How can I hope to be friends

with the hard white stars

whose flaring and hissing are not speech

but a pure radiance?

How can I hope to be friends

with the yawning spaces between them

where nothing, ever, is spoken?

Tonight, at the edge of the field,

I stood very still, and looked up,

and tried to be empty of words.

What joy was it, that almost found me?

What amiable peace?

What can we do

but keep on breathing in and out

modest and willing, and in our places?

Even as now.

—Excerpts from “stars” by Mary Oliver.

Bhujangāsana II. Cobra with no arms 

The effect of Asana is to put an end to the dualities or the differentiation between body and mind, mind and soul...In that exalted position, the mind, which is at the root of dualistic perception, loses its identity and ceases to disturb (her). Unity is achieved between body and mind and mind and soul. There is no longer joy or sorrow, heat or cold, honor or dishonor, pain or pleasure.”

— BKS Iyengar, from commentary on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras II.48 tatah dvandvah anabhighatah

From then on, the seeker is undisturbed by dualities.

Vīrabhadrāsana I.  Warrior 1 pose.  

detachment

“For years and years I struggled
just to love my life. And then

the butterfly
rose, weightless, in the wind. “Don’t love your life
too much,” it said
and vanished
into the world.”

— Mary Oliver

Yoga Sutras of Patañjali 11.20. Drasta drsimatrah suddhah api pratyayanupasyah ~~The seer is pure consciousness and witnesses nature without being reliant on it.

-
Supta Bhekhasana. Reclining frog pose

conquer your fears

When death comes

like the hungry bear in autumn

when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;

when death comes like the measle-pox;

when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what’s it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore, I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and I look upon time as no more than an idea,

and I consider eternity as another possibility,  and I think of each life as a flower, as common

as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth, tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life

I was a bride married to amazement.

I was the bridegroom taking the world into my arms.

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder

if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up having simply visited this world.

~~Mary Oliver

“What will you do about your abhiniveśa (fear of dying, clinging to life)?” Geeta Iyengar, speaking in the context of learning padmasana, to advanced students/practitioners with fear about their knee problems. She advised the class to face and work beyond fear through cultivating self knowledge and facing their problems in their hips (the source of the problems in the knee).

Vrśchikāsana ~~Scorpion pose

becoming the light

“Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “it’s simple,” they say,
“And you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine. ”

— Mary Oliver, from “when I am among the trees”.

Kaśyapāsana ~ Pose of the safe Kaśyapa, son of sage Marīchi, son of Brahma

aligning

“There is a universal reality in ourselves that aligns us with a universal reality that is everywhere else. Alignment from the outermost body or sheath (kośa) to the innermost is the way to bring our own personal Reality into contact with Universal Reality. The Vastasutra Upanishad says, “setting the limbs along proper lines is praised like the knowledge of God.” From the Rig Veda comes, “every form is an image of the original form.” BKS Iyengar, Light on Life, p. 8.

Using the corner of a wall or pillar helps to open the thoracic chest and release the neck (as it should in classic Utthita Trikonasana). The back shoulder should lengthen down the back. The head looks back before looking up. The arms are pushing the wall to arch the chest. In the first photo the edge of wall is between the middle back and base of shoulder blades. In the second photo it is on the bottom base of the shoulder blade. Credit Manouso Manos. All errors are my own.

from experience to wisdom

“You can only give what you yourself have experienced. If you wish to help others through the healing power of Yoga, you have to put yourself at the service of the art and then through experience gain understanding.

Remember that experience and knowledge born of experience are a million times superior to accumulated and acquired knowledge. Experienced knowledge is subjective and it is factual, whereas acquired knowledge, being objective, may leave the stain of doubts. So learn, do, re-learn, experience, and you will be able to teach with confidence, courage and clarity.” ~~BKS Iyengar, from his book, Tree of Yoga, on “The Healing Art” p. 111-112.

Parivrtta Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana

health begins with the body

 “Health begins with firmness in body, deepens to emotional stability, then leads to intellectual clarity, wisdom, and finally the unveiling of the soul. Heath can be categorized in many ways. There is physical health, which we are all familiar with, but there is also moral health, mental health, intellectual health, and even the health of our consciousness, health of our conscience, and ultimately divine health.

But a yogi never forgets that health must begin with the body. Your body is the child of your 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 something we must build up. You have to create within yourself the experience of beauty, liberation, and infinity. This is health.” ~~BKS Iyengar, “Light on Life” from the chapter on “Stability—the physical body (Asana)” p. 23-4.

Photograph is Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher Jennifer Beaumont practicing a stage of Padangustha Dhanurasana