Eight Lectures on Yoga Quotes

“All phenomena of which we are aware take place in our own minds, and therefore the only thing we have to look at is the mind; which is a more constant quantity over all the species of humanity than is generally supposed.”
― Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga

“...the sole test of music is its power to exalt the soul.”
― Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga

“But every evil brings its own remedy. Another quality of Saturn is melancholy; Saturn represents the sorrow of the universe; it is the Trance of sorrow that has determined one to undertake the task of emancipation. This is the energizing force of Law; it is the rigidity of the fact that everything is sorrow which moves one to the task, and keeps one on the Path.”
― Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga

“To argue:..."only causes us to fall into the pit of Because, and there to perish with the dogs of Reason.”
― Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga

“the definition of the Great Work itself, the aim of the Yogi [is] to consummate the marriage of all that he is with all that he is not, and ultimately to realise, insofar as the marriage is consummated, that what he is and what he is not are identical”
― Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga

“the ultimate Yoga which gives emancipation, which destroys the sense of separateness which is the root of Desire, is to be made by the concentration of every element of one's being, and annihilating it by intimate combustion with the universe itself.”
― Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga

“... it was once necessary to proclaim the entire doctrine of Yoga in the fewest possible words.... I did so.
“Sit still. Stop thinking. Shut up. Get out!”
The first two of these instructions comprise the whole of the technique of Yoga. The last two are of a sublimity which it would be improper to expound in this present elementary stage.”
― Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga

“The planet Saturn, which represents anatomy, is the skeleton: It is a rigid structure upon which the rest of the body is built. To what moral qualities does this correspond? The first point of virtue in a bone is its rigidity, its resistance to pressure.”
― Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga

“But, even in the earliest months of Yoga, this is exactly what happens, and therefore it is best to be prepared by arranging, before you start at all, that your whole life should be permanently free from all the grosser causes of trouble. The practical problem of _yama_ is therefore, to a great extent, 'How shall I settle down to do the work?' Then, having complied with the theoretically best conditions, you have to tackle each fresh problem as it arises in the best way you can.”
― Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga

“Woe to that seven months abortion who thinks to take advantage of the accidents of birth, and, mocking the call of duty, sneaks off to stare at a wall in China!”
― Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga

“There is nothing mysterious or Oriental about anything, as everybody knows who has spent a little time intelligently in the continents of Asia and Africa.”
― Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga