Hatha Yoga Pradipika – The Body as a Method

At the heart of yoga is svādhyāya, the study of the self.

This concept, central to both the niyamas and kriyā yoga, has often been interpreted as the study of texts –because these texts are ultimately concerned with the nature of the self. They offer not just philosophy, but methods of inquiry: how to observe the mind, how to act in the world, and how to use the body as a tool for awareness.

This series of three workshops will explore yoga’s foundational texts in that light – not as historical writings to be understood at a distance, but as frameworks for direct experience.

This particular iteration will focus on The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, a text that is often treated as a technical manual, but it is also a summation of earlier Tantric texts – a systematic approach to working with the body as a means of transformation. This session will explore how Hatha yoga fits within the broader history of Tantra, offering an overview of the text and its key practices. We will work with āsanas described in the HYP, discuss kriyās and the subtle body system of prāṇa/apāna and the nāḍīs, and explore (and possibly practice) pranāyāma and mudrās. The focus will be on understanding these methods not as isolated techniques, but as part of a larger inquiry into awareness.