B.K.S. Iyengar

A leading yoga instructor demonstrates how practitioners can apply yogic principles to all aspects of daily living for improved mental and physical health, in a guide that features personal stories and explains how yoga can integrate different parts of the self and assist the progression of a spiritual path. Reprint.

The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom

Light on Life

Omar

The techniques of yoga give you the opportunity to capture energy from the outside as well as from the inside and to use that energy for your personal evolution. The practice of asana clears the inner channels for prana to move freely and uninterruptedly. If the nerves are corroded and blocked with stress, how can prana circulate? Asana and pranayama practice removes the partition that segregates body and mind. Together they dispel darkness and ignorance. In a sense, it is asana practice that opens the gateway to perfection. It breaks the rigidity and hardness of the inner body. This allows the unrhythmic breath to become rhythmic, deep, slow, and soothing. Then pranayama, in its turn, clears and soothes the feverish brain, making way for reason and clarity of thought and lifting the mind toward meditation.

Powerful view of what drives consciousness. 

The role of breath is capital for this reason. Consciousness (citta) and vital energy (prana) are in constant association. Where consciousness is focused, there must be the energy of prana too, and where you direct the energy of prana, consciousness follows. Consciousness is propelled by two powerful forces, energy (prana) and desires (vasana). It moves in the direction of whichever force is most powerful. If breath (prana) prevails, then desires are controlled, the senses are held in check, and the mind is pacified. If the force of desire gets the upper hand, the breathing becomes uneven, and the mind becomes agitated.

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.

When we are greedy, we are never satisfied, and we are never content. We are always afraid that there will not be enough, and we become miserly. Instead of seeing our riches and giving generously to others, we become nothing more than rich beggars, always asking for more. In yoga we consciously minimize our needs. We do this not to show how holy we are because we can live on a few grains of rice. We minimize our needs so that we can minimize our attachments and to maximize our contentment. In so doing we are able to lessen our greediness. For one man a meal is slight; for another it is a feast. Life is the same way. The fewer our demands on life, the greater is our ability to see its bounty.

Balancing asanas on the arms teach and cultivate tolerance. If you can adapt to and balance in a world that is always moving and unstable, you learn how to become tolerant to the permanence of change and difference.

Light on Life The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom

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