Quotes from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“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.”
― quote from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“Yoga is asking us to pay attention to the nature of all of our relationships and to apply the yamas and the niyamas to them. Whether it is our relationship to our breath, the bottoms of our feet, the ant crawling across the kitchen floor, our families, or to God, we are being asked to pay attention. The aim of yogic practice is to free us from the endless distractions of the kleshas—fear, pride, desire, and ignorance—and to teach us to bring a focused mind to bear on the nature of our relationships. Our time spent on the mat is dedicated to that end.”
― quote from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“Whenever we find ourselves ensnared in negative behavior, he suggests, we should increase the amount of time, thought, and energy we direct toward positive behavior.”
― quote from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“You may not be what you think you are, but what you think, you are. Jim Clark”
― quote from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“There is a river flowing now, very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and suffer greatly. Know that the river has its destination. The elders say we must push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our heads above the water. See who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves, for the moment we do that, our spiritual growth comes to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves; banish the word ‘struggle’ from your attitude and vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred way and in celebration. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
― quote from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“We spend our days badgered by voices that tell us to judge others, fear others, harm others, or harm ourselves. But we are not obligated to listen to those voices, or even to take responsibility for them. They may be where we come from, but they are not where we are going. There is another voice, a voice that shines. Ahimsa is the practice of listening to that voice of lightness, cultivating that voice, trusting that voice, acting upon that voice.”
― quote from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“When nonviolence in speech, thought, and action is established, one’s aggressive nature is relinquished and others abandon hostility in one’s presence. Yoga Sutras”
― quote from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“What a beautiful thing, to walk amidst the endless diversity of life with the ability to perceive the source and the reality of its unity.”
― quote from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“At long last I came to the breakthrough point, the surrender. I realized that her life, and my fury, were truly over. She was gone, and if I really loved her, I owed it to her to ensure that her passing would bear spiritual fruit in my life. For that to happen, I would have to let go. The relief was profound. There was nothing left to do.”
― quote from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“Well, darkness has a hunger that’s insatiable, and lightness has a call that’s hard to hear. Indigo Girls”
― quote from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“Love is not a thought, it is an action. And each loving action that we take infuses us with more energy for loving action in the future.”
― quote from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

Popular quotes

“Man sets his hand to games of power and influence, he quests for far horizons and wealth beyond imagining. He thinks to own what cannot be possessed. He hews the ancient trees to broaden his grazing lands; he mines the deep caves and topples the standing stones. He embraces a new faith with fervor and, perhaps, with sincerity. But he grows ever further from the old things. He can no longer hear the heartbeat of the earth, his mother. He cannot smell the change in the air; he cannot see what lies beyond the veil of shadows. Even his new god is formed in his own image, for do they not call him the son of man? By his own choice he is cut adrift from the ancient cycles of sun and moon, the ordered passing of the seasons. And without him, the Fair Folk dwindle and are nothing. They retreat and hide themselves, and are reduced to the clurichaun with his little ale jug; the brownie who steals the cow's milk at Samhain; the half-heard wailing of the banshee. They become no more than a memory in the mind of a frail old man; a tale told by a crazy old woman.”
― Juliet Marillier, quote from Child of the Prophecy

“It was the year Frankie thought about the world. And she did not see it as a round school globe, with the countries neat and different-colored. She thought of the world as huge and cracked and loose
and turning a thousand miles an hour.”
― Carson McCullers, quote from The Member of the Wedding

“Simply to endure is to triumph.”
― Patricia McCormick, quote from Sold

“Think neither fear nor courage saves us.
Unnatural vices are fathered by our heroism.
Virtues are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.
These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from The Waste Land and Other Poems

“Consider it: every person you have ever met, every person will suffer the loss of his friends and family. All are going to lose everything they love in this world. Why would one want to be anything but kind to them in the meantime?”
― Sam Harris, quote from The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

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