Crazy Wisdom

Crazy Wisdom

Tantra isn't what pop-culture has you thinking it is - Ashton Szabo

September 2, 2020 · 49 min

MP3 · Apple Podcasts · Spotify

About this episode

Ashton is a martial artist and yoga instructor dedicated to the exploration of human consciousness. He spent six and a half years traveling the world and has spent even more time practicing with various yoga instructors. In this episode, we discuss tantra yoga, the nature of bliss, meditation, escapism, wisdom traditions, and so on. Ashton's forte is tantric yoga and you can interact with his ideas at his website: yogawithashton.com, on his podcast: The anatomy of living, and on Instagram @yogawithashton. Enjoy.

(3:48) Tantra is not what pop-culture has made you think it is.

(7:04) Do you know you can pick out caves in North India for meditation retreat purposes?

(8:21) Is your meditation practice really a tool to help you better handle the world or are you just using it as an escape from the world?

(10:10) The wrong way to approach Yoga.

(13:27) Why we can never fully rely on our beliefs

(17:10) What Tantra can teach us about navigating differences

(21:44) The goal of tantra (Hint: it has very little to do with the sexual or supernatural stuff)

(27:22) How tantra avoids the fall into escapism

(31:36) The point of tantra is how you reintegrate the insights you gain from states of samadhi into your daily life, rather than falling back into autopilot.

(37:00) Is integration a practice or an attitude?

(38:52) Freedom isn’t really about being able to do whatever your impulses dictate

(43:32) Bliss isn’t happiness or pleasure

 

Episode transcript
Stewart Alsop III00:00

Welcome to the Crazy Wisdom Podcast. This podcast doesn't really have a specific theme. It covers a lot of my interests. It covers a lot of other people's interests. It goes into philosophy, spirituality, business, how to live a good life, many different things. Ultimately, I don't believe in having themes for the things that we do. We can categorize the things and obviously we categorize things all the time, but I like to keep things open ended a continuous process of discovering the truth as it is. And the truth is tricky because we can't really get to the truth exactly, because the truth is non linear. It is, in the words of John Vervaeke, combinatorially explosive. Even the truth of this window that I'm looking at, the window itself, the glass that makes up the window, is combinatorially explosive. The cup that holds your water is combinatorially explosive. You cannot model that cup totally in your head. You're only getting an image of it with your eyes and your brain. That's not the actual cup itself. So this show is a discovery of truth wherever it may appear. By talking to people from various different fields. I've talked to artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, investors, refugees, just talking to anybody who has a glimpse into the truth. And through this conversation, through this mutual inquiry into what is true, what is real, hopefully we get to something that is helpful for to you now. We are in a time of crisis right now, but it is in those times of crisis that we find our strength. And so this show hopefully will help you to find the strength that is resting, that is deep inside of you, that is part of your birthright as a human being and find that strength so that you can get through these difficult times. Also, I want to let you know that I'm offering breathwork sessions every day. I've got seven sessions a day and really excited to bring this to people. People have been really enjoying it and it has brought strength to people and courage. And that's my goal, is to help you find the courage to not only survive, but to thrive in the next couple years. Maybe because this virus is not going away. Usually viruses come in waves, so this is the first wave. It will go away and then it might come back. I'm not saying that I know for sure it will come back, but we are in this for the long haul. So this is a marathon, not a sprint. And I want to do everything I can to help you not only survive, but to thrive. So if you are interested in that, please find me on Twitter ewartalsopiii. My DMs are open. I'd love to hear about what you think about this show. Also, it'd be very, very kind of you to both subscribe to the show on Spotify, Stitcher, itunes, many of the major platforms. And if you're really feeling generous, go ahead and give a review on itunes. So join me for the breathwork. Just send me a message on Twitter ewart allsoppiii with your email and I'll add you to the email list where I where I'm sending out emails for the schedule.

Your first full transcript is free. After that, an email opens every transcript in the index — a list of readers we can write to, not a guest book.

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