Welcome to the SBNR Podcast
As long as spirituality is pushed to the outskirts of society then society cannot change or evolve. — Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita
In this inaugural episode of Spiritual But Not Ridiculous I attempt to define spirituality, explain the title, and talk about the themes and topics I will be exploring on future episodes, including:
how authentic spirituality can be the most effective way to make a positive impact on the world;
the burgeoning Wisdom Revolution (see, e.g., Peter Russell’s work);
spiritual ego & spiritual bypass;
plant medicine; and
the elements of yoga beyond asana, including kriya, pranayama, laya, and jñāna yoga.
Look for new episodes about once a month, although I plan to put a few out in quick succession to clear this backlog of content I have.
Here are some of the people and media I referenced in the episode:
Slavoj Žižek's wonderful documentary is The Pervert's Guide to Ideology.
Philip Goldberg’s wonderful American Veda, which talks about the rise of people identifying as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR).
Ramana Maharshi's teaching "Who Am I?"
Elizabeth Lesser’s book The Seeker’s Guide.
If you drew a long line and put modern cynicism at the start and Beginner’s Mind at the end, you’d have a map for the contemporary spiritual pilgrim. Somehow our culture has evolved to the point where pessimism has become synonymous with intelligence, and where an overload of information is mistaken for knowledge.
— Elizabeth Lesser
Sign up for my newsletter and join my online yoga community.
You can find me on Instagram: @elementalyoga
Show Transcript
Welcome to the first episode of the podcast. Today is going to be kind of meta. I'm going to talk about what we're going to talk about on the podcast in future episodes. And I'll spend a few minutes talking about who I am. And just basically what the show is going to be about and the topics we're going to explore and all that. So that's today, I'm going to try to keep it short, I'm going to predict that it's going to be 40 minutes long…
Welcome to spiritual but not ridiculous, a podcast that explores the world of spirituality, from a grounded and clear eyed perspective.
I'm Jayadev. I'm your host, a former computer engineer, a former lawyer, and a filmmaker. I've also been teaching yoga for about a decade. I teach a style of yoga called Elemental Yoga. It's an authentic, holistic, full spectrum style of yoga that's designed to address the whole person and take students into the direct experience of unity and bliss, which is ultimately the goal of all yoga. It’s designed to help us to learn how to celebrate and have fun, but also to expand and to liberate ourselves. In my experience, this more holistic style of yoga is the most effective, and the most fun style of yoga that I've encountered. And Elemental Yoga is not just asana, but it's pranayama, it's kriya, it's laya movements, which are kind of like T’ai Chi, it's warrior breaths and dance. I mean, we dance. How much fun is that? Right. So it's also these other forms of, of traditional yoga, like karma yoga, which is being of selfless service in the world, there's bhakti yoga, which is cultivating a sort of devotional quality to your life. And there's jñāna yoga, which is basically wisdom. It's studying ancient scriptures, or listening to wisdom talks, or discussing these things in a sangha or a community. It's kind of studying yourself, to refine your intelligence and expand your consciousness through that modality. So it's not always just energetic work. But it's also working with the mind to develop greater discernment, and we'll talk about that later. So that's who I am, in a nutshell, why I'm doing this podcast and why I teach yoga in the first place. It’s a topic that I think will slowly unpack over the course of the episodes of this podcast. But I just wanted to explain a little bit about my motivation and my intention going into this and just talk about why I do what I do. So I teach yoga, because I believe that yoga and other spiritual practices that we'll talk about on the podcast are designed to make people more relevant, more dynamic, and more powerful, so that they can become more impactful and inspiring in the world. That's ultimately why I'm doing it. And it's, you know, I've arrived here after many years of searching, really, I spent many years trying to find a way to make an impact in the world. You know, once I sort of started to get into yoga, it started to wake me up a little bit. And I started to look around for how I could be of greatest service to the world. And so initially, I was looking into the nonprofit sector or environmental work policy, or civil rights work, things like that, where there is a possibility for great change, and areas that really draw on my legal experience and things like that. I mean, part of my reason for going to law school in the first place was because it had the potential for, you know, having the skills to kind of go into these areas of impact, right. So I started to look around for where I could be most relevant and which areas would would sort of draw on my skills the most. But as I, as I looked at the work that people were doing in these areas, and how little progress was being made in a relative sense, I just started to realize that the hardest part of making any kind of positive change in the world is changing people's minds. Right? So, you know, you can't come into a situation or if it's really hard to come into a situation and have kind of a top down approach where you're just bringing in sort of even well reasoned arguments or appealing to people's Higher, higher nature, that kind of thing without really, those people already being awakened some sense. So, for me, arriving at yoga as the most important practice and the most important thing for me to share and do in the world was this process of kind of realizing that it's about ultimately positive