Yoga Is Life Quotes & Sayings

Life is a series of awakenings. — Swami Mukerji

You must purge yourself before finding faults in others.
When you see a mistake in somebody else, try to find if you are making the same mistake.
This is the way to take judgment and to turn it into improvement.
Do not look at others' bodies with envy or with superiority.
All people are born with different constitutions.
Never compare with others.
Each one's capacities are a function of his or her internal strength.
Know your capacities and continually improve upon them. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Yoga is a life-saver. — Ione Skye

Spiritual process is not for the dead or the dying; it is for the living who want to become fully alive in all dimensions of life. — Jaggi Vasudev

Yoga means we take responsibility for the tasks in our life. Whatever we are supposed to have karmically, life gives us. The question is: how do we handle it? — Frederick Lenz

Emotional pain rarely comes up for me now. When it does, for sure, I feel it. But then, fortunately, through my life experience and my practices, I'm able to see it for what it is, and I'm able to use the techniques that yoga and Ayurveda have to offer us. — Brad Willis

Those people who have got wisdom are very lucky people, but wisdom comes from no source but your own understanding of life. When a person starts thinking, "Why am I doing such and such thing ? What is the effect of my doing ? What is the result of my behaviour ? Is it good for me or bad for me ? " , then wisdom comes. — Nirmala Srivastava

Emotional baggage, which is carried over from the past, colors our perceptions. Likewise, past conclusions and beliefs, based on reasoning that may or may not have been accurate, also tint our perception of reality. Retaining our capacity for reason is common sense, but definite conclusions and beliefs keep us from seeing life as it really is at any given moment.
Emotional reactions can be unreasonable, and reason can be flawed. It's difficult to have deep confidence in either one, especially when they're often at war with each other. But the universal mind exists in the instant, in a moment beyond time, and it sees the universe as it literally is. It's the universe perceiving itself. It is, moreover, something we can have absolute confidence in, and with that confidence, we can maintain a genuinely positive attitude. — H.E. Davey

Life is eternal game, there are no rules. Indulge yourself. — Osh Marty

Life is made up of a collection of moments that are not ours to keep. The pain we encounter throughout our days spent on this earth comes from the illusion that some moments can be held onto. Clinging to people and experiences that were never ours in the first place is what causes us to miss out on the beauty of the miracle that is the now. All of this is yours, yet none of it is. How could it be? Look around you. Everything is fleeting.

To love and let go, love and let go, love and let go...it's the single most important thing we can learn in this lifetime. — Rachel Brathen

The enjoyment of life is only possible if we could get connected to the spirit. — Nirmala Srivastava

Whenever I feel 'less of myself', or as if I am not as productive as I can be, or abundance is not flowing into my life, or I am not laughing and smiling as much, or my relationships seem stuck and difficult, it is an indication that I am losing that connection. It is like being in a 'bad service area' where calls drop out. — Malti Bhojwani

Whenever we talk about darkness and light, the terms seem so abstract that many consider the answers to be found in meditation and yoga, but I'm here to tell you that the answers are in the books you will never read, waiting all your life in the libraries you ignored and the bookstores you didn't visit. I'm here to tell you as well that you are your own Satan and evil can't possibly interfere more in your life than what you're already doing to yourself by remaining ignorant. Until you choose the light, darkness is your personal choice, and there's no reason to feel any empathy for you. — Robin Sacredfire

Meditation is that dimension of science which focuses on creating the right kind of interior, so that you can live a peaceful and joyous life. — Jaggi Vasudev

Whatever happiness and peace that one knows in one's life is generally so fragile that it is always subservient to the external situation. So most of your lives go in trying to manage a perfect external situation which is just impossible to do. No human being is ever capable of creating a perfect external situation because the outside situation will never be hundred percent in your control, no matter how powerful a human being you are. So yoga focuses on the inner situation. If you can create a perfect inward situation, no matter what the external situation, you can be in perfect bliss and peace. — Jaggi Vasudev

