Best 1455 quotes in «yoga quotes» category

The law of karma is like the wind—blowing on all. Whether you are good or evil, bright or dim, kind or unkind, there is no escaping the effects of your thoughts and the actions that arise from those thoughts. In fact, the only difference between the wise and the ignorant is that an illuminated mind erects windmills while the ignorant mind builds weather vanes.

The mantra of the victim is, “If not for the events and circumstances of the world, I would be happy.” The world is often unfair and unjust, but that alone is not enough to create a victim. Victims believe they lack the power to choose. While you may not always be able to choose the circumstances of your life, you can choose how you respond. Through spiritual practice, we can choose inner harmony even when the world around us is filled with pain, suffering, and chaos.

The mind and the breath are the king and queen of human consciousness".

The mystic's idea of deliberately stupefying and stultifying himself is an "abomination unto the Lord." This, by the way, does not conflict with the rules of Yoga. That kind of suppression is comparable to the restrictions in athletic training, or diet in sickness.

The number of seconds the average person spends in the present moment in a year does not amount to even a single day.

The only place healing can occur, wisdom can be realized, compassion can be extended, and peace can be experienced, is the present moment.

The only way to spread peace is to have peace inside you Yogi vini

The past does not exist unless you carry the remains of it with you.

The path towards peace is not for the righteous, the ethical, the active and the compassionate to shit on the malicious, the complacent, the violent and the ignorant. The path towards peace is to be peaceful.

The path to wholeness starts by loving yourself. It always starts there. If you love yourself, you will do whatever it takes to restore your health and happiness.

The path is paved with consistent, conscious mental and spiritual alertness and the gradual growth of goodness in our heart and clarity in our mind. We are awake. If we keep trying to understand, we will understand. If we keep telling ourselves that we are loved by Life and if we keep looking for evidence of that love, we will find it.

The physical vanity of the diet-and-exercise obsessive is recast as the pursuit of a kind of ritual purity, hedged about with taboos and guilt trips and mysticized by yoga.

The physical concerns and misalignment we experience in the spinal vertebrae of our body are often directly correlated with the spiritual energetic ability to flow freely as well.

The point of tantric sex was supposedly to harness sexual energy to awaken higher consciousness. It was just like yoga, but way more fun.

The practice of meditation helps us to organize our thoughts and structure our ideas. Through the practice of meditation, we can open to the creative flow that is waiting to pour through us, infusing inspiration with passion. Meditation puts the mind in order and brings it under control, opening the door to receive this free flow of perfect energy. The unfocused mind is like a sledgehammer. The focused mind is like a sharp axe. Both tools can be used to take down a tree, but the axe is going to be much more efficient. Moreover, using the axe will allow you to work more swiftly, thereby saving much energy to get more done.

The problem is not the unhappiness and disappointment you feel at harvest time; the problem is the seeds you planted last spring.

The process of awakening your mind is meditation and the process of awakening your body is yoga

The real difference between yoga and religion is this: Religion says believe, do not doubt, often citing the word of God and promises of an eternal afterlife, reciting dogma (unsubstantiated pre-modern myths), while yoga only points the way and urges its students to practice and experience for themselves. In this way yoga is very scientific in its approach to self-knowledge, transcendence and enlightenment. Its message is: Try the practice for yourself and only then can you truly believe.

There is a need somewhere in this world that only your dharma, fully expressed, can fulfill. The reason there is such overwhelming need in this world is because an overwhelming number of people have yet to find and express their dharma.

There is no god out there but Oneness of All That Is.

There is only one thing that is more natural than thinking: breathing. 
And it is in breathing that we find the door to happiness.

