Yoga, Trauma and Activism: Overcoming The Kleśas

Sundary and Sunday, February 22, 23, March 1, 2 12:00-1:30 EST/ 9:00-10:30 pm PST

According to Yoga, vitality is a state of personal integration. Trauma in contrast is the fragmentation of the self. This image symbolizes the trauma according to Yoga. Superimposed is Yoga Sūtra II.3, which elucidates the origins of trauma. While it has become popular to discuss trauma as something that should inform Yoga, this betrays an ignore-ance of the original texts of Yoga, which treated trauma as the basic topic to be explained and dealt with. The failure to address the ancient roots of Yoga as a philosophy of trauma not only deprives us of its principled and effective diagnosis and cures of trauma---JOY---, it perpetuates a colonial approach to Yoga. In our 𝙇𝙄𝙑𝙀training we shall explore these issues and how participants can learn from Yoga without engaging in the mis-appropriation of Yoga. The structure of this live training is discursive, with time allotted for 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙌 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘼. This course provides you an opportunity during the live trainings to directly interact with your Course Director, Dr. Shyam Ranganathan, MA, MA, PhD, YACEP, CYA-E-RYTGOLD.

Syllabus for Four LIVE Sessions with interactive Q and A

Recordings will be available for 30 days after the end of training for those participants who were unable to join live.

  • 1. Yoga: First Philosophy of Trauma (February 22, 12:00-1:30 pm EST/9:00-10:30 am PST)

    In this session, we will learn about the origins of Yoga as a South Asian criticism of earlier Indo-European ideas of the natural world, and how this origin provides a frame for the analysis of trauma. We next shift the focus to the Yoga Sūtra where we learn that trauma is the main topic of Book 1. Students will be lead on a reflective investigation into the contrast between Yoga as the first philosophy of trauma, and contemporary discourses on yoga, as though yoga needs to be sensitive to trauma.

  • 2. The Mechanisms of Trauma (February 23 12:00-1:30 pm EST/9:00-10:30 am PST)

    In this lesson we follow in detail two flow charts from the Yoga Sūtra depicting the creation of trauma---or kleśa to use its term. Students will learn how trauma is generated by ego, or an identification with experience, and how Yoga in contrast is a philosophy of self-allyship. We will explore the psychological mechanisms of traumatic experiences, according to Yoga. Students will learn to distinguish the ancient and systematic approach to trauma from current, colonial approaches to trauma and yoga, which are not principled, and make no reference to Yoga.

  • 3. The Alleviation of Trauma (March 1 12:00-1:30 pm EST/9:00-10:30 am PST)

    In this session, students will be exposed to several approaches to the alleviation of trauma, with special concern and interest to identify the Buddhist approach, which treats duḥkha (trauma) as what is to be alleviated, Jainism, which treats trauma as a function of action, from the Yoga analysis, which treats trauma (what it calls kleśa) as a symptom of personal injury. These approaches have importantly different outcomes. Students will learn how to identify the origins of trauma on a Yoga account, and alleviate trauma by depriving the root of trauma.

  • 4. The Ethics and Politics of Trauma (March 2 12:00-1:30 pm EST/9:00-10:30 am PST)

    On a Yoga account, the root of trauma is personal injury. But personal injury is actually a moral or ethical injury, which deprives the individual the space they need to thrive. And this undermining of personal space is often political, being itself a function of wider social regularities. In this concluding session, we will look at the ways in which the Yoga tradition is explicit that the alleviation of kleśas is only possible through moral activism, which leads to joy.

Download the Syllabus

For those interested please feel free to download the syllabus for further consideration.

Pricing options

𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜: $179, for students who need financial support. 𝙎𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙧 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜: $249, for students who can afford to pay for their own enrollment. 𝙎𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜: $295, for attendees who would like to contribute to another student's enrollment.

Shyam Ranganathan, MA, MA, PhD, YACEP, CYA-E-RYTGOLD, DE&I Advisor, Scholar Practitioner of Yoga (he/him/his)

Your co-instructor

Dr. Shyam Ranganathan is a member of the Department of Philosophy at York University in Toronto, and the York Center for Asian Research. Dr. Ranganathan is also a DE&I consultant for small and large scale organizations. Shyam is unique in the Yoga world as he is both a trained philosopher and scholar of South Asia and a scholar practitioner of Yoga. He is a field changing researcher, who has spent the last two decades identifying and treating problems of translating and understanding BIPOC philosophy and appropriation in the academy. He is translator and commentator of Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra (Penguin 2008), editor of two scholarly volumes, author of two monographs, and over 50 peer-reviewed, yoga related articles. Shyam is an experienced teacher of students of various degrees of exposure to philosophy and yoga, with over 20000 hours of teaching experience, and over 4000 students to date. Shyam holds an MA in South Asian Studies, an MA and PhD in philosophy, and is a CYA-E-RYTGOLD yoga teacher (over 1000 hours training). He is also founder of YogaPhilosophy.Com, the first yoga philosophy education school run by a professional philosopher and scholar of yoga---and has formed the first certification program for Yoga Philosophy that meets the standards of professional philosophy instruction. Follow Shyam on IG @yogaphilosophy_com.

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FAQ

  • If I do not understand something, may I ask questions during the class?

    A majority of time will be dedicated to student questions that will be answered by Dr. Shyam Ranganathan. All participants will have an opportunity to explore this topic and receive guidance from Dr. Ranganathan.

  • Do I have to know anything about Yoga or Trauma to attend?

    This presentation assumes no background knowledge. All topics will be explained in detail by Anusha Wijeyakumar and Dr. Shyam Ranganathan.

  • Will I be able to participate if I cannot make the specified times.

    The specified times are when the class will meet with Dr. Shyam Ranganathan to explore the workshop topic. However, all participants will have access to the recording of the class for 30 days. You may listen to the recoding at your convenience.

Space is Limited to Facilitate interactive Q and A

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