Heart Yoga Radio

LAO TZU 51

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.]

LAO TZU 50

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.]

LAO TZU 49

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.]

LAO TZU 47

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.]

INSECURITY IN OUR TURBULENT TIMES

This podcast is a wide-ranging consideration of individual, psychological  insecurity and material, collective insecurity and the relationship between them. We make our observations in the context of current events, especially the war in Ukraine, global  warming, and financial meltdown, whilst drawing on inspiration from process philosophers like the Buddha, Heraclitus, Whitehead, Watts, Nietzsche, Marx and Lao Tzu. We draw on a brief discussion of the sublime and the beautiful to help us identify the emancipatory comportment to our intrinsic vulnerability and mortality. [Free. 50 minutes.] 

LAO TZU 45

In this podcast, we discuss Chapter 58 of The Tao Te Ching. In this chapter, Lao Tzu discusses the ideal character of the sage who would take up leadership or advise a leader and how it needs to be modest and low key. [Free. 20 minutes.]

LAO TZU 44

In this podcast we discuss Chapter 57 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. In this chapter, Lao Tzu extols the virtues of wu wei, non-doing, when it is employed by sage leaders. The question of the tendency for all governments to do things which are inimical to the flourishing of the people haunts this discourse and we tease out the resonances this has with a wide variety political philosophies. [Free. 23 minutes.]

LAO TZU 43

In this podcast, we discuss Chapter 56 of The Tao Te Ching in which Lao Tzu advises us of our orientation to life, advising quietly recognising our connectedness with others. [Free. 9 minutes.]

REMARKS ON FREUD PART 2 - THE TOPOGRAPHICAL MODEL

This podcast continues with our series of Freud's thought. It focusses on Freud's lecture Dissection of the Psychical Personality (1933), outlining it and critically appraising it's main features. [Free. 55 minutes.]

LAO TZU 41

This podcast deals with Chapter 54 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. In this chapter, Lao Tzu once again outlines his meditative method and indicates how it might produce benefits not only to the individual but to several interlocking systems, namely the family, the village, the nation and the world. The benefits arise out of a clarity of seeing which in turn generates a  understanding of the processes of psyche and social existence. [Free. 20 minutes.]