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“The very life force of nature is an initiating power, a driving force, an incitement to creation. It hears our call and responds to it in proportion to the valor and determined intent with which it is invoked.” BKS Iyengar, Light on Life, p. 62.
Parśva Utthita Hasta pādāngusthāsana ~~extended hand/arm clasping the foot to the side pose
Let your pains be your teacher.” Yogacharya BKS Iyengar
“How shall there be redemption and resurrection unless there has been a great sorrow? And isn’t struggle and rising the real work of our lives?”
Mary Oliver, “Winter Hours”
“Who knows what is beyond the known?And if you think that any day the secret of light might come, would you not keep the house of your mind ready? Would you not cleanse your study of all that is cheap or trivial? Would you not live in continual hope, and pleasure, and excitement?”
Mary Oliver, “Winter Hours”.
“Now we find ourselves in a realm where the inner is visibly trying to get out, to express itself. The space we create is such that the source body, the innermost, can begin to radiate out. One should be natural, like a happy, confident child. The soul seeks nothing more than to expand to fill our whole being.” Yogācārya B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life, 2005, p.173.
Atmīyatā—“the feeling of oneness, as a mother’s feeling for her children” (from Glossary of Light on Yoga)
Matsyāsana —fish pose, supported and with daughter
“Love begets courage, moderation creates abundance and humility generates power. ”
Pūrvottānāsana—intense stretch of the east side of the body pose.
Strength can be powered from a place of love and devotion. Lightness is created by lifting heaviness. Be One with love and duty.
“Exertion, or our effort through practice, generates the energy, which we need for the journey to penetrate to the core of our being.”
—Yogācārya BKS Iyengar, Light on Life p. 60
“...Prayer is a dipping of oneself toward the light, there is a consequence of attentiveness to the grass itself, and to the floating bird. I too leave the fret and enclosure of my own life. I too dip myself toward the immeasurable.”
—Mary Oliver, “Winter Hours”. .
Here are some photographs taken while teaching a free Introduction to Iyengar Yoga at the Herkimer Apartments community room. Herkimer Apartments are adjacent to & above the Iyengar Yoga Center of Grand Rapids and also owned and managed by the housing non-profit organization, Dwelling Place. “Dwelling Place improves the lives of people by creating quality affordable housing, providing essential support services, and serving as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization.” IYCGR rents space from Dwelling Place. While we have offered a sliding scale community gift class for over a year not one resident has attended. So after speaking to the community resident services coordinator, Regina, it was decided to bring class to the Herkimer and meet the community in their space. I brought some mats and we used the chairs that were there. Students with low back and knee problems and pain leaned on tables which works like a trestler (Iyengar Yoga “Horse”) to take some weight off the joints of the knees, hips, pelvis and back. It was great to meet some of our neighbors and to have children in the class with their parents. Looking forward to seeing more neighbors in class soon.
“ We all receive God-given talents, and it is our duty to develop them energetically to realize their full potential, otherwise it is as if we are turning our nose up at the gifts of life. Our talents, however much they vary from individual to individual, when realized to the full, provide the link that will take us back to a reunion with the divine.”
Family Tolāsana & Padmāsana ~pan of scales & lotus pose~~photos from 2015~~
“Who knows, maybe the root is the flower of that other life? ”
FOREST HILLS, MICHIGAN | Jennifer@iycgr.com