Escaping Samsara

Glimpses Into the Sufi World. While most hippies in the 60' went to India to find spiritually Michael Sugich went to Saudi Arabia in search of a Sufi guru and spent his life in a lesser known area of the Arab world living the spirituality of Islam. New episode is out now! Link in the bio.

Show notes

- First spiritual experiences and escape from show business
- Remembrance of God - Vikrala
- On Islam as foundation of Sufism
- The only certain thing
- Sharia as a safety net
- Importance of guidance of a spiritual master
- Working with breath in Islamic tradition, Haḍra ritual
- Litanies and spending time in the company of saints
- Teaching children, expectations and the modern world

Books & Contact

Signs on the Horizons: Meetings with Men of Knowledge and Illumination

Hearts Turn: Sinners, Seekers, Saints and the Road to Redemption

Michael's FB : https://www.facebook.com/michael.sugich
-----
Head over to www.escaping-samsara.com to discover more episodes.
Feel grateful and would like to support us? Thank you!
Here is our PAYPAL or  PATREON account for contributions.

There’s been a lot said and written about the changes female yogis go through when they become mothers. Now, for the first time, we discuss Ashtanga Yoga and fatherhood. Our guests, Mark Robberds, Prem Carlisi, and Scott Johnson have about 80 years of practice and teaching experience between them, close to 100 if you include me. 

Mark and I are new fathers, Scott Johnson’s kids are teenagers, and Prem is a grandfather. It was really special to sit with a group of men and learn about realising the goals of yoga in family life. 

You can watch this episode on our Escaping Samsara Youtube channel https://youtu.be/gjKiJZQHpSc

Show Notes

·        Becoming a father and how men experience having a baby

·        How to continue a yoga practice while holding the responsibilities of family life

·        How to maintain a quality relationship with your partner

·        And the play of masculine and feminine in the yoga of relationship

Check out our guests: 

https://www.markrobberds.com/

https://stillpoint.yoga/

https://www.ashtangayogabali.com/

Stu Girling is a yoga teacher, anatomy expert and author. He runs Love Yoga Anatomy online and on Youtube, and is the author of Illustrated Yoga Anatomy book. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions about yoga, ashtanga, avoiding injury and maintaining healthy bodies. 

We asked questions such as:

• How to return to yoga practice after pregnancy?
• How to do yoga asana with sciatica?
• Avoding ankle pain in lotus pose
• Why should spiritual yogis care about anatomy?
• How crosstraining can stop you getting injured
• What's with Setu Bandhasana? 

Find more from Stu

https://loveyogaanatomy.com/

Stu's book: https://illustratedyogaanatomy.com/

Free yoga tips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYmM9DXH1XC1ZypIDCaf1JA

Ben Goresky is a counsellor, coach and explorer of consciousness. He is involved in addiction recovery and working with men as part of the Samurai Brotherhood, a community I am also involved in. He hosts the Evolving Man podcast. 

As both recovered addicts we talk deeply about abuse, drug addiction and recovery. Then we delve into spiritual practices that have helped Ben on his journey before getting into the spiritual power of men's work.

Find out more about Ben's coaching and online trainings here: https://evolvingman.com/

Ash Hope is a Brisbane-based Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga teacher and a student of Nancy Gilgoff. Her fascination about the body’s self-healing abilities led her to study CranioSacral therapy with the Upledger Institute in Singapore. Ash explores the practice of meditation in the Zen tradition and teaches traditional Mysore style classes in her  shala in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane.

Show notes

• Spiritual longing: From Eastern Germany to India
• Discovering Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga system after an injuiry
• On synergetic relationship of Primary and Intermediate series
• Weekly sequencing - thoughts on rotation of series
• Meeting Nancy Gilgoff
• Evolution of Pattabhi Jois' teaching approach
• On old-school Advanced A series, teaching methodology
• Ashtanga pranayama
• Meditation practice
• Mixing practices from different schools

Visit https://www.ashtangayogacentre.com.au/ to find out more about Ash and her teaching schedule.

Head over to www.escaping-samsara.com to discover more episodes.

Feel grateful and would like to support us? Thank you!
Here is our PAYPAL or  PATREON account for contributions.

Phil Mistlberger is an explorer of world's philosophic and esoteric traditions, transpersonal therapist, international seminar and workshop facilitator, and author with over thirty years of experience. Phil has written 7 books looking from different angles on wide variety of teachings and teachers. He has co-founded and founded schools and communities of inner work like Samurai Brotherhood, and traveled around the world to study and teach numerous courses and workshops.

Show notes

• Spiritual experiences and Perennial philosophy
• Moving from one tradition to another
• 21st century destructed mind's dark night of the soul problem
• 3 Dangerous Magi
• On Aleister Crowley
• Studying with Osho
• Benefits of releasing generational rage and guilt
• On addiction, ethics and generational context
• Premature teaching
• On conditioned culture, autonomy and reality tunnels
• Encounter work and men groups

Visit http://www.ptmistlberger.com/ to find more about his work.

