Sublime

Through the practice of haṭha yoga āsana and prāṇāyāma, which focus on joining currents of opposite patterns within the body, we begin to recognize this phenomenal body as the foundation for our entire experience.

The yoga postures provide a field for our attention so that we recognize and respond intelligently to the patterns that are arising.

The first qualification for the practice is that it should be done for a long time.

In his Tree of Yoga, Iyengar presents āsana, yogic posture, as not just the third of the eight limbs of yoga but also as a self-contained object of meditation that can itself bring about samādhi, the ultimate goal of yoga, if approached and undertaken correctly.

this book focuses on words rather than postures, suggestions rather than instructions, interpretations based on tradition rather than appropriation or idealization. Within the words on these pages, see if you can listen with your heart rather than your intellect. We are used to hearing what we usually call “theory” with the intellectual mind. When

Relax your jaw, throat, and tongue and let your facial muscles drop as if impersonating a basset hound.

As we move in and out of poses in union with the breath, we may experience a sense of seamlessly joining our inner world of experience with the external world of perception and our interactions with others. As we do, the practice takes on a deeply meditative quality.

yoga posture is an opportunity to “sit with”