Heart Yoga Radio

INSPIRATION

In this podcast, we bounce off Nietzsche's account of his inspiration given in Ecce Homo (1888). This should be of interest to meditators, artists, yogis and other folks with time on their hands :) [Free. 28 minutes.]

CHAOS AND COSMOS PART FOUR

Here, somewhat belatedly, is the final part of Chaos and Cosmos, a talk given at Parkdale in 2015. The main thrust of this part of the talk is to abstract the practicalities implicit in the discourse thus far for practitioners of meditation and creativity. We also hear about Taliesin's shit-or-bust attempt to win the high priestess.

For the sake of intelligibility, I've pruned some labyrinthine Q and A and ribald interaction. The other three episodes are still on this site as you'll find if you go back a bit. [Free. 30 minutes.]

KUNDALINI

This podcast deals with many aspects of the Kundalini phenomenon, particularly the nature of the experience itself, the discourses surrounding it, the theories about it and the practices associated with it. [Free. 40 minutes.]

ON THE BODY [PART THREE]: ANCIENT AND CARTESIAN DUALISM

In this podcast we outline and evaluate ancient and Cartesian mind-body dualism. We find both of these doctrines incoherent and life-negating and attempt to point towards more easeful attitudes towards the body and life itself. [Free. 29 minutes.]

ON THE BODY [PART ONE]: YOGA AND THE BODY

This is the first part of a series on the human body. It deals with various attitudes to the body found within yoga culture and texts and attempts to evaluate them against their usefulness for life. I also propose that the affirmation of the human body and the attribution of the highest value to it is essential to Yoga practice. Accordingly, the value of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika lies in the fact that it refrains from condemnation of the body whilst reminding us that "Hatha is for Raja". This recording was first put out on YouTube some time ago. We're repeating it here because it touches on many of the themes we want to explore in more detail in this series. [Free. 30 mins.]

THINKING ABOUT THINKING [PART ONE]

In this podcast, Anna and I engage with a subject that we have been gnawing upon for many years, namely, the nature, scope and potential of thought and how it is intimately entwined with spirituality. We take issue with those who recommend the exclusion of thought from spiritual life and who see it as inimical to meditation. By contrast, we celebrate thought and relish the manfold vistas it opens up for us. This is a vast and juicy field and we will return to it!  [Free. 47 minutes.]

NIETZSCHE, GURDJIEFF AND DISGUST AT MAN

In this podcast, we discuss Nietzsche's 'disgust at man' and Gurdjieff's 'horror of the situation'. Both of these, it seems, are due to a propensity on the part of humans to succumb to mass hypnosis, which can nevertheless be avoided. [Free. 32 minutes.]

LOVE & COMPASSION

This podcast delineates types of love and locates compassion in the resulting schema. The vajrayana interpretation of enlightened consciousness as an erotic coupling between wisdom and compassion is elucidated. All of this is viewed through a lens of scepticism towards ideals and a gut-conviction that all phenomena are pure. [Free. 40 minutes.]