As practitioners of yoga we are usually quite sure what yoga is and why we do it. But across time, place, language and culture – what was yoga? And what do we imagine yoga will be? Does past and future collide in the present of our practice, and should we pay attention?
Join Ruth Westoby for a short talk and discussion of what is, and was, yoga. See whether she can persuade you that historicising and philosophising could be a practice of yoga. Ruth will define yoga, offer a timeline of yogas, and attempt to integrate contemporary and classical critical theories.
The format is a live Zoom seminar in which you can ask questions and offer reflections. Ruth will provide further study resources to participants.
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.