There's no such thing as positive thinking. There is, however, positive acting and positive doing, and positive being. Positive thinking is the reflection of such activities. You can't force yourself to think positively, but merely suppress negativity and get insane while pushing yourself along a river that flows on the opposite direction. Every life challenge is there to show you that you don't want to hit the rocks. It's really that simple when you look at things as they show themselves to you. You flow with the stream and you avoid the rocks along the way. That's positive thinking, even when you are angry about life, even when you're complaining, and even when you feel antagonistic with the world and the ones around you. That's the truth, simply because it will bring you back results. And that, you won't ever get by sitting on the floor and imagining emotions. You have the right to hate the rocks that come your away, as long as you keep paddling and enjoying the journey. There's no point in closing your eyes and pretending the rocks aren't there or trying to make them vanish with wishful thinking, or expecting a big magical bird to save you and take you in his wings for a pleasant flight in the skies.

The Stone of Guilt in the River of the Mind, the block in the flow of intelligence. ~ Paramahamsa Nithyananda

The undiscovered is not far away. It’s not something to be found eventually. It is contained within what is right in front of us. The essence of reality is being born right now. It has never existed before. Reality is constant creation and destruction, and in this constant change is something unborn and undying, something that cannot be approached through the known or the past. It isn’t seen through striving to become something based on ideals stemming from former experiences. It comes to that which is being, not striving. In this state of being in the moment, without the known, without knowing at all, with neither past nor future, is a space that is not filled with time. And in this space, the undiscovered and ever-changing moment exists—a moment containing all possibilities, the totality of existence, absolute reality. Reality is now, and in the now, we can experience the true nature of the universe and the universal mind.

The world is not what it appears to be. Behind this surface life, where we experience the play of life and death, there is a deeper life which knows no death; behind our apparent consciousness, which gives us the knowledge of objects and things…there is…pure…consciousness…Truth…is experienced only by those who turn their gaze inward.

The less I'm in a hurry, the quicker the results seem to happen. With patience, the quality of my experience has a depth that can't be measured bon the clock, but by the timelessness of my experience.

The mind & body are not separate entities. The gross form of the mind is the body & the subtle form of the body is the mind. The practice of asana integrates & harmonizes the two. Both the body & the mind harbor tensions or knots. Every mental knot has a corresponding physical, muscular knot & vice versa. The aim of asana is to release these knots. Asana release mental tensions by dealing with them on the physical level, acting somato-psychically, through the body to the mind.

The mind is the only level at which any lasting change can occur—it is the soil in which we plant our hopes and fears, habits, and patterns. What we plant in the mind will grow and bear fruit. Just as it would be pointless to complain about a carrot seed failing to produce a tomato, it is equally pointless to look at the garden of your life and complain about what you see growing there. We have to be willing to plant different seeds.

The miracle of yoga is not that we get to reshape the external world—to bend the laws of time and space. The miracle of yoga is that we get to reshape our perception of the external world. Where we once only perceived injuries, illness, and pain, we now see an opportunity for growth. Where we once perceived acrimony and discord in relationships, we are now able to experience deep empathy. Where we once perceived darkness, evil, injustice, and vexing social issues, we now perceive the opportunity to serve. Yoga is like a purifying fire that burns away false perceptions of the world and of ourselves to enable us to see clearly.

THE MOMENT YOU WANT SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE IS THE MOMENT YOU SPIRITUALLY KILL YOURSELF

The more you listen to your breath, the more you can hear the voice of your soul.

The more you treat your body and the cells as intelligent being the more you will be sharp, quick, competent, and fulfilled.

The mountain ahead of you is no greater than the thousands of mountains you’ve already climbed. Stay the course. You can get through anything one breath at a time.

The time is changing and not only the policy makers of India, but the whole world is realizing the importance of Ayurveda. Who could have thought some years back that people with up-bringing in cosmopolitan culture would prefer bottle gourd juice or gooseberry juice over carbonated soft-drinks in the near future.

