Whole Life Yoga Podcast

YOGA TOP 40 - using song titles as platforms to explore practical teachings from the heart of the yoga tradition.

I JUST DON"T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF

What if owning 'I do not know' is actually a key foundation to develop practical wisdom?

What if we could learn to relax in not knowing, to feel easy amidst the inevitable uncertainty of life?

Yoga begins, again and again when I acknowledge I do not know, when I orient towards life with curiosity and wonder, when I loosen my grip on...

So much useful information on the internet, and so much rubbish. There are lots of great channels sharing loads of great insights and information. However, so many 'influencers' are proselytising from the shallows, making bold declarations and false promises: 'THIS solves everything', 'THIS changes everything', 'the GREATEST...' In a marketplace that rewards volume and superficial attraction, where does one find real wisdom? Not with the latest thing, not through the miracle technique. Yoga begins when we own that we do not know. Humans want to be certain, but this desire for certainty is unfulfillable! Instead, how about we...

Italo Calvino’s Il Barone Rampante / Baron in the Trees is one of my favourite ever books. It was one of the texts/aesthetic experiences/works of art that gave me an undeniable experience of what is known in Sanskṛt as rasa - the flavour that art can invoke and evoke. 
When I first read it, in my second year of studying Italian, I also read the English translation. Curiously, my favourite episodes were different in the original and in the translation. Of course, any translation, however masterful ,will never be able to represent all of the same...

So do you have a yoga practice? 

This episode includes: What does sādhana mean? 

Is your practice helping keep your life orienting in the direction of your soul’s deeper and authentic longing? 

The potency of allowing some time for deep silence and meditation every day. 

The Medi-state as the foundation for yoga practice. 

Meditation and silence allowing us to connect to source, disconnect from the clutter and chaos of our conditioned perspectives, attenuate our attachments to the fleeting externals that will never bring us lasting peace or satisfac...

What is special about a whole life yoga retreat at Casa Cuadrau in the Spanish Pyrenees? 

From 2012-2019 I enjoyed the great boon of sharing retreats every year at beautiful Casa Cuadrau. Between the travel restrictions and Brexit complications of recent years there has been a painfully prolonged hiatus in my visits to this wonderfully nourishing part of the world. 

This year, 20-27 June 2026 I am very grateful to be returning to Casa Cuadrau at one of my favourite times of the year there.

June 20-27 Yoga and the Sun 

Celebrate the...

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai in una selva oscura perchè la dritta via mi era smarrità In the middle of the journey of our life, having lost my way - not seeing the clear way forward, in a dark forest, I came to myself... So begins Dante's Inferno, in a way that bears a striking resemblance to the beginning of the Bhagavad Gītā - in which the protagonist, Arjuna comes to realise the ways he has relied on up to that point are no longer adequate for the challenge he now finds himself in fron...

Centralised control and domination? That's an outdated story. Past its use by date.

Thinking we are smarter than Life? No, that story of hubris never sustains.

The new world is one of deeper harmony and cooperation, in which we remember our innate capacity to collaborate with all of life.

NEW ONLINE COURSE on the Bhagavad Gītā starts next Monday 23rd February.

One of the key teachings in the Gītā is how we can enact our dharma to support lokasaṅgraha - the wellbeing of the whole. How we can expres...

The battlefield setting of the Bhagavad Gītā coming in the midst of a vast epic centred around a war of powerful men fighting amongst themselves sometimes puts people off.

However, disregarding the Gītā's extraordinarily pragmatic teachings because we object to the setting is a tragic case of throwing baby out with bathwater.

Besides, have you not sometimes fought against yourself? Experienced yourself behaving in ways that are inimical to your higher good? 

Really, the Gītā is set in the thick of life, the battlefield is that of our own psyche...

Gaṇeśa, famed as the ‘remover of obstacles’ is so much more! Along with Śiva, Śakti/Mā/Mother Divine, Viṣṇu/Nārāyaṇa, Skanda/Subrahmaṇya/Kārtikeya/Murugan and Sūrya/Sun, Gaṇeśa is one of the six foremost ways of representing that which is beyond representation, totality/the source/ultimate reality in the Indic tradition.
Literally Gaṇeśa or Gaṇapati is the Lord/leader/the one who can bring together, reconcile and integrate all the gaṇa-s - all the members, all the parts, all the units. As such Gaṇeśa is a potent symbol of the...

The Rāmāyaṇa is one of the most treasured stories in the history of humanity. It was my privilege to soak in the teachings of this great epic of the yoga tradition during an autumn 2025 online course. This was also part of a yoga education program at ashtangayogavevey. 
During the 12 hour course, we explored the extraordinarily rich story of Rāmāyaṇa and gave speical attention to some key episodes, including Hanuman’s traversing the ocean to Lanka and in the example shared in this episode, Hanuman’s adventures in Lanka. 
Next semester, spring 2026 from late Febr...

