Self Meditated

About Self Meditated

What is consciousness? What is the mind? What is the self? Why do we suffer — and is there a way through it that doesn't require pretending everything is fine? These are the questions this podcast begins with. Hosted by Nicky Grimsdale - Vedic educator, yoga teacher and practitioner with over 20 years of study in Indian philosophy including time living and practising in India. This series moves through the great schools of Vedic and Indian spiritual traditions with special emphasis on Advaita Vedanta and Yoga along the way. Nicky approaches contemplative thought with clarity, depth, relatability and a genuine respect for the intelligence of the listener. Alongside solo episodes, the podcast features conversations with teachers, thinkers, and practitioners from across the traditions and other complementary schools of thought. The approach is both personal and rigorous. This isn't wellness content. It isn't spirituality made palatable. It is a genuine investigation — informed by years of practice, study, and a deep engagement with the lineages of Indian philosophy. What you'll find here: Indian philosophy that holds up academically and lands in the body. Ancient teachings explained with honesty, humour, and the occasional analogy that makes a thousand-year-old idea feel like something you already knew but couldn’t find the words. For the yoga student who suspects there's more to the tradition than postures. For the meditator who wants to understand the philosophical framework underneath the practice. For the curious mind who finds consciousness and the exploration of the Self genuinely interesting.

Publisher

Nicky Grimsdale

Category

religion & spirituality · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

11 Jul 2026

Latest episode

10 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   10 Oct 2026

   16. What is intuition?

   Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. (https://rss.com/podcasts/selfmeditated/voicemail) Have you ever just known something without being able to explain how you knew it? A person walks into a room and you immediately sense something is off. You have a feeling about a decision before you've consciously worked it out. An answer suddenly appears when you've stopped trying to find it. We call this intuition. But what actually is it? And perhaps even more importantly: How do we know whether something is intuition — or simply fear, desire, conditioning, projection or a thought we've made up? In this episode, Nicky explores intuition through the philosophical frameworks of Yoga, Sāṃkhya, Advaita Vedānta and Buddhism, while keeping the question grounded in ordinary human experience. We look at: -What we actually mean by "intuition" -The Latin origins of the word intuition -Buddhi and its relationship to discernment and intuitive knowing -Why intuition isn't necessarily the same thing as a strong feeling -How fear, desire and projection can masquerade as intuition -The distinction between noticing and interpreting -Viveka, or discriminative discernment -How meditation and prāṇāyāma may refine our capacity to perceive -Why ethical living and reducing internal contradiction matter -Patañjali's fascinating concept of prātibha -The relationship between prātibha and the extraordinary forms of knowledge described in the Yoga Sūtras -Why Patañjali also warns that siddhis can become obstacles to samādhi -How Advaita Vedānta reframes intuition as something occurring within the mind rather than something produced by Ātman And ultimately, the deeper question: who is aware of intuition itself? One of the key ideas in the episode is that intuition may not need to be created so much as uncovered. The quieter and clearer the mind becomes, the less we may interfere with what we're actually perceiving. But that doesn't mean blindly trusting every feeling. A mature relationship with intuition requires practice, discrimination and humility. A simple practice from the episode: Notice → Pause → Discriminate → Verify Notice what arises. Pause before creating a story around it. Discriminate between what you actually know and what you're adding. Then, where possible, let reality test your perception. Perhaps intuition isn't primarily about knowing the future. Perhaps it is about becoming sufficiently present to recognise what is happening now. References: Patañjali — Yoga Sūtras 3.33 — prātibhād vā sarvam Often translated in terms of intuitive or spontaneous knowledge: "or, through prātibha, all [knowledge]." 3.37 — te samādhāv upasargā vyutthāne siddhayaḥ The extraordinary capacities associated with this process are described as obstacles to samādhi, while functioning as powers in the ordinary outward state. On the word "intuition" From Latin intueri — "to look at, consider" — with intuition originally carrying senses of direct or immediate cognition and spiritual perception. Further exploration: Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras, especially the Samādhi Pāda, Sādhana Pāda and Vibhūti Pāda, alongside the commentarial traditions of Vyāsa and later Yoga commentators. For Advaita Vedānta, useful concepts to explore alongside this episode are buddhi, antaḥkaraṇa, vṛtti, viveka, sākṣin and Ātman.

