Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom

cumstances of life would not allow it initially, but over time it can be reached. Our insight can now finally penetrate through ...

to the floor. Our body does not want to open itself in the way we see in a perfectly expressed asana. So we apply ourselves and ...

ness of just the body toward the consciousness of the soul. Indeed, as I often say, body is the bow, asana the arrow, and soul i ...

The energy body, pranamaya kosa, is the sheath in which we begin to cultivate our breath and also our emotions. We must master t ...

Vrschikasana Chapter 3 VITALITY The Energy Body (Prana) veryone desires more life energy. If energy could be packaged and �sold ...

power that is both immanent and transcendent. Prana is also often called wind, vital air. The Bible begins its description of Cr ...

your house, you would not think the kettle would boil in a third of the usual time and your lights burn three times brighter. Yo ...

toe, prana will carry it there. When you have a sufficient flow of prana, you can spread your consciousness everywhere within. T ...

Breath and Pranayama I did not start the practice of pranayama until1944 when I had already been teaching yogasana for several y ...

in their manner and did not think their pupils were deserving enough. One could not talk to them openly and frankly as we do tod ...

seat of the heart. By learning how to stretch and how to keep the ner­ vous system elastic and lively through asana, you will be ...

Watching the flow of the breath also teaches stability of con­ sciousness, which leads to concentration. There is no finer metho ...

cious, thoughtful, ungreedy breathing is a prayer of gratitude we offer to life itself. It is impossible, when we turn our atten ...

fascinating, but it offers less variety than asana, and as I have just said, it is an introverted practice. However ardent a pra ...

and energy supply. In order to affect this, the respiratory system is used totally, but without straining the nervous system. In ...

tion, the tide recedes drawing back toward the center. The in-breath is a movement toward the peripheral consciousness; the out- ...

lap of the soul. Retention after inhalation is the fulfillment of the indi­ vidual's potential for divinity. This "cup that is f ...

directions, dissipating our energy. We do not know how to recharge our batteries of energy. As a result, we become careless and ...

stress need to be pacified and eliminated from the body. Otherwise progress toward the higher levels of yoga and the more harmon ...

three Ws-the work of devoted practice, the wisdom that comes of understanding the self and the world, and worship because ulti­ ...