Conveners
Introspection: Introspection Panel 1
- Ruth Westoby (SOAS University of London)
Introspection: Introspection Panel 2
- Christopher Miller (Arihanta Institute / Claremont School of Theology / University of Zürich)
Introspection: Introspection Panel 3 Authority, community, power dynamics
- Theodora Wildcroft (Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom)
Introspection: Introspection Panel 4
- Corinna Lhoir (Universität Hamburg)
Introspection: Introspection Panel 5
- Ulrike Lang (TU Dresden, Institute of Slavic Studies)
Introspection: Introspection Panel 6
- James Mallinson (Oxford University)
Introspection: Introspection Panel 7
- Lubomír Ondračka (Balliol College, University of Oxford)
Introspection: Introspection Panel 8
- Ella Poutiainen (Åbo Akademi University)
Introspection: Introspection Panel 9
- Philip Deslippe (UC Santa Barbara)
Introspection: Introspection Panel 10
- Adriana Maldonado (Open University)
Introspection: Introspection Panel 11
- Adrián Muñoz (El Colegio de México)
Ida Pajunen
MA SOAS University of London - Traditions of Yoga & Meditation
MPhil University of Cambridge - Gender Studies
This paper begins with the paradox of women in yoga: how did yoga come to be practiced by women, when prior to the twentieth century physical yoga was primarily a practice for high caste men? The answer suggested in this paper is nationalism.
This paper argues that...
A few years back, Mark Singleton suggested that we consider the term “yoga” as it refers to modern postural practice as a homonym, instead of a synonym, of the “yoga” associated with the philosophical system of Patañjali, or the “yoga” that forms an integral component of the Śaiva Tantras (Singleton 2010, 15). Perhaps the same suggestion could be made when considering the many techniques that...
This talk illuminates the complexity of generalizing and individualizing in Iyengar yoga alignment practices aimed at women. It examines the pedagogical strategies and rhetorical framing used to teach alignment in women-oriented Iyengar yoga classes. It first explores the dialectical tension between three pedagogical methods: (1) general postural instructions aimed at all bodies, (2)...
This paper explores the Role of Absorption in Modern Postural Yoga (MPY). Yoga as a modern and secular practice is often linked with spirituality; the paper argues that the key to this association is mental absorption and a person’s ability to control their attention for a period to access, deep or light, Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs). Certain techniques, practices and modern rituals...
Most practitioners of modern postural yoga (MPY) are white, non-South Asians who do not identify MPY practice with Hinduism or with religion. And yet, as Lucia (2020) discusses, many seek “authenticity” by appealing to (exoticised) South Asian religious and cultural forms, and experience this authenticity as grounds for authority. This paper contributes to this discussion through a case study...
Abstract
The centrality of pain in ascetic experience has long been recognised. Tales of the sufferings of martyrs and anchorites abound in the literature. While we can also find many examples of painful practices in the Vedas and epics, there is less information available about its role in Modern Yoga. Indeed, the popular narrative of the use of Yoga for pain relief appears to argue...
This talk introduces my upcoming empirical research on BIPOC and LGBTQ+ yoga practitioners' experiences of yoga in Finland. Contemporary yoga appears as liberal, empowering and subversive on the surface, but has been criticised for complicity in oppressive structures, such as whiteness, patriarchy, and heterosexism (Jain 2020; Lucia 2020; Balizet & Myers 2016). Within the scene of yoga and...
Name: Amelia Wood
Bio: Amelia Wood is a PhD candidate at SOAS, University of London, researching abuses of power in modern transnational yoga contexts. She has presented work at several international conferences: the University of Chester Spiritual Abuse: Coercive Control in Religions conference (2021), the University of California, Riverside Religions and Sexual Abuse conference (2022) and...
Recent developments within modern postural yoga milieus – mainly bringing to light cases of sexual abuse – put into question the role of lineage in setting and transmitting standards of yoga practice. This opened new possibilities for yoga practitioners and instructors to consider moving their practice outside of the lineage format.
Within Iyengar Yoga, discontinuing affiliation is an...
Haribhadra provides an early glimpse into the reception of Yoga, reinterpreting its philosophy in light of Jain karma theory. This paper will examine the Yogabindu’s analysis of karma, its five-fold Yoga, and its descriptions of religious practices such paying attention to dreams, recollection of past lives, fasting, and performance of devotional ceremonies. The Yogabindu gives a succinct...
Interfaith Dialogue In Jain Yoga Texts
By Cogen Bohanec, MA, PhD
Assistant Professor in Sanskrit & Jain Studies, Arihanta Institute
Often Jains take Anekānta-vāda (“non-exclusivity”) as having implications for interfaith goodwill and acceptance, as a sort of philosophy of social-ahiṃsā (social “non-violence”), which can be taken as consistent with religious pluralism and interfaith...
This paper seeks to contextualise Indian philosophy teacher Phiroz Mehta’s contribution to UK yoga culture between the 1930s and 1980s. It will consider how he blended Theosophy and yoga to form his own practice called 'Theorhythm' and how he pioneered health camps in Dorset during the 1930s that included Theorhythm sessions for mostly middle-class women. The paper will include interview...
