34. Thought as medicine in yoga, with Doug Keller The Weeks Well

I decided to keep going with Doug Keller, whose first talk continues to be one of our most popular episodes. We did a minor review of his first talk, which was as dense and captivating as this one. Then, Doug explored what became a set of expanded precepts whose inclusion into modern practice could, in my opinion, change the game. These are 20 yamas (restraints) and niyamas (observances), rather than the 10 that nearly every yoga teacher at least touches on in a teacher training. Doug points to the Natha Yogis, who in the 9th-10th centuries carried on with these behavioral suggestions for living a good life and, in doing so, embraced the tradition in yoga of practicing, experimenting, sitting with those experiments, and practicing some more. I think it's time in modern yoga to consider some grounded experimentation and reflection as Doug and I explored here. We got into politics, social issues, and all kinds of other aspects that I hope delight you as much as the last episode did.

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Terms:

1. Prakriti: the Nature

2. Upanishads: Hindu religious texts in Sanskrit that make up the Vedas

3. Mahavira: founder of Jain spiritual system

4. Vedas: the most ancient Hindu scriptures, written in Sanskrit

5. Mahabharata: a Sanskrit epic poem, which includes the Bhagavad Gita

6. Pada: portion

7. Kleshas: obstacles; the kleshas are considered the cause of suffering and are to be actively overcome

8. Henry Thomas Colebrooke: a Sanskrit scholar and orientalist

9. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: a German philosopher who is considered one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy

10. Ralph Waldo Emerson: an American writer and philosopher who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century

11. Henry David Thoreau: an American wrier and philosopher who was a leading transcendentalist

12. Neo-Vedanta: also called Hindu modernism, the Hinduism that developed in the 19th century

13. Swami Vivekananda: the first Hindu teacher to arrive in New England and taught Vedanta

14. Chakras: seven wheels of energy in the body located from the base of the spine to the crown of the head

15. Hatha Yoga Pradipika: a 15th-century Sanskrit text on hatha yoga

16. Western Esotericism: combines spirituality with an observation of the natural world while also relating humanity to the universe

17. Samadhi: contemplation; the final limb of the eight limbs of yoga

18. Jivanmukta: someone who has gained complete self-knowledge and self-realization and has attained liberation

19. Dharma: one's duty

20. Kama: pleasure, enjoyment, desire

21. Kaivalya: a state of liberation reached by realizing that one's consciousness is separate from Nature (prakrti)

22. Natha Yoga: a variation of Tantric yoga; melded principles from yoga, Buddhism and the Shaivism branch of Hinduism

23. Bindhu: a point, drop, or dot

24. Purusha: the divine Self which abides in all beings

25. Muktananda: the founder of Siddha Yoga

26. René Descartes: a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

27. Tantra: a type of yoga using yantra (a sacred geometrical figure) and mantra (a sound formula) to experience the union of the masculine and feminine within the individual

28. Mukti: spiritual liberation

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References:

1. ⁠⁠Doug Keller⁠

2. ⁠⁠J-aim⁠⁠

3. ⁠⁠Christopher Key Chapple⁠⁠

4. ⁠⁠Raja Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda⁠⁠

5. ⁠⁠The Weeks Well episode with Seane Corn⁠⁠

6. ⁠⁠Doug Keller's guide to the yamas and niyamas⁠⁠

7. ⁠⁠The Weeks Well episode with Eddie Stern⁠⁠

8. ⁠⁠The Weeks Well first episode with Doug Keller⁠

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Episode credits:

Original music by Kim's band Governess.

Produced by Alyssa Yeroshefsky and Kim Weeks.

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the Weeks Well newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and to our latest regular content community, ⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠. For more info on Kim Weeks, visit www.weekswell.com.

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