change in the world is about, I mean, first accepting the way the world is right now, you know, if you don't accept the world, the way it is, then there's going to be a lot of stress, and you're going to create a lot of friction, and you're gonna sort of approach it from a place of like, your job is to fix something, right. And that's, I think, the wrong approach. But it's also this idea that there's got to be a grassroots sort of expansion of consciousness before that can be true change. This is something that Slovaj Žižek, a modern day pop philosopher and neo-Marxist, who I find very entertaining, and quite wise, he talks about this a lot in one of his kind of main themes, I feel is that the reason that most revolutions fail, or the or at least the revolutions that have taken place in the past 100 years or so, is because you come in through the use of force and you you replace abruptly, one government with another or one set of institutions with another set. And you bring in these, you know, new leaders, these politicians who are basically the same people as they were before, so everybody from the politicians on down in this post revolution world, are still the same people basically. And so the problem there is that they're then bringing all this conditioning all these old narratives with them. And that's sort of muddying the waters. And so that's ultimately why revolutions fail is because you need to change minds first. And I think, you know, a good example of this, for me, at least is Black Lives Matter, right? This is a long standing problem we've had in this country in the United States, where there's been systemic racism for for so for so long, 100 years, or 200 years or longer, right. And I think a lot of people are still just waking up to that fact. And coming around to that realization is a real process, it may require you to, to unravel, you know, your own identity to some extent, which can be extremely frightening for people, because you may be have this identity that's wrapped up in well, you know, American and America is a place where there's equal opportunity, and the American Dream is possible for everybody. And we have, you know, we have the bill of rights and equality, and there can't be there can't be racism, there can't be that level of racism, you know, on police forces, or whatever it is. But I think you have to slowly get there by truly unraveling those, those kind of narratives about yourself and the country you live in, and the world you live in, to truly see things as they are. And I think this is a this is a place where having a spiritual practice, like yoga can be hugely beneficial and very powerful. And bringing you are bringing people to that level of awareness. And I think it's not just expanding awareness, but it's also refining your intellect. It's, it's developing a real discernment that I think is necessary, especially in this day and age, because we live in a time in the sort of hangover of the information age, where there's so much misinformation and so much sort of competing narratives, that it's almost hard for people to understand, you know, what can be what's real or what's true. And I think that's easy for people to kind of throw up their hands and say, you know, what, it's too confusing, I don't know, or I'll just kind of believe what I believe and just grip onto it tightly, you know, and this is where you start to, you start to get conspiracy theories, and, and the problem of fake news and all that. So, I think, in my experience, working with these technologies, these yoga technologies and plant medicine and other things, you start to develop what's truly an important skill in the world in and that's discernment, you know, being able to tell reality, from non-reality, truth from fiction. And not that there's some absolute truth that I'm trying to communicate, but it's just that there is an absolute truth out there. And I think there are ways to arrive there on your own through putting these practices into place. And so that's another huge part of why I'm doing this is because I feel like the more people have, you know, raising their awareness, expanding their consciousness, but also developing this discernment. I think the more it's going to be, the more of these problems we face as humanity may start to almost resolve themselves in some cases, but at least start to loosen up and start to become more tractable, I guess, you know, less intractable. So, you know, it's not to sound naive. I mean, there's also all the policy work and all the other work that you need to do alongside of this, but I personally feel so passionate about the fact that If we can liberate people's minds and raise awareness and expand consciousness, then these other challenges that face humanity will just kind of they'll be, they'll be less daunting, and maybe they'll they'll kind of resolve themselves in some cases. So, of course, I recognize there's a lot more to this process, you know, the question, one question is, how do we go from teaching yoga and other practices to people who are privileged enough to and have the curiosity to access it? How do we go from that, to impacting very large numbers of people who are interested in yoga are interested in personal evolution and that kind of thing? So this is a question that I will also be exploring in future episodes of the show, because I do have some thoughts on that, and, and maybe some answers. So that's coming as well. So, you know, part of the idea here is that we're approaching all of this from a very clear eyed, grounded perspective. And I think within that there is this immense possibility of expansive expansion and entry change through that process. So another area that I think it makes spiritual practice and makes yoga so incredibly relevant is that these are technologies for helping people to learn how to feel their feelings, and to be with difficult feelings, and to sort of process and integrate difficult feelings.
