CHITHEADS with Jacob Kyle (Embodied Philosophy)

Marcy Braverman Goldstein, Ph.D., began teaching Sanskrit and the history and philosophies of yoga in the 1990s. To design her courses, she draws from her academic training and 20 years of yoga practice. At UNC Charlotte she teaches “Yoga Through the Ages.” Since creating Sanskrit Revolution, Marcy has taught at more than three dozen studios, teacher training programs, conferences, and festivals nationally. Her passion is to help people discover the history and fascinating linguistic foundation of yoga. In this episode of the Tarka Journal Podcast republished on the Chitheads Podcast, Stephanie and Jacob speak to colleague and friend, Marcy Braverman Goldstein about an article she wrote for the Scholar-Practitioner Issue of Tarka, titled "Is Academia (Like) a Religion?" GET ARTICLE HERE: https://www.embodiedphilosophy.com/is-academia-like-a-religion/ In this episode, we discuss: Marcy’s view of the scholar-practitioner and how it has informed her approach to research and teaching. Defining emic and the etic and balancing the insider vs. outsider perspectives. The path of the seeker. The study of Sanskrit as a practice. Identifying the dimensions of religion found in academia. Parallels between academia and the religious quest. Challenging the ideological conformity of modern academia and encouraging new spaces of intellectual activity outside the modern university. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Jacob shares four trailers from free mini-trainings we've recently released on the Divine Feminine, Buddhist Meditation, the 4 Yogas, and Shamanic Healing Techniques – all of which can be found on Sādhaka, one of our new podcast series. In addition, the episode ends with a guided meditation on Nondual Tonglen with our dear friend Shambhavi Sarasvati. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anya Foxen is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on the intersection of South Asian yogic and tantric traditions and Western esotericism and metaphysical spiritualities. Her current writing examines the transnational evolution and popularization of yoga in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is also a yoga teacher and long-time practitioner. In this episode, we discuss: Western roots of modern yoga. Connecting the dots between modern western postural yoga and it’s Indian roots. Defining harmonialism. Key concepts in the Hellenic tradition as precursors to the harmonial ideas that we find in modern postural spiritualities. Theurgy, a powerful parallel to the Indian Traditions. Confronting issues of cultural appropriation. Viewing the fundamental narrative of Western yoga as a historical conversation. Website: https://www.anyafoxen.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/profanyechka/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anyafoxenSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Diane Dreher, Ph.D., is a bestselling author, researcher, and positive psychology coach. Her books, The Tao of Inner Peace, The Tao of Personal Leadership, The Tao of Womanhood, Inner Gardening, and Your Personal Renaissance, have been translated into ten languages and her work has been featured in media outlets including USA Today, Entrepreneur, Redbook, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Science of Mind, radio and TV talk shows, and websites on leadership and personal growth.  Dreher has a Ph.D. in Renaissance English literature from UCLA as well as a Master’s Degree in Counseling. She is a HeartMath clinical practitioner and a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation. Her research on positive psychology and hope has been published online and in academic books and journals. She is currently professor emerita and associate director of the Applied Spirituality Institute at Santa Clara University and a lecturer in the Positive Psychology Guild in the United Kingdom. In this episode, we discuss: The fundamental principles of Taoism. Nature and the wisdom of the Tao within and around us. Watching and waiting, the radical act of Wu Wei. Religious Taoism and Taoism as a philosophy. Spiritual practices of the Tao, cultivating the balance of Tao in daily life. The Tao of now, Taoist Politics and conflict resolution. Reducing stress and anxiety with the Tao. Read an excerpt from THE TAO OF INNER PEACE by Diane Dreher: Beginning the Journey: Tao Te ChingSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gavin Flood is the Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion at Oxford University, and Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall. He is a Fellow of the British Academy. Gavin read Religious Studies and Social Anthropology at Lancaster University and taught at the universities of Wales (Lampeter) and Stirling before coming to Oxford in 2005. His research interests are in medieval Hindu texts (especially from the traditions of Shiva), comparative religion, and phenomenology. Recent books are Religion and the Philosophy of Life (Oxford University Press, 2019); Hindu Monotheism (Cambridge University Press, 2021); and The Truth Within, a History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2013). He is interested in Tantric Knowledge and is currently working on an edition and translation of a Sanskrit text called the Netra Tantra and a book, A Phenomenology of Holiness. He is general series editor of the Oxford History of Hinduism. In this episode, we discuss: How to approach Hinduism as both a monotheism and polytheism. Unpacking the distinction between monotheism, monism, and emanationism. How one extracts an ethical perspective from Śaivism. Why philology has received a bad reputation and how we might reconsider it. Hinduism as an orthopraxy rather than an orthodoxy. The theological significance of Śaiva-Śākta and the 13 Kālīs. Śaiva-Śākta Meditation as expanded awareness. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1993, Theologian and activist Matthew Fox, Ph.D., was expelled from the Dominican Order of the Catholic church after 34 years, by Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI). His mistake was reviving Creation Spirituality, which decries original sin (the doctrine that we’re all born sinners) in favor of Everyone Born is a Blessing (seeing all creation as divine). Creation Spirituality blends teachings from the Christian mystics with science, the arts, social justice, environmentalism, and ideas from other spiritual traditions worldwide (including those of indigenous cultures). Wasting no time, Fox became an Episcopal priest the year following his ouster. His upcoming book, Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality will be released on March 23, 2022. In this episode, we discuss: The Four Paths of Creation Spirituality. Reinventing forms of worship. The Cosmic Christ. The distinction between sin and evil. Matthew’s approach to a feminist theology. Applying the 7 capital “sins” to the chakras. Recovery of the sacred to save the planet. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jacoby Ballard is a social justice educator and yoga teacher who leads workshops and trainings around the country on diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a yoga teacher with 20 years of experience, he leads workshops, retreats, teacher trainings, teaches at conferences, and runs the Resonance mentorship program for certified yoga teachers to find their niche and calling. In 2008, Jacoby co-founded Third Root Community Health Center in Brooklyn, to work at the nexus of healing and social justice. Since 2006, Jacoby has taught Queer and Trans Yoga, a space for queer folks to unfurl and cultivate resilience, and received Yoga Journal's Game Changer Award in 2014 and Good Karma Award in 2016. Jacoby has taught in schools, hospitals, non-profit and business offices, a maximum-security prison, a recovery center, a cancer center, LGBT centers, gyms, a veteran’s center, and yoga studios. Jacoby's book A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation offers a distinctly queer lens on yoga and meditation. He lives with his partner, child, and innumerable plant friends on unceded Goshute, Ute, Paiute, and Shoshone land, now known as Salt Lake City, Utah. More at jacobyballard.net. In this episode, we discuss: What “queer dharma” means.  Working at the intersection of anti-oppression work and dharma practice. Skillful attempts at social justice work that include healing and inner work. The role of anger in anti-oppression and social justice work. Differentiating apology versus forgiveness. Discovering common ground by sitting in silence together. What some of the unique needs are for queer and trans people in yoga spaces. Liberatory models of yoga discussed in the episode:  Holistic Life Foundation Yoga for 12 Step Recovery East Bay Meditation Center See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode of the Chitheads podcast is actually the first episode of a new podcast we’re releasing as a part of the new Embodied Podcasts Network – the Tarka Journal Podcast. So as some of you know, embodied philosophy publishes a quarterly journal called Tarka in print and digital, and Stephanie, the Editor in Chief of Tarka and I wanted a space where we could have conversations about the the topics we’re exploring in the journal. In this episode we talk about the inspiration behind Tarka and how it got started and where it's going. And if you decide to subscribe to the Tarka Journal Podcast, which you can do now, then in future episodes we’ll be joined by colleagues, fellow faculty of Embodied Philosophy and we’ll discuss the ideas in particular articles from Tarka. We’ll also explore some of the current debates, issues and perspectives in the fields of contemplative studies, dharma studies, as they relate to the experience of the scholar-practitioner. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rev. Dr. Michelle Voss Roberts is professor of theology and past principal at Emmanuel College, a multireligious theological school in the Toronto School of Theology and University of Toronto. She is a comparative theologian who works in Christian and Hindu traditions, as well as an ordained minister in relation to the United Church of Canada and the United Church of Christ. Her teaching and research invite others to imagine themselves in relation to diverse religious worlds, in which particularities of embodiment—such as gender, gender identity, and sexuality, racialization, dis/ability, and culture—matter. Dr. Voss Roberts’ book-length works in comparative theology include Dualities: A Theology of Difference (Westminster John Knox, 2010), which centers medieval women theologians; and Tastes of the Divine: Hindu and Christian Theologies of Emotion (Fordham University Press, 2014), an exploration of rasa theory and theological aesthetics, which received the Award for Excellence from the American Academy of Religion. More recently, Body Parts: A Theological Anthropology (Fortress Press, 2017) reimagines the Christian teaching that human beings are created in the image of God through the prism of the tattvas in nondual Saiva thought. Voss Roberts is also the editor of a volume that brings interreligious comparison to the introductory study of theology, Comparative Theology: Insights for Systematic Theological Reflection (Fordham University Press, 2016), as well as the Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations, which was published last year. In this episode, we discuss: Finding liberation within tradition. What it’s like to be a Christian Theologian. Defining theology - faith seeking understanding. How we seek to understand this orientation towards the world. The concept of the image of God from Christian theology. Using the work of Abhinavagupta and his Śaiva teachings on the 36 tattvas to illuminate and expound upon the notion of the image of God in a more inclusive and expansive way. Broadening the scope of theology and our understanding of the divine. Why does comparative theology matter for our contemporary world? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John J. Thatamanil is Associate Professor of Theology and World Religions at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He is the author of The Immanent Divine: God, Creation, and the Human Predicament. An East-West Conversation and, most recently, Circling the Elephant: A Comparative Theology of Religious Diversity (Fordham, 2020). Presently, he is working on a book entitled, Desiring Truth: The Quest for Interreligious Wisdom. He is a past President of the North American Paul Tillich Society and the current Chair of the AAR’s Theological Education Committee. He teaches a wide variety of courses including, “Hindu Religious Thought and Practice,” “Buddhist-Christian Dialogue,” and “Paul Tillich as Public Theologian,” “Process Theology,” “Double Belonging: On Multiple Religious Participation.” Thatamanil is an Anglican/Episcopalian—a recently ordained Deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada—who also reads and practices in traditions of Hindu and Buddhist nondualism. In this episode, we discuss: The de-religionization of religion. John’s cultural dislocation and how it informed his approach to theology. Truth and desire. What does it mean to have a multi-religious identity? The difference between salad bar spirituality and multi-religious identity.  3 kinds of religious wonder. The multi-religious theologian as the embodiment of the hospitality of receiving. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.