52. Tamara Cohen | Exploring the Mokṣopāya and Yogavāsiṣṭha

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Tamara Cohen about her background in Siddha Yoga, meditation, and how she came to pursue a PhD at the University of Toronto on the Yogavāsiṣṭha. We discuss the dream-like nature of the text and its unique nondualism, the textual history of the Yogavāsiṣṭha and its earlier recension known as the Mokṣopāya, the role of the term haṭhayoga within the text, and in what ways the Mokṣopāya/Yogavāsiṣṭha should be considered an important work on yoga. 

We conclude by discuss her live online course, YS 218 | The Yogavāsiṣṭha, which is currently available for enrollment.

Speaker Bio

Tamara is the Ludo and Rosane Rocher Foundation Fellow for 2024-2026 at the University of Virginia, where she works with John Nemec on the connections between the Mokṣopāya, a text from mid-10th century Kashmir, and nondual Tantric Śaivism. Tamara completed her PhD in 2023 at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Srilata Raman in Toronto and Jürgen Hanneder in Marburg, Germany. Tamara's research touches on the early history of Yoga, nondual philosophy in Hinduism and Buddhism, and Sanskrit literary traditions. Her book (in process) revises her dissertation, tracing the textual affiliations of the Mokṣopāya using the stories that depict the body and its transformations on the path to liberation. In the book, she shifts her focus from historical context to a study of the text’s Yoga system. Tamara has been a practitioner of Siddha Yoga Mediation since 1994 and she completed a 300 hour Yoga Teacher Training in 2018 at Ahimsa Yoga in Toronto. In 2022, Tamara became certified in Integrated Attachment Trauma coach, Gibson Method.

Links

• YS 218 | The Yogavāsiṣṭha
• "Yoga in the Mokṣopāya." PhD dissertation, University of Toronto. 2023.
• "Uddālaka’s Yoga in the Mokṣopāya." Religions. 2020.