Rolf Gates > Quotes

“The real payoff of a yoga practice, I came to see, is not a perfect handstand or a deeper forward bend—it is the newly born self that each day steps off the yoga mat and back into life.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“Yoga is asking us to pay attention to the nature of all of our relationships and to apply the yamas and the niyamas to them. Whether it is our relationship to our breath, the bottoms of our feet, the ant crawling across the kitchen floor, our families, or to God, we are being asked to pay attention. The aim of yogic practice is to free us from the endless distractions of the kleshas—fear, pride, desire, and ignorance—and to teach us to bring a focused mind to bear on the nature of our relationships. Our time spent on the mat is dedicated to that end.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“We spend our days badgered by voices that tell us to judge others, fear others, harm others, or harm ourselves. But we are not obligated to listen to those voices, or even to take responsibility for them. They may be where we come from, but they are not where we are going. There is another voice, a voice that shines. Ahimsa is the practice of listening to that voice of lightness, cultivating that voice, trusting that voice, acting upon that voice.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“There is a river flowing now, very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and suffer greatly. Know that the river has its destination. The elders say we must push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our heads above the water. See who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves, for the moment we do that, our spiritual growth comes to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves; banish the word ‘struggle’ from your attitude and vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred way and in celebration. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“What a beautiful thing, to walk amidst the endless diversity of life with the ability to perceive the source and the reality of its unity.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“Whenever we find ourselves ensnared in negative behavior, he suggests, we should increase the amount of time, thought, and energy we direct toward positive behavior.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“Many of us attend a few yoga classes and find that we like the glimpse of another way of life that yoga offers. We are delighted by the way we feel after class and we are pleasantly surprised as certain behaviors start to fall away. Perhaps we no longer need coffee in the morning; or staying out late at night becomes less attractive; or we find ourselves calmer and more compassionate. Suddenly we're convinced that we've hit upon a painless way to solve all our problems. Sadly, this is not the case. Practice is not a substitute for the difficult work of renunciation. The postures and breath work that you do in a typical yoga class will change your life. These practices—asana and pranayama—suffuse us with the energy we need to take on the hard choices and to endure the inevitable highs and lows. What yoga practice will not do, however, is take the place of the hard lessons each of us has to learn in order to mature spiritually.”
― Rolf Gates Katrina Kenison

“When nonviolence in speech, thought, and action is established, one’s aggressive nature is relinquished and others abandon hostility in one’s presence. Yoga Sutras”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“You may not be what you think you are, but what you think, you are. Jim Clark”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“At long last I came to the breakthrough point, the surrender. I realized that her life, and my fury, were truly over. She was gone, and if I really loved her, I owed it to her to ensure that her passing would bear spiritual fruit in my life. For that to happen, I would have to let go. The relief was profound. There was nothing left to do.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“The spiritual energy released by our practice strips away all that is false, the way a wind blows sand from the surface of a mirror. Most of us begin a spiritual practice having known only our false selves. And so, as those layers begin to fall away, it actually feels as if we are going backward at first, instead of forward; our practice strips away the edifice we built to our false self. Suddenly our whole way of knowing, of doing, of being comes into question. Our certainties fall away, along with the persona that we’ve long presented to the world. Many of us find that we have built our houses on sand, that the lives we’ve created cannot stand up to the heat of our practice. We may lose a job, relationships, the old playmates and playthings. We stand once more as a child in the world, open and empty.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“Oftentimes when we need yoga the most, we want it the least.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“Well, darkness has a hunger that’s insatiable, and lightness has a call that’s hard to hear. Indigo Girls”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“We are able to hear only what we're ready to take in. As productivity guru David Alan points out - information is always available, but WE are not always available to the information.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“Each time I become empty of a fiction, I am making room for the truth.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations on Intention and Being: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga, Mindfulness, and Compassion

“Renunciation on its own has no staying power. You can renounce bananas all you like, but if you continue to live in your banana home on your banana street, if you keep your job at the banana warehouse and hang out with your banana-gobbling friends, you'll be eating bananas before you know it. Practice is doing the work. It is following up your intention with action.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

“Self-study represents a profound paradigm shift. It is the moment in our journey when we let go of results and wholeheartedly embrace the process. Once we shift our focus from the results to the process itself, all situations become opportunities. We are present and can welcome all things.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“It is easier to act yourself way into a better way of feeling, than to feel yourself into a better way of action.O. H. Mowrer”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat

“Love is not a thought, it is an action. And each loving action that we take infuses us with more energy for loving action in the future.”
― Rolf Gates, Meditations from the mat