Studies in Yoga Philosophy with Professor Bill Mahony : The Upanishads

You are warmly invited to take part in this FOUR PART course that will meet online Sundays, October 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th. We will study, contemplate, and discuss the philosophy of the Upanishads.

The Upanishads are collections of sacred teachings from India that have inspired spiritual seekers for well over two thousand years. The wisdom they hold can guide us as we deepen and refine our own spiritual lives in today’s world. Understood to be the "fulfillment of sacred knowledge" (Vedanta), the core teaching of the Upanishads is that there is a splendid, divine presence within all that exists and that this same splendor shines within each of us at the deepest and truest level of our being.

If you are drawn to yogic philosophy as an interested student, teacher, spiritual practitioner, or contemplative seeker, then these courses will inform and support you as you explore its sources and deepen your understanding of its wisdom.

This course will consist of four 120-minute weekly sessions. The schedule and descriptions of topics appears below.

Each session will include readings of passages from selected Upanishads, contemplative reflection on the teachings those passages present, group discussion, and a period of quiet meditation.

Bill will distribute his own translations of the original Sanskrit or Pali textual passages ahead of time and will suggest other translations people may read, if they wish to do so.

Each session will be recorded so that registrants who missed any particular session will be able to watch it.

This course is the first of many courses to come in which participants will study and contemplate texts from a variety of philosophical stances, including yet not limited to Vedanta, Classical Yoga, Nondual Tantra, Bhakti, and various Buddhist traditions.

Foundations of the Philosophy of Vedanta:

Teachings from the Upanishads

Four consecutive Sundays through October 2024.

1:00–3:00pm Eastern (US/Canada) Time.

October 6. Teachings from the Chandogya Upanishad.

One of the two oldest (and longest) of the Upanishads, the Chandogya Upanishad presents a wide range of themes. In this session, we will focus on a number of short conversations between teachers and students. Here, the teachers gently guide their students in coming to know the true Self (Atman) dwelling within them and of its essential identity with an essential universal presence within all things (Brahman).

October 13. Teachings from the Taittiriya Upanishad.

Teachings in this beautiful text link the structure and dynamics of individual personal embodiment with those of the entirety of existence itself. The Taittiriya Upanishad also presents perhaps the earliest model of a layered model of embodiment as consisting of physical form, living energy, mental functioning, innate wisdom, and unconditional expansive joy. (Some later philosophers referred to these as the five koshas or "sheaths.") The Upanishad leads students to deeper understanding of the importance of joyfully appreciating the gift of life and of acting in the world in a way that respects and supports others and the larger world itself.

October 20. Teachings from the Katha Upanishad.

The narrative frame of this Upanishad consists of a conversation between a young, yet already wise, student who ponders the reality of change and death. The student seeks deeper understanding both of the spiritual life and of nature of the true Self. His teacher is the narrative figure of Death itself and teaches his student the value of seeking what is timeless and good rather than what is temporal and merely pleasant. Here, the student learns the role and importance of attentive awareness and of the practice of meditation in coming to a deeper understanding and experience of the true Self.

October 27. Teachings from the Maitri, Shvetashvatara, and Shandilya Upanishads.

These Upanishads were likely composed several centuries after the earlier ones and shows the continuing emphasis on the value of knowing and delighting in the subtle, divine essence within all things. Like earlier Upanishads, they teach the value of meditation. Perhaps more thoroughly than earlier Upanishads, though, they also mention particular techniques of meditation practices. In terms of the history of the Upanishads, these texts share some of the Classical Yoga ideas and practices presented elsewhere in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra and, in the case of the Shvetashvatara Upanished, an emerging influence on Vedantic thought of devotional, theistic sensibilities .

Host or Publisher Bill Mahony