For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

God is the blissful awareness of your own Being, God is only thing that exists and the Universe as we see it is just an emanation of diversity arising out of the one Unity that you Are. And yet! We still experience ourselves as a separate from the world around. We experience suffering and contraction. If we are indeed God, how could this be? Why don't we immediately intuit our nature as the Absolute? To answer this question we look at the idea of Maya, the Cosmic Measurer: the power of God to manifest the Many and conceal the Unity within that diversity. We explore Kashmiri Shaivism to study the 5 Kancukas or the 5 "veils/armors" that limit us and hide our true nature from ourselves and finally we conclude by saying: to the unenlightened, Maya is Bondage; to the wise, Maya is a great Work of Art!

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Perhaps one of our deepest discussions yet, today we explore the concept of Atma Bodha (Self-Realization)/Brahma Jnana (Knowing God)/Nirvana/Perfection/Enlightenment etc. to figure out what the ultimate goal of spiritual practice REALLY is. We explore a Tantrik creation story to explain why the world as you see it came to be and what "your" role in it is. Who are you really? And why are you here?
All this in today's discussion on What Is Enlightenment?

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
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The Shamanic Roots of Yoga, the Core Teachings of the Upanishads, the story of how Yoga first came to the west and the brilliant life of India's Greatest Saint: Swami Vivekananda!

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Naturally, one hour is not enough to capture to beauty and brilliance of Swami Vivekananda, India's foremost saint and beloved disciple of Paramahansa Ramakrishna, World Teacher and Avatar. To honor this incredible spirit, I wanted to share with you the story of his life which is really a story about how the spiritual ideals of India came to the West for the first time in the late 19th CE. We discuss the Shamanic Roots of Yoga and the core philosophical teachings of the Upanishads and Vedas in order to fully expound the earth-shattering Universal, Non-Sectarian Truth of the Upanishads which is: Truth is One, though it may be called differently and the paths to get there are many.
Swami Vivekananda gave his whole life for this truth, to show mankind our innate divinity and unite us all under the banner of Non-Dual Awareness. 
Happy birthday, Swami-ji! And this one is for all our "sisters and brothers of America!"

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
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For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Today we talk about the Problem of Suffering as articulated by the Shakyamuni Buddha in order to understand what it is exactly that we're trying to achieve in Yoga. Naturally, we discuss the subtle ideas of Yogic phenomenology (the study of how we perceive the world around us) to show that we are projecting our universe into existence through our mental representations (vikalpas). Then, we take a deep dive into some of the most profound philosophies from the 15th CE text Drg-Drsya-Viveka, "Discrimination Between The Seer and the Seen" to prove to you in one argument that you are not only the Body nor are you really only the Mind, you are in fact something much more...

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

We discuss Shakti, the Goddess: the fierce, fiery, powerful principle of the Divine Feminine as expressed by Shakta Tantra. We compare conceptions of the Female with mystery traditions like 15th CE Alchemy and Occultism, Taoism and Mesopotamian mythology. We make frequent visits to modern gender politics and Jungian psychology to see what relationship the psychic principles of Yin and Yang have to physical sex and psychological gender.

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

In this powerful meditation from the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, we work with the power of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva. We call upon this energy through a lush visualization meant to bring the power and profundity of your own Inner Teacher into your heart-space so you can access the guidance and wisdom of your Higher Self whenever you need. Finally, you will receive a popular but potentized 5th CE mantra from the Karandavyuha Sutra to anchor you to the Fullness of Your Being, Your Ever-New Buddha Nature. Find a seat, close the eyes, follow the breath and let this meditation take you wherever your soul intends to go! Enjoy these discussions on Mantra, Meditation and Mahayana Buddhism. Happy New Year! 

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

A humble yogic perspective on what it means to live a fulfilling life. We talk about all the different orientations to life and why many of them don't work and then when we figure out why!

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

To celebrate today's Winter Solstice and the Great Jupiter-Saturn Conjunct, I expound on 9000 years of yoga philosophy, teasing out the biggest themes and most revolutionary concepts to nudge you into a transformative shift that you may come home to your True Self which is ever free, blissful and at peace. What are the major takeaways from the Vedic and Upanishadic era? How did these ideas evolve in the 6th CE with the first World Teachers like Patanjali, Vardhamana Mahavira, Shakyamuni Buddha and Lao Tsu? What is the Tantra movement? How did Hatha Yoga go from being an underground 10th CE movement into a popular trend in the West? All this and more in today's special solstice episode! Thank you to all who attended at the ceremony. You know who you are. I love you more than you know!

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

We discuss the various Gods and Goddesses in the pantheons of the Indus valley compared to pantheons from other traditions. We explore the concept that Gods and Goddesses aren't "out there" but are rather metaphors for what's going on "in here". They are metaphors for subtle psychic forces that are sometimes too "behind the scenes" in our day to day life for us to experience directly. As such, we plead poetic license to personify these inner forces as deities, in order that we might approach them intelligently. Working with them can helpful in navigating the spiritual path. There are various techniques for how to invoke deities and work with them in your spiritual practice and we go through them together in this exciting episode of For the Love of Yoga! 

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

We discuss the origin of Suffering in the Buddhist and Yogic literature and then we look at Vidyaranya's famous argument from his 15th CE Pancadesi to prove how you are not the Mind nor are you the Body and as such, you are beyond all suffering! Then, we talk about the Divine Romance, which is the story of Shiva and Shakti's courtship: he descends down from the crown chakra; she rises up from the root, and they meet in the Hridayam, the Heart. 

Hit Me Up x

Support the show

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM