Whole Life Yoga Podcast

James Boag

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EDUCATION
UPDATED WEEKLY

Bringing the ancient, timeless, perennial teachings of yoga to vivid life. Unscripted talks on whole life yoga. Considering life through a yogic lens. Exploring the yoga of the whole human being with reference to the classic Sanskṛt texts of the yoga tradition, mythology, poetry, literature and music, and to movement, meditation, kīrtan and the yoga of sound and song, language and communciation. www.jamesboagyoga.com

5D AGO

Dante, the Gītā and waking up in the dark wood

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai in una selva oscura perchè la dritta via mi era smarrità In the middle of the journey of our life, having lost my way - not seeing the clear way forward, in a dark forest, I came to myself... So begins Dante's Inferno, in a way that bears a striking resemblance to the beginning of the Bhagavad Gītā - in which the protagonist, Arjuna comes to realise the ways he has relied on up to that point are no longer adequate for the challenge he now finds himself in front of... Yoga reminds us that challenges are often great opportunities, as we learn to find our way through the dark wood, we fathom more of the light of our deeper resources and capacities... NEW ONLINE COURSE on the Bhagavad Gītā starts Monday 23rd February 2026. Twelve weekly sessions of 90 minutes, Mondays in English. Wednesdays in French 18:30-20:00 Switzerland timezone. It's also possible to participate even if you are unable to join the live sessions. All participants have access to all recordings and can attend in either or both languages. The course also includes 5+ hours of video with the background story of the Mahābhārata and along the way participants will also receive notes and questions for reflection. We'll work direct from the original Sanskṛt verses and consider the text as a whole with particular emphasis on its practical application in our lives now. Sign up here: https://jamesboagyoga.thinkific.com/courses/BG26 Read more here:https://jamesboagyoga.com/bg26/

14 min
FEB 17

A different story of a new world order

Centralised control and domination? That's an outdated story. Past its use by date. Thinking we are smarter than Life? No, that story of hubris never sustains. The new world is one of deeper harmony and cooperation, in which we remember our innate capacity to collaborate with all of life. NEW ONLINE COURSE on the Bhagavad Gītā starts next Monday 23rd February. One of the key teachings in the Gītā is how we can enact our dharma to support lokasaṅgraha - the wellbeing of the whole. How we can express our gifts in such a way that it supports the cohesion and harmony if all of life. The course will run for twelve weeks starting 23rd February 2026. Mondays in English. Wednesdays in French 18:30-20:00 Switzerland timezone. It's also possible to participate even if you are unable to join the live sessions. All participants have access to all recordings and you can attend in either or both languages. The course also includes 5+ hours of video with the background story of the Mahābhārata and along the way participants will also receive notes and questions for reflection. We'll work direct from the original Sanskṛt verses and consider the text as a whole with particular emphasis on it's practical application in our lives now. Sign up here: https://jamesboagyoga.thinkific.com/courses/BG26 Read more here:https://jamesboagyoga.com/bg26/ Read the article version of this podcast here: https://jamesboagyoga.com/blog-articles/a-different-story-of-a-new-world-order/

16 min
JAN 12

The Bhagavad Gītā - on the courage to SLOW DOWN and fight corruption

The battlefield setting of the Bhagavad Gītā coming in the midst of a vast epic centred around a war of powerful men fighting amongst themselves sometimes puts people off. However, disregarding the Gītā's extraordinarily pragmatic teachings because we object to the setting is a tragic case of throwing baby out with bathwater. Besides, have you not sometimes fought against yourself? Experienced yourself behaving in ways that are inimical to your higher good? Really, the Gītā is set in the thick of life, the battlefield is that of our own psyche. To 'fight' in the yogic sense, means to muster the courage to face ourselves and wrestle with the great challenges and beautiful opportunities that are intrinsic to human experience. In a world that can seem like it is spinning out of control, the time-proven teachings of yoga can give us so much practical support. However, as James emphasises in this episode, just to engage with them is an act of courage. It means SLOWING DOWN: so we can look in ways that reach beyond our habitual modes of conditioned perception, so we can listen with more of the whole of our being and access the vaster intelligence of life that we are part of. And James invites us to SLOW DOWN and join him in regular in-depth study of the Gītā's practical wisdom in the spring 2026 online Gītā satsang course: Read more about it here: https://jamesboagyoga.com/bg26/ Sign up here: https://jamesboagyoga.thinkific.com/courses/BG26 As well as referencing verse 2.9, in this episode James also gives some interpretation of verses 2.14-15 of the Gītā: mātrāsparśāstu kaunteya śītoṣṇasukhaduḥkhadāḥ | āgamāpāyino’nityāḥ tāṁstitikṣasva bhārata || 2.14 || yam hi na vyathayantyete puruṣaṁ puruṣarṣabha | samaduḥkhasukhaṁ dhīraṁ so'mṛtatvāya kalpate || 2.15 ||

