Best Quotes from Yoga Beyond Belief by Ganga White with Page Numbers

Yoga is a cherished and valuable tradition.

Even if we read or listen to a text in its original language, we must acknowledge that a large amount of personal interpretation still goes on in the way we receive it.

Spirituality is not an exact science to be laid out in narrowly defined paths.

We cannot learn to fly by following the tracks left by birds in the sand. We must find our own wings and soar.

Freedom from the Known—an insatiable appetite and energy for learning and a fresh inquiring mind are among life’s greatest assets.

When we come to learning as a beginner, we are open, questioning, looking.

One who sees his or her own limitations, and the limits of knowledge, may actually see more clearly.

The necessary ground for awakening intelligence is an open state of consciousness that begins with not knowing.

When we trust ourselves enough to begin to question tradition and authority, we begin the process of direct discovery.

We don’t throw away tradition: we stand on the shoulders of the past to find how we can see a bit farther.

Yoga signifies union, to unite or make whole.

Raja means king, and Raja yoga is known as the kingly yoga.

Yoga consists of observances, abstinences, posture, control of life force, turning the senses inward, concentration, meditation, and super-consciousness.

To deny sexuality is to deny the creative force of life.

The longer we have lived in a world of separation from nature, ourselves, and each other, the more we need to recognize the need for connection.

Devotion can take many forms and is not limited to external prayers, chanting, and rituals.

Questioning does not imply a lack of faith and devotion.

Our actions are the manifestation of our inner reality.

Yoga is something far deeper than developing the body beautiful or increasing personal bliss.

When we have seen that there is no path to truth, that truth and spirit are living things, then the limbs of yoga can serve us as useful practices and guiding tools.

Hatha yoga is both a vast art and a science.

While Hatha yoga refers to physical yoga, it is not merely an exercise system.

The laws of the external universe are also the laws of the internal universe.

Hatha yoga acknowledges the interrelationship of body, mind, and spirit.

What happens within the body affects the mind, heart, and spirit—and the reverse is equally true.

Yoga seeks to transform the lower into the higher, ignorance to wisdom, and sickness to health.

In much of modern belief and folklore, Hatha yoga is said to be thousands of years old.

The teachings and definition of Hatha yoga have grown and expanded enormously in modern times.

Health is often judged by the externals of muscle tone, strength, and endurance.

Developing mental awareness, mental clarity, and insight are at the core of yoga.

Yoga is not a goal at all—it is a lifelong process of living and learning that nurtures our being and enriches the quality of our days.

Making the time for a yoga practice means to honor and love ourselves enough to dedicate time each day to our own well-being.

In truth, yoga doesn’t 'take time'—it gives time.

Starting where you are implies tuning into your body and accepting and moving from your present state.

Keep a beginner’s mind—a fresh, questioning approach unburdened by baggage from the past.

Every body ages. […] Without endeavoring, without regular work to maintain strength and flexibility, people can lose their mobility.

Postures and practice should be adjusted to the needs and levels of each practitioner, not the other way around.

Goals are the finish line of a race, while yoga is an ongoing process throughout life.

Our bodies can become our most important teachers. […] Staying as attentive as possible will go a long way.

There is no perfect yoga body—yoga is perfect for every body.

As we gain more mastery of alignment and structures in asanas, we turn our attention toward the poses’ subtler aspects—toward the movement of internal energy and the inner dynamics.

There is literally no end to the exploration of the psychophysical organism.

Learning about the movement and flow of energy is one of the core principles of Hatha yoga.

A yogi is one who sees movement in stillness, and stillness in movement.

Both approaches to asanas are useful and have different ends.

Gravity is not our enemy; it is a major factor in aging, but it can be our friend.

Our breathing animates and empowers all of our actions and movements, and reflects our every state of mind and every emotion.

The breath is an entire information feedback system that lives on the interface of the conscious and unconscious.

Yoga is balance. Balance is not a static place to reach; it is a constantly moving equilibrium of relationships.

Advancing in yoga is more related to refining than to attaining.

The task in practicing yoga is to learn various forms and modes of the practice and then apply them effectively and sensitively for ourselves.

We need to relearn to dance life’s dance with wholeness, wellness, clarity, insight, and love.

Flow is sometimes misinterpreted to mean keeping up continuous movement without holding poses.