So I think another problem that is facing humanity today, at a ground level, basically is that people don't know how to feel their feelings, they haven't been given the tools really, for some strange reason we're not really raised in this country or any country, to, to know how to feel our feelings. And so what ends up happening is the people go around with all these unprocessed emotions. And then they're sort of projecting that onto other people, they're bringing that into situations and conflict, and then making it worse and creating more conflict. And of course, we have secondary problems like depression, and suicidal ideation, and the opioid crisis, and all these things that come out of just a basic inability to feel your feelings and to be sort of with difficult feelings, you know, to not be afraid of feelings, right. And so for me, and my own personal experience, yoga and plant medicines, especially have offered such powerful tools for helping me to feel my feelings and helping helping me to let my feelings flow and then let them go right and to become more of a whole integrated person. Because I really feel like you can't be a healthy adult, until you've learned how to sit with uncomfortable emotions. Without numbing or escaping or blaming other people, you know, just sitting there and just feeling these feelings, right? It's not easy, but at the same time, it's not the hardest thing in the world once you have the tools. So feel your feelings, another hugely important practice for people and in a thing that can be made easier with these tools and technologies that I'm going to be exploring in the podcast as a whole. I think the third major reason or sort of major benefit to these practices, and the reason that I'm sharing them and doing this podcast is that you can say that, like the ultimate message of yoga or any other spiritual practice is that there is literally nothing to be afraid of right now. I think we're living in an age of fear, I think fear has really taken ahold of the planet, to a large extent. And so I think it's so crucial for us to, to combat that fear, not in a combative way, but to address the fear. And the, again, the practice of yoga, especially, but also plant medicine is so so instrumental in learning to first just let go of your own fears, and to move out of a place of fear as a motivator and a motivating motivating factor in your life. But also, to then, once you've done that, to take fear as almost like a positive signal. And so then you it's, you know, it's more of an advanced practice, but you start to use fear as a practice, you start to, to lean into fear in your life, and to explore it and to play with it even right. And you maybe identify those things in your life that like scare the hell out of you, and then you intentionally step into them. Of course, not things that are like, you know, rational fears that are dealing with some immediate physical threat. But other than that, you know, things that are like dreams you have that are too scary or things in your life that you've always wanted to do but are too afraid of, you know, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. And being able to lean into that fear is, is a real power. And I think from in my own experience, that's been my journey is is sort of letting go of fears in the first place and then moving intentionally towards fear.
So those are the big ones, you know, raising awareness, feeling feelings, and, and dealing with fear and using fear as a spiritual practice are some of the main reasons that I'm teaching yoga but also doing this podcast because I think that it's, it's such a pregnant time for us to be sharing these practices to be learning these practices and to be putting these practices into place, and our on a regular basis. So yeah, so addressing the this kind of root cause this this, like dense consciousness state of a lot of people in the world is kind of the natural fulcrum point for me personally, to make a positive impact on the world.
