“O Death, not with wealth can you make a person content; Will we get to keep such treasures when we come to see you? And we only get to live as long as you allow! So this wish for immortality is the only boon that I will have.”

-  Nachiketas Katha Upanishad
(5th century BC)."

PART I : 3000 B.C. to 100 B.C.

KINDLING
THE HEART FIRE

The Vedic Origins of Yoga Vinyasa

WEEK 1:
Embodying the Cosmos:
The Mandala of Sacred Architecture in the Ancient World

• An introductory meditation into the integrity of the word 'Vinyasa' and its fundamental role within the Embodied  Ritual of Yoga, and the central place of vinyasa within the  Evolution of Human Embodiment.
  
  

 

WEEK 2:
Harmonizing with the Divine:
The Ritual Vinyasa of the Vedas

• Macrocosm and Microcosm: our eternal ‘connection’ (Yoga) to the gods
• The Song of the Goddess: The transformative Power of Mantra in Vedic Ritual
• Beyond the Gods: the Search for the Universal ‘Self’ (Purusha) in the late Vedas
• Keshins (‘Long-haired Ones’) and Tapasvins (‘Heat Embodiers’)
  – the Story of the Earliest Yoginis
  
  
  
  

WEEK 3:
The Internalizing of Vedic Ritual
and the rise of Yoga Vinyāsa
(ca. 1200-800 BC)

• The Secret Teachings of the Inner Ritual (Agni-Rahasya), by Sage Shandeelya
• Attuning to the Embodied Self of the Universe (Purusha), by Sage Shandeelya
• Embodying the Cosmos: the ‘Secret Fire’ Ritual (Agni-Rahasya)
• 'The Sandhya Ritual.’ Case Study on the Origins of Hatha Yoga Vinyasa

 

WEEK 4:
Upanishads:
The Rise of Yoga and the Internalized Ritual of Self-Discovery

• A Universal ‘Self’ (Purusha)
  The radically non-dualist philosophy of the Upanishads
• ‘You are That!’
   The Search for the Universal ‘Self’ (Purusha) Within
• Kindling the Heart Fire
  The Microcosmic temple of the Human Body
• AUM: Attuning to the Song of the Soul
• The earliest ‘limbs’ (angas) of Yoga practice revealed

 

 

 

WEEK 5:
Katha Upanishad:
The Source Teaching of the Yoga Tradition

• The first Yogī:
  How the boy Nachiketas defeated the god of ‘Death’ (Yama)
• The Path of Yoga:
  Death as the first Yoga Teacher
• The ‘limbs’ (angas) of Yoga:
  Foundations of Yoga Vinyāsa
• The power of ‘AUṂ’ engaged in Yoga practice
  
  
  
  
  
  

WEEK 6:
The Heart Sūtra of Mahāyāna Buddhism:
A Vinyāsa for Liberating Awareness

• GATE GATE PARAGATE, PARA-SAMGATE, BODHI SVAHA!
• How our Mind creates and perpetuates Suffering
• The Experience of Yoga (‘Union’) as the end of Duality
• ‘One who Experiences Awakening’– the Bodhisattva within all Beings
• How the ‘Perfection of Wisdom School’ informs the Yogasūtra

 

 

 

 

All live calls are on Wednesdays at 6 pm Pacific / 9 pm Eastern

OCTOBER 29th - JANUARY 1st