Heart Yoga Radio

LAO TZU: PART ONE

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.] 

LEGS ON A SNAKE

In this podcast we ask if consciousness is in need of improvement through 'spiritual cultivation' or if such games are 'legs on a snake'. [Free. 18 minutes.]

FOLLOWING YOUR OWN WYRD

Alan Watts recommended 'following your own wyrd' as a strategy for living. In this podcast we enquire into this matter. [Free. 35minutes.]

PATANJALI'S ZEN: COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST SIX APHORISMS OF THE YOGA SUTRA

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. 

The section of the Yoga Sutra we concern ourselves with here is very direct, un-ornamented, non-technical and revelatory, if only you look in the direction it points in. [Free. 1 hour 16 minutes.]

TRAVELLING LIGHT

We started this podcast with no topic in mind. Consequently it meanders from a consideration of the plasticity of mind through the matter of the historical variety of cultures and the character formations they produce and require, on through a story about our current situation in which consumerist capitalism requires hyper-individualism as the preferred human character, on through a narrative connecting discomfort with this plasticity with social conservatism and the metaphysics of stasis. Somewhere amongst this, we remember childhood and celebrate and recommend travelling light. [Free. 51 minutes.]

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.]

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

This podcast is the third part of our series THINKING ABOUT THINKING. In it, we deal with the uses of unreason, particularly focusing on Zen mondo. This is a big topic so we have also dedicate part four of the series to it. We touch upon the dialogues of the Buddha, Bodhidharma,and Joshu and the works of Nagarjuna, Wittgenstein and Freud. [Free. 1 hour 15 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.]

CHAOS AND COSMOS PART THREE

In this, the third of four episodes of Chaos and Cosmos, we discuss the process nature of reality and how this impacts on boundaries. We entertain the idea that the dancing and insubstantial nature of boundaires is interpreted for practical reasons and to a large extent through language, which projects a stasis onto the flux of existence by valuing some lines in the swirl of stuff over others. Our sense of separate identity is just such an interpretation made under the yolk of grammar and socialisation. This can be glimpsed in an investigative meditation but is rendered obscure by cultivation in the name of morality, spirituality and/or particularity. There's audience participation. The previous two episodes are still here - you might have to scroll down! [51 minutes. Free.]

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.]