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Website & The Path of Knowledge course: truthofyoga.com
Instagram: @truthofyoga
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Episode 20: Daniel C. Simpson on What We Get Wrong About Yoga
What is yoga really—and how much of what we practise today actually comes from ancient tradition?
In this episode, Matt Huy talks with Daniel C. Simpson, author of The Truth of Yoga and teacher at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, about the history and philosophy of yoga, how yoga has evolved, and why there may never have been one single “true” yoga.
Simpson challenges some common assumptions about yoga’s past while exploring how we can engage with ancient teachings without treating them as unquestionable truths.
In this episode, we explore:
- Why there is no single “true” version of yoga
- The origins of chakras—and why the modern rainbow chakra system isn’t ancient
- Why chakras shouldn’t simply be mapped onto nerves or endocrine glands
- How yoga evolved from meditation and breath awareness into modern postural practice
- Tapas, discomfort and learning to be okay when things aren’t okay
- Desire, suffering and what yoga teaches us about contentment
- Why Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras may be very different from how they’re presented on teacher trainings
- The supernatural siddhis described in the later Yoga Sutras
- How the Bhagavad Gita offers a very different vision of yoga
- Dharma, right action and acting without attachment to the outcome
- Why modern postural yoga isn’t “wrong” simply because it’s modern
- Krishnamacharya, Kuvalayananda and the development of modern asana
- Cultural appropriation, colonialism and how yoga traditions have always borrowed and evolved
- How yoga teachers can bring more philosophy into classes without turning them into lectures
- Why critical thinking belongs at the heart of yoga
About Daniel
Daniel C. Simpson is the author of The Truth of Yoga and teaches at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. He holds a Master’s degree in Yoga Studies from SOAS University of London and hosts the Ancient Futures podcast.
His work explores yoga’s history and philosophy while asking how ancient ideas can meaningfully—and honestly—inform modern practice.
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