Best 1455 quotes in «yoga quotes» category

It is easy to make the mistake of thinking yoga is about touching your toes when in fact yoga is about learning to touch others. Likewise, many people think the purpose of meditation is a perfectly still mind, when in fact, it is a more compassionate heart. Spiritual practice is measured by one’s ability to ease the suffering of the world one breath at a time.

[I]t is important not to abandon the practice [of yoga] because we believe it is driven by the wrong motivation. The practice of yoga itself transforms. Yoga has a magical quality. . . . (20)

It is impossible to become the best version of yourself if you do not read, exercise, and meditate.

It is key to remember we can maintain a genuine enthusiasm and love for what IS, in the PRESENT moment, enjoy it with gratitude for all of the blessings in our lives.

It is our job to follow the impulse, or vision, placed in our hearts at birth and then to release that impulse into the unseen hand of the Beloved for manifestation.

It is the very parts we perceive to be not-so-good that need our love the most. As it is only in love that what is hurting or what has been marginalized can be embraced, felt and transformed.

It may seem humble to belittle yourself, but it is every bit as arrogant as grandiosity. Just as it is impossible to be more than you were created to be, it is also impossible to be less. When we pretend to be more or less, we are destined to search for wholeness everywhere except where it actually resides—within.

It’s clear that if we use the mind attentively, mental power is increased, and if we concentrate the mind in the moment, it is easier to coordinate mind and body. But in terms of mind and body unity, is there something we can concentrate on that will reliably aid us in discovering this state of coordination? In Japan, and to some degree other Asian countries, people have historically focused mental strength in the hara (abdomen) as a way of realizing their full potential. Japan has traditionally viewed the hara as the vital center of humanity in a manner not dissimilar to the Western view of the heart or brain. I once read that years ago Japanese children were asked to point to the origin of thoughts and feelings. They inevitably pointed toward the abdominal region. When the same question was asked of American children, most pointed at their heads or hearts. Likewise, Japan and the West have commonly held differing views of what is physical power or physical health, with Japan emphasizing the strength of the waist and lower body and Western people admiring upper body power. (Consider the ideal of the sumo wrestler versus the V-shaped Western bodybuilder with a narrow waist and broad shoulders.) However, East and West also hold similar viewpoints regarding the hara, and we’re perhaps not as dissimilar as some might imagine. For instance, hara ga nai hito describes a cowardly person, “a person with no hara.” Sounds similar to our saying that so-and-so “has no guts,” doesn’t it?

It’s not just about recognizing how ‘precious’ every moment is, or about ‘living for today.’ It’s about finding the sacred center of now, and living there, moment to moment, always.

...it's most important to accept that your yoga poses may not look like everyone else's. That's okay. Just adapt the poses to your current state of being.

It takes patience to nurture patience.

It's very simple. Keep your body as clean as possible, your mind as clear as possible. That's all you need. And do it in anyway you can, in your own way. It doesn't matter. That's why I say 'peaceful body, peaceful mind'. And then you'll be useful. You don't have to become a useful person. You will be useful.

It takes a lot of courage to be happy.

I understood that the attachment to myself and my image ... was actually taking me away from my self, away from this wonderful opportunity to just sit, just breathe, just feel the warm animal of my body, just feel the soft, sultry heat of June. The density of my attachment was making it impossible for me to have a truly satisfying experience of life in my body just as it was in the moment. When under the sway of this obsession, my mind's attention was always in the fantasized future, or the idealized or devalued past - never present to the reality of the moment.

I understand that for beginners it isn't that easy to sit down, close your eyes, and settle into stillness. Your thoughts have gotten used to making SO MUCH NOISE! They have enjoyed too much influence over you to simply fade the first time you try.

... it was once necessary to proclaim the entire doctrine of Yoga in the fewest possible words.... I did so. “Sit still. Stop thinking. Shut up. Get out!” The first two of these instructions comprise the whole of the technique of Yoga. The last two are of a sublimity which it would be improper to expound in this present elementary stage.

Maarifa unayoyatafuta katika Biblia, Kurani au Yoga ('Oriental Yoga': 'esoteric knowledge': maarifa ya kujua siri ya uumbaji wa Mungu ya 'Kabbalah' ya Kiyahudi au 'Kalachakra' ya Kibudha ya bara la Asia; siri ya sayansi ya kurefusha maisha ya mafundisho ya kiroho ya 'Arcanum' ya Misri – au Kemia ya Mungu au 'Alchemy'; mafundisho ya kiroho ya 'Rosicrucia' ya bara la Ulaya tangu mwishoni mwa karne ya kumi na nne; 'sex magic', 'sex magic' inaweza kukupa utajiri au umaskini hivyo kuwa makini; n.k.) ni hekima na busara. Vingine vyote vitajileta vyenyewe.

