice doing yoga with an innocent mind. Then, you will be able to cognize the things happening in your body
B.K.S. Iyengar
#20. Yoga is an interior penetration leading to integration of being, senses, breath, mind, intelligence, consciousness, and Self. It is definitely an inward journey, evolution through involution, toward the Soul, which in turn desires to emerge and embrace you in its glory.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#21. We often fool ourselves that we are concentrating because we fix our attention on wavering objects.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#22. Do not allow past experiences to be imprinted on your mind. Perform asana each time with a fresh mind and with a fresh approach.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#23. It took me whole decades to appreciate the depth and true value of yoga. Sacred texts supported my discoveries, but it was not they that signposted the way. What I learned through yoga, I found out through yoga.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#24. When stability becomes a habit, maturity and clarity follow.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#25. Do not live in the future, only the present is real
B.K.S. Iyengar
#26. First yoga deals with health, strength and conquest of the body. Next, it lifts the veil of difference between the body and the mind. Lastly, it leads the Sadhaka to peace and unalloyed purity.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#27. We are creatures that are designed for continual challenge. We must grow or we begin to die ... So just standing still isn't really an option. We have to move on. If not, disturbances will come.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#28. Any action done with beauty and purity, and in complete harmony of body, mind and soul, is Art.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#29. Don't practice for cosmetic beauty, practice for cosmic beauty. Practice for inner beauty and inner light.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#31. In forward bends, one uses the outer mind while in backbends the outer mind is silenced and the inner mind is made to work.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#32. Yoga is effort. Only practice is important. The rest of knowledge is only theory.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#33. The flexibility we gain in asana is the living symbol of the suppleness we gain in relation to life's problems and challenges.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#34. 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.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#35. The highest point of yesterday should be the lowest point of today
B.K.S. Iyengar
#36. The body has to be invaded by the intelligence; each part has to become intelligent.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#37. Anything physical is always changing, therefore, its reality is not constant, not eternal.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#38. By drawing our senses of perception inward, we are able to experience the control, silence, and quietness of the mind.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#39. Our flawed mechanisms of perception and thought are not a cause for grief, but an opportunity to evolve, for an internal evolution of consciousness that will also make possible, in a sustainable form, our aspirations toward what we call individual success and global progress.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#40. 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.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#41. Through surrender the aspirant's ego is effaced, and ... grace ... pours down upon him like a torrential rain.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#42. The study of asana is not about mastering posture.
It's about using posture to understand and transform yourself.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#43. The yogi learns to forget the past and takes no thought for the morrow. He lives in the eternal present.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#44. Words cannot convey the value of yoga - it has to be experienced.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#46. The ribs are the wings of the body. Open your wings.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#47. The needs of the body are the needs of the divine spirit which lives through the body.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#48. The decision to relax rather than to grip, even in the face of impatience or fear, is a conscious and brave choice.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#49. Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#50. The back is like a frame, the front body, the painting that it throws into relief.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#51. Change is not something that we should fear. Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in this world would ever grow or blossom, and no one in this world would ever move forward to become the person they're meant to be.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#52. My Maman told me that only the crazy ones and the passionate ones accomplish anything in life.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#53. Do not aim low, you will miss the mark. Aim high and you will be on a threshold of bliss.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#54. Firmness in the body leads to firmness in the nervous system.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#55. Sirsasana the king of all asanas and the reasons are not hard to find.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#56. Asanas maintain the strength and health of the body, without which little progress can be made. Asanas keep the body in harmony with nature.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#57. Abhyasa (practice) is a dedicated, unswerving, constant, and vigilant search into a chosen subject pursued against all odds in the face of repeated failures, for indefinitely long periods of time.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#58. Asanas penetrate deep into each layer of the body and ultimately into the consciousness itself.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#59. Classics postures, when practiced with discrimination and awareness, bring the body, mind, and consciousness into a single, harmonious whole.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#60. Do not think of yourself as a small, compressed, suffering thing. Think of yourself as graceful and expanding, no matter how unlikely it may seem at the time.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#61. In whatever position one is in, or in whatever condition in life one is placed, one must find balance. Balance is the state of the present - the here and now. If you balance in the present, you are living in Eternity.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#62. 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
#63. We need sound bodies so we can develop sound minds.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#64. From Freedom of the Body comes Freedom of the Mind and then Ultimate Freedom!
B.K.S. Iyengar
#65. Yoga has to be done with the intellect of the head as well as the intellect of the heart
B.K.S. Iyengar
#66. We must create a marriage between the awareness of the body and that of the mind. When two parties do not cooperate, there is unhappiness on both sides.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#67. Savasana is being without was, being without will be. It is being without anyone who is.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#68. A lamp does not flicker in a place where no wind blows; so it is with a yogi, who controls his mind, intellect and self, being absorbed in the spirit within him.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#69. The conjunction of effort, concentration and balance in asana forces us to live intensely in the present moment, a rare experience in modern life.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#70. I always tell people, live happily and die majestically.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#71. When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#72. If you keep your armpits open, you won't get depressed.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#73. As breath stills our mind, our energies are free to unhook from the senses and bend inward.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#74. Yoga is nothing if it is not perfect
harmonyof the body, senses, mind
and intellect, reason, consciousness
and self. When all these are integrated
that is true yoga.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#75. As leaves move in the wind, your mind moves with your breath.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#76. Balance in the body is the foundation for balance in life.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#78. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one's actions.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#79. The body is the prop for the soul. So why not let the body be propped by a wall or a block?
B.K.S. Iyengar
#80. Look after the root of the tree, and the fragrant flower and luscious fruits will grow by themselves. Look after the health of the body, and the fragrance of the mind and richness of the spirit will follow.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#81. Live before you die, so that death is also a lively celebration.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#82. Fear and fatigue block the mind. Face both, then courage and confidence flows into you.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#83. I think overall the majority of people who are practicing it as a subject are following the right line. For the aberration, don't blame yoga or the whole community of yogis
B.K.S. Iyengar
#84. Why think of liberation at some future time? Liberation is in the little things, here and now.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#85. Yoga has a threefold impact on health. It keeps healthy people healthy, it inhibits the development of diseases, and it aids recovery from ill health.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#86. 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.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#87. A yogi's brain extends from the bottom of the foot to the top of his head
B.K.S. Iyengar
#88. I think many of my students have followed the advice I gave years ago, to give more than you take.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#89. Yoga is when every cell of the body sings the song of the soul ...
B.K.S. Iyengar
#90. Yoga is the golden key that unlocks the door to peace, tranquility and joy.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#91. Purity is when there is no anxiety, no worry, no thinking.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#92. 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.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#93. Lack of knowledge is the
source of all pains and sorrows whether dormant, attenuated, interrupted
or fully active.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#94. Happy is the man who knows how to distinguish the real from the unreal, the eternal from the transient and the good from the pleasant by his discrimination and wisdom.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#95. Persistent practice alone is the key to yoga. As you take pains to learn, continue with devotion what you have learn.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#96. Yoga allows you to find a new kind of freedom that you may not have known even existed.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#98. Asana has two facets, pose and repose. Pose is the artistic assumption of a position. 'Reposing in the pose' means finding the perfection of a pose and maintaining it, reflecting in it with penetration of the intelligence and with dedication.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#99. Yoga is a way of life; it is an art, a science, a philosophy.
B.K.S. Iyengar
#100. An intellectual mind that is unconnected to the heart is an uncultivated mind.
B.K.S. Iyengar
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