And another thing we'll probably explore in more depth is, it's dangerous to come into a situation and try to bring change from the top down, because as outsiders to a situation we might come in with all these sort of notions about how to solve the problems that are not relevant, you know, you buy, you may bring your own conditioning, your own cultural baggage, your own personal baggage, what have you into the situation, and then try to impose change from the top down. I mean, this is almost like you'd you could call this a colonialist approach to, to change, right, you come into a situation without really being part of the situation situation, and then you start to impose all these ideas onto it. And that just introduces more stress into the situation and doesn't usually solve anything, right. So instead, you come in, and you, you come in with empathy, and you really integrate with the community is facing the challenge. And then you kind of move into it from a place of total present moment awareness and infinite adaptability and using your intuition and these other other skills that, that you develop through spiritual practice that are not just coming up everything as if it's a intellectual puzzle to solve. So that's something else we'll explore a lot in future episodes. But, you know, in terms of why I'm doing this, it's also just the simple fact that for me, I love studying yoga and other practices, I love sharing it, teaching it the entire Yoga vedantic tradition from India is such a rich set of practices that have evolved partly through the scientific method, really, you know, through trial and error and and finding what works, you know, and it's evolved over the course of maybe 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 years or more, you know, so it's such a deep tradition that's been continuously evolving, uninterrupted in India for that entire time. So I just, I just love it. And I think it's, it's such an important thing to share with with as many people as possible.
So with this podcast, I intend to bring spirituality to hopefully a wider audience as this kind of life changing ethos, and not some kind of like fuzzy headed escapism, it's, it's really a way to become a more present functioning, happy member of society. Ultimately, I'll end this part with this quote. So Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, his famous book, Krishna is telling Arjuna, this warrior who's been struggling with some, some despair, some challenges in his life, and trying to understand his place in the world. You know, Krishna is teaching him yoga in this book. And Krishna tells Arjuna, as long as spirituality is pushed to the outskirts of society, then society cannot change or evolve. So that kind of for me, that kind of sums up what I'm getting at here. I think, part of my intention is to help bring spirituality, a little bit out of the fringes of society and more into the mainstream. I'm not gonna do that myself. But I want to be part of that conversation as I think it continues to happen in in this current time.
The Title
So what's up with the title? Why is it called Spiritual But Not Ridiculous? Well, it's a it's a play on words, which I'll get into in a second. But first of all, it's hopefully it conveys the fact that the podcast is about spirituality, but it's also coming from a place of groundedness and, you know, clear eyed sort of practicality to my own background as sort of atheist and scientist and engineer and lawyer I think gives me a unique perspective on spirituality because I'm coming to it from that sort of grounded very practical mindset right? So I feel like I'm a trusted resource when it comes to, you know, what is a way to practice that is not going to result in spiritual ego or spiritual bypass or being ridiculous, right. So that's the first thing is a reference to spiritual but not religious, which is a phrase that more and more people in the world are using to identify their belief system. So more people, today than any time in history identify as spiritual but not religious. Philip Goldberg talks about this in his wonderful book, American Veda, where he says that people identifying as spiritual but not religious, are somewhere between 16 and 39% of the US population. So it's, it's a pretty big number of people, and it's growing every day. And so it's it's a reference to that. I'm not saying necessarily that religion is ridiculous, we'll get into that in a minute. But the idea, again, is that it's just, you know, it's spiritual. But hey, we have a little bit of a sense of humor, we have a little bit of, you know, self awareness, and it's not ridiculous. So that's the idea behind the title. He has attempted to call attention to the fact that there are there are challenges with spirituality, it kind of has like a bad reputation almost today. And I wanted to kind of address that to today, but in future episodes, as well. You know, you've got intellectuals and people in the mainstream who think that spiritual people are lost or escapist, or irrational or anti scientific. So spirituality, for this reason has a bad rap. And I just want to kind of address that right up front. Yeah. So I think, though, for us to get into that, it's necessary for us to talk about spirituality and to define it or try to define it. And to kind of use that as a framework here. And then I'll talk more about what else I was going, I'm going to cover in the podcast future episodes.