2. 

   2 Oct 2026

   15. What is time?

   Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. (https://rss.com/podcasts/selfmeditated/voicemail) What is time? We all experience it, organise our lives around it, and watch it pass, but what exactly is it? In this episode, I explore the strange and surprisingly slippery nature of time through the lens of philosophy, yoga and modern physics. Beginning with a simple film-reel analogy, we look at Jiddu Krishnamurti’s provocative statement that “time is thought”, and the distinction between chronological time and the psychological time created by memory, anticipation and our constant sense of becoming. From there, we explore Advaita Vedanta and māyā, the timeless nature of awareness, Brahman and Ātman, before moving into Kashmir Śaivism, Buddhism, the ancient Greeks, Augustine and the fascinating implications of Einstein’s relativity, the block universe and entropy. But this isn't simply an intellectual investigation. The real question is: what does any of this have to do with how we actually live? What happens when we stop measuring this moment against the imagined next one? What if the sense that we are constantly behind, becoming, fixing or searching is itself something constructed by thought? Perhaps the clock can keep ticking while something much more fundamental in us remains completely still. A philosophical exploration of time, consciousness, thought, awareness and the possibility that what we fundamentally are has never actually been moving through time at all. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES The Ending of Time — J. Krishnamurti and David Bohm (their extended dialogues on this exact subject) Freedom from the Known — J. Krishnamurti (the clearest short introduction to his teaching) Confessions, Book XI — Augustine of Hippo (his meditation on the nature of time) The Order of Time — Carlo Rovelli (accessible, poetic, rigorous contemporary physics) The End of Time — Julian Barbour (the more radical physics position — time as fundamentally non-existent) The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 11 — trans. Barbara Stoler Miller or Georg Feuerstein (Krishna's cosmic form and "I am time") The Power of Now — Eckhart Tolle (an accessible, contemporary voice covering closely related ground) Swami Sarvapriyananda — YouTube, Vedanta Society of New York (for the Vedantic treatment of kala and maya)

3. 

   25 Sept 2026

   14. What is God? Chats with Gianni

   Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. (https://rss.com/podcasts/selfmeditated/voicemail) In this conversation with my friend and fellow yoga teacher Gianni, we explore one of the biggest - and perhaps most impossible - questions: God. Rather than trying to arrive at a fixed definition, we approach the subject personally and openly, sharing our own experiences, questions and perspectives. We explore how different Vedic traditions, particularly Advaita Vedanta, approach the idea of God, Īśvara, consciousness and the nature of reality and what these ideas might actually mean in the context of everyday life. There’s no attempt here to convince anyone of a particular belief. If anything, the conversation explores why something so fundamental may be impossible to define, while still being something we can point towards, contemplate and perhaps experience for ourselves. A philosophical, personal and at times wonderfully open-ended conversation about God, reality, consciousness, and what it means to live with these questions rather than necessarily having all the answers.

4. 