28 min
JAN 10

Gaṇeśa - more than the remover of obstacles

Gaṇeśa, famed as the ‘remover of obstacles’ is so much more! Along with Śiva, Śakti/Mā/Mother Divine, Viṣṇu/Nārāyaṇa, Skanda/Subrahmaṇya/Kārtikeya/Murugan and Sūrya/Sun, Gaṇeśa is one of the six foremost ways of representing that which is beyond representation, totality/the source/ultimate reality in the Indic tradition. Literally Gaṇeśa or Gaṇapati is the Lord/leader/the one who can bring together, reconcile and integrate all the gaṇa-s - all the members, all the parts, all the units. As such Gaṇeśa is a potent symbol of the integrated, joined up state of yoga and the process of reconciliation, forgiveness and expansion of understanding that is the practice of yoga. In this episode James shares in response to a student expressing frustration at only being able to find Gaṇeśa described as ‘the remover of obstacles’ when she was trying to find out more about mantra-s to Gaṇeśa online. Here, James speaks briefly about some of the import of the mantra-s: Oṁ gaṁ gaṇapataye namaḥ And: Vakratuṇḍa mahākāya sūryakoṭi samaprabha Nirvighnam kuru me deva sarva kāryeṣu sarvadā Beginning to paint a more nuanced picture of the vast richness of Gaṇeśa. … Coming soon: Whole Life Yoga on demand online course: It all begins with Gaṇeśa - Recitation, movement, storytelling and interpretation Sign up now for Spring 2026 online satsang course on the Bhagavad Gītā: https://jamesboagyoga.com/bg26

30 min
12/03/2025

Hanuman's adventures in Laṅka

The Rāmāyaṇa is one of the most treasured stories in the history of humanity. It was my privilege to soak in the teachings of this great epic of the yoga tradition during an autumn 2025 online course. This was also part of a yoga education program at ashtangayogavevey. During the 12 hour course, we explored the extraordinarily rich story of Rāmāyaṇa and gave speical attention to some key episodes, including Hanuman’s traversing the ocean to Lanka and in the example shared in this episode, Hanuman’s adventures in Lanka. Next semester, spring 2026 from late February until early June, I’ll be giving the culminating course of this education program which will be on the Bhagavad Gītā and you are welcome to join. ENROL HERE: https://jamesboagyoga.thinkific.com/courses/BG26 READ MORE about the course here: https://jamesboagyoga.com/bg26/ The course will run in English on Mondays and French on Wednesdays 18:30-20:00 Switzerland time. All participants receive all sessions recordings and notes and will have access to all course resources for at least a full calendar year after the course culminates in June 2026. This podcast episode features session seven from the recent Rāmāyaṇa course. In the previous session we had considered Hanuman’s great feat of crossing the ocean to Laṅka. In this session, Hanuman continues to gloriously, charmingly and meaningfully take centre stage as he continues his mission, with so much rich practical teaching along the way.

