CHITHEADS with Jacob Kyle (Embodied Philosophy)

Eddie Stern is the co-founder of Ashtanga Yoga New York, the Brooklyn Yoga Club and the Broome Street Ganesha Temple. He studied Ashtanga Yoga under Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, of Mysore, South India, for 18 years. Eddie has published several books on Pattabhi Jois and Astanga Yoga, including a translation of Pattabhi Jois’s 1960 treatise, Yoga Mala. He co-founded the Urban Yogi program along with Deepak Chopra and Erica Ford, which introduces inner-city youth to yoga and meditation, teaching them powerful transformative tools that they can bring back into their communities, with some of the youth becoming teachers themselves. Eddie also leads a team that writes health and wellness curriculums, based on yoga and mindfulness, for under-served public school districts, which has been implemented in over 100 schools. His school wellness protocols have been studied by the University of San Diego, Long Island University and Stanford University, showing increases in GPA, attendance and physical fitness.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeffery D. Long is Professor of Religion and Asian Studies at Elizabethtown College, in Pennsylvania. He is associated with the Vedanta Society, DĀNAM (the Dharma Academy of North America) and the Hindu American Foundation. A major theme of Long's work is religious pluralism, a topic he approaches from a perspective informed by the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and which he refers to as a "Hindu process theology." Dr. Long has authored three books, A Vision for Hinduism: Beyond Hindu Nationalism, Jainism: An Introduction, and The Historical Dictionary of Hinduism. He has published and presented a number of articles and papers in various forums including the Association for Asian Studies, the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, and the American Academy of Religion. He is currently working on three manuscripts: Indian Philosophy: An Introduction, a book on Hinduism in America, and another on Swami Vivekenanda and his teachings.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sally Kempton is a master of meditation, yoga philosophy, and practical tantric philosophy. Her retreats and workshops are known for creating breakthroughs, born of her ability to help people turn sublime truths into lived, and life-shifting, experience. Sally spent 20 years as a swami in a Vedic order, and has been studying and teaching spiritual wisdom for 40 years. She is the author of Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga and Meditation for the Love of It, a seminal book on basic meditation practice, and writes the popular Yoga Journal column, Wisdom. Learn more at sallykempton.com.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rod Stryker (also known as Yogarupa) is widely considered one of the West's leading authorities on yoga, tantra and meditation. He has taught for more than thirty-five years, is the founder of ParaYoga® and author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom. Rod has contributed to countless wellness publications and recently launched one of the most comprehensive online yoga teacher trainings in the world. At the forefront of integrating ancient yogic wisdom into a broad array of modern-day applications, he is a thought leader and mentor to thousands of ParaYoga practitioners and hundreds of teachers throughout the world. Rod lives in Colorado with his wife and four children.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shambhavi is the spiritual director of Jaya Kula. Her principle training is in the View and practices of Trika Shaivism, the classical Tantrik tradition of Kashmir, and the Dzogchen tradition of Tibet. She has been fortunate to have trained with several great teachers in these and other nondual traditions. Shambhavi is a householder sannyasini and a devotee of Anandamayi Ma. She hopes to bring more people to an understanding of the breadth and depth of Ma’s teachings. Read more about Anandamayi Ma. Shambhavi has studied Ayurveda for self-care for the past 15 years. She is also a Vedic astrologer and expert diviner. She is the author of Tantra: the Play of Awakening (2012), Pilgrims to Opennness: Direct Realization Tantra in Everyday Life (2009), Returning  (2015), and No Retreat: Poems on the Way to Waking Up (2016). In addition, she published an academic book, Avatar Bodies: a Tantra for Posthumanism. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Mills College and a Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University. Shambhavi left academia in 2004 in order to devote herself to practice, writing and teaching in her spiritual tradition.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mary Reilly Nichols holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Harvard University and completed five years of residency in meditation ashrams in India and the US.  A devoted student of Muktananda, she has taught yoga and meditation in New York City for over thirty years. Her teaching combines Iyengar, Integral and Anusara styles of Hatha Yoga with the Upanishadic tradition of the wisdom and experience of non-duality. She offers frequent workshops on classical yoga philosophy and psychology, including Advaita Non-Dualism and the Tantric methods of Kashmiri Shaivism. Currently, Ms. Nichols teaches stress management in psychiatric settings and is involved in ongoing research on the mind/body benefits of yoga and meditation.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jay L. Garfield directs the Smith's Logic and Buddhist Studies programs and the Five College Tibetan Studies in India program. He is also visiting professor of Buddhist Philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, professor of philosophy at Melbourne University and adjunct professor of philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies. Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; the history of Indian philosophy during the colonial period; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. Garfield’s most recent books are Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance (with Nalini Bhushan, 2017), Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept: A Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet (with Douglas Duckworth, David Eckel, John Powers, Yeshes Thabkhas and Sonam Thakchöe, 2016) Engaging Buddhism: Why it Matters to Philosophy (2015), Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness (with the Cowherds, 2015) and (edited, with Jan Westerhoff), Madhyamaka and Yogācāra: Allies or Rivals? (2015). He is currently working on a book with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest and Robert Sharf, What Can’t Be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Philosophy; a book on Hume’s Treatise, The Concealed Operations of Custom: Hume’s Treatise from the Inside Out; a large collaborative project on Geluk-Sakya epistemological debates in 15th- to 18th-century Tibet following on Taktshang Lotsawa’s 18 Great Contradictions in the Thought of Tsongkhapa and empirical research with another team on the impact of religious ideology on attitudes toward death.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matthew Remski has been practicing meditation since 1996 and asana since 2000. He’s taught yoga, yoga philosophy, and Ayurveda in Toronto and beyond since 2005. He maintains an active Ayurveda consultation practice from his home, which he shares with his partner Alix, and their son Jacob. He’s authored several books on yoga and related subjects, and is working towards completing What Are We Actually Doing in Asana? — an examination of pain, injury, and healing in modern yoga. His blog hosts an average of 20K readers per month: http://matthewremski.com/wordpress/.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joe Loizzo, M.D., Ph.D. is a contemplative psychotherapist, clinical researcher, and Buddhist scholar-teacher who integrates ancient contemplative science and technology with current breakthroughs in neuroscience and optimal health. After training in psychiatry at Harvard and completing a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies at Columbia, he founded Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science, a non-profit that helps people build sustainable happiness, compassion, and leadership through integrating science-based contemplative skills into their daily lives.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Born in New York City in 1952, Sharon Salzberg experienced a childhood involving considerable loss and turmoil. An early realization of the power of meditation to overcome personal suffering determined her life direction. Her teaching and writing now communicates that power to a worldwide audience of practitioners. She offers non-sectarian retreat and study opportunities for participants from widely diverse backgrounds.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.