Making the Whole Field Sing

-Whole group discussion will be recorded and available for everyone on the course to watch/listen/review.

Definitely. Throughout the course, participants are encouraged to email me questions/reflections between sessions which we can then explore in subsequent sessions.

All audio and video recordings of sessions are added to the online course portal directly after each session. All participants will have access to these along with any additional notes, inquiry exercises, and slides/images that are used for the duration of the course and through to the end of July 2025.

The enrolment via the thinkific course portal usually works fine for international payments. It is also possible to make a one-off payment via Paypal or bank transfer if you prefer.

Yes, a monthly payment plan is available.

Yes, for sure! As more than one of my Indian teachers has said, the most important qualificaton for study or practice is the desire to do so. If you are interested in this course, it is likely an indication that it will serve you very well.
One of the beautiful things about the yogic texts is the way they meet us where we are. The miracle-mirror text of the Gītā is such that it offers us practical guidance and insight every time we look into it. Whether this is your very first contact with yoga texts and perspectives, or you have been studying for decades, it is always nourishing, supportive and revealing to dive into study of the Gītā.

100%. If you come to the sessions and read the materials, this is pretty much guaranteed. You will also receive fairly thorough notes on terminology. By the end of this course it is realistic that you will be able to relate to at least several key verses in the original Sanskṛt as we’ll have become well familiar with the reach and practical import of key Sanskṛt terms that defy translation. Through the course, you’ll be able to develop and deepen your own evolving understanding of the text and the principles it encodes so that consulting published translations can be useful rather than confining.

We will be working from the original Sanskṛt! The text will be provided. This will allow us to fashion our own dynamic, working translation and interpret the verses in ways that maintain their capacity to shine out their practical meaning, meet us where we are and give us useful guidance wherever we find ourselves..
With regards to recommended translations. There are many great resources available. If you are interested in getting closer to the Sanskṛt, the Winthrop Sargeant version with word by word analysis is very helpful.
Apart from that, there are many versions that are full of merit and it is often interesting to read several and compare. Paramahansa Yogananda’s translation with commentary, God Talks with Arjuna, in two volumes, is a wonderful resource. I know many people really appreciate the Stephen Mitchell and Eknath Easwaran versions.
I also recommend the translation by my teacher Tassanne Sinsakul and friend/colleague William S Whorton too, which distils lots of rich insight into a concise edition. Roopa Pai’s The Gītā for Children is a great resource too.

Good question! I think we can certainly start to do this! The Gītā is given in the middle of the battlefield – in the thick of the whirling wonder of life. Kṛṣṇa’s teachings are timeless and extraordinarily practical. People who have studied this chapter in depth with me before have commented, some of them now more than a decade on, how the course was life-changing, as it brought them into a totally different relationship with the Gītā, with yoga texts and ‘philosophy’ more broadly and with the bigger picture of yoga teachings.
I think of texts like the Gītā and the Yoga Sūtra as miracle mirror texts: every time we look into them, they can show us something new, help us come to fresh insight. This can happen as soon as we really meet the text and get acquainted with its essence.
Everything changed for me when I studied the text and heard my teacher present its teachings from within the tradition. Before that, it had felt somewhat distant. Even if translations are great, they still come imprinted with the translator’s own perspectives. Further, the nature of Sanskṛt is such that translations are very rarely able to communicate the many layers of meaning or the same nuance as the original. Working closely with the text over eight months, even if this is your first contact with yoga texts, given the content, I think it is realistic to say that you will complete the course with a solid grounding in the core concepts and principles that inform yoga practice and perspective.