The Yogic Studies Podcast

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Stuart Ray Sarbacker about his newest book Tracing the Path of Yoga: The History and Philosophy of Indian Mind-Body Discipline (2021, SUNY Press). We explore the origins of yoga, what Stuart calls the numinous and cessative dimensions of yoga, early tantric sources for Haṭhayoga, as well as unique yoga teachings from the Purāṇas. We discuss the importance of mantra and sacred sound, varying interpretations of Aṣṭāṅgayoga, and the under-appreciated influences of Buddhism and Jainism throughout yoga's history.

Speaker Bio

Stuart Ray Sarbacker is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion in the School of History, Philosophy, and Religion at Oregon State University. His work is centered on the relationships between the religious and philosophical traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, especially with respect to the practices of yoga and tantra, including both bodily disciplines and contemplative practices. He also works on issues related to method and theory in the study of religion, with a particular focus on religious experience and its interpretation. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has performed institutional study and fieldwork in India, Nepal, and Japan.

He has written three books, including Samādhi: The Numinous and Cessative in Indo-Tibetan Yoga (SUNY Press), The Eight Limbs of Yoga: A Handbook for Living Yoga Philosophy (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), and the forthcoming Tracing the Path of Yoga: The History and Philosophy of Indian Mind-Body Discipline (SUNY Press).

He is a co-founder and former co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Yoga in Theory and Practice unit, and has also served as the co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Mysticism section. In addition to his academic credentials, Professor Sarbacker is an active yoga practitioner and teacher, having trained extensively in contemporary yoga and meditation traditions in India and the United States.

Links 

• https://oregonstate.academia.edu/StuartSarbacker 
• Tracing the Path of Yoga (Sarbacker 2021)

In this episode we talk with Daniel Simpson about his upcoming book, The Truth of Yoga: A Comprehensive Guide to Yoga's History, Texts, Philosophy, and Practices (2021, North Point Press). We discuss his writing process, his background as a foreign correspondent, making the historical texts and philosophies of yoga accessible to modern practitioners, perceptions on yoga in China, and the idea of authenticity in modern yoga practice.

Speaker Bio

Daniel Simpson teaches courses on yoga history and philosophy at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, and on teacher trainings at Triyoga in London. He earned a Master's degree in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation at SOAS, University of London, where he had the good fortune to study with some of the leading researchers in the field. He previously worked as a foreign correspondent – initially for Reuters, then the New York Times – after studying at Cambridge as an undergraduate. His interest in yoga developed in parallel, including frequent trips to India since the 1990s. 

Daniel's new book, The Truth of Yoga: A Comprehensive Guide to Yoga’s History, Texts, Philosophy, and Practices, will be published on January 5, 2021, by North Point Press. 

Links

• http://www.truthofyoga.com 
• http://www.danielsimpson.info
• http://www.danielsimpson.info/archive/china-yoga-superpower-iyengar

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Mark Singleton about his journey and career in yoga and academia, his dissertation turned book Yoga Body and its reception 10 years after publication,  the "birth" of modern yoga in the 19th and 20th centuries, the contested history of yoga postures (āsana), as well as his current work on the fascinating relationship between yoga and technology. We also discuss his upcoming online course, YS 113 | Yoga's Past, Present, and Future.

Speaker Bio

Mark Singleton’s research interests lie in the intersection of tradition and modernity in yoga. He was research assistant to Dr. Elizabeth De Michelis at Cambridge University’s Dharam Hinduja Institute of Indic Research in 2002-3, and went on to complete a Ph.D at Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity on the modern history of yoga. He taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses at St. John’s College (Santa Fe, New Mexico) between 2006 and 2013.

His books include Yoga in the Modern World (Routledge 2008, ed. with Jean Byrne); Yoga Body, The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (Oxford University Press 2010); Gurus of Modern Yoga (Oxford University Press 2014, ed. with Ellen Goldberg); and Roots of Yoga (Penguin Classics, 2017, with James Mallinson). He has also written numerous articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries on yoga.

His work on the now-concluding 5-year Haṭha Yoga Project focuses primarily on the history of physical practices that were incorporated into or associated with yoga in pre-colonial India. He is involved in the critical editing of three of the project’s core texts (the Yogacintāmaṇi, Haṭhasaṃketacandrikā and Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati). He is currently writing a new monograph on the subject of Yoga and Technology.

Links

• https://soas.academia.edu/MarkSingleton
• Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (2010, OUP)
• The Yoga of the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati: Haṭhayoga on the Cusp of Modernity (2019, Journal of Yoga Studies)
• Haṭha Yoga Project

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Amanda Lucia about her new book, White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals (2020, UC Press). We discuss transformational festivals in California, the nature of religious exoticism, white possessivism, and cultural appropriation in North American yoga and bhakti communities.

