“By persistent and sustained practice, anyone and everyone can make the yoga journey and reach the goal of illumination and freedom.”

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

The study of asana is not about mastering posture. It’s about using posture to understand and transform yourself.

As animals, we walk the earth. As bearers of divine essence, we are among the stars. As human beings, we are caught in the middle, seeking to reconcile the paradox of how to make our way upon earth while striving for something more permanent and more profound.

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.

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

As leaves move in the wind, your mind moves with your breath.

One’s spiritual realization lies in none other than how one walks among and interacts with one’s fellow beings.

The back is like a frame, the front body, the painting that it throws into relief.

Relaxation: In. Every. Pose. There. Should. Be. Repose.

Mind is the king of the senses; breath is the king of the mind; and the nerves are king of the breath.

An intellectual mind that is unconnected to the heart is an uncultivated mind.

Without the accurate spine movement, one can’t exist dynamically.

The body is my temple, asanas are my prayers.

Willpower is nothing but willingness to do.

When I practice, I am a philosopher. When I teach, I am a scientist. When I demonstrate, I am an artist.

I am standing on my own altar; The poses are my prayers.

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.

Don’t hate the arising of thoughts or stop the thoughts that do arise. Simply realize that our original mind, right from the start, is beyond thought, so that no matter what, you never get involved with thoughts. Illuminate original mind, and no other understanding is necessary.

What are the sources of an illumination? To me, they come after hours of searching and keeping my soul ready. Yet they come in a flash, as a religious phenomenon.

The dimensions of a work of art are seldom realized by the author until the work is accomplished. It is like a flowering dream. Ideas grow, budding silently, and there are a thousand illuminations coming day by day as the work progresses.

For in a swift radiance of illumination he saw a glimpse of human struggle and valor. Of the endless fluid passage of the humanity through endless time. And of those who labor and of those who – one word- love. His soul expanded. But for a moment only. For in him, he felt a warning, a shaft of terror.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter had such an illumination, beginning my long search for the truth of the story and flashing light into the long two years ahead.

Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination.

To see is one thing; to picture or visualise is another. A person can see things, only when his eyes are open, and when his surroundings are illuminated; but he can have pictures in his mind’s eye, when his eyes are shut and when the world is dark.