Ahead of the October 17-19 weekend workshop, Moving with Integrity - A Yogic Perspective for the Dance of Life, facilitators Šuka and James sat down to discuss the motivations and perspectives behind their distinct and complementary work. Here Šuka asks James about how his approach to yoga and yogic education is perhaps different from what many people might experience in 'yoga classes', about his journey as student of yoga and Sanskrit and the principles that underpin his teachings. 

You can also watch James interviewing Šuka here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9ptBC71TZs&t=49s 

...

Ahead of this October's Moving with Integrity Weekend Workshop in Leipzig, Šuka and I sat down to share a little about our perspectives and approach to work. Šuka is a movement educator, who has integrated his passions for movement and music in the exploration and discipline of dance. 

A former professional dancer, Šuka now devotes himself to sharing and teaching his ongoing research into movement as a means to more richly experience what it means to be alive. 

Šuka's dance career began when he started practicing breakdance at the age of twelve in his hometown in Ger...

I am not ONLY this body

In certain circles,  one sometimes hears repeated pronouncements like ‘I am not this body’, ‘I am not this mind’, ‘I am not this ego’. 
These phrases are often derived from much more precise teachings encoded in the Sanskrit language.
Phrases like ‘I am not this body’ can be useful in helping us to open up or reconsider our perspetive, but they can also be misinterpreted. 
Here I share ideas to suggest that it may be more useful to consider the teaching more like, ‘I am not ONLY this body’.
The teachi...

Sacred Stories, Timeless Teachings - Myth, Mantra & Self-Inquiry in the Yogic Tradition 

In Conversation with Nadine Szumilas: 

- Why is story such a central and potent part of the yoga teaching tradition? 

- Why is Sanskrit so powerful, and what's different about reciting in Sanskṛt? 

- What is special about yogic mythology? 

And: what will we do in the Sacred stories - Timeless Teachings sessions? 

Sacred Stories, Timeless Teachings - Myth, Mantra & Self-Inquiry in the Yogic Tradition 

Autumn sessions 2025 at Ikigai Praha 

- “It all...

Yoga does not ask us to be anything we are not, but invites us on an unrelenting journey deeper into the heart of who we really are. 

This journey takes courage, honesty and an ongoing interrogation of our presuppositions, a willingness to explore how our perspectives are tinted and veiled by our particular experiences. 

When we gather with others in a confidential satsang - one in which we can explore honestly in confidence, without being shackled by fear of ostracisation or hasty condemnation - this is one of the most potent ways to accelerate the yo...

Despite the common dictionary definitions of nature as something separate from or other than human, really we are never separate from nature.

We are nature.

Nature is our very nature!

We are born, we will die, and in between those two great changes, we will experience constant change, just like everything else in nature.

Yoga works with human nature to practically invite us into the recognition and remembrance of our deeper, subtler nature.

www.jamesboagyoga.com

Dharma - one of the most foundational principles in yoga and the broader Indic tradition.
As a verb: that which supports, holds, sustains
As a noun: the essential quality or property of a thing. For example, liquidity, the tendency to flow downwards and follow a path of least resistance, coolness and sweet taste are all dharma-s of water. Luminosity and warmth are dharma-s of fire.
For humans: our capacity for self-reflexive awareness, our curiosity and our predilection for beauty are all intrinsic dharma-s.
Like many words in the Saṁskṛta language, dharma can shine its...

I believe in miracles...
I am reminded that I am a walking, breathing, pulsating miracle...
This amazing vehicle of a human body is a miracle, and it demonstrates our remarkable capacity as human beings to reconcile and integrate things that might seem impossible to bring into harmony.
The earth, water, fire and air of our bodily vehicles cohere in a space of beauty and sustained cohesion.
Our capacity for beauty, rhythm and harmony is greater than we might realise.
Yoga offers us a practical method to remember who we really are, reclaim our birthright...

On congruence and new year's resolutions
On being impeccable with our word and cultivating śraddhā - self-trust. 
Practising congruence between thoughts, speech and actions.
How speech - standing at the threshold between thoughts and actions - offers a powerful focus to help cultivate greater congruence, confidence and self trust.

With reference to the Sanskṛt subhāṣita 'wise saying':

Manasyekam vacasyekam karmaṇyekam mahātmanā |
Manasyanyat vacasyanyat karmaṇyanyat durātmanā ||

One whose thought, speech and action are one is a great soul.
One whose mind is one thing, whose spe...