Being in the flow also informs us to stay fresh and alive, like a river.

Intuitive Flow incorporates and uses, but is also free from, tradition.

You create and move with the flow that the body’s inner guidance system gives to your practice.

Attunement to structural integrity and structural archetypes has probably been the genesis of most asanas in practice today.

A good, well-balanced yoga practice will stretch every muscle, move every joint, and work all ten psychophysical systems.

Keeping ourselves moving is essential to maintaining mobility throughout life.

When backbending, keep in mind the following important principles: Always be fully warmed up before going into deeper backbend poses.

Our bodies always change, and go through many different cycles, strengthening, weakening and... constantly changing internal muscular spring tensions in response to changes in our activity, inactivity, and lifestyle.

Many people think they are not suited for yoga practice because they have stiffness, weakness, or particular physical problems.

No one wants pain or injury, but we should not let fear of it stop us from feeling the greater health yoga can bring.

Pain announces and guards the edges of our limits.

I realized that there is no such thing as one kind of pain. I saw, instead, that pain is a language, an entire information system.

What we call pain really refers to a myriad of messages that can inform us and our practice as we learn to understand its communications.

Injuries can create self-perpetuating feedback loops that exacerbate and aggravate the problem.

Pain is necessary and defines the limits and the edges of strain and injury.

Learning to listen and respond to the guidance from the body’s intelligence will create a process that accelerates healing.

We do not reach health and wholeness as a permanent, fixed state of balance, but as an ability to adjust continuously and dance with the changing realities of each moment.

The chakra system is an ancient mapping of psychic phenomena and layers of consciousness.

Whether by coincidence, selective observation, synchronicity, or even divine revelation, the seven-chakra mapping seems to align holographically with many observable scientific principles.

The chakra model, however, shows consciousness and matter to belong to one interdependent continuum.

The chakras not only represent mysterious esoteric qualities, but actual levels of being in all aspects of life and in all areas of experience.

With love, everything in life resonates at a higher level.

Awakening Kundalini can be understood simply as awakening and manifesting our full creative potential.

Grounding implies keeping our lives in order on the earth plane within our bodies, our livelihood, and our relationships.

The heart chakra serves as a fulcrum for all the other centers—the three higher and three lower.

The highest center is beyond our command or control. We exist by the grace of the Source.

Turning a leaden life into a golden life may be the real esoteric teaching of this form of yoga and the greatest of all alchemy.

Your entire life is your meditation.

Rather than simply asking how to meditate, it is better to explore first the essence of what meditation is.

Everything in life has the potential of moving us to greater understanding and wisdom—and we cannot predict where the greatest lessons will lie.

When we look beyond static prescriptions and define meditation as anything that gives us self-knowledge, understanding, wisdom, artistry in living, awareness of the miracle of existence, and love, it becomes easier to see how this process can take place during any activity.

Meditation is not dull, mechanical, repetitive behavior chasing the magical, mystical, and spontaneous.

Real meditation is more of a 'happening,' similar to sleep, or even love, rather than just something we do.

To free the mind and consciousness, we must become aware of our internal programming and learn to deprogram ourselves.

Awareness and personal understanding are necessary to neutralize and go beyond conditioning.

Nature is the ultimate healer and the powerful balancer of energy.

The inward journey seeks the god, within; the outward journey finds god and goddess, without.

"Spirituality, and our relationship to it, must change and grow."

"Spirituality is an evolving, immeasurable energy that is not fixed in definitions, descriptions, and pathways defined for all time."

"Spirituality is the art of living—living with the highest possible excellence, compassion, passion, creativity, artistry, and awe."

"Living and dying, beginning and ending, are intertwined. Death is part of life’s teaching."

"Seeing the presence of death in life gives life its preciousness."

"Diversity is the fabric of life. In the same way that matter and energy are part of one continuum, the One and the Many are a natural, mutually embedded polarity in the universe."

"Enlightenment is not a place we get to, nor an attainment, but an endless journey of seeing, learning, awakening, and reawakening."

"Important elements contribute to spirituality, such as ethical behavior, right living, caring, and compassion, but the deepest essence lives beyond practices, beliefs, descriptions, and words."

"Can you be free from images and personifications of the infinite in the freedom, joy, and aliveness of the unknown?"

"We are at once the infinite and the infinitesimal, the eternal and ephemeral."