Escaping Samsara

Swami Jaya Devi Bhagavati is the Founder and Spiritual Director of Kashi Atlanta, a nonprofit urban yoga ashram that has served Atlanta for 21 years. She is an urban yoga monk, working to inspire people to live deeply, loving everyone along the way.

Swami has studied yoga, pranayama (yogic breath), meditation, and healing in-depth since 1985. She took her monastic vows in the Saraswati lineage of Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati and was given the title Yoga Acharya (master teacher of yoga) in 2007.

She taught at the 2004 Parliament of World Religions in Barcelona, Spain, and was Grand Marshal of the 2015 Atlanta Pride Parade in recognition of decades of work with the LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS communities. In our chat, we get deep on topics such as pranayama, kundalini and karma yoga.

Want to support the show? Thank you! Support us via PayPal

Sebene Selassie is an African American Buddhist teacher. She has been studying Buddhism for 30 years and teaching for 10. She has worked extensively for not-for-profit organisations everywhere from the Tenderloin in San Francisco to refugee camps in Guinea, West Africa. This year, she published her first book via HarperOne titled You Belong: A Call for Connection.

In this enriching conversation we tackle the kind of tough subjects that we all think about but need to talk about more. Why have women been sidelined in Buddhist lineages? How can the Dharma respond to racial strife and injustice? And how we can heal cultures of harm wherever we find ourselves.

• First experiences with bhakti yoga
• History of women in Buddhism
• Sebene's journey through Buddhist schools
• Kuan Yin and devotional practice
• The question of cultural appropriation
• How studying history can aid liberation
• The complex problem of unconscious bias
• What was left out when Buddhism was exported
• Good ol' psychedelics
• Ancestral healing
• How we might heal racism in dharma communities
• It's not about separation
• Guilt vs responsibility
• "The Dharma answers its context"

Want to support the show? Thank you! Support us via PayPal

Robert Moses has 50 years' experience as a teacher of yoga and advaita vedanta. Robert served in the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers for 22 years. He is a founder and co-publisher of Namarupa – Categories of Indian thoughts, a magazine about the philosophies and arts of India. He is leading annual pilgrimages to sacred places of India and offering classes on Pranayama, Bandhas, Kriyas, Mudras as well as exploration of Hatha Yoga Pradipika online.

• First glimpses beyond the physical plain of existence
• Intense yoga practice, meditation and fasting
• Hitchhiking through Europe
• "Cry, The Beloved Country" – growing up in South Africa
• The "Continuum concept" (Jean Liedloff)
• "You can't just have bad people in the world raising kids" (Norman Allan)
• Bhakti practice, subtle forms of Tridoshas – Tejas, Ojas and Prana
• Brahmacharya in the context of househoder path
• Looking behind the bandhas
• Uddara – the forgotten bandha
• Addendum: Where to fit a mudra practice?
• Discover Namarupa Magazine, classes and courses by Robert Moses.

Discover Namarupa Magazine, classes and courses by Robert Moses. https://namarupa.org/

Want to support the show? Thank you! Support us via PayPal

Dr. Erik Davis is an American writer, scholar, journalist and public speaker whose writings have ranged from rock criticism to cultural analysis to creative explorations of mysticism. Few people are able to talk about the spirituality with a precision and accuracy born of a commitment to always remain open to the Mystery. Erik shares his own path, describing how he maintains scientific viewpoint while also embracing the weird and unknown aspects in all religions, especially Christianity and Buddhism. We talk in detail about "the psychonaut"scientifically minded explorers who use psychedelics in an attempt to map the fringes and consciousness - places where there might still be dragons.

Show Notes

• Spiritual and uncanny experiences occurred in Erik's childhood bedroom
• Fear and fascination
• How Erik spans science and spirituality
• Erik's deep experience with Christian art
• "The weirdest year of your life"
• Erik on prayer and grace
• "America can't escape the shadow of puritanism"
• Psychonauts vs religious seekers
• Psychosis as an occupational hazard
• Practical Buddhist ethics
• The role of a spiritual teacher
• When Erik met Ram Dass

Want to support the show? Thank you! Support us via PayPal

Leigh has been practicing meditation since 1985. He is the senior American student of the late Ven. Ayya Khema. He began teaching retreats in Europe and North America in 1997, and is the author of the book "Right Concentration - A Practical Guide to the Jhanas". This is first part of our in-depth exploration of different aspects of Buddhist teachings that Leigh generously took time and energy for.

Episode 2 Show Notes

• Studying Buddhist suttas and commentaries, Visuddhimagga and Abhidhamma
• Stream entry, interpretation, importance and application of buddhist models
• Pulling out mile markers
• Long-term practice, improvement and reduction of dukha and unshakable peace
• On Daniel M. Ingram's sub-jhanas, excitement about and usefullness of experience
• Contemplation on 32 body types

Want to support the show? Thank you! Support us via PayPal

Leigh has been practicing meditation since 1985. He is the senior American student of the late Ven. Ayya Khema. He began teaching retreats in Europe and North America in 1997, and is the author of the book "Right Concentration - A Practical Guide to the Jhanas". This is first part of our in-depth exploration of different aspects of Buddhist teachings that Leigh generously took time and energy for.