This episode considers some of the rich layers of meaning encoded in one of the Sanskṛt verses that is traditionally sung before study of the Bhagavad Gītā:

Sarvo’paniṣado gāvaḥ dogdhā gopālanandanaḥ |
Partho vatsaḥ sudhīrbhoktāḥ dugdhaṃ gītāmṛtaṃmahat ||

All the upanisad-s are like the cows, Kṛṣṇa, joy of the cowherders, is the milker. His dear friend Arjuna, son of Pṛtha is the calf. The skilfully oriented - those with a wise outlook - enjoy the nectarine milk that is the Gītā. 

The Upaniṣad-s range far and wide, a...

In this fifth conversation with William S Whorton, I ask him about his success in avoiding some of the ways human beings sabotage their own lives that he became keenly aware of as a teenager. I also asked Bill about his marriage. When I worked with Bill at Chulalongkorn University, I was aware how many of the students were so moved and inspired by the way he spoke of his beautiful wife, as I was. During this conversation, Bill also shares lots of practical wisdom and insight around intuition, fear, learning and how to enter another culture as a...

In this first 'thanking the teachers/thoughts on the guru' episode, I give thanks to my third year junior school class teacher, Mrs Eggleston. During my schooling I was fortunate to have some wonderful teachers. I also encountered and survived others whom I would describe with different types of adjective. But I had enough great ones to help me learn at least to some degree how to learn. Mrs Eggleston impressed into my awareness some of what I consider the most important teachings of my whole school career, including: 
- Don't do something just because someone tells y...

In this fourth conversation with William S Whorton, I ask him about one of the formative experiences of his life that I have had the privilege of reading about, Bill's first encounter with the TRANSCENDENT through the music that came into his life as he walked past the Second Baptist Church one Sunday in his hometown as a teenager. Bill then went on to become the only white member of this church, and to meet spirit through music that took him beyond ordinary consciousness. We also talk about the role of enchantment on the way of practice and of...

I enjoyed this third conversation with William S Whorton, co-translator with Acharn Tassanee Sinsakul of The Bhagavad Gītā published last year by Uppsala Books: https://uppsalabooks.com/bg on the 65th anniversary of Bill's first day of training in the Marine Corps. It is a privilege to listen to Bill and receive some of the fruits of a lifetime of seeking and practice on the WAY of yoga and the sincere search for TRUTH. In this conversation we touch on themes of initiation and transformation, of apprenticeship and the role of desire, readiness and sacrifice on any genuine pa...

Yoga practice is EVERY DAY

As Rabindranath Tagore, translated by William Radice said it:

Every day, the dawn 
Brings a blessing
To whatever is still growing
Towards the Sun

Rabindranath Tagore - Sparks/ Sphuliṅga, 31

Yoga practice is an every day affair.
An all day, every day endeavour.
A day and night, summer and winter ever new commitment.

As Tagore’s words remind us, ‘every day, the dawn brings a blessing to whatever is still growing towards the sun.’

I first encountered this vers...

Sometimes people have the misperception that yoga is about 'chillaxing' or 'going with the flow'. Yoga is about balance. Sometimes of course, taking things easy and going with the flow is the optimal way of being, but if we just go with the flow, it won't be long before we are tipped over a waterfall, lacerated on razor rock or stranded in an oxbow lake...
Yoga practice is about getting in the flow and working with the intelligence of life.
If we just flow on with our previously established habits they will not carry us anywhere different...

A fairly freewheeling episode in which I share thoughts on mastery and apprenticeship. In recent weeks I have had the privilege and joy to share in person with several long term colleagues whom I had not seen for some time. More than once this topic came up. It seems in the world today that genuine mastery of a particular art, craft or discipline is perhaps rarer than only a short time ago. In a world that offers endless distractions that never bring lasting satisfaction and perpetuate some level of dis-ease, yoga offers a time-proven method to cultivate a lifelong...

Āsana literally means 'seat', the seat not just of our physical body, but of our whole psychic reality. Yoga techniques seek to cultivate a seat of awareness that is steady and clear, so we can move through the rich opportunities of life with greater poise, ease and in ways that can help us keep learning along the way. These days, āsana, or yoga posture practice, is one of the ways many people make some first kind of encounter with the perspectives of yoga. But beyond poses, posture, attitude and seat, what is āsana, what's it all about, what's the sto...

This May 8-12 2024 I will be collaborating with Clare Nicholls on a living the yoga sūtra-s immersive retreat during which we'll explore how we can embody the practical, whole life teachings of yoga. In this conversation, Clare and I share some of our ideas, motivations and experiences of teaching, practising and studying with nature as the guru. This includes a mention of the teachings and practice can help us attune more deeply to our essence - satya, how they can help us come into truer rhythm - ṛta and experience the vastness of who we really are bṛhat...

