Episodes
Thursday Jun 01, 2017
LAO TZU: PART FOUR
Thursday Jun 01, 2017
Thursday Jun 01, 2017
This podcast deals with Chapters 6, 7 and 8 of the Tao Te Ching. Themes covered include breath and the pulsation of the universe, poetry and the attempt to eff the ineffable, up and down mysticisms and letting be, water and flow, the sage, confucianism, politics, desires and political manipulation, maternal nurturing, compassion and strategies for living, etc. [Free. 40 minutes.]
Thursday May 18, 2017
THE GATELESS GATE OF HUMAN PASSION
Thursday May 18, 2017
Thursday May 18, 2017
In this podcast we tease out the implications of the proposition that all phenomena are pure. [Free. 17 minutes.]
Friday May 05, 2017
LAO TZU: PART THREE
Friday May 05, 2017
Friday May 05, 2017
In this podcast, we reflect on Chapters 4 and 5 of The Tao Te Ching. The cornucopean yet empty and ineffable nature of the Tao is further considered. The logic of the Taoist influence on the development of science in ancient China is explored. We also ponder how Freud's distinction between oceanic and super-ego religions is illuminated by Lao Tzu's account of religious experience. And more .... [Free. 39 minutes.]
Monday Apr 10, 2017
LAO TZU: PART ONE
Monday Apr 10, 2017
Monday Apr 10, 2017
In this podcast, we comment on the first chapter of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Though it is very short, this chapter covers an immense amount of ground, including the paradoxical nature of talk about the ineffable, the creativity of nothingness and the character of 'the sage'. We intend to comment on the entire text over time. [Free. 41 minutes.]
Friday Mar 24, 2017
ON OPTIMISM
Friday Mar 24, 2017
Friday Mar 24, 2017
In this podcast, we take a look at optimism, invoking the help of Voltaire's satirical tale Candide (1759). We end up suggesting that the bouyancy that is the corollary of optimism might extract too high a price in the loss of realism that goes with wearing rose-coloured spectacles, and that dropping the half full- half empty binary might be what William Blake is suggesting we do when he tells us that 'energy is eternal delight'. [Free. 30 minutes.]
Sunday Mar 12, 2017
THE MAYBE STORY, EXISTENTIALISM AND THE CRAVING FOR CLOSURE
Sunday Mar 12, 2017
Sunday Mar 12, 2017
This patrons only podcast is a recording of a talk given at Parkdale recently. [2 hours 49 minutes.]
Sunday Jan 01, 2017
THOUGHTS ON RELAXATION
Sunday Jan 01, 2017
Sunday Jan 01, 2017
This podcast isn't a guided relaxation or a 'how to' discourse. Instead, it attempts to map the territory and indicate its endlessness. [Free. 30 minutes.]
Monday Nov 28, 2016
THE BELOVED
Monday Nov 28, 2016
Monday Nov 28, 2016
We launch this podcast with a reading of Rumi's poem Choose Love which serves as a perfect door-way into a discussion on love. intoxication, separation and oneness.
[Free. 21 minutes.]
Saturday Oct 01, 2016
THE MYTH OF THE YOGA TEACHER
Saturday Oct 01, 2016
Saturday Oct 01, 2016
In this podcast, we examine some of the identifiable modes of yoga teaching. In particular, we talk about parroting, missionary activity, dominance games and meeting in openness. [Free. 22 minutes.]
Tuesday Sep 13, 2016
YOGA REGULATION? NO THANKS
Tuesday Sep 13, 2016
Tuesday Sep 13, 2016
This podcast addresses a situation current on planet Yoga in the UK and will be of special interest to UK Yoga teachers and teacher trainers. The situation I allude to is the decision made by a government licensed body [Skills Active] in conjunction with the British Wheel of Yoga to institute a 'National Occupational Standard' [NOS] for a Yoga teacher. This was attempted 12 years ago and didn't succeed, most likely because of considerable opposition from the Yoga Community. I give an outline of the history and the players in this mad game and then demonstrate that Yoga should not be regulated by any governmental agency or narrow interest. Rather, I contend, it is necessarily diverse and therefore beyond the scope of regulation. I then give an account of the Independent Yoga Network which was set up 12 years ago in the face of the first attempt at NOS to defend freedom and diversity and promote Yoga. [Free. 44 minutes.]