Interview / YouTube video of Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher Dean Lerner

This video of an interview with Senior Iyengar Yoga teacher, Dean Lerner, is well worth watching and listening to a number of times.

A few of the comments that Dean makes that especially resonate with me include:

• When Dean first started reading Light on Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar, he said he was like a thirsty man in the desert, and reading Light on Yoga was like drinking water for his soul.
• When Dean Lerner wrote to Guruji (B.K.S. Iyengar) with questions about the poses in Light on Yoga, Dean said he can't do the poses like Guruji does in the book -- that they're uncomfortable.  Iyengar wrote back saying, "I’m not concerned with your comfort but with the precision in which you do the poses."   This made an impression on Dean.  Comfort is not the point in the poses, but how we're moving in the poses, and how our consciousness is moving, so we face the difficulties properly.
• The postures are used to affect the mind.  When we learn to quiet the mind, we're on the road to bliss.  We start to find that unity within ourselves.
• If we're not alert to how we practice, we lean toward practicing what is easy for us, and avoiding that which is difficult.    We need to develop an even state of mind for all poses, easy and difficult.   We need to find where the difficulties lie so we can overcome them.
• Practicing and observing our consciousness leads us inward to the core of our being.
• Long, uninterrupted, and intelligent practice is how we progress in our study of yoga.   At first the practice of yoga is a discipline, but with continued long, uninterrupted, intelligent practice, it becomes a passion.