A significant part of asana practice is to encounter physical hardship, it is by challenging yourself physically that the body becomes firm, strong, and healthy–the strong body enables you to work with your mind.
Stepping on your mat each day is walking into the forest, practice is sitting down in the middle of that scary place and undertaking to meet the source within...
During the discussion there was an interval of cross talk and commotion, and during this time Guruji looked at me, and for a moment it was as if it was only he and I in the room.
One of the most important maps is visualization or imagery. So that rather than being physical first, you approach practice from a place of imagery or visualization. This is one of the most fascinating aspects to the work.
That is one of the main reasons for practice—to inspire yourself. It's not only discipline, determination, toughness and stubbornness that gets me on my mat each day…
Asana practice can teach me the necessity of allowing thought to be born out of bodily awareness, out of feeling, sensing, and perceiving in a very distinctly animal way.
Sharath spoke about each of the 6 classic yogic cleansing practices and concluded that Ashtanga practice achieves the same benefits and thus largely replaces these practices.
Balancing in a full squatting position is one of the most important and challenging aspects to this posture. The feet are your foundation, they are directly in contact with the earth.
