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Wide-ranging talks on all things relating to spirituality, meditation, yoga, current affairs, politics and philosophy. contact me via info AT peteyates.uk.
Episodes
Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
In this podcast, we consider Chapter 70 Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. This chapter shows Lao Tzu in expansive mood, urging on us the absolute immediacy of the Tao and the ease with which it is available to us. Click this link to buy me a coffee :) [Free. 23 minutes.]
Sunday Oct 16, 2022
Sunday Oct 16, 2022
This podcast considers chapter 68 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. In this chapter, Lao Tzu deals with the application of non-doing, wu-wei, to combat and warfare. [Free. 10 minutes.]
Monday Oct 10, 2022
Monday Oct 10, 2022
In this podcast, we discuss Chapter 67 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching in which Lao Tzu elucidates the necessity for good leaders to embody compassion, thrift and humility. Click this link to buy us a coffee! [Free. 19 minutes.]
Sunday Sep 04, 2022
Sunday Sep 04, 2022
This podcast is a meditation on the contrast between natural ecstasies which affirm the human enterprise and can emphasise our connectedness to all things and the chaos engulfing the world as ecological, economic and cultural systems increase in instability, all at the same time. I arrive at a few practical suggestions which arise directly out of the meditation. Buy me a coffee by following the link. [Free. 18 minutes.]
Thursday Aug 18, 2022
Thursday Aug 18, 2022
In this podcast, we jump off into the matter of spontaneous, natural liberation from a consideration of the text The Natural Liberation Through Naked Vision. We discuss the practicalities of this way of being, its resonances with Zen, the question of asceticism and Nietzsche's take on it. Amongst other things! [Free. 26 minutes.]
Wednesday Jul 27, 2022
Wednesday Jul 27, 2022
In this podcast, we consider Chapter 65 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Unusually, we take issue with a proposition put forward by Lao Tzu. This manoeuvre proves to be quite fruitful in underscoring the need to retain ones critical faculty, to push for more and better education throughout society and to expose the forces of psychological manipulation at play in our fractured culture. [Free. 14 minutes.]
Friday Jun 24, 2022
Friday Jun 24, 2022
In this podcast, we consider Chapter 64 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Themes we draw out are: the relationship between knowledge and mystery, the dangers of epistemological hubris and black swan events, the tension between caution and care in life-projects and the desirability of spontaneity and freedom from anxiety. [Free. 22 minutes.]
Monday Jun 13, 2022
Monday Jun 13, 2022
In this podcast, discuss Chapter 63 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. The main theme is how the sage negotiates life through wu wei, or non-doing. In astonishingly few words, Lao Tzu imparts a very detailed account of wu-wei. [Free. 37 minutes.]
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Tuesday May 31, 2022
In this podcast we discuss Chapter 62 of lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. In this chapter, Lao Tzu once again draws out the connection between meditation and politics. He describes how the sage who would advise rulers needs to have a light touch and to retire from the clamour and ceremony of political office, a 'gesture' which arises directly out of his/her alignment with the Tao. [Free. 19 minutes.]
Thursday May 05, 2022
Thursday May 05, 2022
In this podcast, we reflect of Chapter 60 of The Tao Te Ching in which Lao Tzu recommends a light touch on the part of rulers if destructivity is to be minimised in society. A light touch is possible when rulers and / or their advisors are aligned with the Tao and the processes of existence and life as they act through human beings. We relate Lao Tzu's recommendations to our current political state and the ever present realisation that governments do bad things even whilst some collective focus is necessary for our species survival. We examine variations on this insight found in neoliberal economic thought, Marxism and the anarchism. [Free. 36 minutes.]