By becoming clearly contemplative in a matter of weeks, my prayer had been given a particular and novel cast; and this was matched by the distinctness in the reprecussions my daily sessions of exercises were having on my everyday life, as well as on the many different occupations which a monk is vowed to carry out. The genuine sense of euphoria that followed the exercises persisted in me and transfigured my day. During the early months I had to face up to the sort of difficulties which put one's nerves to the test, and which would certainly have put me on my back before. As it was, everything went off so smoothly and I took it all so well that I trained everyone under my charge to develop the attitude of 'accepting rather than undergoing. — Jean Dechanet

I don't train for sports. I've never trained for sports. I train for life, and sport is just a part of that. So when I start training, that's lifestyle training and that's why I go through so many things, whether it's yoga, kickboxing, wrestling or swimming. — Ray Lewis

The Love factor makes anything hallowed, and an action is no exception. Doing things with love makes the work sacred. — Banani Ray

He who is persistent will realize God. So try your best to make meditation a regular experience in your life. — Paramahansa Yogananda

The most profound benefit of yoga and meditation for me has been a natural relaxing into my life. Obstacles are not so scary. I am more fluid, more curious, and at the same time more patient. I have more options for happiness because I don't require specific conditions. It is a relief to discover that I can be happy even if the world doesn't revolve around me or my agenda. — Cyndi Lee

Things that we do every day make up who we are and the results we have in our life. Bank accounts collect from constant deposits and good health is achieved or maintained from what we put into our bodies daily. — Malti Bhojwani

Life is a living flute, yoga is the art of creating melody and rhythm in it. — Amit Ray

Yoga is not just about living better. It is about exploring the very source of life. — Jaggi Vasudev

Retaining our capacity for reason
is common sense, but definite conclusions and beliefs keep us from seeing life as it really is at any given moment. — H.E. Davey

The relaxation should not be a method. You should not relax through a Yoga posture. This very understanding is relaxing, this very understanding is relaxation. You relax, effort disappears. You live your ordinary life - you chop wood and you carry water from the well and you cook food and you eat and you sleep and you love and you live ordinarily with no hankering and no desire for anything extraordinary. — Rajneesh

For all the types of pain that can lead to suffering there is a solution. Through opening our hearts with compassion to the pain that life brings, we can truly cure our pain and avoid our suffering. Then we can walk in the valley of love and experience the vast space within our heart. — Sebastian Pole

In life you only have to travel 6 inches. That is the distance from your mind to your heart. — Bikram Choudhury

A perfect life is to observe - to realize that you have no control over the events in your life, that there are no events in your life, that there is no life. — Frederick Lenz

Yoga is the rule book for playing the game of Life, but in this game no one needs to lose. It is tough, and you need to train hard. It requires the willingness to think for yourself, to observe and correct, and to surmount occasional setbacks. It demands honesty, sustained application, and above all love in your heart. — B.K.S. Iyengar

The worst type of freedom we are suffering from in modern times is the freedom to lead an immoral life. — Nirmala Srivastava

Dancing daily is a good physical activity. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The yoga we practice is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its aim is to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down a divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity. Its object is not personal Mukti, although Mukti is a necessary condition of the yoga, but the liberation and transformation of the human being. It is not personal Ananda, but the bringing down of the divine Ananda - Christ's kingdom of heaven, our Satyayuga - upon the earth. — Sri Aurobindo

As each individual is electrically alive and dynamic, so yoga is a living, dynamic force in life. In order to savor its essence, one needs a religiously attentive dynamic practice done with awareness and absorption. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Life is like yoga; the only way you can enjoy it is by relaxing into any position you happen to find yourself in. — Jon Wakeham

At first, the idea of doing a 90-minute workout in a 40 degree room sounded like torture. But the sweating is exactly what I became addicted to. My body changed dramatically almost immediately. Within three classes, I noticed less belly fat. My knees and legs are stronger than ever now; my arms have definition for the first time in my life; and my posture is much, much better. I also feel completely energized from all of the deep breathing. I leave class relieved of any anxiety I went in with, and the sweating and detoxifying make my skin feel great. — Rebecca Romijn

