Pobsa’s Dharma Lounge

I've often been asked what makes Mindfulness Yoga different than other forms of Mindful Yoga or simply yoga done mindfully. Well, here's my answer.

This episode also serves as an introduction to a series of episodes that will be devoted to the four domains of mindfulness.

In this first episode of 2024, Pobsa shares his vision for the new year and what he wishes to offer here at Pobsa's Dharma Lounge. Among other things, he will offer occasional book and film reviews so this episode presents a mini-review of a collection of essays about Buddhist ethics.

Pobsa takes this opportunity to teach a bit about Mara, sometimes inaccurately referred to as the "Buddhist devil."

In this first of a series of discussions regarding the evolution of personal practice, Pobsa and Barrie Risman discuss, among other things, what it means to "evolve one's yoga". What aspects of practice change over time and what, if anything, remains the same.

From there, they go on to discuss the student/teacher relationship and how it has generally changed with the commodification of yoga into a consumer/provider relationship and what that means for yoga practice and teaching itself.

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In this wide-ranging conversation with Daniel Simpson we explore questions around how to make use of texts such as The Yoga-Sutra which come from a world-denying, renunciate worldview extolling dis-embodiment and celibacy in a contemporary yoga practice setting which prioritizes embodiment and tends toward body and sex positivity. What elements should be adapted, which should be fully integrated, and what should be rejected as inappropriate for our purposes? Along the way we discuss the ground-breaking work of scholars such as Georg Feurstein, and more recent scholarship from people like Mark Singleton and James Mallinson.

We touch upon the neo-liberal focus on the self that has become such a driving force in both contemporary yoga and mindfulness and use sutra 1.33 regarding the "four immeasurables" (aka 'four brahma-viharas) to distinguish the more isolationist project of Classical Yoga and the pro-social project of Buddhist Yoga. In turning toward a more general discussion on dharma, political concerns arise with examples from Brexit and illiberal so-called "progressive" authoritarianism that lead to ever increasing discord and polarization are touched upon. We end with Daniel's "origin story" filled with at least two of the classic "sex, drugs, and rock and roll."

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In his first teaching, the Buddha presented his yoga practice as a middle way between sensory deprivation and indulgence, showing that both extremes were caught in notions of the self. The Middle Way is an alternative path between the two extremes, but is one that is made step by step by each practitioner. There is no "one way" to be the Middle Way and in the ever-changing circumstances we find ourselves in life, we are always having to adjust accordingly. This requires constant attention to the changing and unique situations we find ourselves in.

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Inspired by a conversation with some students and remembering a song from the Sex Pistols, Pobsa shares about problems and how to work with their inevitability. This episode ends with a somewhat humorous and quite telling story of the Buddha and a Brahman who sought relief from his 85 problems.

I think you will enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with Barrie Risman as much as I did! Prompted by a Facebook post, I reached out to Barrie and she gracefully accepted my invitation to chat about some of the philosophical aspects of the Yoga Tradition(s).

Barrie is an internationally-recognized yoga teacher, public speaker, and author. Her book, Evolving Your Yoga: Ten Principles for Enlightened Practice, is a guide for yoga teachers and continuing students to deepen, expand, and integrate the benefits of yoga in their lives. I'm pretty sure, as I make my way through her book, that I will be inviting Barrie for further exploration.

Barrie’s alignment-oriented approach to postural practice is grounded in principles of healthy, functional movement. Her events weave together the technical precision of alignment-based practice with principles of yoga philosophy distilled from decades of intensive study and made accessible and relevant to practitioners from all walks of life.

Inspired by the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in this episode, Pobsa examines the Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist understanding of atonement. He ends by sharing the Zen Buddhist Gatha of Atonement. 

In this first conversation-based episode of Pobsa's Dharma Lounge, recorded on June 2, 2022, I had the delight in reconnecting to my dharma brother, Muhan Jose Palma. We met over 20 years ago when we were both students of the Korean Son (Zen) Master, Samu Sunim. While I was on the Dharma Teacher track, Muhan was on the track to become a priest. After his ordination, he went on to train with Joan Halifax Roshi at Upaya Zen Center where he also received the new dharma name, Shinzan.

It’s been argued that contemporary mainstream western Buddhism has been co-opted by neo-liberal ideology. In this episode I use the deconstruction of the description of an online course offered by a celebrity Buddhist teacher and hosted by Tricycle, the Buddhist journal as a way to expose and critique the neo-liberal assumptions that permeate so much of contemporary Buddhism and the secularlized mindfulness movement, as well as contemporary yoga and "new-age" spirituality.

It was his engaging with the realities of aging, illness, and death that led the man who would become known as "the Buddha" to take up Dharma practice. After his awakening, he created the powerful practice of "The Five Remembrances" to help us wake up from complacency and denial in order to embrace reality and to live our life fully and intimately.

After a 17 minute introduction to the practice, I present a 16-minute guided practice of The Five Remembrances.

In the last ten days, I've learned of the death of three folks close to me or others whom I love, and just as I finished recording this episode, I saw the news that the composer Vangelis has died. I dedicate this episode to the memory of Kris Schaefer Rogers, Catherine Chai, and Jane Howard Baker and all those touched by the lives they have lived.