The internal experience of yoga

'However beautifully we carry out an asana, however flexible our body may be, if we do not achieve the integration of body, breath, and mind we can hardly claim that what we are doing is yoga.

 

What is yoga after all? It is something that we experience within our being. Yoga is not an external experience. In yoga we try in every action to be as attentive as possible to everything we do.

 

Yoga is different from dance or theatre. In yoga we are not creating something for others to look at. As we perform the various asansa we observe what we are doing and how we are doing it.

 

We do it only for ourselves. We are both observer and what is observed at the same time. If we do not pay attention to ourselves in our practice, then we cannot call it yoga.'

 

TKV Desikachar

 

 

Asana of the Month

Wellbeing

A trip to London's Ayurveda Pura near Greenwich restores body & soul.

Yoga Bites

John Welwood's wonderful poem on acceptance, and finding wholeness right now.

Practice

Mindfulness meditation is experiencing fast-growing interest in the West. We offer an introduction.