Love is at the heart of the world, just as it is at the heart of your life. Your relationships with your lover, your family, your friends, and the world around you define the quality of your emotional wholeness and reflect your relationship with yourself.

I want to remember to notice the wonders of each day, in each moment, no matter where I am under any circumstance.

Like the tightly closed eyelids of a child trying to escape the reprimand of a parent, there is a part of the mind that needs to shut down in the face of an internal dialogue that is steeped in guilt, shame, and self-loathing.

Living life to the fullest takes a lot of dedication and hard work, especially when the going gets tough. However, If we have the courage to pay close attention to the wisdom that can be found within Yoga, we can conclude that Yoga is both a challenge and a triumph opportunities from which we can grow, much similar to living life. This ancient form of exercise goes deeper into the connection between mind, body, and spirit. It lies in the desire to excel oneself. Through self-love.

Magic is not something supernatural, but part of the field dynamics of nature.

Many believe bliss and gratification to be synonyms, when in fact they are antonyms. Bliss is the nature of your most true Self and it is with you anytime you become still enough to listen. Gratification is what you seek to fill the imagined emptiness, and is generated by a false sense of self.

Many of us attend a few yoga classes and find that we like the glimpse of another way of life that yoga offers. We are delighted by the way we feel after class and we are pleasantly surprised as certain behaviors start to fall away. Perhaps we no longer need coffee in the morning; or staying out late at night becomes less attractive; or we find ourselves calmer and more compassionate. Suddenly we're convinced that we've hit upon a painless way to solve all our problems. Sadly, this is not the case. Practice is not a substitute for the difficult work of renunciation. The postures and breath work that you do in a typical yoga class will change your life. These practices—asana and pranayama—suffuse us with the energy we need to take on the hard choices and to endure the inevitable highs and lows. What yoga practice will not do, however, is take the place of the hard lessons each of us has to learn in order to mature spiritually.

Many look at the blessings in their lives—money, talent, love, abundance, and so on—and say, “I must be one of the chosen ones.”But the blessings in your life were not bestowed upon you to help you live a life of ease, but rather a life of service. You were chosen—chosen to serve.

Meditation is a method-less act – an act of contemplation – an act of being. And this contemplation or this being is not a buddhist thing, a hindu thing or a jewish thing – it is simply a human thing. No pranayama, vipassana or kabala has any kind of exclusive authority over meditation whatsoever. All these ways are merely the means of the novice to begin the journey. But the means is not the real act itself. Seeing the method of meditation as meditation itself, is like confusing the menu for the meal. The real journey takes place when there is no means whatsoever – when the self does not need to make efforts to be the self – that’s real meditation – the meditation where you simply are who you are and do not seek methods to attain a superficial state of mind.

Matter is a medium of communication between minds, and everything that exists in the mind can also exist in the body. Furthermore, the body—being the expression of a mental state is developed as a manifestation of the mind.

Maybe it’s something to do with the movements: the Cat and then the Cow, the twist to the left and then to the right, the reaching up, and then bending to the ground, the constant training of the body to move one way, and then to move in the opposite way. Hatha: sun, moon opposites, dark and light, yin and yang. This must be key in the way yoga shapes the mind and heart, in the way it helps one to understand that every movement has a counter movement, that every action has an opposing action, that the happy parts of life will be met by the sad, and the sad, in turn will be met by the happy.

Meditación - Antes de aprender cómo meditar, tienes que desaprender lo que crees que podría ser la meditación.

Meditation is the alchemist of the soul. It transforms disappointment into acceptance; betrayal into forgiveness; scarcity into abundance; loneliness into self acceptance; fear into love; despair into hope; anxiety into peace; and apathy into compassion.

Meditation is a method-less act.

Meditation is experiencing the life not just from the surface but from the source.

