Course curriculum

  • 1

    Welcome! Start here!

    • Course Description and Learning Objectives

      FREE PREVIEW

    • 2026 UPDATED Welcome video!

    • Welcome video! (original)

    • Logistics: Sessions and Connecting

    • Community Standards and Commitments

    • Basic Syllabus Arc

    • Written Assignments, Reflections, and Final Project

    • Texts and Readings (in process)

    • Broader Bibliography of Readings

  • 2

    Module 1: What Is Yoga—and Who Gets to Decide?

    • Session 1 Video

    • Audio, Session 1

    • Chat transcript, Session 1

    • Session 1: Readings, Watching, and Considering

    • Additional Resources

    • David Gordon White, "Yoga, Brief History of an Idea"

    • Ian Whicher, "The Term Yoga"

    • Andrea Jain, "Who Is to Say Modern Yoga Practitioners Have It All Wrong?"

    • Roots of Yoga (Mallinson and Singleton) Intro and Ch. 1

    • Gavin Flood Intro Chs 1-2.pdf
  • 3

    Module 2: The Ascetic Turn: Śramaṇa Movements and Early Experiments in Liberation

    • Session 2 video: Śramana emergence

    • Chat from session 2

    • Session 2: Readings, Watching, Considerations

    • Buddha's teaching of the arrow

    • Samuel: “The origins of Buddhist and Jaina orders” from Origins of Yoga and Tantra PDF

    • The Early History of Renunciation by Patrick Olivelle

    • "The Path to Liberation...Ayurveda" Dominik Wjastyk (PDF)

    • Bronkhorst: Historical Context of Early Asceticism

    • Brāhmaṇical Asceticism and Śramaṇa Traditions (Sarbacker)
  • 4

    Module 3: Selves, Bodies, and Liberation: The Early Upaniṣad-s

    • Session 3 Readings: The Early Upaniṣad-s, Vedanta

    • Session 3 Video 1: Early Upaniṣad-s

    • Session 3 Video 2: Early Upaniṣad-s

    • Session 3 Audio Part

    • Session 3 Audio Part 2: Early Upaniṣad-s

    • Session 3 Chat

    • Intro to Upaniṣads (Olivelle)

    • “Yoga in the Yoga Upaniṣads: Disciplines of the Mystical OM Sound” (Jeffrey Clark Ruff )

    • Chants from Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad
  • 5

    Module 4: Sāṃkhya Darśana: A Yogic Cosmology

    • Sāṃkhya: Read, Watch, consider

    • Session 4 Video Part I Sāṃkhya

    • Session 4 Video Part 2 Sāṃkhya

    • Session 4 Audio Part I Sāṃkhya

    • Session 4 Audio Part 2 Sāṃkhya

    • Session 4 Chat Transcript Sāṃkhya

    • Session 5 Video Part 1: Samkhya Con't

    • Session 5 Video Part II: Samkhya Con't

    • Session 5 Audio Part 1: Samkhya con't

    • Session 5 Audio Part II: Samkhya con't

    • Session 5 Chat Transcript

    • Sāṃkhya Chart

    • "Samkhya" in An Introduction to Hinduism (Flood) PDF

    • Ayurvedic Constitution

    • Ayurveda: A Brief Introduction And Guide (Vasant Lad)

    • Ayurvedic Vikruti (Current State)