Heart Yoga Radio

WHO AM I? (6) - LANGUAGE

In the sixth episode of  the series Who Am I?, we question the question itself. Does it make sense? Or is its very asking a case of 'the bewitchment of our intelligence by language'? And if that is the case, shouldn't we dissolve the question rather than imagining that we have an answer to it? Wittgenstein looms large, urgently calling to a hapless fly trapped in a bottle, 'Over here, over here!' [24 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.]

METAPHORS, JAM ROLY-POLY, THE VERTICAL AXIS & FLATLAND

Anna says that this is a bed-time story. I think it is philosophical comedy. I'm pretty certain sombody somewhere will hear this and get twice as enlightened as Buddy Guy. You can hear the wind and somebody with a megaphone in the distance. Nietzsche looms large as a trenchant critic of the various Platonisms. Meanwhile, this ordinary world is the Buddha heaven, if only we can see it. Hierarchical metaphysics mystify this at the same time as they turn earth into hell with their hierarchical cast systems and vicious patriarchy. Yet still, it's not all surface. The horizontal metaphor is shit too. Convolutions innit?! [18 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]

A RAMBLE - IS NIETZSCHE SOCRATES WITH A FLUTE?

This conversation takes the form of a ramble around our house on a rainy Friday afternoon. We start off with a discussion of Nietzsche's 'eternal return of the same' which leads to the question of Nietzsche's attitude to Socrates. From there, the Socratic question emerges for consideration. We talk about both its existential and political dimensions, drawing out the questioning of desire and its relation to future thinking and utopianism.  There's lots more and even a concluding guitar improvisation entitled 'story'. [43 minutes. Free.]

ON YOGA POSTURES

This short podcast is one of our 'glossary' style talks. It elucidates Patanjali's take on asana as well as Svatmarama's as found in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and contrasts both of these with 'modern postural yoga'. I go on to suggest a particular approach to asana practice which I find to be fruitful. [11minutes. Free.]

THEY CONSCIOUSNESS

In this podcast we take a look at what happens when people worry about the opinions others have about them and how meditation can counter this worry. [23 minutes. Free.]

EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON? REALLY?

This short podcast takes a swipe at the current platitude that 'everything happens for a reason', characterising it a an escapist notion. [9 minutes. Free.]

CHAOS AND COSMOS PART 2

In this seond part of four, the theme of the coincidence and mutual dependence of opposites comes to the fore. This is a theme central to the world-views of our three sages: Buddha, Lao Tzu and Heraclitus. Amongst particular opposites discussed are oneness and multiplicity, chaos and cosmos, high and low, nirvana and samsara and more. The discussion also considers language, human suffering and flourishing, interconnectedness and strategies for living.

THE MEANING OF LIFE IS LIFE

In this podcast, Anna and Pete discuss the meaning of life and how grand narratives supply off-the-peg answers to the big conundrums that face human beings by reference to a 'transcendental guarantee'. We find this strategy for ameliorating meaninglessness to be defective on a number of counts and recommend that individuals freely choose and pursue their own projects whilst dancing under the open sky. [30 minutes. Free.]