The science of yoga saved my life, and I've seen it save many other lives, no matter how dark and hopeless it might feel for someone, there is a pathway forward towards stability and empowerment ... toward creating a new and more meaningful identity and mission in life. — Brad Willis

Here is, in truth, the whole secret of Yoga, the science of the soul. The active turnings, the strident vibrations, of selfishness, lust and hate are to be stilled by meditation, by letting heart and mind dwell in spiritual life, by lifting up the heart to the strong, silent life above, which rests in the stillness of eternal love, and needs no harsh vibration to convince it of true being. — Patanjali

Novel-writing is not so much a profession as a yoga, or "way," an alternative to ordinary life-in-the-world. Its benefits are quasi-religious - a changed quality of mind and heart, satisfactions no non-novelist can understand - and its rigors generally bring no profit except to the spirit. For those who are authentically called to the profession, spiritual profits are enough.
John Gardner — Marcy Sheiner

A spiritual process is not a divorce from life. It is an irrevocable love affair with life. — Jaggi Vasudev

It is important to learn that love is your life, love is spirituality. — Nirmala Srivastava

Feel whatever arises fully, and then let go of any identification with what you're feeling. You are at choice. You don't have to go through another moment of suffering. Break free from the societal constructs that say, 'Life is meant to be a challenge.' This is not true. You have the capacity to become the observer of your emotional reactions and check in with your heart each time, to respond from love and compassion. This is the key to becoming liberated from the bonds of emotional suffering. — Dashama Konah Gordon

Life itself is selfless giving. We're not given this life just for own amusement and pleasures. — Frederick Lenz

The asana practice is extremely powerful and unique in design. In addition to improved flexibility, circulation, muscular strength and increased energy, and detoxification of the organs, each pose unblocks life force energy (prana) pathways in your body, reprograms your cellular DNA and connects us to our spiritual origin. — Dashama Konah Gordon

... When you're in the darkness, know that the light will come. We are light and dark, sun and moon, male and female, yin and yang; life is composed of opposites, in a continuing cycle of change ... . When you are in the light, don't step back into the darkness. Live in that light, and breathe it in fully. I've spent so much of my life going over and over the sadness and fear of the past. But we don't need to go there when we're not there. When we are in the light, be here, now. — Kathryn E. Livingston

Breathe and you dwell in the here and now, breath and you see impermanence is life. — Nhat Hanh

The goal of every yoga is to lead a guided life. — Irina Tweedie

Eternity, I don't know what's right or wrong, good or bad. I may be doing what's right or I may be deceiving myself. So instead, what I'm going to do is give my life to you. — Frederick Lenz

When I am sitting home, and I am happy and I have my TV show and I don't need to work and I'm married now and I like to be in line by my pool with my yoga instructor wife and eating fruit and taking in the sun, then life is good. — Alec Baldwin

NOBODY knows better than you what's right for you. NOBODY. Let me say what I really mean: NOBODY. Advice? Get some. Oracles? Consult them. Friends? Worship them. Actual gurus? Honour them. Final say? YOU. All you. No matter what. No matter how psychic that psychic is, or how rich the business consultant is, or how magical the healer, or bendy the yoga instructor. All that experts offer you is data for you to take into consideration. YOU are the centrifugal force that must filter, interpret, and give meaning to that data. — Danielle LaPorte

Don't wait for life to happen; life is happening now! — Kathryn E. Livingston

Right now, you're in a compulsive state of thought. If one thought enters your mind, it gets you tangled up. If you're in a conscious state, you can run any number of tracks in your mind. Because it's not compulsive, it doesn't entangle you. 'So compulsiveness takes away the possibility of exploring the full depth and dimension of life; it prevents you from realizing its immensity. In a state of consciousness, you can carry this mind with you without becoming a part of it. 'See, there are only two ways to live life. You can impart your qualities upon the material that you gather, or you can take on the qualities of the material that you gather. That is the fundamental choice you have. That is yoga. — Sadhguru

