Light on Life

The hardness of a diamond is part of its usefulness, but its true value is in the light that shines through it.

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.

Yoga does not just change the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees.

It is through the alignment of the body that I discovered the alignment of my mind, self, and intelligence.

Yoga allows you to rediscover a sense of wholeness in your life, where you do not feel like you are constantly trying to fit broken pieces together.

Yoga allows you to find a new kind of freedom that you may not have known even existed.

Be inspired but not proud.

Action is movement with intelligence. The world is filled with movement. What the world needs is more conscious movement, more action.

There is only one reality, but there are many ways that reality can be interpreted.

Nothing can be forced, receptivity is everything.

As animals, we walk the earth. As bearers of divine essence, we are among the stars. As human beings, we are caught in the middle, seeking to reconcile the paradox of how to make our way upon earth while striving for something more permanent and more profound.

One's spiritual realization lies in none other than how one walks among and interacts with one's fellow beings.

Do not aim low, you will miss the mark. Aim high and you will be on a threshold of bliss.

You do not need to seek freedom in a different land, for it exists with your own body, heart, mind, and soul.

There is a universal reality in ourselves that aligns us with a universal reality that is everywhere.

Spirituality is not some external goal that one must seek, but a part of the divine core of each of us, which we must reveal.

Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stresses and struggles of life.

There is no progress toward ultimate freedom without transformation, and this is the key issue in all lives.

The union of nature and soul removes the veil of ignorance that covers our intelligence.

We must create a marriage between the awareness of the body and that of the mind. When two parties do not cooperate, there is unhappiness on both sides.

But a yogi never forgets that health must begin with the body. Your body is the child of the soul. You must nourish and train your child. Physical health is not a commodity to be bargained for. Nor can it be swallowed in the form of drugs and pills. It has to be earned through sweat.

It is Einstein’s famous equation E=MC^2, in which E is energy (rajas), M is mass (tamas), and C is the speed of light (sattva). Energy, mass, and light are endlessly bound together in the universe.

As we explore the soul, it is important to remember that this exploration will take place within nature (the body), for that is where and what we are.

As breath stills our mind, our energies are free to unhook from the senses and bend inward.

By drawing our senses of perception inward, we are able to experience the control, silence, and quietness of the mind.

A fusion of nature and soul.

Breath is the vehicle of consciousness and so, by its slow measured observation and distribution, we learn to tug our attention away from external desires toward a judicious, intelligent awareness.

True concentration is an unbroken thread of awareness.

If you have smoked since you were sixteen, every time you pick up a cigarette in the day you are also brainwashing yourself. "In this situation I pick up a cigarette" sends a little ripple down through consciousness that adds to the "take a cigarette" mound. That's why cigarettes are more difficult than almost anything else to give up. Aside from their physical cravings, we create mental cravings because the habit is very repetitive. The habit of smoking puts itself into every situation. The triggers to that situation are so many that many smokers still sometimes want to smoke even years after they have stopped because the mound is still there.