15 posts tagged “quotes”
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
-- Martin Luther King Jr.
All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.
"If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets as Raphael painted pictures, sweep streets as Michaelangelo carved marble, sweep streets as Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” — W. Somerset Maugham
Check out this great blog post from Lifehack.org (via Leo at Zen Habits) on 14 Ways to Cultivate a Lifetime Reading Habit.
Here's the list. Read the actual post for the juicy details.
- Set times
- Always carry a book
- Make a list
- Find a quiet place
- Reduce television/Internet
- Read to your kids
- Keep a log
- Go to used book shops
- Have a library day
- Read fun and compelling books
- Make it pleasurable
- Blog it
- Set a high goal
- Have a reading hour or reading day
Last but not least, become a member of LibraryThing and catalog your book collection.
Live your life in happiness, even though those around you lead lives which are unhealthy, and wish to spread their illness to you. Be Happiness itself.
Who ranks as the highest? One who does not harm anything. One who never retaliates. One who is always at peace regardless of the other person's disposition.Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
Apparently this is good advice for lawyers from Rudolf Schlesinger (where he said it I don't know):
What happens to lawyers who don't read the footnotes in legal decisions? -- Their children will starve!
Yoga Sutra 2.7 - 2.11
Attachment is a residue of pleasant experience.
Aversion is a residue of suffering.
Clinging to life is instinctive and self-perpetuating, even for the wise.
In their subtle form, these causes of suffering are subdued by seeing where they come from.
In their gross form, as patterns of consciousness, they are subdued through meditative absorption.
Varanasi, originally uploaded on Flickr by dwrawlinson.
Here’s a little back-bending video by Dharma Mittra for the weekend. Check out the Dharma Yoga Center website to find out more about this legendary yogi. I thought this was an interesting quote by Paramahansa Yogananda I found on the site:
“In the beginning of one’s spiritual search, it is wise to compare various spiritual paths and teachers. But when you find the real guru destined for you, the one whose teachings can lead you to the Divine Goal, then restless searching should cease. A spiritually thirsty person should not go on indefinitely drinking from a new well; rather he should go to the best well and drink daily of its living waters.”
A favorite quote of mine from Pattabhi Jois:
If we practice the science of yoga, which is useful to the entire human community and which yields happiness both here and hereafter - if we practice it without fail, we will then attain physical, mental and spiritual happiness, and our minds will flood towards the Self.
Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois
Perhaps you’ve already read the article, “Pilgrimage to the Heart of Yoga” in BusinessWeek Online about the wave of yogis ascending to Mysore, India to practice at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute, but if you haven’t read it yet, I’d recommend taking a look at it. If you’ve never been to India, you’ll wish you could go, and if you have been to India, you’ll start planning your next trip. Here’s a quick excerpt:
At 5 p.m. on a breezy Saturday, the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in the southern Indian city of Mysore is buzzing. Students from around the globe are thronging the steps of the three-story, light-gray concrete building. Clad in light-colored cotton pants and T-shirts, their backs ramrod straight, their eyes and skin aglow, they are queuing up to greet Sharath Ranga-swamy, 35, a master of Ashtanga yoga, and his grandfather, Guruji K. Pattabhi Jois, the institute’s founder. Some are there to inquire about their classes, which start at 5 a.m. the next day, and some are still hoping to enroll….[Click here to read more!]
If you want to see some good pictures of one pilgrims trip to Mysore, click here. And for some pictures inside the shala click here. Let me know if you have some good pics of your own!
It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a year since Light on Life by B.K.S. Iyengar was released. In 2005, NPR interviewed Iyengar to discuss the physical and mental benefits of yoga. If you haven’t heard the interview, take a minute to 
to the words of one of yoga’s foremost pioneers. In the article that accompanies the interview, Iyengar discusses how yoga is more than just physical motions (the quote is actually from the book):
The practice of yogasana for the sake of health, to keep fit, or to maintain flexibility is the external practice of yoga….While this is a legitimate place to begin, it is not the end… Even in simple asanas, one is experiencing the three levels of quest: the external quest, which brings firmness of the body; the internal quest, which brings steadiness of intelligence; and the innermost quest, which brings benevolence of spirit…Often, we hear people saying they remain active and light when they do just a little bit of asana practice. When a raw beginner experiences this state of well-being, it is not merely the external or anatomical effects of yoga. It is also about the internal physiological and psychological effects of the practice.