Head over to www.escaping-samsara.com to discover more episodes.

Feel grateful and would like to support us? Thank you!
Here is our PAYPAL or  PATREON account for contributions.

Thomas Van Breda is a scholar of religion specialising in the western esoteric tradition. He joins us to discuss notorious occultist Aleister Crowley and his contribution to the evolution of modern yoga. In 1901, Crowley travelled to Sri Lanka and studied what seems to be a mixture of Ashtanga and Shaivite Yoga. When he returned to the UK and started teaching. Is it possible that he was one of the first western yoga teachers ever? Or did his bombastic and strange personality only obscure these teachings?

Show Notes

•  We discuss the occult and rejected knowledge systems
• Crowley’s problematic personality
• How Crowley saw enlightenment and how he claimed to have attained it
• We respond to Mark Singleton’s 2010 book “Yoga Body: the Origins of Modern Posture Practice” that claims Crowley was a “black magician” who  obscured the message of yoga
• How Crowley taught asana before Krishnamacharya, the old school way
• Crowley’s experiments and achieving dhyana and samadhi states

Crowley's "Eight Lectures on Yoga" PDF: http://www.metaphysicspirit.com/books/Eight%20Lectures%20on%20Yoga.pdf

Head over to www.escaping-samsara.com to discover more episodes.

Feel grateful and would like to support us? Thank you!
Here is our PAYPAL or  PATREON account for contributions.

Maggi Nimmo is an artist, healer and yogi based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 

She teaches physical Asana, Pranayama, Self-Awareness, Samatha techniques and further meditations.

She also specialises in acute and chronic pain management and includes her client’s emotional, physical and spiritual health and well-being as part of her solutions. She’s trained in The Bowen Technique, Sacro-Cranial Technique, Remedial Massage, Foot Realignment, Homoeopathy and Spiritual Counselling.

Show Notes

• Maggi’s artworks especially sacred symbols and geometry 
• What kingons and vedic concepts of gunas have in common
• Pattabhi Jois and Bikram back in the day
• A non dual experience slipping into a river
• How the warrior poses are the same as walking
• 70s Hairstyles and the subtle body
• How “The body accepts whatever practice you choose”
• Different catagories of healing
• The wisdom of working with the moon
• Pranic and apanic breathing and moon days
• Ashtanga and aging

http://magginimmo.com/

Head over to www.escaping-samsara.com to discover more episodes.

Feel grateful and would like to support us? Thank you!
Here is our PAYPAL or  PATREON account for contributions.

While his words are often like poetry and his photos stun you with their raw aesthetics, it is that space beyond the form and beyond the mind that Ty invites us to discover and out which his reflections are generously springing from. He is the wizard of most intricate thought castles, the faqir juggling heavy philosophical constructs with lightness and innocence of a child, while his fascination for exploring the ways of embodiment of the creative principle that animates all life is like a magnet that draws you deeper into inquiry in your own practice. We are absolutely delighted to have Ty on our show.

Show notes

• First spiritual experiences, communion with the nature and longing for the sense of connection
• Intellectual intoxication, vinyasas of thought and postures of mind
• Somatic exploration of breath waves
• Terror of letting go of the sense of the self and the brilliance of Ashtanga Vinyasa
• Clinging to a particular idea of what your practice should be
• Asana as embodying the form that supports the liberated movement of creative energy
• Fatherhood and daily practice
• Mixing traditions, following your heart, exploring synchronicities
• Year-long online immersion course "Into the Depth"

Visit Yoga Workshop Online to find out about online classes, workshops and immersions offered by Ty. Also, check his website https://tylandrum.com/ to discover more about his teaching schedule, as well as some beautiful writing.

Head over to www.escaping-samsara.com to discover more episodes.

Feel grateful and would like to support us? Thank you!
Here is our PAYPAL or  PATREON account for contributions.

Mumbai-based yoga practitioner and teacher, Deepa Rao shares her experience on Yoga and Meditation with us.

Show notes

• Deepa's first spiritual recollections
• Amulets, yantras and experience growing up in a Brahmin familiy
• Goenka's Vipassana, practice and studies, aleviation of the fear of darkness
• Equanimity and challenges of daily life
• The story behind Trivikramasana 
• How knowledge of mythology can help unravel deeper layers in your asana practice
• Using mantras, themes and affirmations in your practice
• On Ayurveda and diet, prana and apana vayu 
• Yoga in modern day India
• Practicing with an American yoga teacher in India

If you want to get in touch with Deepa - visit her Instagram account
https://instagram.com/therowdee

Head over to www.escaping-samsara.com to discover more episodes.

Feel grateful and would like to support us? Thank you!
Here is our PAYPAL or  PATREON account for contributions.