To what extent has yoga been influenced by socio-political forces, or competition for resources between different groups? Does understanding historical context help to make sense of teachings? What might we learn from the past that’s still relevant today?

Richard Davis is an emeritus professor of religion at Bard College in New York. His latest book, Religions of Early India: A Cultural History, explores the fluidity of ancient traditions, including interactions between Brahmanical renouncers, Buddhists and Jains. He’s also the author of The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography, a fascinating story of how the text has been interpreted over the centuries.

Having taught undergraduates for 35 years, Richard writes accessibly about the big picture, so our conversation surfs across several millennia. We focus in particular on tensions between renunciation and social engagement, as well as a history of cultural exchange. Among other questions, we consider:

* Where ideas about karma and rebirth originated

* What inspired sacred images and religious devotion

* Whether the earliest traditions were goddess-focused

* Whose voices texts leave out, and how to hear them

* Why Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is insightful

Selections from Richard’s work are posted here. For a list of publications, see here.

🤿 For a year-long immersion in yogic wisdom, join me on The Path of Knowledge.

🧘‍♀️ I’m also running a retreat that incorporates highlights from the course (Sep 25-28).

🙏 Donations make this podcast sustainable – please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... Your support is 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 does it mean to have mental plasticity? ♳

Unless the mind is to some extent controlled, it controls our experience. This axiom of yoga philosophy has helpful applications in everyday life – from avoiding being triggered by politics to making wise choices.

Jessica Frazier is a lecturer at Oxford University, and also a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. She recently organised a conference that discussed the radical nature of Indian ideas about self-transformation. This podcast includes her presentation on yoga, along with a chat about what we can learn from cross-cultural thinking – particularly about phenomenology (a term we unpack).

You can stream more presentations from the conference here, or join the OCHS Virtual Classroom, where subscribers get access to talks on a regular basis. There’s also a range of online courses on yogic traditions and related subjects (some of which I tutor) – a new intake begins on July 27.

🙋‍♂️ For a broad exploration of yogic traditions, join me for The Path of Knowledge.

🧘‍♀️ I’m also running a retreat that draws on highlights from the course (Sep 25-28).

🙏 Donations make this podcast sustainable – please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... Your support is 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 might the world look like if heroin was provided on prescription at local pharmacies? 💉

This is not a thought experiment. It used to be the basis of a policy that experts call the “British System” – in the early 1960s in London, the biggest dealer of drugs was Boots the Chemists.

JS Rafaeli is the author of Drug Wars, which documents this history and the crackdown that buried it. His collaborator – Neil Woods – is a retired undercover detective whose experience convinced him the “war on drugs” just made things worse (a story detailed in their first book, Good Cop, Bad War).

In this wide-ranging chat, JS explains how criminalisation has corrupted policing, caused violence to spiral and turned addicts into pyramid salesmen who try to hook others to pay for their fix. Meanwhile, evidence takes a back seat to political agendas, producing policies focused on punishment not public health.

Our conversation considers how to make things safer for everyone concerned, while acknowledging the obstacles to implementing change. In the process, we talk about work to promote wiser policies by organisations such as Transform, and the Law Enforcement Action Partnership in the U.S. and the UK.

🙋‍♂️ To explore the yogic precept of non-harming, join me on The Path of Knowledge.

🧘‍♀️ I’m also running a retreat that incorporates highlights from the course (Sep 25-28).

🙏 Donations make this podcast sustainable – please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... Your support is 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

To what extent is knowledge an obstacle? Is ignorance bliss? 🤔

Although it can be helpful to admit to not knowing, it rarely feels comfortable. I’ve been reflecting on that recently while working on some writing about yoga and politics, and it’s also a theme on my year-long course, The Path of Knowledge.

This podcast discusses distinctions between what sounds true and what’s verifiable, as well as yogic tensions in seeking the truth by transcending the known. It also talks about the limits of scholarly knowledge and practical insight, while considering ways of balancing both of these perspectives.

Since we really don’t know how much we don’t know about the history of yoga, that can add to discomfort when looking for clarity about what’s authentic, or traditional – or any other word that tries to get grounded in something more certain. However, that can be the start of resolving confusion for oneself.

🙋‍♂️ The recording incorporates clips from a talk that had slides (which are available here) and it includes Q&A about The Path of Knowledge. A new intake starts in September – you can find out more and join us here.

🧘‍♀️ I’m also running a retreat based on some of the highlights from the course – more details here. If you have any questions, send me an email.

🙏 Donations make this podcast sustainable – please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... Your support is 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

Were the all-embracing visions of William Blake shaped by Indian philosophy? 🪷

A new book by Mark Vernon explores what inspired Blake alongside his influence. Although he died 200 years ago, he was a prophet for our times, perceiving the spirit of some of the issues we're still grappling with – from rapid technological change to mass discontent and estrangement from nature.

Blake is probably best known as an artist and writer, but he was also a mystic and an intellectual critic. Disillusioned by creeping materialism, he sought to awaken an expansive perspective in which everything is holy – which sounds like ideas in the Bhagavad Gītā.

Our conversation explores these parallels, as well as Blake’s Christian roots, and how there’s often more to famous quotes – from “the doors of perception” to “dark Satanic Mills” – than first meets the eye. Above all, we reflect on the transformative power to imagine and how it might transport us into eternity.

Like Blake, Mark has wide-ranging interests, working as a writer, broadcaster and therapist. His books cover ancient philosophy, spiritual intelligence, Dante’s Divine Comedy and many other topics. You can find out more about him here.

🎓 Join me on The Path of Knowledge for a year-long guide to yogic wisdom.