Breath is your link to life; the direct connection to your spirit. — Dashama Konah Gordon

The real payoff of a yoga practice, I came to see, is not a perfect handstand or a deeper forward bend - it is the newly born self that each day steps off the yoga mat and back into life. — Rolf Gates

Be Grateful- Your Life is a Miracle. — Dashama Konah Gordon

The goal of human life," says Ramakrishna, "is to meet God face to face." But the magic is this: if we look deeply into the face of all created things, we will find God. Therefore, savor the world, the body. Open it, explore it, look into it. Worship it. — Stephen Cope

Quoting from Phillip Moffitt
Will Yoga and Meditation Really Change My Life?
The most profound change I'm aware of just now is a growing realization that life is not personal. This may seem a surprising or even strange view to those unfamiliar with Eastern spirituality, but it has powerful implications. It's very freeing to see that events in my life are arising because of circumstances in which I am not involved, but that I'm not at the center of them in any particular way. They're impersonal. They're arising because of causes and conditions. They are not "me." There is a profound freedom in this. It makes life much more peaceful and harmonious because I'm not in reaction to events all the time. (134) — Stephen Cope

Many of us ordinary folk have tasted these moments of "union" - on the ladder, in the pond, in the jungle, on the hospital bed. In the yogic view, it is in these moments that we know who we really are. We rest in our true nature and know beyond a doubt that everything is OK, and not just OK, but unutterably well. We know that there is nothing to accept and nothing to reject. Life just is as it is. — Stephen Cope

It takes an honest look to observe our selves without judgment, and then to do something about it. Observing without judgment is the practice of yoga. Doing something about it is the stuff that makes up your life. — Tara Stiles

My bodysuit is how I start everyday. I wear a bodysuit everyday of my life. It's how I start my yoga practice. It's underneath it all. For me, what goes under the clothes is as important as what goes on top of the clothes. It's a layering aspect, so it's inside. — Donna Karan

The soldier is willing to give their life, perhaps for someone they never even met in their country. That's a very high love. — Frederick Lenz

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. — Sebastian Pole

Our greatest fear is that we will lose the love in our life ... that we will be abandoned, left alone, bereaved, misunderstood, deprived, hated and rejected ... but we can never be OUT OF LOVE. We are love and if our minds separate ourselves from who we really are it is a painful delusion. Ego personalities, including our own, might separate ourselves from love but love never dies because it is what we are made of. — Susan Mitchell

The wife has begun planning a secret life. In it, she is an art monster. She puts on yoga pants and says she is going to yoga, then pulls off onto a country lane and writes in tiny cramped writing on a grocery list She thinks she should go off her meds maybe so as to write more fluidly. Possibly this is not a good idea.
But only possibly. — Jenny Offill

Yoga, as a way of life and a philosophy, can be practiced by anyone with inclination to undertake it, for yoga belongs to humanity as a whole. It is not the property of any one group or any one individual, but can be followed by any and all, in any corner of the globe, regardless of class, creed or religion. — K. Pattabhi Jois

Yoga is not a means to get SOMEWHERE as if you were not SOMEWHERE already. It is your direct and intimate participation with Life. — Mark Whitwell

Yoga is a way of life; it is an art, a science, a philosophy. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Polarity exists so that we may discover the truth beyond this world of duality, which is the ultimate purpose of life. — Dashama Konah Gordon

If we are not living IN our bodies, honoring them as our TEMPLE, we are closing off the divine channels (nadis) of energy that run through us. Additionally, when we are not in good physical shape, we limit our enjoyment of our life experience. Thus, yoga is spiritual and physical. — Dashama Konah Gordon

What yoga philosophy and all the great Buddhist teachings tells us is that solidity is a creation of the ordinary mind and that there never was anything permanent to begin with that we could hold on to. Life would be much easier and substantially less painful if we lived with the knowledge of impermanence as the only constant. — Donna Farhi