So I think it's important at this point, to try to define spirituality, will, in a sense, we'll be defining spirituality as we go through every episode, and kind of unpacking it slowly, slowly over time. But for now, I think it's important to at least set up an initial framework for the topic and to try to define it in some way. So let me let me take a stab at it. In yoga, we understand that we are not our mind, we are not our emotions, and we are ultimately not our body. But if that's true, then who are we right? And that's a question that we we explore extensively in the practice of yoga. This is actually a style of yoga that was popularized by Ramana Maharshi. And in India in the 20th century, this just asking yourself this question repeatedly, who am I? Who am I? Who am I? And this is a jumping off point to talk about how spirituality is sort of a way to answer that question, in some sense.
So spirituality to for me is, it's a means for approaching and relaxing into the mystery of life. I think there's no denying, for me at least, that there are so many deep mysteries to life. And, you know, to adopt this sort of materialistic 20th century scientific mindset that says that, oh, there's no mystery except for these little questions about quantum physics or whatever. And ultimately, we know all the answers and we're so close to, you know, decoding the DNA sequence or whatever. And other than that, it's just, you know, the Big Bang, and the universe is random and empty and cold and whatever. I don't think that satisfies most people. I think we need a deeper cosmology, a deeper sort of worldview, a deeper ethos to help us to not only feel better and find meaning in life, but also to sort of like, become better people. And so, so spirituality, you know, it's this, it's this practice, it's this worldview is this ethos that helps us to acknowledge that there is something more than what we see. And then kind of finding ways to tap into that, you know, to finding ways to access that experientially, the direct experience component of spirituality is absolutely crucial, and we'll talk about that more in the future. But I wanted to be clear, spirituality to includes and requires rational thought. It requires intellectual rigor and even the scientific method, yoga is a good example and yoga, the Ancient Yogi's and modern, Yogi's and everybody, you know, it's, it's having these practices, having these thoughts, having these kind of pieces of wisdom, what have you, and then applying them over time practicing them over time and seeing if they result in consistent results, if they result in a consistent truth. You know, that's part of spirituality, spirituality includes, you know, science in a sense. And, you know, ultimately, I think we are spiritual beings. And there's a real power in acknowledging that fact, and working with it and exploring it.
Maybe a helpful way to define spirituality is to contrast it with religion. And so, religion, in my opinion, is what you get when spirituality becomes organized, industrialized, governed by an organization with a central authority, you know, that's, that's religion, right? We see that with the modern religions of the world, we see that with Catholicism, we see that with Mormonism, Judaism, all these things, you know, they start to become codified in a way where the original sort of magic of the thing that was the initial spark, somehow gets lost in all this ritual and dogma and all that, right. So through that process of, of turning spirituality into a religion, the direct transcendental experience of that practice is stripped away, or just diluted or lost, you know, and there's this, this reliance on empty rituals, you know, I grew up Catholic, and in my experience of Catholicism as it's practiced in the modern world, you know, you go to church, you read from the Bible, you pray, you sing some songs, and all these things are just empty, they're empty rituals, nobody is getting the direct experience of transcendence from these things, at least that I have seen, nobody I've talked to, you know, maybe maybe it's happening in certain sort of spin offs, you know, or maybe more in these were, you know, kind of esoteric, Christian sects that are practicing speaking in tongues and that kind of thing. But for the, for the most part, I think religion is where spirituality has been sapped of all its juice.