The truth about yourself is so near, so close, that it is very difficult to perceive. Just as it is difficult to style your hair, apply makeup, or shave without a mirror, we require a mirror of sorts to spiritually groom ourselves. For most, that mirror is relationships with others. People who wear masks of untrustworthiness, dishonesty, selfishness, and greed see those qualities reflected back from everyone they meet—even the most noble souls who cross their paths. But people who have put their masks aside are able to experience compassion, love, and wholeness in others, even in their adversaries—even in those who are still mired in a tangled web of fear, insecurity, and abrasiveness.

The ultimate language of yoga is expressed in doing yoga, a practice that transcends words as we open our lives to living more consciously through the infinite wisdom of the heart.

The windmill doesn’t try to control the wind or demand that it blow in another direction. It simply surrenders to the wind, and in so doing becomes a source of immense power. The water wheel doesn’t attempt to change the course of the river; it simply surrenders to the flow and allows the power of the river to be expressed through it. Most see surrender as a form of weakness, when in reality, surrender is the source of all true power.

The world would have us fill every space and occupy every corner of the mind. Yoga asks us to become empty; to come to the practice in openness and to allow the practice to remove our notions of good and bad,rich and poor, health and disease; to sit and simply witness without shame, without guilt, and without judgment. Yoga allows us to let go of everything and hold on to nothing. It allows us to let go of our preconceptions about who or what God is, what it means to live a spiritual life, and how to achieve enlightenment. Whether slowly or in an instant, yoga empties us. What remains is a silence that surpasses understanding,is beyond words, and gives us the eyes to witness the suffering of the world, the ears to hear the world calling out for compassion, and the heart to answer that call.

The yoga asana practice was developed to get the body in the best physical condition possible, so that the yoga practitioner would be able to sit for many hours comfortably in meditation. In order to reach the higher spiritual vibrations we must be as strong, flexible and open as possible.

The yogi can relate to his Beloved in the form of a personal relationship-as a friend, a child, a spouse. He can cherish God in traditional religious performances–honoring saints, holy sites, and scriptures. He can hold God dear in the form of union—as his own Self, or in samadhi. All forms of God are equally suitable for love. (165)

The yogic scriptures paint a picture of perfection, and perfection can be your aim, but I can tell you sad stories about myself and others who have entered into a state of premature holiness with unpleasant consequences.

Things that we do every day make up who we are and the results we have in our life. Bank accounts collect from constant deposits and good health is achieved or maintained from what we put into our bodies daily.

THEY STOLE YOUR STYLE BUT THEY COULDN'T STEAL YOUR GLOW

This morning after yoga, I laid in the grass and watched the white clouds go by as the Earth turned slowly, and it was the single most beautiful thing, that I started to cry.

Three types of people are never able to sleep peacefully: Yogi (One who’s involved in persistent effort to better oneself so as to better the world), Bhogi (One who’s extremely involved in satisfying his/her carnal pleasures or addictions) and Rogi (One who has incurred unbearable pain through illness by abusing one’s own body and mind).

This life is a dream—sometimes a dream of beauty— sometimes a terrifying nightmare. We will all wake from this dream eventually. Spiritual practice allows us first to transform the dream from one of terror to one of joy, and then from a dream of joy, to awakening to our true nature as Atman.

Thoughts are one of the most creative powers we have as human beings. If you hold the mantra in your mind that you are continually becoming more healthful and radiant, that is what you will become.

Time to time you need to stop the thinking machine and get in touch with the eternity - the state of the no-mind - the state of the pure being.

Time is an illusion created by the ego for the sole purpose of denying the unbreakable bond between cause and effect. Mindfulness joins the mind with the present moment, where the illusion of time dissolves without effort, where cause and effect are correctly seen as unbroken, unbreakable, and inseparable.

To a realized master, death and rebirth is in every breath. Death is that of body consciousness, ego and limits of the mind. Rebirth is that of the cosmic mind of being the Spirit. In this realization is liberation. When awake as liberated, each prayer and each moment of meditation is for humanity as there is no more individual ego or identity left. Such realized masters continually gift humanity with the grace of higher consciousness- so that each of us attain our fullest potential in goodness.