Jivamukti Yoga is a path to enlightenment through compassion for all beings. Jivamukti is a Sanskrit word that means to live liberated in joyful, musical harmony with the Earth. The Earth does not belong to us - we belong to the Earth. Let us celebrate our connection to life by not enslaving animals and exploiting the Earth, and attain freedom and happiness for ourselves in the process. For surely, the best way to uplift our own lives is to do all we can to uplift the lives of others. Go vegan! — Sharon Gannon

The desire of your vital being is towards work. And the vital being won't find any interest in yoga so long as you do not have any experience of the higher and fuller life that is in yoga. As long as this experience is not there, the vital being will not find any interest. — Sri Aurobindo

Coming to Haramara is like coming home. My body returns to the earth, my mind mesmerized by the rhythms of the ocean and my spirit flies in this magical place. Yoga is a way of life and Haramara Retreat is where we can re-educate ourselves to live in balance. — Rodney Yee

Any teaching will not transform you as long as you are deeply attached to your body. Yoga is towards reducing this attachment. — Jaggi Vasudev

Consciousness is the screen. The images on the screen are your perceptions, the illusion that life is solid, that there is a material universe. — Frederick Lenz

My life is so tumultuous. I dive into everything. I'm feeling all up and down and sleepy and moody and hormonal - it just gets crazy. Just to keep myself balanced, I do things like yoga and meditation. — India.Arie

Yoga is about awakening. Yoga is about creating a life that brings more beauty and more love into the world. — John Friend

Yoga is like music: the rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul create the symphony of life. — B.K.S. Iyengar

A kaleidoscope consists of a tube (or container), mirrors, pieces of glass (or beads or precious stones), sunlight, and someone to turn it and observe and enjoy the forms. Metaphorically, perhaps the sun represents the divine light, or spark of life, within all of us. The mirrors represent our ability to serve as mirrors for one another and each other's alignment, reflecting sides of ourselves that we may not have been aware of. The tube (or container) is the practice of community yoga. We, as human beings, are the glass, the beads, the precious stones. The facilitator is the person turning the Kaleidoscope, initiating the changing patterns. And the resulting beauty of the shapes? Well, that's for everyone to enjoy... — Lo Nathamundi

Illusion doesn't mean that something is not real. Illusion simply means that something is less real than something else. This life and this world certainly exist - who is to say the reality of the dream is not real? — Frederick Lenz

Your first pregnancy you have nothing to do except sleep and take care of yourself and go to prenatal yoga or whatever. Now I have a full-time job, I have a four-year-old, I've got a life that is demanding my attention, so I've gone to prenatal yoga once. It's such a bummer. — Busy Philipps

The law of life is to leave behind the ground one is standing on and then step forward. — Rama Swami

Yoga is for everyone. Personally I believe yoga would benefit anyone's life. It is such an amazing form of exercise and if you practice regularly it really slows your mind down and it helps you to get perspective. It keeps you incredibly fit and really flexible. It helps prevent ailments because you're working all the body. — Jayne Middlemiss

Yoga means we accept responsibility for the tasks in our life, and we know that being a king, being an enlightened teacher, being someone who sweeps the streets, we know that nothing is a greater yoga than anything else. — Frederick Lenz

The chief helps in this liberation are Abhyasa and Vairagya. Vairagya is non - attachment to life, because it is the will to enjoy that brings all this bondage in its train; and Abhyasa is constant practice of any one of the Yogas. — Swami Vivekananda

Doing yoga on the road was really a life-saver, and a life-changer ... .It kept me focused and gave me more control over the way I divided my energy. I realize that if [a place of goodness] is the basis for all decision-making, then the road is clear. — Sheryl Crow

Since the early 1920s a unique spiritual path has existed in Japan. This distinctly Japanese version of yoga is called Shin-shin-toitsu-do, and it combines seated meditation, moving meditation, breathing exercises, and other disciplines to help practitioners realize unification of mind and body. Besides yoga, it is a synthesis of methods, influenced by Japanese meditation, healing arts, and martial arts; along with Western psychology, medicine, and science. Shin-shin-toitsu-do is widely practiced throughout Japan, although it is almost unknown in other countries. Through its principles of mind and body coordination people have an opportunity to realize their full potential in everyday life.A remarkable man created this path, and he led an equally remarkable life. He was known in Japan as Nakamura Tempu Sensei, and this is his story. — H.E. Davey

