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Online Programs via zoom
Yoga is a four-letter word - Part One Four consecutive Tuesdays 14, 21, 28 December 2021 and 4 January 2022 6:30-8:30pm UK time, via zoom. Participants receive the audio recording after each session. Course fee £92 Scholarship and assisted places available Email james@jamesboagyoga.com to sign up About this course Yoga is a four-letter word. Part One Like many four-letter words, the true depth, breadth and glory of what yoga really means is sometimes veiled, even lost or inverted by its casual overuse. In this course we will explore the foundational yoga principle of satya, truthfulness, through the lens of some commonly used words that are potentially sources of great, healing power. In each session, we will use a ‘common’ word as a platform to explore yoga principles in practical, rehabilitative application and a lens to deepen our understanding of yoga as a whole life practice. We will consider: -The primacy of sat and satya in the yoga tradition and method -Why we need to rehabilitate some important words in our language and how we can do it. -How yoga practice invites us to harness the power of language to strengthen sovereingty, authority and self-trust. -Why is the word for one of the most sacred places in our existence a swear word? -What are the consequences and possible causes of this and what can we do about it? -How we can decolonise our minds from the prisons of inverted language. -How by reappraising some four letter words that are often used in ways that dimimish our power we can actually come to greater empowerment and a healthier, more intimate relationship with reality -How our relationship to language can help us reclaim authority and deepen authenticity. Yoga is a four letter word - a few more introductory thoughts ‘Satyam eva jayate’ - truth alone prevails - so it is stated in the Mahābhārata epic. Truth and truthfulness are at the heart of the Indian tradition, and are the life pulse of yoga, the practical school of this broader philosophical tradition. Satyapratiṣṭhāyām kriyāphalāśrayatvam When there is establishment in satya - truthfulness - there is concomitance of action and its fruit. So it is said in the Yoga Sūtra. The more one is established in truthfulness, the more reliable one becomes. What one says comes to realisation. One’s actions bring the intended fruit. In other words, the more one practices truthfulness, the more one becomes established in authenticity, and real authority. Further, the more we practice and attune to truthfulness, the easier it becomes to discern the false note, and to catch ourselves if we stray from authenticity and truth. The more we orient to truth, the deeper our lived, embodied commitment to it, the closer we gravitate to it. The more we practice truthfulness, the more we enter into ‘confidence’ with it. Truth becomes our friend, our companion. We join ourselves more keenly to the indestructible. So what then of some of our current so called ‘leaders’? What of the politician whose daily practice is duplicity? Though really that’s not the way to say it, is it? Because there are so many more than two ‘versions’ of the stories so many of these politicos spin to the public. What of the person who makes a habit of lying? Such a person becomes estranged from the truth. A person who abandons truth, is in turn abandoned by truth and abandoned by genuine authority. Hence the proclivity of so many false leaders to cling more and more to tyrannical imposition and ‘authoritarianism’; to use a dark-shirted, uniformed, faceless mass as the instrument of its armour against its own fragility. Because the elaborate lies are always only a house of cards. They will fall down when the storm of truth blows through. Or, to use a metaphor from the Mahābhārata, the ways of deception are a house of lac, and, irresistibly, inevitably, they will be razed and exposed as the falsehood they are when the fire of truth catches and ashes their intricate deceit. Still, when we look around, and when we are exposed to the messages spun by these false leaders, it can seem that we are abiding in this house of lac, what to do? ‘What can we do?’ Some might say, throwing their hands in the air. There is a telling proverb in Sanskṛt: that the sovereign shapes the time, not the other way around. The time, the zeitgeist, the contemporary trends will always exert a certain influence. But the genuine sovereign acts from a deeper, more perennial place, orients from a truer compass, draws succour from a truer source. So what can we do, when we look around and see so-called leaders who are trapped in delusion, whose daily practice is deceit, of whom we might genuinely wonder whether they may even still be able to recognise truth? What to do? What yoga has enjoined us to do for millennia. Reclaim our own sovereignty. Build and rebuild our self-trust. Recalibrate, rehabilitate, reclaim our connection to conscience. This is possible, yoga tells us. Though the zeitgeist might tell us it’s impossible. Yoga reminds us, this requires courage, persistence, consistency, constancy. Again and again, we make and renew the simple, honest effort, wherever we are. This can seem hard, but just a little effort in this direction brings affirming results. This practice is its own reward. It is a self-propelling system, provided we keep at it. Reclaiming our sovereignty. It’s what this yoga is for. If you are keen to explore this yoga more, please consider joining me in this upcoming course on yoga and truthfulness, authenticity, language: yoga is a four letter word - part one. ... 
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Audio/Video Resources
James Boag Yoga Youtube channel James Boag Yoga Soundcloud Listen to James singing kirtan with his sister Elizabeth on Soundcloud Hear James in conversation about practical yoga philosophy with his colleague Paul Millage Yoga Anytime Online Courses
YOGA NOW themed practical philosophy talks filmed live spring 2021
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Recorded Februrary 2017. In-depth, practical exploration of Chapter One of this treasure text of the yoga tradition, with movement, meditation, and sound practices too. 
The Mythology Show
Recorded September 2015, exploring the practical riches of mythology in the yoga tradition, with episodes on Ganesa, Mother Divine and Hanuman. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 course 15+ hours of content, recorded June/July 2015, includes: introduction, series on recitation and series going through the practical teachings of Chapter Two, working from the original Sanskrit, with stories and songs along the way. Use code JAMESBOAG for 30 day free trial on yogaanytime.com 
Archive Videos on vimeo
Click on the link below to access a series of teaching and recitation videos of James made by Laura Lea Nalle in Mysore 2013 http://vimeo.com/channels/namaste Click here for recent blog article about James Contact email: james@jamesboagyoga.com |
James Boag Yoga
Yoga is balance, integration, skilfulness and efficiency. Yoga practice is about cultivating sustainable harmony.
Yoga is about the whole of our lives: everything we do, all we experience. It is about stretching our understanding of who we really are, strengthening our connection to the innate wisdom of our conscience and rehabilitating our broader human capacities while working respectfully with the realities of our individual natures and our diverse responsibilities.
Yoga practice is about training ourselves to be able to find joy in the everyday wonder of life and steadiness in the face of its inevitable challenges.
It is about meeting and refining our own patterns and habits and inviting ways of being that are conducive to sustainable, integrated health and wellbeing.
James works with a range of mutually complementary lenses to explore yoga principles in practical application, including: principle-based asana, natural movement, meditation, kirtan singing and chanting, storytelling and interpretation, satsang talks, discussion and inquiry, nourishing high quality food and time outdoors.
Yoga is about the whole of our lives: everything we do, all we experience. It is about stretching our understanding of who we really are, strengthening our connection to the innate wisdom of our conscience and rehabilitating our broader human capacities while working respectfully with the realities of our individual natures and our diverse responsibilities.
Yoga practice is about training ourselves to be able to find joy in the everyday wonder of life and steadiness in the face of its inevitable challenges.
It is about meeting and refining our own patterns and habits and inviting ways of being that are conducive to sustainable, integrated health and wellbeing.
James works with a range of mutually complementary lenses to explore yoga principles in practical application, including: principle-based asana, natural movement, meditation, kirtan singing and chanting, storytelling and interpretation, satsang talks, discussion and inquiry, nourishing high quality food and time outdoors.
