Philosophy Subjects

Abhyasa and Vairagya describe the dual pathways of action and renunciation.  This subject is an introduction to the important role they play within practice and teaching. In the opening chapter of the Yoga Sutras Patanjali indicates Abhyasa/ Vairagya (Action and renunciation) as a practice for those who are supremely intense in their efforts. This subject […]

Students often struggle to engage with the yoga sutras of Patanjali finding the text dry and uninteresting. This subject introduces the sutras by covering their main themes to build a picture for those wanting to explore the subject in closer detail. Providing an overview and a stepping stone. This Subject is best completed by focusing

Iyengar notes: ‘Yoga is a universal subject.  As the physics and chemistry cannot change for Westerners or Easterners so also yoga cannot be changed.  All the rules, regulations, principles remain the same for both.  Still it is a subject to be dealt with individually according to their capacity of physical, mental, emotional, psychological, intellectual levels.

‘Once you know the psychology and physiology of asanas, then you will be able to make a proper schedule of sequence of asana.  It is a very subjective thing, it cannot be so generalised. It is a science, but it is not a rigid science; it is a fluid science, because it is subjective. It

Prashant Iyengar writes ‘Teaching the body is a facet, which even a beginner has to evolve. But here, the ardent seeker teaches Trikonasana to the body, at times by the mind and at times by the breath’. the statement above recognises that learning is not merely the acquisition of points of detail about an asana.

BKS Iyengar writes ‘There are seven frontiers to be integrated between the Seen (prakrti) and the Seer (purusa). They are integration of – the body, the senses, energy, mind, intellect, consciousness and soul, each realising its own individual identity. Proficiency in yoga will bring this seven fold knowledge. According to Patanjali the seven states of

‘If we want to experience heaven on earth, we have to grasp the qualities of nature, the gunas, that is to say the polarity of rajas and tamas, the eternal pulse of nature between movement and stillness, and the higher balancing state of sattva.  Nature has degrees of subtlety.’ BKS Iyengar, Light on Yoga Sutras

‘…. if any Iyengar Yoga teacher is asked to express what is so unique about Iyengar Yoga then he would have no difficulties in expressing that “Iyengar Yoga is characterised by precision and alignment, sequencing, timing and the use of props’. Prashant Iyengar The subject is in 10 parts and contains articles, videos and quotes.

In his book The Tree of Yoga, BKS Iyengar makes the following statement: ‘There are three transformations which take place in medi­tation. At the very beginning of his Yoga Sutras, Patanjali says that stillness of the mind is yoga. Later, he says that when a person is trying to still the mind, there is an opposition which

Introduction This subject considers Iyengar’s relationship to classical Yoga as outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. In his “message for the 70th birthday” Iyengar states: ‘The yoga I teach is purely astanga yoga, known as the eight-limbed yoga, expounded by Patanjali in his 196 terse sutra, each of which reflects profound experiential knowledge. These are supplemented