   18 Sept 2026

   13. The Kalas - Why the Arts Are Vital

   Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. (https://rss.com/podcasts/selfmeditated/voicemail) The Kalās — Why the Arts Are Vital What if creativity isn't something separate from spiritual practice, but one of the ways we become more fully human? In this episode of the Self Meditated Podcast, we explore the kalās — the traditional sixty-four arts of classical India — and what this fascinating list reveals about the relationship between creativity, culture, embodiment and spiritual development. From singing, dancing, painting and poetry to cooking, flower arranging, architecture, language, memory, logic and play, the kalās encompassed far more than what we would traditionally call “art”. They represented a broad curriculum for cultivating attention, sensitivity, skill, discernment and human expression. We explore why these practices were valued within the Indian tradition, how Tantra, Bhakti, Yoga and Vedanta approached the arts differently, and why the traditional list ultimately culminates in līlā — refined play — and ātma-vidyā, knowledge of the Self. The episode also considers what we may be losing in an age of constant consumption and increasingly powerful generative technology. If the value of creativity isn't simply in the thing we make, but in what the act of making does to us, what happens when we outsource the making entirely? Perhaps the ancient understanding of the kalās offers a useful reminder: the practice was never just about producing something beautiful. It was about refining the person who creates it. This is a conversation about art, spirituality, technology, embodiment, human connection and why making something — even badly — might be far more important than we realise. SOURCES AND FURTHER READING Kamasutra — Vatsyayana (the most famous source for the traditional list of 64 kalas) Natyashastra — attributed to Bharata Muni (foundational text on dance, drama, and aesthetics) Tantra Illuminated — Christopher Wallis (for context on Abhinavagupta and rasa theory) The Aesthetic Experience According to Abhinavagupta — Raniero Gnoli

5. 

   11 Sept 2026

   12. Dharma - A Life Well Lived

   Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. (https://rss.com/podcasts/selfmeditated/voicemail) What does it actually mean to live according to your dharma? In this episode of the Self Meditated Podcast, we explore one of the most important and often misunderstood concepts in the Indian philosophical tradition. Dharma is frequently reduced to “purpose” or “life path”, but its meaning is far richer: from ṛta, the cosmic order underlying existence, through universal ethics and social responsibility, to the deeply personal idea of svadharma — our own particular way of participating in that order. We explore the different dimensions of dharma, including Sanātana Dharma, Sādhāraṇa Dharma, Viśeṣa Dharma, Varṇāśrama Dharma and Svadharma, before turning to the Bhagavad Gītā and Krishna's teaching that it is better to live one's own dharma imperfectly than to perfectly live another's. The episode also looks at dharma through the lenses of Patañjali's Yoga, Buddhism and Advaita Vedānta, and explores how ethics, karma yoga and self-knowledge intersect. Most importantly, we bring the idea back into everyday life: how do we recognise when we're living in alignment, and how might we begin to distinguish our genuine nature from conditioning, expectation and social pressure? Perhaps dharma isn't a destination to discover, but a continual process of tuning ourselves to what life is asking of us. As the episode explores: the signal is already playing. The work is to tune in. KEY TEXTS REFERENCED * Bhagavad Gita 3.35 — the svadharma verse * Bhagavad Gita 3.19 — "You have the right to perform your actions but not to the fruits" * Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2.30-2.32 — the Yamas and Niyamas * Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta — the Five Precepts and the Eightfold Path * Rigveda — the concept of rita as cosmic order RECOMMENDED RESOURCES * The Bhagavad Gita — trans. Barbara Stoler Miller or Georg Feuerstein * The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali — Edwin Bryant translation * Dharma — Swami Dayananda Saraswati (the most precise traditional treatment) * The Seat of the Soul — Gary Zukav (accessible Western treatment of karma and dharma) * Man's Search for Meaning — Viktor Frankl (on purpose and meaning as moral orientation) * What the Buddha Taught — Walpola Rahula

6. 