🧘‍♂️ I also have a Swiss retreat in September, exploring a mix of discussion and practice.

🙏 Donations make this podcast sustainable – please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... Your support is 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 does it mean to inhabit a world that’s alive with deities, which might be less like gods than enlightened aspects of the mind? How could that influence how we relate to ourselves, to each other and to our surroundings?

Yeshe Palmo has practised tantric Buddhism for roughly four decades, inspired by an empowerment from the Dalai Lama in 1985. Her teacher was Thrangu Rinpoche and in recent years she’s worked with Mingyur Rinpoche's Awareness Yoga – on which more here, along with a video of Yeshe in action.

Our conversation explores her experience from multiple angles, including what inspired her to become a Buddhist nun. We also talk about her M.A. research on how postural yoga can help Western Buddhists before long retreats, and reflect on whether monasteries are necessary to pass on traditions.

Above all, we consider what it means to have a sacred view, and how deities and nature spirits might be helpful in practice – despite potential objections from the rational mind. This episode expands on some themes from the last one (which is archived here), but there’s no need to hear them in order.

🤿 For a year-long immersion in yogic traditions, join me for The Path of Knowledge.

🧘‍♂️ I also have a Swiss retreat in September, exploring a mix of discussion and practice.

🙏 Donations make this podcast sustainable – please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... Your support is 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 inspired the creation of Indian sacred images? They played no part in early Vedic rituals, in which priests made offerings into a fire, asking gods for reciprocal blessings. Others did something similar with embodiments of nature, whose spirits – called yakṣas and yakṣīs – were sculpted in earthenware and stone.

A new exhibition at the British Museum charts links between these figures and depictions of deities and enlightened teachers revered by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. It also highlights overlaps between the three traditions, and how their art sometimes changed as they spread beyond India.

Sushma Jansari is the museum’s Tabor Foundation Curator of South Asia. She is also the author – with Sureshkumar Muthukumaran – of an accompanying book about the exhibition’s contents. Our conversation discusses its highlights, noting the relevance of ancient Indian art to contemporary practice, plus the impact of colonialism on theories of where objects come from and why they were collected.

The exhibition runs in London from May 22 to October 19. An introductory blog by Sushma is available here, and she is due to give an online presentation on June 5.

🌳 To explore yoga's roots in ancient India, join me online for The Path of Knowledge.

🧘‍♂️ I also have a Swiss retreat in September, exploring a mix of discussion and practice.

🙏 Donations make this podcast sustainable – please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... Your support is 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

Do yogic practices and psychoactive substances lead somewhere similar? Stuart Sarbacker is a scholar and practitioner of yoga based in Oregon, where adult use of psilocybin – the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms – was recently legalised (though some places opt out).

As well as studying and teaching yoga, Stuart has also trained to facilitate sessions with psilocybin. His work looks at the overlaps between ancient history and modern engagement with psychedelics, both therapeutically and for life-enhancing purposes. Among other questions, we consider:

* How influential is yoga in psychedelic research?

* What exactly was soma and what was its function?

* Could psychoactive plants have inspired early yogis?

* To what extent might drugs mimic meditative insights?

* How transformative are mystical experiences of any kind?

Stuart is the author of several books, including an overview of yoga history titled Tracing the Path of Yoga (on which more here). He shares academic his writing here – on topics as varied as near-death experiences, sun salutations and meditative clarity. For another conversation between us, see last week’s post.

🤩 To expand your perspective on yoga, join me online for The Path of Knowledge.

🙏 Donations make this podcast sustainable – please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... Your support is greatly appreciated!

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

Life can be both physically and mentally fragile – as Michael Holden explores with candid humour. His most recent book, The Reluctant Carer, describes moving in with his ailing parents, and trying to look after them while navigating multiple personal setbacks.

One of these – not featured in the book – involved being handcuffed and taken to hospital from a meditation retreat. He subsequently wrote about that for Esquire, discussing the potential risks of contemplative practice, and a fine line between psychosis and self-transcendence.

Our conversation reflects on identity from multiple perspectives – spiritually, culturally and psychologically. We also talk about learning from liminal states, however they’re triggered. And we consider what it means to have a therapeutic dialogue, which at times we embody – you’re welcome to eavesdrop.

The Reluctant Carer began as an anonymous Guardian article, and Michael later outed himself as the author in the same publication. Find out more about his other work here, or subscribe to him on Substack for regular updates.

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

🙏 Donations make this podcast sustainable – please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... Your support is greatly appreciated!

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

What makes it holy to get really stoned? This is an unavoidable question in India, where smoking cannabis is banned but done by dreadlocked devotees. Meanwhile, weed smoothies are frequently drunk at religious festivals.

The writer Karan Madhok investigates this paradox – along with many others – in his new book Ananda, subtitled “An Exploration of Cannabis in India”. It also covers lots of other subjects, including cultural history, indigenous medicine, politicised religion, the pleasures of travel and the charms of Varanasi.

As we discuss, references to cannabis date back to the Vedas, though the custom of smoking it is relatively recent. Like criminalisation, that came from outsiders – and ironically countries that promoted prohibition, such as the United States, have since been at the forefront of legalisation.

Things are now changing in India with commercialised hemp and Ayurvedic remedies, but recreational use is illegal. Our conversation considers the benefits as well as the drawbacks of cannabis consumption, and asks if the bliss to which Ananda refers might be found more sustainably by other means.

👣 For other dimensions of yogic traditions, join me on the Path of Knowledge.

🙏 Donations make this podcast sustainable – please consider subscribing or buy me a coffee... Your support is greatly appreciated!