So that's, that's one way to think about sort of the difference, at least between spirituality and religion. Another thing that has motivated me to make this podcast really is that a few people recently, who I respect deeply have been highly critical of spirituality and spiritual people. And it's really inspired me to, to speak out more about it, because I've been noticing what happens with people is that they are hanging out in these spiritual communities, you know, until noon, or in Bali, or wherever, where there's all these people who, you know, are into yoga and go into the jungle and doing ayahuasca or whatever, but don't seem to be acting in integrity, or they seem a little bit like disconnected from reality, or, you know, they seem to be privileged and just sort of doing these things without bringing it back into the into the world, right. And so I really sympathize with that. Because that's, that is a real problem. But I want to say, and part of what I'm trying to say, this podcast, and in future episodes, and the whole thing is that within all that there are veins of gold, there's there's veins of truth. And spirituality is still the most one of the most important and necessary things to, to share and to bring to a wider audience, despite all that, you know, so I think what's happening there, and this is a topic for another episode, but this is what you might call spiritual ego, or spiritual bypass, right? Where people they encounter yoga, yoga, or plant medicine, it does give them some experience of unity, or some positive change, increase happiness, that kind of thing. And then there's this sort of desire to go too fast, too quickly, right? So you want to you want to get to the end goal, you want to become enlightened by the end of the year. And you want to do that by skipping a bunch of steps, right? And so what you end up doing in that case with spiritual bypass, is you start to adopt all these spiritual concepts, you know, we are all one or it's all love or whatever it is, as just intellectual concepts. And you start to sort of develop an identity around it right? And that can be dangerous. And that's when I think people start to seem a little out of touch is when they're just doing that and it's clear to other people that They've got all these unresolved issues or a lot of ego or whatever it is right? It can become overly commercialized. I think another challenge for spirituality in general is that it's been so heavily co opted by the corporate America in a lot of cases. You know, I think this goes back to Slovak Žižek, who points out in his really, really entertaining documentary, The Idiot's Guide to know, you know, The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology. Yeah, I recommend it is it's really good, you should check it out. But, but in there, he says that the way the corporate culture works, and the way that capitalism works is that it is designed almost to co-opt every positive movement and to kind of like, absorb it into the Borg of capitalism, right. So that's what's been happening with spirituality. And I think this is also turning people off, you know, so it's all these things. And so I want to address spiritual ego and spiritual bypass on the podcast, because I think these are things that are there easily, not easily. But these are things that can be addressed. And there are answers to these challenges, right, you know, you can do the Shadow Work, you can have a consistent spiritual practice, you can really dedicate yourself to deep spiritual work. And if you're truly practicing, then the spiritual ego and the spiritual bypass naturally falls away.
And so that brings us to maybe the final point I'll make about spirituality here, which is that spirituality has to have a set of practices. So in my opinion, an essential component of spirituality is the practices, because these are what helps you to integrate experiences, right? Without the practices, you can go do ayahuasca every weekend or whatever, but then you come back into your regular life. And, you know, maybe you're behaving differently. But at the same time, there's this lack of integration, where you're not bringing those experiences and planting them deeply into the grooves of your life, right. And so integration is so important for any any spiritual experience. And it's the practices that hopefully become a daily practice that are really what gives you lasting personal change makes you more of a master of yourself, and allows you to be more impactful in the world. And so, you know, these practices, they give you this sort of sense of fearlessness that we're talking about earlier, they make you more compassionate, more empathetic, they give you a greater capacity for forgiveness, and they increase your joy, and they give you greater access to your inherent bliss, nature, right. So you start to accept yourself, you accept the world, you accept other people as a starting point towards sort of becoming more present more adaptable, and then having a capacity for to impact in the world. And like I was saying earlier, you also hopefully have a sense of humor about it all. And, you know, this capacity to for celebration and for enjoying life, right? So it's not like you become serious. And this is kind of more of the yoga perspective. Yeah, yeah, I think there is. There are other spiritual practices, I think, you know, Buddhism is an example where maybe it's a little more serious, you know, there's a sort of almost like, goal of liberating all beings. But with yoga, there's this sort of little dance that we do between liberation and celebration. So, so those are, you know, that's so spirituality has. It's a worldview, but it's also a set of practices. And it has all these enormous, incredible benefits as well.
So I'll just end this section with a quote from Elizabeth lesser, the founder of the Omega Institute. “If you drew a long line, and put modern cynicism at the star, and beginner's mind, at the end, you'd have a map for the contemporary spiritual pilgrim. Somehow our culture has evolved to the point where pessimism has become synonymous with intelligence, and where an overload of information is mistaken for knowledge.”