Episode 1 Show notes

• The falling of the veil, spiritual hedonism and world trip
• The story of Theravada nun Ayya Khema
• Ways to look at Pratītyasamutpāda - dependent origination
• Five skandhas, Eckart Tolle and taking a nap
• Emptiness or Śūnyatā, inherent existence and the deathless
• Immortality project
• Leighs process of studying the Suttas
• What are Jhanas or the stages of indestructible mind
• Morality, concentration, wisdom
• Jhanas as a spectrum of concentration states
• As you go deeper the space of observer gets smaller
• Don't get fooled by your concepts
• Leigh's and Nathan's take on the spiritual world of today
• How Buddhism translates into Western culture

Want to support the show? Thank you! Support us via PayPal

Norway-born, Kathmandu-based KPJAYI authorised level 2 Ashtanga yoga teacher, co-founder of the first Ashtanga studio In Oslo, buddhist practitioner and scholar of Himalayan languages and Tibetan philology - Ellen Johannesen shares with us her fascinating life story as we change between buddhist and yogic perspectives exploring the path to liberation.

Show notes

• From contemporary dance to yoga
• Movement patterns, innate animal logic and asana
• The act of balancing or playing with the forces outside of you
• Yogic Yamas & Niyamas vs. Buddhist Paramis
• Regaining subtle body awareness through asana
• Relocating to Nepal and studying Buddhism, Himalayan languages, Tibetan philology
• How studying sutras and scriptures slowly changes you
• Dependent origination and breaking the pattern
• Practices aiming at removing samskaras
• Reconciling Yogic and Buddhist perspectives
• 100.000 prostrations in Bodh Gaya
• Making merit

Want to support the show? Thank you! Support us via PayPal

A lover of the ancient and obscure, Forrest Knutson is a yogi householder, writer and meditation teacher. He offers many great video instructions on Kriya Yoga and meditation on his YouTube channel, as well as through his courses and trainings.

Show notes

• Search for Truth, "Hamsa" meditation and first spiritual experience
• Joining monastic community
• Lahiri Mahasaya and Babaji
• Wondering up in the hills
• Kriya
• Enlightenment equasion, samadhi, layman vs monastic practice
• "Remedial teacher", heart rate variability and "3 cordial rules"
• Kechari Mudra
• Analogies with buddhist Jhana practice
• 7 Kriyas of Lahiri, buddhist 5 breath states

Check out Forrest Knutson's YouTube Channel, his website and his book "Hacking the Universe: The Process of Yogic Meditation"

Want to support the show? Thank you! Support us via PayPal

We are beyond excited to kick off the new year with these 2 beautiful guests - Deepika Mehta and Mark Robberds. Yoga couple, Ashtanga practitioners and movement specialists, teachers and successful Instagramers, humble and curious beings on the spiritual path - which of these labels come close to who they really are? Listen in!

Show notes

• Deepika's path to spirituality
• Relationships, practice and parenthood
• Pareto principle in Mark's approach to maintaining the practice
• Aging: Flexibility means fragility?
• Movement exploration rooted in the yogic tristana
• Benefits of a set sequence and creativity, yoga and surfing
• Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati
• Pranayama, Breathwork and Wim Hoff?
• James Nestor and Simon Borg-Olivier
• Cultural appropriation and Mula Bandha underwear
• Mark's Instagram journey
• Meditation practice and personal challenges
• 3 new online courses

Deepika Mehta - https://deepikamehta.in/

Mark's website - https://markrobberds.com/

Want to support the show? Thank you! Support us via PayPal

We are very happy to present to you this interview with Gregor Maehle that was recorded around a year ago. Gregor's path is a remarkable example of limitless determination to find the Truth. While not attempting to gain popularity and fame his ideas and views can be polarizing, provoking and challenging. He dismisses authorities, hierarchies, guru worship and other unhealthy group dynamics. By doing so he is not only living out authentically one of the fundamental yogic attitudes of willing to know, rather than to believe, but also plays an extremely important social role that is becoming more and more scarce in today's poisoned with political correctness world - by not sweetening up his words, pointing out things that are broken, views that are wrong and actions that are unethical he invites all of us to question our assumptions of reality, so that we can finally wake up from our ignorant slumber and experience the true joy of being.

It is in sincere gratitude for his guidance on the path of Yoga that we release this interview.

Show notes

• First glimpses of infinity
• Doer mentality, surrendering and grace
• What led Gregor to the practice of the 8-limbed Yoga
• Immersing into teachings today vs in old times
• Tibetian Ngöndro, Six Yogas of Naropa, Dzogchen
• Purification practices within the Ashtanga Yoga tradition and the mechanisms behind them
• Why your meditation doesn't work
• Happiness and robotic conditioning
• Gregor's spiritual practice and the sense of freedom
• Breath waves
• Experience of Cosmic intelligence on different levels
• The differences and similarities of different spiritual paths
• Svadharma
• Gregor's observation of the modern Yoga landscape

To find out more about Gregor's teaching, learning materials, courses and in-depth blog article visit https://8limbs.com/

Check out new book by Gregor Maehle: "How To Find Your Life's Divine Purpose: Brain software for a new civilization"

Want to support the show? Thank you! Support us via PayPal