Speaker Bio

Amanda Lucia is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California-Riverside. Her research engages the global exportation, appropriation, and circulation of Hinduism. She is author of White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals (October 2020), which investigates the intersections of whiteness and religious exoticism among the “spiritual, but not religious” at transformational festivals, such as Bhakti Fest, Wanderlust, Lightning in a Bottle, and Burning Man, with a particular focus on yoga practice. Her previous publications include Reflections of Amma: Devotees in a Global Embrace (2014) and numerous articles. She is currently crafting a body of research on sexual abuse in guru-led religious communities.

Links

• https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520376953/white-utopias
• https://www.amandajeanlucia.com
• https://ucriverside.academia.edu/AmandaLucia

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Raj Balkaran about his early days of spiritual seeking in Toronto, discovering religious studies, the power of myth and narrative in Hindu traditions, his work on the Purāṇas, the Devī Māhātmya and Sūrya Māhātmya of the Mārkeṇḍeya Purāṇa, as well as a preview of his upcoming online course, YS 112 | Yoga and Hindu Mythology.

Speaker Bio

Raj Balkaran is a scholar of Hindu mythology and author of The Goddess and the King in Indian Myth (2018) and The Goddess and the Sun in Indian Myth (2020), both published as part of Routledge’s Hindu Studies Series. He holds advanced degrees in Hinduism from the University of Toronto and University of Calgary.

Alongside his academic training, Dr. Balkaran apprenticed with an Indian master for twelve years as part of a living oral tradition dedicated to the preservation and application of Hindu philosophy. He therefore brings hundreds of hours of traditional transmissions of yoga philosophy to the table, which he dovetails with academic rigor and captivating storytelling.

A seasoned online educator, Dr. Balkaran also teaches online courses privately and at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. Beyond teaching and research, he enjoys a thriving life consulting practice and hosts the New Books in Hindu Studies Podcast.

Links

• https://rajbalkaran.com/
• https://ochs.academia.edu/RajBalkaran
• YS 112 | Yoga and Hindu Mythology

In this episode, we speak with Ruth Westoby (PhD Candidate, SOAS) about her background in Ashtanga, her doctoral research on women and gender in the history of yoga, female practitioners of Haṭha yoga and asceticism, frameworks for understanding the yogic body, rajas and bindu, as well as a preview of her upcoming online course, YS 111 | Women and Yoga: A History of Female Practitioners.

Speaker Bio

Ruth Westoby is a doctoral candidate at SOAS, University of London, researching for a doctoral thesis on the yogic body in premodern Sanskrit texts on haṭhayoga, under the supervision of Dr. James Mallinson. 

As well as offering workshops and lectures at studios and conferences, Ruth teaches on some of the principal teacher training programmes in the UK and beyond. She facilitates Yogacampus’ online History of Yoga course and serves on the steering committee for the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies.

Ruth is also a longtime Ashtanga practitioner. She began to explore yoga practices in 1996 and started teaching postural yoga in 2004. In 2010 she received an MA in Indian Religions from SOAS with Distinction. In 2016-17 Ruth collaborated with the Haṭha Yoga Project’s ‘embodied philology’, interpreting postures from the 18th-century Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati, an important textual precursor of modern yoga. The film has been showed as part of the Haṭha Yoga Project’s Embodied Liberation exhibition in 2020.

Links

• https://soas.academia.edu/RuthWestoby 
• http://www.enigmatic.yoga
• YS 111 | Women and Yoga: A History of Female Practitioners

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Philipp Maas about his pioneering textual research on the Yogaśāstra of Patañjali and its commentarial tradition, the authorship and dating of the Yogasūtra and its commentary the Bhāṣya, the surviving Sanskrit manuscripts of the PYŚ, the relationship between Sāṅkhya and Yoga, the nature of Īśvara for Patañjali, Maas' critical edition on the PYŚ, and more. 

Speaker Bio

Philipp Maas is a research associate at the Institute for Indology and Central Asian Studies, University of Leipzig in Germany, where he is currently working on a digital critical edition of the Nyāyabhāṣya, a Sanskrit work on spiritual liberation through proper reasoning. Previously he had served as an assistant professor and postdoc researcher at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the University of Bonn Germany. He received his M.A. (1997) and Dr. phil. (2004) degrees from the University of Bonn, where he had completed studies in Indology, Comparative Religious Studies, Tibetology and Philosophy.

His first book (originally his PhD thesis) is the first critical edition of the first chapter (Samādhipāda) of the Pātañjala Yogaśāstra, i.e. the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali together with the commentary called Yoga Bhāṣya. He has published extensively on classical Yoga philosophy and meditation, Yoga and Āyurveda, the relationship of Pātañjalayoga to Buddhism as well as on the textual tradition of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra. He is a member of the “Historical Sourcebooks on Classical Indian Thought” project, convened by Prof. Sheldon Pollock, to which he contributes with a monograph on the development of Yoga-related ideas in pre-modern South Asian intellectual history.  

