Ancient Futures

This is a different sort of podcast, featuring interviews I did half my life ago. I originally planned to make a radio documentary, but the audio wound up on MiniDiscs gathering dust.

In 2001, I was a foreign correspondent searching for answers. I hoped I might find some in India at the world’s biggest gathering – the Mahā Kumbha Melā, where the Ganges meets the Yamuna. I talked to a wide range of people, asking Westerners what had inspired their journeys Eastward.

Looking back, I’ve made one myself – from drug-fuelled confusion to writing a book about yoga philosophy, and a career as a teacher. My younger self had other ideas – he tried to emulate the Melā by staging a festival on Big War Island in Belgrade. However, listening to these chats, I can hear a few echoes of what was to come – plus repeated indications of much still to learn…

The first conversation is with Scott McNamara, an American disciple of the yogi “Pilot Baba”. The second is with Susan Shumsky, who learned to meditate with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, then turned to “New Thought” – better known today as “manifesting” – whose positive psychology infuses modern yoga.

I’m still unsure about the documentary prospects – not least since I don’t work in radio, or know where to start. I also have mixed feelings about the discussions, as the podcast explains. If you have any thoughts in response, please get in touch!

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What might it look like to live in a world that combines ancient wisdom with newer ideas about sustainable development? In his recent book Politics of Being, the social scientist Thomas Legrand explores the potential for shifts in perspective that could help us to face converging challenges.

At the heart of his vision is an inner transformation, rejecting a paradigm that fuels separation while awakening values that promote collective consciousness. Although this is rooted in a spiritual worldview, Thomas says it’s more about human ideals of freedom, virtue, truth and understanding – plus peace, love and happiness.

We discuss how his agenda for action goes beyond the personal by looking at life in relational terms. Recognising interconnection leads to more holistic policies, which Thomas describes using real-life examples. However, we also reflect on obstacles to change – from entrenched vested interests to the underlying craving that drives an economy addicted to growth.

Click here to download an excerpt from Politics of Being, or find out more via social media (he’s on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn). Thomas also writes a Substack newsletter, and currently works with the Conscious Food Systems Alliance, convened by the United Nations Development Programme.

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Why is “light” used as a metaphor for “good”, while “dark” means “bad”? How does that blind us and what might we do about it? As Mariana Alessandri writes in Night Vision, difficult feelings such as anger, sorrow, grief, depression and anxiety can be sources of knowledge, so we need to embrace them as part of humanity.

Her book is not a gloom manifesto. Instead, it seeks to clarify why we feel bad about feeling bad. This is an outcome of social pressure to look on the bright side, so telling each other “don’t worry, be happy” causes shame. As a philosopher, Mariana explains that the problem has ancient roots, which are entangled with positive thinking. She also highlights alternative sources with more helpful messages.

Our conversation explores practicalities, including how to strike a balance between acceptance and change – both individually and as a society. We touch on overlaps with yoga, such as the fusion of older ideas with Western “New Thought” (whose original “mind cure” shapes modern-day “manifesting”). And we consider ways of seeing beyond dark and light to more diverse perspectives.

Night Vision is out now in paperback, ebook and audio – it’s engagingly written, but with scholarly rigour. For a taste of Mariana’s work, try this New York Times essay on the children’s TV host Fred Rogers, whose “belief that we should validate emotions, not suppress them, is wisdom for all ages”.

🎓 Join me online for The Path of Knowledge, a year-long immersion in yogic traditions, relating ancient wisdom to modern priorities.

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This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancientfutures.substack.com/subscribe

How did Westerners first get involved with Eastern teachers, and is the age of the guru now over? In his latest book, The Nirvana Express, Mick Brown presents a colourful cast of seekers, writers, mystics, tricksters and chancers – he reveals people’s flaws without obscuring the sincerity of spiritual quests.

Alongside portraits of better-known subjects, from Vivekananda and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to Rajneesh, Mick notes the influence of Western occultists, and early interest in Ramana Maharshi – an exemplary sage who inspired The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham and A Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton.

Our conversation explores the significance of these stories, alongside others from an earlier book, The Spiritual Tourist, which recounts Mick’s engagement with mystical teachers. In his day job, he works as a journalist – reporting in detail on guru abuses – so we talk about the value of critical thinking, while considering the merits of genuine teachers, who can only awaken what's found in oneself.

🎓 Join me online for The Path of Knowledge, a year-long immersion in yogic traditions, relating ancient wisdom to modern priorities.

🙏 To support this podcast, please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... All donations are greatly appreciated

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancientfutures.substack.com/subscribe

How does someone heal an addictive mind? Matthew Hahn is a co-founder of Recovery Dharma, which uses Buddhist methods to overcome addictions. He also contributes to the Boundless Freedom Project, teaching mindfulness, ethics and compassion to people in prison and on their return to the outside world.

Our conversation explores how Buddhist principles and practices empower those in recovery to find inner wisdom. We consider how this differs from “12 step” approaches, which enlist the help of God, while noting the importance of community to both. Another part of Matthew’s work is to advocate for changes in carceral policy that make transformation more widely accessible.

These commitments grew out of his experiences, both as an addict and convicted felon. Matthew has been sober since 2005, but his earlier escapades earned him ten years in prison. That story is worth a whole podcast in itself (see this episode of How to Human for a fuller exploration). Put simply, his life turned around after stealing a safe, and his response to what he found inside reduced his sentence.

Matthew describes his own recovery in this essay, included in the second edition of Recovery Dharma, which is available for free download here. He posts on Instagram, TikTok and X / Twitter with the handle @hahnscratch.

🎓 Join me online for The Path of Knowledge, a year-long immersion in yogic traditions, relating ancient wisdom to modern priorities.

