Doug Keller is like some other guests I’ve brought onto the podcast; he hews to a lineage with no name, though if you had to pin him down, or label what he teaches, you *might* be safe putting him in the Tantra category or “lineage.”

He’s different, though, because he approaches yoga through both a physiological practice-based as well as a philosophical, academic lens. He tries to connect the yoga academics on one side, and the millions and millions of practitioners on the other. Global academia in yoga and the business of yoga are two groups that don't really have much in common; one group reads and writes; the other does a lot of down dog and birds of paradise.

This talk takes a pretty clear step in the direction of connecting the two. Doug Keller’s premise, in the context of the Yoga Lineages project, is to address how, with the assertion of any lineage comes the assertion of authority. He does this first by describing what lineage has been in its relationship to yoga from 2000 years ago to 700 years ago to today. 

Doug makes the claim that the HATHA yoga we practice today is partly if not largely sourced from a tradition that is extra-Bramanical, i.e., it grew up from and expanded outside of, and away from, the Brahmanical/Vedantic tradition, which, by the way, is also the societal movement from the Indus Valley that gave us the caste system. He is also saying that the source text that MOST of us have at least a little bit of exposure to in modern day Yoga Teacher Trainings is like the Bible’s Old Testament—that’s the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali—and that the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, which we spend about 60% of our time talking about here—is the New Testament. He talks about Hatha Yoga, which, again, is what we’re mostly doing shards and threads of today, is a more democratic approach than the more ascetic, world-renouncing practices of Patanjali and indeed, like what we see today in practices like Iyengar Yoga and Ashtanga Yoga. I know that may not be a popular perspective, but you’ve got shrinking lineages all over the place that connect with the Sutras while Birds of Paradise and Crocodile pose are far better known by the average yoga practitioner—because it’s those POSES and practices that are being democratically free-marketed in their experimentation in classrooms all over the world.

This is a Cliff’s Notes version of a series that Doug offers on Yoga International, and here’s what he lays out here:

• more clarity about the idea of lineage in its relationship with yoga. Most are hatha yoga. Something to keep in mind. Yoga as a general term is qualigied by the term before it.

• Why do we even bother to talk about lineage? It’s because lineage is a claim to authority: Form vs form.

• If hatha yoga, what aspects are appropriate?

The claim he makes in here is that hatha yoga is penned—nay published and distributed—through a book in the 15th century called the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (HYP). Hatha Yoga Pradipika literally means Light on Hatha Yoga. Swatmarama synthesized as many as 20 other previous texts into a comprehensive approach to yoga. The book was presented as a non-sectarian path of practice. Here is mantra, laya yoga, hatha yoga (as physical), and raja yoga with several notes to summarize the episode.

• Dattatreya’s tradition of asceticism, Sanyasis, was firmly grounded in celibacy.

• Dattatreya’s Yoga Shastra. Started to synthesize but not as much as HYP. Written by an ascetic perspective. Guys with skulls as begging bowls versus materialisists, others, brought smart, successful (**one who has confidence in the teachings of yoga***) statement together, non sectarian. Faith in following the practice, promises empowerment and success in what you seek. Doesn’t matter what you’re looking for, you will fulfill it, whatever you seek. This is about hatha yoga. Doesn’t exclude the goals from previous/other yogas, just that it’s an empowerment practice. Doesn’t exclude lineage but isn’t just that. It’s about relatioonshp to and faith in the practices offered in the book.

• Tantric

• Nathic. Matsyendranath (9th century). Gorakshanath 15h century (successor to Matsyendranath). A reformation of tantric took place between M and G. It removed the need for being initiated from your guru, which meant that you became capable of initiating. Performing funeral rites for your own guru. Here you can claim more than one guru. Gorakshanath began to help us let go of needing a guru. The opposite of the physicalistic approach of the Desnamis. It is rather the visualization of energy/chakras that facilitates real experience. Bandha for sake of pranayama.

• G was reforming M’s yoga, which included some transgressive practices. Wanted to separate from Matsyendrana’s and to focus instead on inner kundalini. Leaves behind guru and also sex behind.

• Started criticizing the literature at and after Patanjali’s time, dharma as a social construct created by Brahmans’ desire to maintain primacy. These ethical frameworks are reinforced by fear and shame. Tribalism and fears of reincarnation are nonsense. Their transgressive practices mean to break your vikalpas against the rules. It was drinking, swearing, and sex. In a disciplined and rituatlistic way, trying to break taboos. It is through transgression that you grow faster because not following the rules.

• Matsyendra was married, didn’t practice celibacy.

• People need to understand that Tantric lineage is ritualistic and transgressive, versus Brahmans who were performing meditating activities between practitioners and God (via the Vedas). Direct, unmeditated, mystical experiences came through the rituals. 

