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B.K.S. Iyengar

B.K.S. Iyengar Quotes

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Famous B.K.S. Iyengar Quotes

“Intensity is a mental attitude more than a physical attitude. Many people misunderstand what intensity means. They think it means straining and sweating. No! That is a wrong meaning of the word! Intensity is to get totally involved, fully immersed and absorbed in what one is doing. Intense practice means a fast and keen mode in adjusting, correcting, and progressively proceeding.”

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Book:B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Wisdom and Practice
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“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.”

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Book:Yoga For Sports: A Journey towards Health and Healing
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“Regarding perfection, that's a very difficult question. I can say that I have superseded most in my sadhana [practice]. I am in it, and my mind and my intelligence gets better in my sadhana, and it reaches a certain place. When I stretch, I stretch in such a way that my awareness moves, and a gate of awareness finally opens... My body is a laboratory, you can say. 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.”

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Author:B.K.S. Iyengar
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“The practice of yogasana for the sake of health, to keep fit, or to maintain flexibility is the external practice of yoga. While this is a legitimate place to begin, it is not the end. Even in simple asanas, one is experiencing the three levels of quest: the external quest, which brings firmness of the body; the internal quest, which brings steadiness of intelligence; and the innermost quest, which brings benevolence of spirit.”

EndsBodySpiritThreeSimpleLevelsPracticeFitYogaSakeInternalsQuestsFlexibilityBenevolenceAsanaFirmnessSteadiness
Author:B.K.S. Iyengar
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“The challenge of yoga is to go beyond our limits - within reason. We continually expand the frame of the mind by using the canvas of the body. It is as if you were to stretch a canvas more and create a larger surface for a painting. But we must respect the present form of our body. If you pull too much at once, we will rip the canvas. If the practice of today damages the practice of tomorrow, it is not correct practice.”

IfsMindReasonBodyTodayFormChallengesPracticeToo MuchPaintingTomorrowLimitsYogaSurfaceDamageCanvasRip
Author:B.K.S. Iyengar
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“The cure to combat the three Ss- stress, strain, and speed- can be found in three Ws- the work of devoted practice, the wisdom that comes of understanding the self and the world, and worship because ultimately surrendering to what we cannot control allows the ego to relax and lose the anxiety of its own infinitesimally small self in the infinitude of the divine.”

WorldSelfThreeFoundUnderstandingLosesPracticeDivineEgoAnxietyWorshipStressSpeedCuresRelaxCombatDevotedStrain
Author:B.K.S. Iyengar
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