This week I'm going to be collaborating with Rosa Tagliafierro of ashtanga yoga italia in Milano, giving a weekend immersion in Italian. Here is an Italian themed podcast episode in which I share a yogic perspective on the Italian folk song Bella Ciao, a song I have sung since the first year I began learning Italian as an eighteen year old at university back in the 20th century.

In this episode I continue the conversation around the practical teachings of the Bhagavad Gītā with my friend and former colleague from Chulalongkorn University, Acharn Captain William S Whorton. As a combat veteran who has experienced and participated first hand in what he describes as an evil war, Bill brings a unique perspective to yoga and the teachings of the Bhagavad Gītā and how they can help us confront evil. He has recently published a translation of the Bhagavad Gītā, co-authored with Acharn Tassanee Sinsakul, which I highly recommend, published by Uppsala Books. All being well, I will...

In this conversation with Clare Nicholls, we consider:
- what does it mean to 'live the yoga sūtra-s'?
- why might a person might want to do that?
How can these teachings help us weave greater harmony into the fabric of our being. 
Clare and I will be facilitating a retreat exploring these teachings in greater depth this May 8th-12th in Switzerland:
https://thecolourandthechaos.com/evolving-through-embodying-patanjali/

Praha edition 2 - Jakob and the golden hearth

As I’m still in Prague, I’m continuing on the Prague theme, here sharing another of my favourite yoga stories from beyond the Indic tradition. This one is of Jakob and the golden hearth. It features the Karluv most/Charles Bridge and the Prague castle. And it also allows me to talk a little about Purāṇa - the timeless, perennially relevant stories of the yoga tradition that alert us to the gifts of our birth and the inner treasures we are always really conected to. If you enjoy t...

I am in the beautiful capital of Bohemia, not far from the Vltava river. In this episode I share a story of Princess Kolobiska, the young woman who knows how to find the sure way through even seemingly impossible situations by finding the middle path. This story from Czech folklore I know better from Italo Calvino’s Fiabe Italiane, where it is one of my favourites, the story of Caterina - La Contadina Furba.
In this episode, with reference to these yogic folk stories, to Prague and to the Bhagavad Gītā, I talk about how yoga happens in t...

In this episode I am in conversation with my friend and former colleague from Chulalongkorn University, Acharn Captain William S Whorton.
Over the last twenty-four years, together with our great Sanskṛt teacher Acharn Tassanee Sinsakul, Bill has been studying and translating the Bhagavad Gītā. Their unique translation was recently published by Uppsala Books https://uppsalabooks.com/bg
And I highly recommend it!
The appendices and essays are great treasures, and the translation invites us into the ongoing inquiry that is the heart of practice with concise, stimulating translators’ notes throughout. 
This work is the fru...

Let us not get lost in lamentation! As Kṛṣṇa urges us in the Bhagavad Gītā, life will involve gain and loss, joy and sorrow, hot and cold, pleasure and pain. The coming and going of these pairs of opposites is inevitable. Once we have felt and acknowledged something, no need to get fixated on it. Let us cultivate steady awareness so we can move through the inevitable ups and downs of life with greater ease, so we can learn, grow and enjoy more easily. As Clarissa Pinkola Estés has sometimes advised: 'Do not complain, do not criticise...

Yoga wants to set us free, but in what sense?

Why does yoga matter? Why is it so helpful and relevant today? This episode considers some of the timeless principles of yoga and how we can work with them to help foster deeper harmony in our lives today.

On Kīrtan - Yoga of Sound and Song

There are so many ways to practice yoga. Yet from a certain perspective, most yoga techniques are in some way about sound, vibration and harmonisation. Kīrtan is one of the techniques I especially enjoy sharing, here I share some thoughts on what kīrtan is, why and how it’s beneficial and in so doing attempt to illustrate how time working with yoga techniques makes it easier to practice yoga the rest of the time.
You can read more about kīrtan on my website:
https...

First episode in the Whole Life Yoga Podcast. On faith and courage, or more precisely śraddhā and vīrya - the first two qualities Patañjali sets out as essential for yoga practice. 
Bringing the ancient, timeless, perennial teachings of yoga to vivid life. Unscripted talks on whole life yoga. Considering life through a yogic lens. Exploring the yoga of the whole human being with reference to the classic Sanskṛt texts of the yoga tradition, mythology, poetry, literature and music, and to movement, meditation, kīrtan and the yoga of sound and song, language and communciation. www.jamesboa...