Episodes
Thursday Mar 17, 2016
ON THE BODY [PART FOUR]: THE BODY DIES
Thursday Mar 17, 2016
Thursday Mar 17, 2016
The body dies. In this podcast we critically reflect on the existential and cultural consequences of the fact of life that the body dies. [Free. 36 minutes.]
Friday Mar 04, 2016
ON THE BODY [PART ONE]: YOGA AND THE BODY
Friday Mar 04, 2016
Friday Mar 04, 2016
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.]
Sunday Feb 21, 2016
HEALTHY THOUGHT? WHAT IS IT, IF ANYTHING?
Sunday Feb 21, 2016
Sunday Feb 21, 2016
In this podcast we chew on the notion of 'healthy thought'. Whilst seeing that the notion can be used ideologically as a conformist moral cudgel, we consider the idea that certain patterns of thought, feeling and behaviour can cause unnecessary suffering to self and others. [Free. 38 minutes.]
Sunday Feb 07, 2016
Sunday Feb 07, 2016
This fourth part of our series THINKING ABOUT THINKING concludes the discussion on Zen mondo and the uses of unreason. [Free. 30 minutes.]
Sunday Feb 07, 2016
THINKING ABOUT THINKING [PART THREE]: ZEN MONDO AND THE USES OF UNREASON
Sunday Feb 07, 2016
Sunday Feb 07, 2016
This podcast is the third part of our series THINKING ABOUT THINKING. In it, we deal with the uses of unreason, particularly focusing on Zen mondo. This is a big topic so we have also dedicate part four of the series to it. We touch upon the dialogues of the Buddha, Bodhidharma,and Joshu and the works of Nagarjuna, Wittgenstein and Freud. [Free. 1 hour 15 minutes.]
Friday Jan 01, 2016
NIETZSCHE, GURDJIEFF AND DISGUST AT MAN
Friday Jan 01, 2016
Friday Jan 01, 2016
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.]
Friday Nov 27, 2015
LOVE & COMPASSION
Friday Nov 27, 2015
Friday Nov 27, 2015
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.]