• Brahmanism and Vedic cultures . The Vedas are religious texts that set forth the rituals and legend of Purusha that dictated caste. Brahmans were brain/mouth speaking the truth and regulating society. Shatreyas ran society with the help of Brahmans (who were advisors to politics).

• Vedic is not proselytizing. Aryan derives from Vedic society. All aspects of it, religious, ethics, etc. 

• Brahmans were in charge of maintaining purity of rituals. Families are living instantiations of God, the voice of God. Not all Brahmans became priests, but couldn’t be a priest if your father wasn’t one. Became arbiters of purity of society.

• Ethics imposed on society in the form of dharma, was relative to your cast. Krishnamacharya, Iyengar, Jois, Desikachar were all Brahmans. Ethics include unease about teaching yoga to people who were less than them/untouchables!

• Mahabharata, low cast boy rejected by an archery teacher but then became able to fulfill his dharma as an archer. Not appropriate to his station in life. A god took that away because he stepped out. Lost his thumb! Dronacharya: dramatic example of how strong the system was at that time.

• Stay in your spiritual purity by staying in your lane.

• Patanjali fell out of favor starting around the 12th century. They were talking about Vedanta, Bhakti, which brings up the question about liberation through just chanting. Why would you do all the hard work of Patajnali’s ascetic path when you can just devote yourself to chanting one name? Patanjali only revived in the 18th century when India decided to use him to present their yoga to the west.

• Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali don’t mention each other. Mahabharata credits another author for the 8-fold path, not Patanjali. 

• Emphasis in Gita on yoga as stilling the mind, and on Bhakti. Yoga is defined in terms of action, i.e., Karma Yoga which is doing your dharma while renouncing the fruits of your actions and with devotion. Includes meditation that comes from this devotion. Defined in terms of ethical principles (that Brahmans write!).

• Patanjali

• Rig Veda was brought in from the general area of Iran (which leads to Aryan) from NW. Hinduism was referring mainly to Vedic Culture (i.e., Indus Valley). Develops into Brahmans’ ethos and way of being in society.

• East Coast/Magadha. This is where Buddhism was developed. Alexis Sanderson’s research between Vedic society and this culture which was called Shramana–which means ascetics. The ideas that bring Shramanas together are karma and reincarnation. Liberation from cycles of births. Even in early Upanishads (vedas), not a clear sense of karma. Generally good results through rituals. But Shramanas want liberation. Jain’s leader was around the same time as Buddha. Through coming to know the true self, the Purusha, you will achieve freedom from karma. You become free from identification (Sankhya is where all this comes from, to Patanjali).

• As the Indus Valley dries up, Brahmans and Vedics need to migrate east for food and from Alexander the Great’s invasion. Alexander kills the kings and Brahmans have to cooperate, die, or flee. Alexander was only in India for two years but leaves behind Greek colonies. When he leaves, it leaves a power vacuum that essentially leads to the rise of dynasties. Buddhism gets its rise through this. Where previous kings (Brahmans) had been dominated, the newer ones (from East especially) came.

• The Brahmans come into contact with Shramanas moving westward, as they are moving eastward. Dharma—path to fulfillment, artha—appropriate wealth, kama—pleasure, moksha—liberation. These four concepts came from the East.

• Shruti and Smrti

• Within Vedic culture, one of the 6 schools of philosophy was called Mimamsa, which sets the foundations for knowledge. They are holding that the Vedas are infallible, cannot be added to, modified or otherwise altered. Straight from god. Has to do with dharma as it makes its way into society

• Thus Shruti is heard knowledge, direct reveal from the Vedas, don’t need further verification/are from the human mind

• Smrti: what is remembered. Everything we can know through human thought, speech, interpretation etc. What we think to be true. Has to do with our ideas.

• Patanjali was a Shramana/ascetic.

• Buddha is saying “This is my experience,” which was in competition with what the Brahmans were offering as “the” path. Couldn't accept that truth bc Buddha wasn’t a Brahman.

• How do Vedic teachings keep up with the times? Puranas, Mahabharata. Someone tells a story that they heard from someone else all the way back to the Vedas. Lineage of Bramanical teachings is through stories from one to one to one. Spiritual game of telephone. Mahabharata contains the Gita. The 5th Veda it’s considered as. Has to be teased out by the people narrative. The context is how the stories are maintained. Often happen in the ashrams; legitimacy comes from that.

• Patanjali offers yoga from Shramanas and Sankya, a combination of Samadhi is the end, the path. Do yamas and niyamas to reduce the kleshas: Ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and fear. The ashtanga path is to reduce your path in the world. Samadhi means you have left the material world and there’s nothing to know. Purusha, the ascetic logic of the Shramanas. 

• Patanjali was Old Testament. Tantra is New Testament.

• Third pada evidenced the Tantrics at that time.

Raja Yoga refers to the yoga of meditation though it is an amorphous term. Principally teaches that practice(s) of yoga leads you to meditation.

Listen to the full episode!