You might be anything. You might be having any organization, you might be having any position in life, you might be any great personality, makes no difference to God. What is important is that: are you seeking? — Nirmala Srivastava

In shamanism and certain yogas, Taoist yoga, claim very clearly that the purpose is to familiarize yourself with this after-death body, in life, and then the act of dying will not create confusion in the psyche. You will recognize what is happening. You will know what to do. And you will make the clean break. — Terence McKenna

In the yoga sutras, they have this beautiful analogy that the journey of life is like the flight of an eagle, or the journey over multiple lifetimes is like a flight of an eagle. First, the eagle stretches its wings high, high, high, and experiences everything that the world has to offer in terms of flight. It's growing and flying and it's experiencing, and then it brings its wings down gracefully and that is the completion of the journey. — Karan Bajaj

Yoga is the technology of upgrading, activating, and refining these inner energies for the highest possibilities. Suddenly, your capabilities reach a level of brilliance that you never imagined possible. An accidental and limited life turns near-miraculous. But — Sadhguru

Yoga is the art work of awareness on the canvas of body, mind, and soul. — Amit Ray

Anything that is secret and mysterious in this system of Yoga should be at once rejected. The best guide in life is strength. In spirituality, as in all other matters, discard everything that weakens you. Have nothing to do with it. Mystery-mongering weakens the human brain. It has well-nigh destroyed Yoga, one of the grandest of sciences — Swami Vivekananda

Ayurveda is a sister philosophy to yoga. It is the science of life or longevity and it teaches about the power and the cycles of nature, as well as the elements. — Christy Turlington

When the power of breath (Sa) is controlled it becomes rested (as) and in that
state it transforms into protector(tra); this is the basic principle of life and
consciousness, wherein the senses, mind, intelligence all are protected and
directed through the power of breath in a rested state, this is called Sa+as+
tra (SASTRA). It is the most powerful weapon alive and the most powerful
protector as well. One who stills, directs, controls and allows it to rise from
the core of the body to the subtle, subtler, subtlest levels of consciousness is
considered to be well versed in Sastras. Ananth Yoga allows one to work on
the Grossest, Gross, Subtle, Subtler levels of consciousness, through the
breath power leading on to connect to the subtlest level of consciousness. — Maitreya Rudrabhayananda

I am intrigued by different religions and respect them all, but to be honest, I feel the most spiritual when I am doing yoga or looking at an ocean. Being spiritual is feeling a connection with a higher power and knowing that life is about more than just achieving goals. It is about feeling good in the moment. — Heather Graham

Now I know why yoga is so life-giving for so many. I have never experienced a practice that combines such physical challenge and spiritual wellbeing in my life. — Emily Saliers

Acharya Balkrishna on Yog

"Who will not be delighted to behold the exotic scenery and flora of the barren lands of Himalayas. Similar is the power of Yog which beautifies the deserted life and fructifies hope in the shattered hearts. By taking refuge in Yog, the fallow mind will blossom into flowers indeed. — Acharya Balkrishna

I don't put much stock in powers that people have to hurt others, in sorcery and all this nonsense. There are murders and there are dictators. That is just a part of life. The intelligent use of power in yoga can assist you avoiding that side of humanity. — Frederick Lenz

Life must always go on and Yoga is not about an escape from life. Yoga's about a way of dealing with life more effectively; to be able to involve oneself with one's family, one's friends, one's social commitments, one's job and yet at the same time maintain one's centre. — Paul Harvey

You spend so much time in your head in life. And what yoga does is, it asks you to allow your head to be quiet, to allow it to be still, just for an hour and a half. Just deal with your body and your breath. And it's a great workout. I love it. — Colin Farrell