In the 1970s, a regular flow of Hatha Yoga practitioners between Brazil and India was established, connecting yoga academies and research institutes in the two countries. However, the actual movement of ideas and people within such South-South yogic network was possible only due to the engagement of a small group of physical educators based in Rio de Janeiro with Hatha Yoga, initiated in the...
My paper will look at the teachings of Yogi Haider, a contemporary yoga teacher in Pakistan. Drawing from his online publications on YouTube and Facebook in Urdu and English, I will first analyze some of the ways he incorporates his yoga teachings into the Pakistani Panjabi context (e.g., his use of public spaces, specific dates, cultural references, and different languages). Secondly, I will...
Kucha was an oasis kingdom that ruled the region centered around present Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China, before the 10th century. The local population was mostly Buddhists before they converted to become Muslims around 9th and 10th centuries, and they carved numerous Buddhist cave monasteries and nunneries.
Those cave monasteries consisted of...
Christina Riebesell is lecturer at the Asia-Africa-Institute, Culture and History of India and Tibet at Hamburg University.
Christina’s research focusses on the History of Yoga, especially text-image-relationship of Illustrated Yoga Manuscripts bringing together her art historical competence as well as her knowledge of the History of Yoga Practice.
Prior to coming to Hamburg, Christina was...
Valters Negribs
Postdoctoral researcher at Groupe de recherches en études indiennes (EPHE/Sorbonne Nouvelle) with a fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust
DPhil Oriental Studies (Oxford)
MA Traditions of Yoga and Meditation (SOAS)
Rethinking Patañjali and āsana: The relationship between āsana (posture), sukha (bliss), and meditation in early Buddhism and Patañjali’s yoga
This paper...
One of the distinctive features of early Buddhist meditation was the wide range of awareness or attention practices of smṛti (sati). There is also an important role for smṛti in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, where it appears in a variety of semantic contexts, not only in the mundane cognitive function of memory, but as an applied meditation technique of correct and clear recollection of objects of...
Rose Parkes
The Open University, UK
Rose Parkes is a part-time PhD student with the Open University, UK under the supervision of Dr Suzanne Newcombe (Religious Studies) and Dr Deborah Drake (Criminology). Her doctorate entitled ‘Neoliberal Yoga, Lived Religion and Prison Abolition’ seeks to evaluate the political and religious/spiritual beliefs of Prison Yoga Teachers and the extent to...
The collision of health inequalities exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and social inequities raised through the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd put a spotlight on the treatment of black bodies in world of white privilege. In contemporary yoga settings, this led to discussions around inclusion on the basis of race, gender and body shape and size...
This paper presents an exploratory theoretical framework for examining the various manifestations of yoga in Latin America. It offers a comprehensive introduction to a range of specific cases spanning multiple countries in the region, dating from approximately the 1900s onwards. Linked to Proyecto YoLA®, a collaborative initiative, this paper acknowledges the contributions of experts from...
ADRIANA MALDONADO GALARZA
PhD Candidate at the Open University
Abstract
As is the case in many countries, yoga initially arrived in Bolivia in the shape of books. One text stands out as possibly initiating Bolivia’s yoga tradition: ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramahansa Yogananda. Planting interest and curiosity for yoga among a mainly Christian audience searching for new forms of...
Nestled in the rural countryside of Amealco, Mexico, the spiritual retreat center known as "Jamadi" takes its name from the native Otomí word, signifying "gratitude to the Spirit." Within this haven, the region's first Hanuman temple stands out for its unique presence, catering to yoga practitioners and SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) audiences. In an intriguing juxtaposition of cultures...
Subject area: Modern yoga
This paper discusses the hitherto understudied Suddha Dharma Mandalam (SDM), allegedly the first Yoga school in Chile. The SDM was established in India in 1915 and subsequently in Chile in 1927, where it then took a hybrid form of its own. Based on documental research and interviews, the paper sets out to probe into, and contextualize, the first audience of this...
The flow of religious and spiritual ideas has proved to be constant and eclectic, as well as a dynamic means that links different regions of the globe. It has been especially intense from the second half of the nineteenth century onward. This paper will explore the noteworthy touring of the notorious theosophist C. Jinarajadasa in Latin America, with special attention to his visit to Mexico in...
Subject area: MODERN YOGA
In his book titled I Remember, Luis Sérgio Álvares DeRose -Brazilian yoga teacher and bestseller- narrates the story of an ancient Dravidian boy who has to abandon his land in northern India due to the invasion of an aggressive nomad tribe and who goes through an initiatic path of knowledge and transformation. But the story opens with the following quote by Jean...
As scholarship on the history of modern yoga has grown and developed in recent decades, attention has been paid to both the development of yoga in the Anglophone world, often as a presumed default, and the development of yoga in individual nations, particularly throughout Europe. This paper suggests that the development of modern yoga can be understood from the vantage point of Latin America...