   4 Sept 2026

   11. What is consciousness?

   What Is Consciousness? There is something more familiar to you than your own face — something present in absolutely every experience you've ever had — and you've probably never once looked directly at it. This is the most accessible episode in the entire series, built specifically for anyone who's never considered this question before, including listeners who think consciousness is either a complicated neuroscience term or a vague spiritual idea. No prior knowledge assumed. Every term explained as it arrives. Using simple, everyday examples — a phone, a torch in a dark room, a cinema screen — this episode walks through what consciousness actually is, why it's not the same thing as the mind, why it can never be found as an object no matter how carefully you search for it, and what deep sleep reveals about awareness being present even when the mind has gone completely quiet. It also takes on the most common objection directly: if nothing is experienced outside of awareness, does that mean a tree in an empty forest doesn't exist? And it closes with a simple, direct instruction you can actually try, right there, in the moment of listening. Simple on the surface. Genuinely profound underneath. Start here if this is all new to you. In this episode: The most basic, undeniable fact of your existence, demonstrated step by step Why consciousness is not the same thing as the mind The torch analogy — why consciousness illuminates everything but is never itself seen as an object What deep sleep reveals about awareness existing prior to the mind The tree-in-the-forest objection, addressed honestly The cinema screen — the central image of the whole episode Consciousness as existence itself: Sat-Chit-Ananda in completely plain language The mind as consciousness, localised — explained through a simple sunlight analogy A direct, guided moment to investigate this for yourself, live References and further reading: Swami Sarvapriyananda — YouTube, Vedanta Society of New York (the specific video referenced in this episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n6NvDpcwLM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n6NvDpcwLM) The Nature of Consciousness — Rupert Spira Being Aware of Being Aware — Rupert Spira I Am That — Nisargadatta Maharaj Who Am I? — Ramana Maharshi

7. 

   28 Aug 2026

   10. The Kleshas - Chats with Gianni

   Nicky and Gianni sit down and talk about Patanjali's 5 afflictions of the mind: the ways in which the mind deludes itself away from realising its true identity. This is a fascinating conversation that delves in the many ways we can work psychologically with ourselves to increase a self-knowledge and how to interact with the world with more ease, peace and love.

8. 

   21 Aug 2026

   9. On suffering

   Pain and suffering are not the same thing. Understanding the difference between them might be the single most useful distinction on this entire path. This episode moves through what suffering actually is, where it lives, and how the great traditions propose meeting it - starting with Patanjali's precise five-part map of affliction (the kleshas), through the Buddha's First and Second Noble Truths and the concept of secondary suffering, into Tantra's radical alternative of meeting difficulty directly rather than transcending it, and finally into Advaita Vedanta, where suffering is shown to require a sufferer - and where the sufferer, examined closely, turns out to be less solid than it appeared. Along the way: a genuine, careful treatment of grief as something to be honoured rather than fixed, the classical rope-and-snake analogy, the nightmare you wake from without needing to process it, and a closing return to the Mandukya Upanishad's teaching on deep sleep - where suffering is entirely absent, and something remains anyway. This episode does not promise an end to difficulty. It offers something more honest: a progressively clearer map of where suffering actually lives, and a full toolkit - used together, not as competing alternatives - for working with it. In this episode: The crucial distinction between pain and suffering Patanjali's five kleshas: avidya, asmita, raga, dvesha, abhinivesha The Buddha's Four Noble Truths and the concept of secondary suffering A brief, honest word on grief specifically Tantra's radical alternative: meeting difficulty directly Modern psychology: the negativity bias, the window of tolerance, and meaning as a buffer Advaita Vedanta: why suffering requires a sufferer The rope-and-snake and the nightmare — two classical analogies for the same recognition A practical path that uses every tradition covered, in the right proportion for where you are References and further reading: Yoga Sutras 2.16 — Heyam duhkham anagatam Yoga Sutras 2.3–2.9 — the five kleshas Vivekachudamani — Shankara Mandukya Upanishad Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta — the Four Noble Truths Nisargadatta Maharaj — I Am That Viktor Frankl — Man's Search for Meaning This is a sensitive topic. If you're personally struggling, please reach out to a trusted person or a mental health professional — this episode is offered as philosophical and contemplative context, not as a substitute for support.

9. 

