Heart Yoga Radio

HOW DO WE KNOW THAT EVERYTHING ISN'T AN ILLUSION?

In this podcast, we address a question asked by a friend. "How do we know that everything isn't an illusion?" The question quickly turns into a discussion of genealogy, vedanta, maya and myth, the role of the possibility of illusion in the genealogy of philosophy, perception, science and yoga. [Free. 44 minutes.]

IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR THE HUMAN SPECIES?

In addressing this pressing question, we consider what a 'yes' answer would be like. Firstly we ask, 'what is hope anyway?' This leads us on to considerations of violence, equality, freedom, desire, future thinking, evaluation and the role of big stories in human destructivity. [Free. 45 minutes.]

CHAOS AND COSMOS PART THREE

In this, the third of four episodes of Chaos and Cosmos, we discuss the process nature of reality and how this impacts on boundaries. We entertain the idea that the dancing and insubstantial nature of boundaires is interpreted for practical reasons and to a large extent through language, which projects a stasis onto the flux of existence by valuing some lines in the swirl of stuff over others. Our sense of separate identity is just such an interpretation made under the yolk of grammar and socialisation. This can be glimpsed in an investigative meditation but is rendered obscure by cultivation in the name of morality, spirituality and/or particularity. There's audience participation. The previous two episodes are still here - you might have to scroll down! [51 minutes. Free.]

WHO AM I (1) - OVERVIEW

This is the first of a series of seven episodes entitled Who Am I? It gives an overview of the various perspectives we entertain in the following six episodes. We planned six episodes and say as much throughout the series. But when the time came, we realised we needed a final episode in which to get to the nitty-gritty of lived experience. [20 minutes. Free.]

WHO AM I? (4) - ZEN KOAN

In this podcast, the fourth in the series Who Am I?, the question is seen as a zen koan which blows the fuses of the apparatus of reason revealing the already-everywhere-always-present Buddha Nature in the proccess. [21 minutes. Free.]

WHO AM I? (5) - PHENOMENOLOGY & PATANJALI

The fifth episode in this series approaches the question Who Am I? from a perspective which is consistent with the phenomenological turn of 20th century so-called continental philosophy and the first and most pristine of Patanjali's meditations. [18 minutes.Free.]

WHO AM I? (6) - LANGUAGE

In the sixth episode of  the series Who Am I?, we question the question itself. Does it make sense? Or is its very asking a case of 'the bewitchment of our intelligence by language'? And if that is the case, shouldn't we dissolve the question rather than imagining that we have an answer to it? Wittgenstein looms large, urgently calling to a hapless fly trapped in a bottle, 'Over here, over here!' [24 minutes. Free.]

WHO AM I? (7) - LIVED EXPERIENCE

In this podcast, the seventh and last in the series Who Am I?, Anna and I reflect on our own lived experiences of engaging with the most far-reaching conundrum [23 minutes. Free.]

METAPHORS, JAM ROLY-POLY, THE VERTICAL AXIS & FLATLAND

Anna says that this is a bed-time story. I think it is philosophical comedy. I'm pretty certain sombody somewhere will hear this and get twice as enlightened as Buddy Guy. You can hear the wind and somebody with a megaphone in the distance. Nietzsche looms large as a trenchant critic of the various Platonisms. Meanwhile, this ordinary world is the Buddha heaven, if only we can see it. Hierarchical metaphysics mystify this at the same time as they turn earth into hell with their hierarchical cast systems and vicious patriarchy. Yet still, it's not all surface. The horizontal metaphor is shit too. Convolutions innit?! [18 minutes. Free.]

PATANJALI ON PRANAYAMA

This short podcast is stimulated by Yoga Sutras 2.49 to 2.52. In these few short aphorisms, Patanjali outlines four elements of pranayama.The first three prefigure the  much later Hatha Yoga pranayama of Svatmarama which is an operation of will upon the body, particularly upon rhythms of breath. The fourth pranayama is a more subtle breath disciplne which reveals the 'light'! [19 minutes. Free]