Meditation is the best tool for neutralizing the voice in the head. It's a muzzle for the ego. Being mindful is an innate but underused ability we all have, the act of being aware without judging. When you repeatedly go through the cycle of trying to focus on your breath, losing that focus, and noticing and returning to the practice, you are literally building your mindfulness muscle the same way dumbbell curls build your biceps. As this mind-muscle develops, you start being way more aware of thoughts, emotions, and sensations as what they really are: squirts of chemicals & hormones that enter, peak and then fade completely back to the nothingness of which they arose. In other words, mindfulness provides space between impulse and action, so you're not a slave to whatever pops into your head. You are not your thoughts. You are the awareness of them.

Me suicido, porque hay cosas en mi que no deben morir.

Marriage is never static. There are peaks and troughs, cycles. It is easy to forget that this shifting landscape is really only ever a reflection of the self. Our capacity for attachment determines the kind of mate we attract, and it is through this mate that we are forever transformed – marriage as alchemy, but also as a mirror.

Meditation alone cannot heal the world, but it can and does speed up the healing process.

Meditation betters not only the mind but also the brain.

Meditation is defined by not just the mode of thinking, but also the object of thought

Meditation on the self is the highest form of true method-less meditation, for it brings self-awareness – which is beyond the everyday joy and sorrow. True meditation does not put you in control of your sorrow, rather it takes your mind beyond that very sorrow, as well as joy, into the kingdom of contentment – a kingdom without ideology – without cognitive extremes, such as radical rationalism, radical romanticism or radical emotionalism. In that kingdom, you simply are a human, with no name, no nationality, no tradition, no culture, no religion, no gender and no social image – simply a human.

Mindfulness is the bedrock of all spiritual practice. With mindfulness, the simple becomes profound, and the common becomes extraordinary. Without mindfulness, even gold and silver will quickly lose their luster.

Mindfulness is the difficult art of simply replacing thinking with experiencing.

Meditation is both the symbol and expression of our intention to grow. Sitting still, alone with our thoughts and feelings, we can honor missed opportunities, passing desires, remembered disappointments, as well as our inner strength, personal wisdom, and ability to forgive and love.

Meditation is preparing one hand for blessing the world and preparing the other hand for doing well-being of the world.

Most people’s minds are almost always too busy for them to feel their skins being caressed by the wind or the sun.

Most people believe that pain and suffering are synonymous—that one begets the other. A yogi recognizes that pain is an unavoidable aspect of life and that suffering is a choice. Pain is what happens when you stub your toe, suffering is what your mind does with the sensation.

Most yoga practice starts with the goal of doing the extraordinary and supernatural— to place the feet behind the head, balance on one hand, or cheat the aging process. But the true practice of yoga aims at doing the natural and the ordinary—to stand on your feet, to find joy in filling the lungs, and to release with each exhalation.

Most people spend years trying to feng shui their lives—to decorate and reorganize life in such a way that order and peace will finally arrive. One can decorate and redecorate for years, but a fresh coat of paint is not going to patch the cracks in your foundation—the only way to do this is through the practice of non-attachment.

Music does not need language of words for it has movements of dance to do its translation.

My mind has evolved from that of a child to that of an adult and passed through countless changes along the way. My heart has known great love, heartache, joy, and anger—it has shifted directions more often than the wind. My body began as two cells, has grown, aged, and passed through sickness and health. Even the face in my mirror is far different than the one that once stared back at me just a few months ago. But through this state of flux that has defined my life, there is a part of me that has been entirely the same throughout. This changeless part of me has sat quietly witnessing, at peace and smiling softly.

Na mitologia hindu, o despertar de Kali foi descrito em muitos detalhes. Quando Kali se ergue vermelha de raiva, todos os deuses e demônios ficam aturdidos e todo mundo fica em silêncio. Eles não sabem o que ela vai fazer. Eles pedem ao Senhor Shiva para pacificá-la, mas Kali ruge ferozmente jogando-o para abaixo e de pé sobre seu peito, com sua boca aberta, sedenta por carne e osso. Quando os devas realizam orações para pacificar Kali, ela se torna calma e tranqüila. ... De acordo com a filosofia do yoga, Kali, a primeira manifestação do inconsciente, é um poder terrível; ela domina completamente a alma individual, representada por sua posição sobre o Senhor Shiva. Às vezes acontece que, pela instabilidade mental, algumas pessoas entram em contato com seu corpo inconsciente e vêem elementos ferozes e pouco auspiciosos – fantasmas, monstros, etc. quando Kali, o poder inconsciente do homem, é despertada, ela eleva-se até encontrar a manifestação mais adiante, o superconsciente, a outorgadora de gloria e perfeição.