The Mirror of Yoga: Awakening the Intelligence of Body and Mind

If we allow ourselves to merge into the sensations that chanting can awaken within the body, then we can begin our yoga and meditation practices within a context of intelligence and kindness.

Yoga begins with listening. When we listen, we are giving space to what is. We are allowing other people to be what they are, and we are sanctioning our own bodies and our own minds to fully manifest. Yoga also begins in the present moment.

much of our life is spent avoiding the undercurrent of anxiety that surfaces as we place a mask of happiness (or tragedy) over what on a deeper level we are actually aware of—the present moment.

tantra and haṭha yoga alike are organized around the principle that all things are sacred.

When we practice yoga we cultivate the ability to concentrate the mind so that as we move into various physical postures, we begin to notice our habitual patterns of holding within our own body, just as we might observe physical patterns of holding in musicians as they perform.

Using the mind, the senses, and the ego to realize yoga is like asking a bull to fix the porcelain it just knocked off the shelf; there is a very real danger that the bull will make an even greater mess.

the practice is both an observation of what is arising and then a letting go of the frame we were looking through.

There is a famous verse found in the Tejo Bindu Upaniṣad that says that a true yoga posture occurs when meditation flows ceaselessly and spontaneously,

the ego function of the mind might turn any practice, tradition, or great starting point into an escape, a distraction, or even a political agenda. A sincere yoga practice can save us from this.