Episodes
Friday Mar 24, 2017
ON OPTIMISM
Friday Mar 24, 2017
Friday Mar 24, 2017
In this podcast, we take a look at optimism, invoking the help of Voltaire's satirical tale Candide (1759). We end up suggesting that the bouyancy that is the corollary of optimism might extract too high a price in the loss of realism that goes with wearing rose-coloured spectacles, and that dropping the half full- half empty binary might be what William Blake is suggesting we do when he tells us that 'energy is eternal delight'. [Free. 30 minutes.]
Monday Feb 13, 2017
Monday Feb 13, 2017
Part Two of our series on The Matrix attempts to characterise Neo's choice of the red pill in terms of the kind of human freedom posited by the existentialist philosophers. We draw particularly of Kierkegaard and Sartre. See the blue pill - red pill choice in this four minute clip: https://youtu.be/zQ1_IbFFbzA. [Free. 32 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.]
Thursday Sep 22, 2016
UTOPIA - HOW & WHY DOES IT HAUNT THOUGHT?
Thursday Sep 22, 2016
Thursday Sep 22, 2016
In this podcast, we run with the the observation that 'thought is haunted by utopia'. In passing we discuss literary utopias and dystopias, revolutions, and the effect of intimations of vulnerability and mortality on human future thinking. [Free. 53 minutes.]
Friday Aug 05, 2016
ENERGY MEDITATION
Friday Aug 05, 2016
Friday Aug 05, 2016
Energy meditation outlined: as the anti-dote to dogmatism, as the revelation of the dance of things, as the loosening of identity, as the revelation of our perspectival condition. It's role in giving sparkle to letting-be, mind meditation is considered. Focused awareness is compared with spacious awareness. The koan of non-doing is encountered and the passion of life becomes the fuel for easeful meditation. The use of bardos of any kind (including those between moments) to leap into freedom is hinted at. [Free. 52 minutes.]
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.]
Sunday Mar 06, 2016
ON THE BODY [PART TWO]: THE EMBODIMENT OF THOUGHT
Sunday Mar 06, 2016
Sunday Mar 06, 2016
We start this podcast with a discussion of the way that walking affects thought and how this significantly draws our attention to the physiological, biological correlation between thought and the living body. We go on to take issue with a variety of dualisms and fragmentary accounts of the human being that all inevitably end up dis-valuing the body. We point out the longevity and ubiquity of contempt for the body, encouraged by religious asceticism, and outline the joyous possibilities that open up when it is dropped. Dramatis Personae: Nietzsche, Robert Graves, Arjuna, Simon the Stylite. [Free. 25 mins.]
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.]