The Art of Vinyasa: Awakening Body and Mind through the Practice of Ashtanga Yoga

it is better to consider bandhas as areas within the body where complementary patterns join or bond.

The reductionist mind mistakes the joyous experience itself for the particular content of the mind at that moment.

sādhanā bhāṣā, or practice language.

a paradoxical comprehension is imperative: we must see the ego’s construction of our self-image as an amazing organization of the mind so it can make sense of things and work efficiently, but we must constantly be alert, eager, and ready to dissolve and update the images and stories the ego spins out.

Due to the overlaying of Prāṇa and mind, the subtle body is not a matter of pure abstraction and data processing but a virtual storehouse of deeply rooted clumps and knots of unconscious emotions, internal sensations, concepts, memories, tendencies, and stories.

Most of the time, however, the citta wanders around, and the physiological background (Prāṇa) is less apparent in our awareness. In a contemplative practice, we take the attention (citta) and turn it straight to Prāṇa.

Good dṛṣṭi is awake, innocent, and attentive. Think of how a young infant looks intensely at something: he does not identify himself as being separate from the rest of the world, and he has few if any “names” for objects, so he is just looking.

Prāṇa links what you’re thinking and perceiving into its background. As embodied beings, all that we experience is processed through Prāṇa (breath) and citta (mind).

It is particularly important in terms of satyam to keep questioning ourselves and our motives.