Episodes
Saturday Nov 25, 2023
CHUANG TZU 1 - ACTION AND NON-ACTION
Saturday Nov 25, 2023
Saturday Nov 25, 2023
In this podcast, we consider a passage from the Chuang Tzu entitled Action and Non-action. We describe how the processes of action and non-action are not stark opposites but mutually dependent phases of a profound meditation on the Tao. [Free. 31 minutes.]
Friday Jul 14, 2023
LAO TZU 60
Friday Jul 14, 2023
Friday Jul 14, 2023
In this podcast, we discuss Chapter 73 of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. Themes covered include; the paradoxical and contradictory nature of the text, the practicality and creativity of alignment with the Tao, the meditation on forgetfulness, and more. Particularly, we describe how this chapter is a reminder against dogmatism. [Free. 35 minutes.]
Thursday Aug 18, 2022
NATURAL LIBERATION
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.]
Thursday Feb 24, 2022
INSECURITY IN OUR TURBULENT TIMES
Thursday Feb 24, 2022
Thursday Feb 24, 2022
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.]
Friday Sep 07, 2018
LAO TZU 15
Friday Sep 07, 2018
Friday Sep 07, 2018
In this podcast, we comment on Chapters 25 and 26 of The Tao Te Ching. In the first part, we elucidate Lao Tzu's cosmology and the categories of earth, heaven, the human and the Tao. We particularly highlight how, for Lao Tzu, the transcendent and the immanent are mutually dependent and how this precludes life-negation. Lao Tzu, we take it, arrives at this tremendous vision through his own contemplation and goes on to point out to us how we might do the same and how simple that task is. We flesh out Lao Tzu's contemplative [non] method, hopefully with some practical pointers. [Free. 37 minutes.]
Friday Jun 22, 2018
LAOTZU 13
Friday Jun 22, 2018
Friday Jun 22, 2018
This podcast deals with Chapters 21 and 22 of The Tao Te Ching. Chapter 21 is poetry impelled by Lao Tzu's encounter with the ineffable and Chapter 22 outlines the non-doing doings that can allow us to experience a similar encounter. [Free. 29 minutes.]
Monday Apr 10, 2017
CONSCIOUSNESS [THOUGHT LABORATORY PREAMBLE]
Monday Apr 10, 2017
Monday Apr 10, 2017
This podcast is an entirely extempore survey of 'the hard problem of consciousness' which was undertaken as a preliminary to a proposed series on this matter. It is by no means exhaustive and rather rough but I offer it to patrons in the hope of wetting their appetite. [Patrons only. 46 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.]
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.]
Wednesday Aug 10, 2016
PATANJALI'S ZEN: COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST SIX APHORISMS OF THE YOGA SUTRA
Wednesday Aug 10, 2016
Wednesday Aug 10, 2016
In this podcast, we comment on the first six aphorisms of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. The podcast stands alone but is also intended to supply the background to a practical weekend to be held at The Parkdale Yoga Centre, Wolverhampton on October 22nd - 23rd 2016. This weekend is ideal for yoga teachers, dedicated practitioners and open-minded beginners in Yoga.