In this episode we speak with Zoë Slatoff about her background as an Ashtanga Yoga practitioner and teacher turned academic and Sanskrit professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. We discuss how her experiences within the Ashtanga Yoga community led her to the study of Sanskrit, and the eventual writing of her textbook called Yogāvatāraṇam. She details how her love for the study of yoga, Sanskrit, and philosophy led to her pursuing a PhD on the Aparokṣānubhūti, or "Direct Awareness of the Self." We discuss the history of the Aparokṣānubhūti, whether or not it is actually written by the great Advaita Vedānta philosopher Śaṅkara, the differences between the dualism of Sāṅkhya-Yoga and the non-dualism of Advaita Vedānta, how Vedānta views yoga philosophy and practice, and more. We conclude by previewing Zoë's upcoming online course, YS 215 | Yoga and Vedānta: The Aparokṣānubhūti.

Speaker Bio

Zoë Slatoff has a Ph.D. in Religion and Philosophy from Lancaster University in the U.K. and an M.A. and B.A. in Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University. She is the Clinical Professor of Sanskrit at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where she teaches Sanskrit and Yoga Philosophy courses in the Yoga Studies M.A. program, as well as undergraduate courses through the Theology department. Her Ph.D. dissertation—which she is working on turning into a book—was an exploration of the intersection of Yoga and Advaita over time, centering around a translation of the Aparokṣānubhūti and its commentaries. Zoë is also the author of Yogāvatāraṇam: The Translation of Yoga, a Sanskrit textbook based on classic yoga texts, which integrates traditional and academic methods of learning, from which she teaches.

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