1h 36m
08/28/2025

Šuka interviews James - on yogic movement

Ahead of the October 17-19 weekend workshop, Moving with Integrity - A Yogic Perspective for the Dance of Life, facilitators Šuka and James sat down to discuss the motivations and perspectives behind their distinct and complementary work. Here Šuka asks James about how his approach to yoga and yogic education is perhaps different from what many people might experience in 'yoga classes', about his journey as student of yoga and Sanskrit and the principles that underpin his teachings. You can also watch James interviewing Šuka here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9ptBC71TZs&t=49s Read more about the 17-19 October workshop here: https://jamesboagyoga.com/leipzigmovingwithintegrity/ And sigh up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12HvPXuAC67RbtGHcog1AwHH_L0cInVHAp6sq8G-ApOk/viewform?edit_requested=true

1h 10m
08/27/2025

Šuka Horn - Moving with Integrity in the Dance of Life

Ahead of this October's Moving with Integrity Weekend Workshop in Leipzig, Šuka and I sat down to share a little about our perspectives and approach to work. Šuka is a movement educator, who has integrated his passions for movement and music in the exploration and discipline of dance. A former professional dancer, Šuka now devotes himself to sharing and teaching his ongoing research into movement as a means to more richly experience what it means to be alive. Šuka's dance career began when he started practicing breakdance at the age of twelve in his hometown in Germany. Having had a strong fascination for music and sports from an early age, dancing offered him a way to combine these two passions and he started to dedicate his time and energy in developing a dance practice with a group of friends. Soon Šuka’s curiosity led him to explore a variety of movement styles and he went to study at Codarts Rotterdam to turn dancing into his profession. Since then, Šuka has danced professionally in international productions including with 18 Monkeys Dance Theatre in Bangkok, choreographed by Jitti Chompee and more recently with Dimitri Papaioannous. Having experienced what all his contemporaries at dance school were aiming for and performed at the top level touring internationally, Šuka realised more and more that it was actually teaching, working both with others steeped in the craft and with the general public that he found greater joy and satisfaction. These days, Šuka gives regular teachings where he lives in Germany as well as being a regular guest teacher at several dance festivals and extended workshops around the world. October 17-19, James and Šuka will offer a weekend together in Leipzig, Moving with Integrity: A Yogic Perspective for the Dance of Life: Read more here: https://jamesboagyoga.com/leipzigmovingwithintegrity/ Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12HvPXuAC67RbtGHcog1AwHH_L0cInVHAp6sq8G-ApOk/viewform?edit_requested=true

41 min
08/21/2025

I am not ONLY this body

I am not ONLY this body In certain circles, one sometimes hears repeated pronouncements like ‘I am not this body’, ‘I am not this mind’, ‘I am not this ego’. These phrases are often derived from much more precise teachings encoded in the Sanskrit language. Phrases like ‘I am not this body’ can be useful in helping us to open up or reconsider our perspetive, but they can also be misinterpreted. Here I share ideas to suggest that it may be more useful to consider the teaching more like, ‘I am not ONLY this body’. The teachings of yoga ultimately aim to integrate and unify our understanding of ourselves - I, of the other - you, and of everything between and beyond - that! Otherwise stated, yoga which means amongst other things ‘to connect’ or ‘integrate’, means to disconnect us from our attachment to limited ideas and false beliefs so we may connect to the greater wholeness and vastness that we are really part of. But this does not mean ignoring, suppressing or repressing the body! The body is our faithful, most intimate companion. It is endowed with so much intelligence. It too is part of THAT - that intelligence which animates the all! When we savour, appreciate and harness the gifts of embodied consciousness, we can refine our understanding of ourselves and existence. It is not that we want to obsess with the body or become a slave to its whims and fancies. However, if we inhabit it with gratitude and cherish its gifts, we may come to recognise the perspective that as well as a heap of matter bound to decay, the body is also a miraculous divine vehicle and our means to recognise our deeper, subtler essence, here and now. To read more about and sign up for the autumn 2025 online course on Living Rāmāyaṇa, use this link: https://jamesboagyoga.com/ramayana2025/

21 min

Bringing the ancient, timeless, perennial teachings of yoga to vivid life. Unscripted talks on whole life yoga. Considering life through a yogic lens. Exploring the yoga of the whole human being with reference to the classic Sanskṛt texts of the yoga tradition, mythology, poetry, literature and music, and to movement, meditation, kīrtan and the yoga of sound and song, language and communciation. www.jamesboagyoga.com

Creator

James Boag
Years Active

2023 - 2026
Episodes

35
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 Whole Life Yoga Podcast
Show Website

Whole Life Yoga Podcast