   14 Aug 2026

   8. Power of pranayama

   Yoga begins when pranayama becomes consistent. This episode is personal testimony first, education second. It traces pranayama from its earliest roots in the Vedas and Upanishads, through the Bhagavad Gita, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and the Hatha Yoga tradition, into the tantric understanding of prana as Shakti itself - the dynamic, creative energy of consciousness. Along the way: what prana actually is, why "pranayama" doesn't mean what most people think it means, what the nadis are and why the first few months of practice are really about cleansing them, and where this practice ultimately leads within the framework of Advaita Vedanta. It also covers what modern science has confirmed - autonomic nervous system regulation, heart rate variability, the nasal cycle and brain hemisphere balance, and CO2 tolerance - briefly, with a dedicated science episode to follow for anyone who wants the full depth. And it includes something rarely discussed honestly: a personal account of the harder-to-explain effects - heightened intuition, a settled and abundant quality of energy, and a kind of magnetism the tradition calls ojas. If you've ever treated pranayama as an afterthought tacked onto the end of an asana class, this episode makes the case for why it might actually be where the real practice begins. In this episode: What prana actually is, and what pranayama's name really means The five pranas and how each one shapes a different aspect of practice Where pranayama comes from - Vedas, Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, Patanjali, Hatha Yoga, Tantra The nadis, and why the first months of practice are about cleansing them What modern science confirms, briefly - with a full science episode to follow A personal account of intuition, energy, and ojas Why pranayama might be a better starting point than meditation for many people Practical guidance: ratios, retentions, and how to actually begin References and further reading: Hatha Yoga Pradipika - Swami Muktibodhananda commentary Light on Pranayama - B.K.S. Iyengar The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Edwin Bryant translation (sutras 2.49–2.53 and 1.34) Oxygen Advantage - Patrick McKeown Breath - James Nestor The Polyvagal Theory - Stephen Porges Prana and Pranayama - Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati (Bihar School) Tantra Illuminated - Christopher Wallis

10. 

    11 Aug 2026

    7. Gunas in daily life - Chats with Gianni

    In this episode of the Self Meditated podcast , Nicky sits down with his friend and fellow yoga teacher Gianni to explore the three Gunas - Sattva, Rajas and Tamas - and how they influence our thoughts, behaviour, energy and experience of daily life. Together, they unpack this foundational concept from Sāṃkhya and yoga philosophy and discuss how developing awareness of the Gunas can help us recognise our habitual patterns, make more conscious choices and cultivate greater harmony in everyday life.

11. 

    8 Aug 2026

    6. Do we have free will?

    "Do We Have Free Will?" Did you actually choose the last thing you ate? Or did a system you didn't design produce the outcome — and hand you the feeling of having chosen it a fraction of a second later? This episode takes one of philosophy's oldest questions and moves through it briskly: hard determinism, compatibilism, libertarian free will, and Sam Harris's case for free will as illusion — enough of each to orient you, not enough to bog you down. From there it moves into what karma actually means as a theory of cause and effect, a brief but honest account of the Buddhist position, and then spends real time in Advaita Vedanta — not answering the free will question, but showing why the question dissolves once you investigate who's actually asking it. The episode closes with a genuinely practical formulation: know that you don't have free will, but act as if you do — and what that actually means, held properly, without contradiction. Warm, direct, and built to leave you with something usable rather than just something to think about. In this episode: The last thing you ate, and whether you actually chose it Hard determinism, compatibilism, libertarian free will, and Sam Harris's illusionist case — briefly and clearly Karma as a real theory of causation: prarabdha, sanchita, and kriyamana Buddhism's honest answer — no fixed chooser, but choices still matter Advaita Vedanta and the dissolving of the question itself Ramana Maharshi's instruction: find out who is asking What "know you don't have free will, but act as if you do" actually means Why this changes how you relate to people who've hurt you The river and the water — the closing image of the whole episode RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FOR DESCRIPTION - Free Will — Sam Harris (short, precise, the best contemporary case for the illusionist position) Elbow Room — Daniel Dennett (the best extended defence of compatibilism) The Bhagavad Gita — trans. Barbara Stoler Miller (nishkama karma and action without ego-ownership) I Am That — Nisargadatta Maharaj (the Advaitic position on doership, expressed in conversation) The Nature of Consciousness — Rupert Spira (consciousness and the apparent individual) Yoga Vasistha — abridged trans. Swami Venkatesananda (vasanas, sankalpa, and the mind's role in apparent choice) What the Buddha Taught — Walpola Rahula (dependent origination and no-self) Swami Sarvapriyananda on Free Will — YouTube, Vedanta Society of New York (directly on this topic, exceptional)

