There is a beautiful meeting place of Yoga history and philosophy with modern, relevant and applicable ideas and interpretations. The stories and ideas birthed in the thousands of years of this tradition provide wonderful ways to look at ourselves and our lives. That was what they were always meant to do. They are just as effective today as they ever were, and every bit as needed.

Come and join Marty Collyer for an informal talk, Q & A and discussion about what Yoga looks like for the modern Yogin and Yogini, and how these ancient ideas may have more relevance and resonance in your life than you might have imagined. I'll begin with a talk on some ideas, then will open up the floor to questions and insights you might have, because these ideas come alive and become useful in dialogue, and in their being related and applied to the real life challenges we face.

Topic: 

There is a wonderful story in which Patanjali, author of the Yoga sutras, meets the Tantrik sage Viagrapada in the Forest. Viagrapada is the sage of the Tantra, and his ashram is so often where the broken, disenchanted, frightened and most frightening beings of the world go. This story suggests so much about the evolution of the Yoga tradition and its notions about liberation. It speaks to how, where classical traditions so often tell us that there is much of us that is not fit for the spiritual path, there are evolutions of this thought that begin to suggest that not only do we have no choice but to bring all of ourselves, our shadow and our light, but that we may well learn more about ourselves from understanding our shadow than we ever could just from working with those most ‘attractive’ and comfortable notions of ourselves.

In this talk, we’ll come at the discussion from a few different angles. We’ll delve into the mythical story of the origins of Patanjali, and this later, beautiful story in which Patanjali and Viagrapada meet. We’ll talk about what this story and the idea of the troubled beings who Viagrapada wholeheartedly welcomes to his ashram seek to tell us about what our spiritual practice can mean. While it isn’t a session in which to delve deeply into the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and their background, we’ll talk about them just enough to understand their philosophical underpinnings and their subsequent aims. We will then look at how they are an odd match for the Yoga that we practice today, and how they came to be attached to the modern Yoga revival (an incredible, fantastical and fascinating story in its own right). We’ll then talk about systems and ideas which may well better speak to Yoga for us in modern life.

As always, the session will be so rich, with so much for you to gain from it, and so much for you to add to it. 

$25 with chai provided