And so for me, that quote, kind of sums up like the theme of this podcast and the common thread through all the things that I want to talk about on the podcast. I feel very strongly that we are entering a kind of new age that this quote speaks to, and it's been happening for a while, but we're really coming into I think the heart of it now.
So that brings me to some of the other topics I want to cover on the podcast. So the first one is this this kind of wisdom revolution that is happening right now and that is very exciting for me. This is an idea that was first proposed by Peter Russell in the late 90s, I think and popularized by people like Daniel Pinchbeck. And this is an idea that where just as we had the Industrial Revolution, and the information age, there is this new wave of deep and widespread change that's coming in the world and in humanity, that is sort of the wisdom revolution. And it's this idea that more and more people are interested in spirituality and other modes of being beyond just, you know, a nine to five job or, or living in a box of some kind, you know, there's this, this, this desire for something more, something deeper, some kind of deeper meaning in life, right. And people are seeking out alternative ways of being and, and spirituality is a big part of that. And this idea resonates so deeply with me, especially in the past year or so. I mean, it feels like something is profoundly changing in the world. And it's clear to me that more and more people are interested in spiritual practices of some kind, you know, whether that's meditation, or ayahuasca, or yoga, or whatever it is. So it's this is something I want to dedicate at least one entire episode to talking about is this wisdom revolution. You know, there's a lot to say there, I'll just leave it at that.
But yeah, very exciting time to be alive. I also want to explore the podcast, other elements of yoga outside of just asana. So not the not the postures, I mean, the postures are important. But so much has been said, and and, you know, studied about the postures, but I want to try to bring these other elements of yoga, especially Kriya, and energetic practices, and more traditional stuff that I've been studying in India, bring that to a wider audience as well. You know, I've been doing that with my teaching, and my online platform and all that, but, but I want to explore that more in the podcast, too, and have guests who are able to able to speak to that. I'm also a Vedic astrologer. And I want to talk about astrology on a future episode, and in the podcast, because this is another example of a spiritual tradition, in a sense, that really has a bad rap in, in the West, at least. And I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about what it is, you know, it's really a science. And I would like to sort of make the case in a future episode for astrology as a legitimate sort of approach to understanding the world and understanding yourself. And then plant medicine, you know, it's been a hugely instrumental part of my life. And I want to kind of explore that talking about that, demystify that a little bit to even talk about maybe the overlap between working with plant medicine and yoga, you know, there's a real symbiosis there that I've had personal experience with. And I'm so committed to exploring and discussing both paths, you know, the, the indigenous paths from South America, and the ancient yoga path from India.
So that's a little bit about myself a little bit about why I'm doing this and a little bit about spirituality and what this podcast is going to be about. So in terms of the structure, there will be a new episode about once a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. I'll do shows where it's just me talking sometimes. But sometimes I'll have interviews with guests. I've already got a few guests lined up. So I'm excited about that. And I may even answering questions. So I encourage you to shoot me an email, or post a comment on the podcast on YouTube, or wherever you're listening to it. And, and yeah, I'm totally open to having a dialogue with this podcast.
And just as a preview some of the upcoming episodes I already have planned, there's going to be one about astrology, there's going to be one that's sort of a defensive spirituality, as you can probably guess. And there's going to be an episode devoted to leaning into fear as a practice. And the only I have I have a few guests lined up to talk about yoga and other spiritual practices. So that's the podcast. I'm so excited to start putting these out there. I've been wanting to do it for a while and I just I just love talking about this stuff. So check out the show notes for some links to some of the things I've talked about. You can find those wherever you get the podcast, but also at elemental diet yoga slash podcast. You can leave a comment on the podcast or on this on YouTube if you're getting it there. And you can also subscribe to my newsletter. If you go to elemental.yoga/newsletter, you can find a link there to sign up.
And I just want to leave you with this parting thought that there is nothing your curiosity, awareness and willingness cannot transcend or achieve. Thank you for joining. Thank you for listening. I'll see you next time. Hari Om.
