My guest is Karen O’Brien-Kop. In this episode we discuss two foundational concepts found in the Sankya philosphy, Purusha and Prakriti or pure consciousness and nature, which underpin the main ideas in much of yoga practice including the seminal text, the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. 

Karen has been practising yoga in different forms since 1995. After a decade teaching yoga she began pursuing  the academic study of yoga. Karen completed the MA in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, in 2014 and is now continuing a PhD in the Department of Religions and Philosophies. Karen is in the third year of her research project, which centres on the Yogasutra of Patanjali as well as other cross-religious textual accounts of yoga in the 4th-5th century CE. Karen has studied Sanskrit with Dr James Mallinson of SOAS, and has been a recipient of the Phiroz Mehta scholarship and the Ouseley Memorial language scholarship.

LG34 – Karen O’Brien-Kop – Purusha and Prakriti

My guest is Sarah Shaw. Sarah received her Phd in English from Manchester University. After studying Pali and Sanskrit at Oxford, she began teaching and writing on Buddhist subjects. She has written several books on meditation theory and practice, and jātaka literature. She is the author of several books including Introduction to Buddhist Meditation, The Jātakas: Birth Stories of the Bodhisattaand her most recent book, The Spirit of Buddhist Meditation. She is a member of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, and Wolfson College. She is a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies.

Check out her 6 hour audio course on the early teachings of the Buddha at http://wisestudies.com/

LG35 - Sarah Shaw – The Early Teachings of the Buddha

In this episode with Professor Bee Scherer, PhD we discuss the foundations of Buddhist philosophy, the four noble truths, Bee’s work in queering paradigms as a trans/non-binary activist and the relationship between buddhist practice and activism.
 
Bee is a long-time practitioner of Buddhism and has been globally teaching as a Buddhist lay teacher. Bee currently serves as the vice-chair of the International Lay Buddhist Forum.
After the study of classics, Indic (Sanskrit, Pāli, Prakrits) and Tibetan philology in Germany and the United States, completed by a PhD (Groningen, The Netherlands 2002), Bee published among others on karma; Nāgārjuna and early Mind-only; and, in recent years, on transnational Tibetan Buddhism; radical, reform and socially engaged Buddhism in Asia; and on Buddhist perspectives on gender and sexuality.
 
Currently, Bee is chair (full professor) in Religious Studies & Gender Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University and directs the INCISE  Intersectional Centre for Inclusion and Social Justice research institute. As a trans/non-binary scholar-cum-activist Bee has established the interdisciplinary, transnational Queering Paradigms Social justice academic network and conference series.

LG36 - BeeScherer - Queer Bodhisattva

Let's Get It out in the Open

Don't Want to Change

Yoga & Meditation Teacher, spiritual enthusiast, host of the Lonely Guru Podcast, group facilitator, singer/songwriter comedian

Ryan Spielman

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