lost ways of
knowing podcast
A Circle Yoga Shala Production
The “Lost Ways of Knowing” podcast teaches a basic history of the Indian traditions that feature centrally in modern yoga, focusing on the value of awakening or being liberated from ignorance. The ultimate aim is to establish a working definition of “Yoga as awakening” and initiate a dialogue about awakening as the systematic overcoming of self-deception, which leads to deeper intimacy with what is real.
S5E1 Essence & Meaning
This episode investigates the idea that human beings manifest an essential nature defined by the ancient Yoga tradition. We suggest that the modern world has mistaken this nature and that we have been educated incorrectly as a result. This in turn has made it much more difficult to experience meaning, which we need in the same way we need things like food and water, breath, and love. We trace the plausibility of these ideas from both Eastern and Western sources: from ancient models of the soul in the Taittiriya Upanishad, which identifies our essential essence as bliss (Ananda), to the work of Dr. John Vervaeke of the University of Toronto’s Cognitive Psychology department. What if loss of meaning means loss of contact with our essence?
Edited transcript available here.
S5 Introduction
Season 5 continues our conversation about Yoga and the centrality of Awakening in its many manifestations. We look specifically at why things like self transcendence and awakening are necessary for humans, and how these things are intimately tied to our need for Meaning in life. We initiate an inquiry into the nature of liberation itself in order to speak about what kind of “thing” it is, rather than define it specifically as if it were a fact for instance. And lastly, we are hoping to steer these various themes in the direction of Wisdom, which is central to the project of awakening. Along the way, we’re enlisting the help of not only traditional sources from the Yoga tradition like the Bhagavad Gita, The Vedas, Upanishads and the Tantras, but also cognitive and social psychology.
S2E1 Mahabharata Gita
This episode focuses on the central epic in Indian history known as the Mahabharata, the twelfth chapter of which is Bhagavad Gita. We look closely at the Gita as a great synthesis of the Vedic tradition of sacrifice and the mysticism of the Upanishads. The new way offered in the Gita is known as renunciation in action, which leads to devotion. Along the way we look closely at the three great paths known as jnana, karma, and bhakti yoga and how they prefigure our modern concerns.
S1E3 Mystical Realization in the Upanishads
This episode focuses on a body of sacred literature known as the Upanishads, which represents a clear shift away from the traditional Vedic sacrificial rite, which becomes internalized within the individual human for the first time in Indian history. Internalization of the sacrifice ensues due to an elevation in the status of the human body as a worthy object of meditative inquiry, and the new place of mystical realization. Elevation in the status of the body leads to innovations in disciplines ranging from Ayurvedic physiology to Hatha Yoga. The Upanishads also show clear examples of practices that prefigure modern practices, particularly pranayama.
S1E2 Shunned
This episode focuses on a body of sacred literature from the late Vedic period known as the Brahmanas. This literature has been largely ignored by modern scholarship due to certain biases at work in what are now known as the “first wave Orientalists”. These biases have affected the way modern yoga is understood via interpretation of ideas like the self, and the soul, and through the selection of certain texts over others. We trace the evolution of the Vedic sacrificial triad in the Brahmanas, and interpret a story about Prajapati, the primal creator god, as an early foreshadowing of modern practice.
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A must listen for any yoga teacher!
“The synthesis of information in these podcasts is a real gift! Matt takes so much information and shares it in such a concise and relevant way for today’s yoga practitioner. I really feel if you’re a yoga teacher or serious practitioner you must give this a listen! Can’t wait for more.”
Jayme
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Amazing!
“I need to listen a second time with a paper and pen! So much amazing information I feel like could easily be in a university type setting that would cost thousands. Thank you for making this available. I’m excited to listen to more!”
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