Ashton is a martial artist and yoga instructor dedicated to the exploration of human consciousness. He spent six and a half years traveling the world and has spent even more time practicing with various yoga instructors. In this episode, we discuss tantra yoga, the nature of bliss, meditation, escapism, wisdom traditions, and so on. Ashton's forte is tantric yoga and you can interact with his ideas at his website: yogawithashton.com, on his podcast: The anatomy of living, and on Instagram @yogawithashton. Enjoy.

(3:48) Tantra is not what pop-culture has made you think it is.

(7:04) Do you know you can pick out caves in North India for meditation retreat purposes?

(8:21) Is your meditation practice really a tool to help you better handle the world or are you just using it as an escape from the world?

(10:10) The wrong way to approach Yoga.

(13:27) Why we can never fully rely on our beliefs

(17:10) What Tantra can teach us about navigating differences

(21:44) The goal of tantra (Hint: it has very little to do with the sexual or supernatural stuff)

(27:22) How tantra avoids the fall into escapism

(31:36) The point of tantra is how you reintegrate the insights you gain from states of samadhi into your daily life, rather than falling back into autopilot.

(37:00) Is integration a practice or an attitude?

(38:52) Freedom isn’t really about being able to do whatever your impulses dictate

(43:32) Bliss isn’t happiness or pleasure