Asanas

The goal of traditional Hatha Yoga
is the creation of a "diamond body"
that is immune to aging and death.
-Georg Feuerstein

The Yogi regards his physical body
as an instrument for his journey toward perfection.
-Vishnu Devananda

Asanas are used to polish your mind
so that light from the soul can pass through your body and mind
and illuminate everything around you.
When asanas are done correctly
they are a revelation of the harmony of body, mind and spirit.
-Norman E. Sjoman

Yoga postures are about becoming one with the Earth -
connecting out body with the forces of the mineral kingdom
and its inherent strength and ability.
Our spine itself is the Earth or the bedrock of our being.

-David Frawley

The majority of yoga postures
relate to the development of awareness of the spine,
either by stretching or irrigating the spine
or by inducing a more centered awareness.
-Donald Walters, "Kriyananda"

For the yogi, the physical body corresponds
to one of the elements of nature, namely the earth...
As you explore your body, you are in fact
exploring this element of nature itself.
you are also developing the qualities of earth within yourself:
solidity, shape, firmness and strength.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

Our bodies are living, breathing, changing animals.
-Julie Rappaport

How truthful a posture is might depend on a variety of measures:

(1) the degree to which the posture is stable over the time it is held 

(not to mention how stable the mind is)

(2) the degree to which the concentration is single-pointed 

for the duration of the asana

(3) the overall degree to which the practitioner has "been" the posture.

-Edward Clark

The nature of practicing yoga postures 

is to revel something ineffable.

-Edward Clark

Asanas are to the body
what meditation is to the mind.
-Georg Feuerstein

The work in the yoga asanas
is the the space between the conscious and the unconscious mind.
-Norman E. Sjoman

We look into that mirror of yoga
and see the places in our body
that need support, that need to open.
-Julie Rappaport

Yoga poses are like "keys"
that unlock our conscious awareness of the body.
-Ray Long

Each asana is a key
to unlock something efficiently.
-Norman E. Sjoman

What makes asana practice especially interesting
is the fact you are working with an energy field - your energy field...
You are changing your energy pattern, the way you energy flows.
-Erich Schiffman

The various asanas are actually very precise tools.
Each yoga posture, or asana,
is a specific shape or template in which the stretching occurs.
The idea is to use these tools or shapes
to help create more space in your body.
Your body is the visible and tangible portion of your energy field,
and each pose is like a map into a specific area of that field.
You create more space
by undoing the tight spots, releasing tensions...
Using the pose both as a map and tool,
you deliberately explore yourself,
looking for tight, sore and painful areas within yourself.
You look for them so you can erase them.
You then gently stretch them, press and squeeze them,
breathe into them, relax and release them,
and thereby ease away the tension and open the contracted area.
This allows new energy to flush through you,
nourishing undernourished areas,
soothing chronic pain, and improving energy flow
throughout the whole of you - revitalizing you...
This is done slowly, carefully, with sensitivity and feeling -
enjoying what you are doing.
-Erich Schiffman

A large part of the art and skill in yoga lies in sensing
just how far to move into a stretch.

-Erich Schiffman

Skill in yoga involves creating the intensity of current
that makes the stretch feel perfect.
As your body becomes stronger and more flexible,
you will desire and enjoy a stronger current more often.

-Erich Schiffman

Skill in yoga
is a matter of harmonizing your breathing with your energy lines
as you flirt with your edges.
-Erich Schiffman

Through the sensitivity you gain in asana practice,
you can also diagnose where sensation is absent.
This is the function of intelligence.
Its next function is to bring sensation to where it is not,
and to make awareness flow there too...
Beyond that you have to determine if the sensitivity
is equally distributed or not.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

In asana, our consciousness spreads throughout the body,
eventually diffusing into every cell,
creating a complete awareness.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

Awaken the dormant intelligence
even in the minutest fibre.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

Love must be incarnated into the smallest pore of the skin,

the smallest cell of the body, 

to make them intelligent so they can collaborate with all the other ones,

in the big republic of the body.

This love must radiate from you to others.

-B. K. S. Iyengar

Your whole being should be symmetrical.
Yoga is symmetry.
That is why yoga is a basic art.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

Each asana has an exact
geometrical and architectural shape.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

When the shape of the asana expresses the shape of the self,
without forcing, deception or distortion
then you have learned truth (satya) in the asana.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

The posture becomes perfect
when the effort of achieving it vanishes.
-Yogabhyasa

all positions are like toys

we take them and we play with them

and we leave them

the process is to be able to listen

with an alert mind

to the rhythm of the movements

but we need lots and lots of toys to play with

so that our practice doesn't become

boring, mechanical, repetitive

-Sandra Sabatini

Be guided always by the inner feeling.
This is one of the primary teachings of yoga.
-Erich Schiffman

Do not kill the instinct of the body

for the glory of the pose.

-Vanda Scaravelli

If you are not steady and happy in an asana,

you have not perfected that asana.

-Sharon Gannon and David Life

You must savor the fragrance of the posture.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

In each pose,
there should be repose.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

Yoga is a soothing thing.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

The practice of Yoga
induces a primary sense of measure and proportion.
Reduced to our own body,
our first instrument, we learn to play it,
drawing from it maximum resonance and harmony.
-Yehudi Menuhin

Grace, beauty, strength, energy and firmness
adorn the body through Yoga.
-Patanjali

When you are performing an asana, 

you consciousness, like the waters of a lake,

should touch frontiers of the body everywhere.

Where, then is there room for thoughts to arise?

How can there be a thought arising 

when you are doing a perfect asana -

when your intelligence has spread through your whole body?

-B. K. S. Iyengar 

In asanas, we are chanting with our bodies.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

My body is my temple
and asanas are my prayers.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

Every posture must be an affirmation of,
and must be followed by a return to, the divine Self within.

-Donald Walters, "Kriyananda"

You must balance all of the energies
in each part of the body.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

The practice of asanas
purges the body of its impurities,
bringing strength, firmness, calm and clarity of mind.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

The effect of asanas
is to keep the skin, cells, nerves, arteries and veins,
respiratory and circulatory systems,
digestive and excretory systems,
mind, intelligence and consciousness
all clean and clear.
-B. K. S. Iyengar

Through yoga we feel the movement of change as it occurs.
We become both the change and the witness.
-Julie Rappaport

Practice transforms us.
We need to eat less, because we assimilate more
and therefore there is a loss of unnecessary weight.
We become more beautiful, our faces change
and our walk gains in elasticity.
Our way of standing is steady and poised,
our legs are firmer, and our toes and feet spread out,
giving us more stability.
Our chests expand, the muscles of the abdomen start to work,
the head is light on the neck
(like the corolla of a flower on its stem
moving more easily with flexibility while the wind blows.)
To watch these enchanting changes is amazing.
A different life begins
and the body expresses a happiness never felt before.
These are not just words, it actually happens.
-Vanda Scarvelli