Heart Yoga Radio

YOGA'S COUNTER-CULTURAL ROOTS

In this podcast, we explore Yoga's counter-cultural roots in the ancient Saivite-Dionysian religion. [Free. 38 minutes.]

CRYING YOGA

In this podcast, Anna talks about crying yoga. Pete chips in with some remarks about the unconscious. [Free. 38 minutes.]

IS ADJUSTMENT OF YOGA POSTURES BY TEACHERS NECESSARY OR USEFUL?

In this podcast, we take issue with the sacred cow of 'adjustment' i.e. the practice on the part of some 'yoga teachers' of taking hold of a student's body during yoga posture (asana) practice in order to 'correct' it. [Free. 21 minutes.]

ANUPAYA: PRACTICE WITH THE LIGHTEST TOUCH

This podcast is a short account of our approach to yoga practice which seeks to keep technique simple and minimal. [Free. 26 minutes.]

THE MYTH OF THE YOGA TEACHER

In this podcast, we examine some of the identifiable modes of yoga teaching. In particular, we talk about parroting, missionary activity, dominance games and meeting in openness. [Free. 22 minutes.] 

UTOPIA - HOW & WHY DOES IT HAUNT THOUGHT?

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.]

YOGA REGULATION? NO THANKS

This podcast addresses a situation current on planet Yoga in the UK and will be of special interest to UK Yoga teachers and teacher trainers. The situation I allude to is the decision made by a government licensed body [Skills Active]  in conjunction with the British Wheel of Yoga to institute a 'National Occupational Standard' [NOS] for a Yoga teacher. This was attempted 12 years ago and didn't succeed, most likely because of considerable opposition from the Yoga Community. I give an outline of the history and the players in this mad game and then demonstrate that Yoga should not be regulated by any governmental agency or narrow interest. Rather, I contend, it is necessarily diverse and therefore beyond the scope of regulation. I then give an account of the Independent Yoga Network which was set up 12 years ago in the face of the first attempt at NOS to defend freedom and diversity and promote Yoga.  [Free. 44 minutes.]

VIOLENCE, AHIMSA, SELF-STUDY

This is a bit of a ramble, starting with a general description of violence and non-violence and the various religious commandments to be non-violent. As always, we find ourselves with no choice but to return to considering suffering and flourishing, Buddha and Socrates. We then consider violence against the self  which manifests as physical and psychological asceticism and tease out its nature. This leads to a fairly in-depth consideration of Patanjali's practice of ahimsa and Buddha's 'middle way' and how they wonderfully help to open up the yoga being state as well as illuminating the otherwise dark territories of violence as it operates within the psyche. [Free. 56 minutes.]

MORALITY: CONTINGENCY, LOVE & SELF-ENQUIRY

This podcast is a ground-work for some future engagements we hope to make with this vast and important topic. We touch on the matter of the contingency or morality, drawing loosely upon Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals (1886). The formation of super-ego / conscience is sketched and the importance of child-rearing and educational practices is thus underscored. We recommend naturally occurring communism as a tendency to be encouraged within communities and enterprises and observe that the love will shout if only one enquires into one's entanglement with morality. [Free. 47 minutes.]

A CRUEL DECEPTION: THE MANUFACTURE OF DISCONTENT AND THE SPIRITUAL SUPERMARKET

In this podcast, I take issue with a couple of examples of a common new age trope that promises the fulfillment all your desires easily if only you partake of this or that snake oil. I assert that this idiocy both exaggerates and underestimates the promise of meditational quietness given that its motivations lie in a quest for profit and influence. The discussion briefly explores will, desire, the tendency to wish-fulfillment fantasy and suggests what the real possibilities for meditation might be. [Free. 18 minutes.]