Links

• https://uni-leipzig.academia.edu/PhilippMaas 
• "Pātañjalayogaśāstra" (Brill Encyclopedia Entry, 2020)
• "A Concise Historiography of Classical Yoga Philosophy" (2013)

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Ian Baker about his many journeys into Tibet and Tantric Buddhism, the power of hidden lands (beyul), isolated mountain retreats, Tibetan physical yogas (trulkhor), receiving guidance from H.H. the Dalai Lama, the nature of secrecy and esoteric teachings, and a preview of the upcoming online course, YS 110 | Tibetan Yoga.

Speaker Bio

Ian Baker is the author of several books on Himalayan and Tibetan religion and culture, including Tibetan Yoga: Principles and Practices, The Dalai Lamas Secret Temple: Tantric Wall Paintings from Tibet, and The Heart of the World: A Journey to Tibet’s Lost Paradise.

He received a Masters degree in English Literature from the University of Oxford, pursued further graduate studies in Buddhism and Medical Anthropology at Columbia University and University College London, and recently completed his doctorate in Medical Humanities at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. 

He was lead curator for the 2015-16 London exhibition, ‘Tibet’s Secret Temple: Body, Mind and Meditation in Tantric Buddhism’ and was recognized by National Geographic Society as one of seven ‘Explorers for the Millennium’ for his fieldwork illuminating the Tibetan tradition of ‘hidden lands’ (beyul), idealized sites of yogic practice. His current research focuses on the contemporary interface of Indo-Tibetan yoga with art and science.

Links

• YS 110 | Tibetan Yoga: Histories, Practices, Transformations
• Tibetan Yoga: Principles and Practices (2019, Inner Traditions)
• https://independent.academia.edu/BakerIan
• https://ianbakerjourneys.wordpress.com/about/

Note: We apologize for the lesser audio quality of this episode. We experienced some technical audio difficulties while recording. 

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Jason Birch (SOAS, University of London) about his early training in yoga and Indology, the early 2000s yoga scene in Rishikesh, Sanskrit manuscript hunting in India, his Oxford thesis on the Amanaska, Rāja Yoga traditions, the history of āsana, the significance of the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati, Krishnamacharya and the legendary "Yoga Koruṇṭa", embodied philology, and more.

Speaker Bio

Jason Birch is a post-doctoral researcher fellow at SOAS, University of London. After completing a first class honours degree in Sanskrit and Hindi at the University of Sydney under Dr. Peter Oldmeadow, Jason was awarded a Clarendon scholarship to undertake a DPhil in Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, under the supervision of Prof. Alexis Sanderson. His dissertation (submitted 2013) focused on the earliest known Rājayoga text called the Amanaska and included a critical edition and annotated translation of this Sanskrit work along with a monographic introduction.

He is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at SOAS working on the Haṭha Yoga Project, a 5-year ERC funded project which is now in the final year of completion. His particular area of research for the project is the history of physical yoga on the eve of colonialism. Jason is currently editing and translating six principle texts on Haṭha and Rājayoga, which will soon be available for publication. 

He also collaborates with Jacqueline Hargreaves on The Luminescent, an online hub for sharing yoga research. 

Links

• The Proliferation of Āsana-s in Late-Mediaeval Yoga Texts (Birch 2018)
• The Yoga of the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati: Haṭhayoga on the Cusp of Modernity (Birch & Singleton 2019)
• http://hyp.soas.ac.uk/
• https://soas.academia.edu/jasonbirch
• https://www.theluminescent.org

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Sravana Borkataky-Varma about her experience growing up in India, receiving initiation into a Śākta tantra lineage at Kāmākhya, discovering Religious Studies and the academic path, her doctoral research, the role of female practitioners, tantric sexual rites, being censored by Facebook, online pūjā services, and much more. 

Speaker Bio

Sravana Borkataky-Varma is a historian, educator, and social entrepreneur—who holds a PhD in Religions from Rice University. As a historian, she studies Indian religions focusing on esoteric rituals and gender, particularly in Hinduism (Śākta Tantra). As an educator, she is currently working as a Lecturer at Harvard University and at University of North Carolina-Wilmington, where she teaches introductory courses on World Religions and higher-level courses on Hinduism, Buddhism, Religion and Film, and the History of Yoga.

In the past she has taught at the University of Houston, University of Montana, Rice University and DaLian Neusoft University, China. In a previous non-academic avatar, Sravana worked in customer service, in the financial and IT industry. As a social entrepreneur, she is the co-founder of a non-profit called Lumen Tree Portal.  Sravana invests in building communities with individuals from various faith-backgrounds who believe in kindness, compassion, and fulfillment. 

Links

• YS 106 | Śākta Tantra: Yoga and Hindu Goddess Traditions
• https://uh.academia.edu/SravanaBorkatakyVarma
• https://www.lumentree.org