🙏 To support this podcast, please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... All donations are greatly appreciated!

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancientfutures.substack.com/subscribe

What can we learn from over 2,000 years of fascination with the East? Chris Harding explores this question in The Light of Asia – a book that shares its title with a poem about the Buddha from the nineteenth century. His focus is on characters whose personal engagement with Asian traditions shaped Western perceptions.

Our conversation reflects on the impact of efforts to reconcile different viewpoints. Does one way of seeing predominate? What guards against cherry-picking? Among many other topics, we also consider:

* The early influence of Jesuits in spreading ideas

* Alan Watts as a priest, blurring multiple boundaries

* Bede Griffiths and inter-religious experiments in India

* The importance of community to spiritual practice

* What it might mean to “decolonise philosophy”

Chris is a cultural historian at the University of Edinburgh, specialising in modern India and Japan. He contributes regularly to the BBC, and a range of publications, including Aeon and Unherd. He is also the author of IlluminAsia.

🕉️ Join me online for The Path of Knowledge, a year-long immersion in yogic traditions, relating ancient wisdom to modern priorities.

🙏 To support this podcast, please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... All donations are greatly appreciated!

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancientfutures.substack.com/subscribe

Does yoga really mean union? As Zoë Slatoff explains in this fascinating chat about philosophy and Sanskrit, the simplest answer is probably “sometimes”…

Zoë’s PhD explores how yoga became entangled with non-dual Vedānta, blurring distinctions between the two systems. One important catalyst was the popularity of physical practice, whose aims were framed in terms of oneness. So gnostic teachers adapted its methods, which were slowly combined with Patañjali’s yoga.

We discuss how this happened through the prism of a text the studied (called the Aparokṣānubhūti, on which more here). And since Zoë is also the author of a Sanskrit textbook for yoga practitioners, we talk about the challenges – as well as the pleasures – of learning the language. Even just a little bit can make a big difference.

Zoë has practised yoga since the 1990s, teaching it for much of that time. She's now a professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and offers online courses in Sanskrit via the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

🕉️ For a year-long immersion in yogic traditions, relating ancient wisdom to modern priorities, join me online for The Path of Knowledge.

🙏 To support this podcast, please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... All donations are greatly appreciated!

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancientfutures.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com

Who are we really, beyond our ideas about ourselves and the world? After more than half a century as a Buddhist practitioner, Kamalashila (Anthony Matthews) reflects on his life and impending death – he was recently told he had four months to live.

As he wrote back in April: “What is happening to me happens to everyone and it will happen to you, so think about that too and practice some dharma.” Our conversation explores what this means from a range of perspectives, drawing inspiration from a lifetime of inquiry. Among many other topics, we discuss:

* His early experience of insight through LSD

* Encountering Buddhism and meeting his teacher

* The benefits of celibacy and living off-grid as a hermit

* Some of the drawbacks to “Western Buddhism”

* Fear of death, and how to alleviate it

In passing, we mention an essay by Kamalashila (“My Dharma Life”, posted here), and criticisms of his teacher, Sangharakshita (on which more here). There’s an overview of Triratna, formerly the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, on his website. And if you’ve never heard of Suella Braverman, here’s some context.

🕉️ To explore yogic wisdom in depth, join me online for The Path of Knowledge.

🙏 Please consider supporting the podcast as a subscriber, or buy me a coffee... All donations are greatly appreciated!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com

What makes people wary of getting immersed in the Bhagavad Gītā? To start with, it’s set in a war zone, where God issues edicts to kill and upholds social hierarchy. Yet its message is also inspiring, making yoga compatible with everyday life, and developing a loving awareness that sees all beings equally.

This podcast with Hari-kirtana das explores his new book on the Gītā’s teachings, which is subtitled A Guide to Exploring Timeless Principles of Transcendental Knowledge and Integrating Them Into Your Life. As we discuss, how we interpret the text depends on our worldview. Although it features a personal God, is devotion mandatory?

In addressing this question, we consider distinctions between subjective experience and objective facts, and the extent to which religion is compatible with different ways of seeing. We also talk about historical misconduct in devotional lineages, and how the Gītā counteracts misguided thinking.

Finally, we ask whether some of its passages might need ignoring – instead of trying to update them with more palatable readings – or whether cherry-picking undermines the text. For more from Hari-kirtana, follow him on Instagram or YouTube.

🤿 To dive deeper into a hybrid of practical insight and critical thinking, join me online for The Path of Knowledge, a year-long immersion in yogic ideas.

🙏 To support Ancient Futures, please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... All donations are greatly appreciated!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ancientfutures.substack.com

What makes for good translations from an old language? For Suhas Mahesh and Anusha Rao – co-editors of How to Love in Sanskrit – it's “a game of compromise”. Rather than fixating on “excessive attention to irrelevant detail”, they focus instead on making words come alive. So a female lament from 2,000 years ago becomes: “Dear God, make him hang out with other women more. He does not seem to realise what a catch I am.”

This is a rich conversation about life in general, not just linguistics. We talk about why monks write love poems, the pitfalls of marrying academics, and all sorts of other topics, including:

* What to look for when choosing translations.

* The extent to which Sanskrit is a living language.

* Where to find advice on love beyond the Kāma Sūtra.

* Whether some ancient words are untranslatable.

* Why Rumi quotes are rarely what they seem.

Indian readers can buy the book here – or try here if you’re in the U.K., or here in the U.S. You can also email Suhas here and Anusha here if you have any suggestions for future translations – they’re already at work on the next compilation.

🤩 If you'd like to get immersed in yogic traditions from a modern perspective, join me for a course called The Path of Knowledge (early bird rates end June 15).

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