Yogah Citta Vrtti Nirodhah. “Yoga is the stilling of the movements of consciousness.” Patañjali Yoga Sūtra I.2 🕉.

Marichyasana II — Sage Marichi’s Pose variation 2

“Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, in the eye of the storm… Art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction. …. Art attempts to find in the universe, in matter as well as in the facts of life, what is fundamental, enduring, essential.” —Saul Bellow. “It is very important for the artist to gauge his position aright, to realize that he has a duty to his art and to himself, that he is not king of the castle but rather a servant of a nobler purpose. He must search deeply into his own soul, develop and tend it, so that his art has something to clothe, and does not remain a glove without a hand. The artist must have something to say, for mastery over form is not his goal but rather the adapting of form to its inner meaning.” Kandinsky

In Iyengar Yoga, the practice and art of posture (āsana) is the work of drawing the senses and consciousness away from outward (and inner) distractions, to become absorbed completely in the actions of aligning all the aspects of being in the posture, realizing a state of stillness and oneness.