Heart Yoga Radio

THINKING ABOUT THINKING [PART FOUR]: ZEN MONDO AND THE USES OF UNREASON CONTINUED

This fourth part of our series THINKING ABOUT THINKING concludes the discussion on Zen mondo and the uses of unreason. [Free. 30 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.]

HUMAN INTERACTIONS: POWER DIFFERENTIALS, MASTER-SLAVE LIVED EXPERIENCE, OPEN RECEPTIVITY TO THE OTHER

In this podcast, I start by considering the nature of a compliment. This opens the door onto all the questions that human interactions give rise to and I sketch out some of them. In particular, I consider mutual recognition and the distorting effect that power differentials have on it. I relate this to the nature of the ego in the psychoanalytic sense and suggest how things could be better. Contemplation of the Other in Patanjali's spare style is, I suggest, emancipatory and not difficult, though elusive. Rumi, amongst others, made this very point. [Free. 18 minutes.]

HOW DO WE KNOW THAT EVERYTHING ISN'T AN ILLUSION?

In this podcast, we address a question asked by a friend. "How do we know that everything isn't an illusion?" The question quickly turns into a discussion of genealogy, vedanta, maya and myth, the role of the possibility of illusion in the genealogy of philosophy, perception, science and yoga. [Free. 44 minutes.]

WHO AM I (1) - OVERVIEW

This is the first of a series of seven episodes entitled Who Am I? It gives an overview of the various perspectives we entertain in the following six episodes. We planned six episodes and say as much throughout the series. But when the time came, we realised we needed a final episode in which to get to the nitty-gritty of lived experience. [20 minutes. Free.]

WHO AM I? (2) - PSYCHOLOGY, BIOGRAPHY

In this podcast, we discuss how identity can be construed as the sum of an individual's past, his/her particularity. We also consider the idea that an identity is acquired through the drama of infanthood and the shaping of education. Simund Freud hangs around at the side. [17 minutes. Free.]

WHO AM I? (4) - ZEN KOAN

In this podcast, the fourth in the series Who Am I?, the question is seen as a zen koan which blows the fuses of the apparatus of reason revealing the already-everywhere-always-present Buddha Nature in the proccess. [21 minutes. Free.]

WHO AM I? (5) - PHENOMENOLOGY & PATANJALI

The fifth episode in this series approaches the question Who Am I? from a perspective which is consistent with the phenomenological turn of 20th century so-called continental philosophy and the first and most pristine of Patanjali's meditations. [18 minutes.Free.]

WHO AM I? (7) - LIVED EXPERIENCE

In this podcast, the seventh and last in the series Who Am I?, Anna and I reflect on our own lived experiences of engaging with the most far-reaching conundrum [23 minutes. Free.]

PATANJALI ON PRANAYAMA

This short podcast is stimulated by Yoga Sutras 2.49 to 2.52. In these few short aphorisms, Patanjali outlines four elements of pranayama.The first three prefigure the  much later Hatha Yoga pranayama of Svatmarama which is an operation of will upon the body, particularly upon rhythms of breath. The fourth pranayama is a more subtle breath disciplne which reveals the 'light'! [19 minutes. Free]