Explore the history of yoga from ancient traces to modern manifestations in these three exploratory workshops.
Through chanting, lectures, discussion and contemplation, we inquire into the historical framework of practitioners and movements. Over three weeks, we will look at the ideas and texts that have evolved into the contemporary yoga we practice today.
Session 1 will offer a timeline and thematic overview, before exploring the ideas that underpin Indian thought, and yoga:
Session 2 will present yoga in the classical period:
And session 3 explores how yoga develops through Tantra and haṭhayoga before morphing into transnational modern yoga.
The lecture sections of the workshops will be accompanied with rich visual images. Whilst there will be sitting practices there will be no postural practice. No prior experience or knowledge is required, just a burning curiosity to learn!
No preparation is required. Textual extracts will be provided to accompany the sessions. If you would like to get a copy of James Mallinson and Mark Singleton’s Roots of Yoga, published by Penguin in 2017 this is an extremely useful text for exploring the history and ideas of yoga.
The eleventh century Amṛtasiddhi teaches, for the first time, bodily practices that become central to haṭha yoga. The startling teachings are explained systematically, in terms of the nature of the body, the practices, and the results of the practice in this tantric Buddhist source text. In this course we will read the Sanskrit and discuss in English the section on ‘the body’ as set out in the first four chapters of the Amṛtasiddhi. The course comprises four online sessions and one in-person workshop in London.