12. 

    1 Aug 2026

    5. What is the mind & meditation?

    "What Is the Mind? What Are Thoughts? What Is Meditation?" What is your mind, actually? Not what it contains - the thing itself. Where does it begin, where does it end, and is it even the same thing as your brain? This episode takes one of the most familiar and least examined parts of your entire existence and looks at it from four genuinely different angles: what modern neuroscience says, and where it runs out; what the Samkhya-Yoga tradition's precise fourfold map of the mind reveals; what Buddhism's teaching of no-self adds that the other frameworks miss; and finally, what Advaita Vedanta says the mind actually is, once you stop assuming it's separate from consciousness altogether. Each framework earns its own space and its own respect. By the end, the four aren't presented as competing theories to choose between, but as different instruments - each doing something genuinely useful, each building toward the next. You'll come away with a concrete, usable understanding of what a thought actually is, what meditation is doing to your mind at each stage of practice, and a simple, practical distinction - I am anxious versus there is anxiety, and I am aware of it - that you can test in your own experience immediately. Grounded, clear, and built for genuine practice rather than abstract theory. In this episode: Where neuroscience's account of the mind is strong, and exactly where it runs out The hard problem of consciousness, explained simply Samkhya's fourfold map of the mind — manas, buddhi, ahamkara, chitta What a thought actually is: the vritti, and why citta vritti nirodha doesn't mean stopping thought Meditation as understood through Yoga, Buddhism, and Advaita - three different aims, three different methods The practical distinction between being anxious and being aware of anxiety How the three traditions relate to and build on each other, without collapsing into one A guided moment to actually try self-enquiry, live, while listening RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FOR DESCRIPTION The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali — Edwin Bryant translation (the foundational dualist meditation text) I Am That — Nisargadatta Maharaj (the most direct account of the Advaita approach to mind) The Nature of Consciousness — Rupert Spira (mind and awareness through Advaita) Tantra Illuminated — Christopher Wallis (Kashmir Shaivism's account of mind and thought) The Mind Illuminated — Culadasa (John Yates) (the most comprehensive contemporary integration of Buddhist meditation and neuroscience) What the Buddha Taught — Walpola Rahula (the Buddhist account of mind and no-self) Being No One — Thomas Metzinger (rigorous philosophical neuroscience on the self-model — for the philosophically adventurous) Swami Sarvapriyananda on the Antahkarana — YouTube, Vedanta Society of New York (exceptional lecture on the Samkhya model of mind)

13. 

    25 Jul 2026

    4. What happens when you sleep?

    The waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states and the fourth that underlies them all Every night, without exception, you disappear completely and come back. What actually happens in between? This episode takes the most ordinary thing you do every single day and turns it into one of the most precise philosophical investigations available to a human being. Drawing on the Mandukya Upanishad - the shortest of the principal Upanishads at just twelve verses, and one of the most rigorously argued texts in the entire Vedantic tradition - Nicky walks through the teaching of Avastha Traya: the investigation of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, and what remains present through all three. You'll be guided through each state in turn - the world you take to be obviously real, the dream world your own mind constructs and then completely believes, and the deep sleep state where both dissolve entirely and yet something is still there to report on it. From there, the episode introduces turiya, not a fourth state, but the awareness underlying all three, present and unchanged through everything. Along the way: an honest engagement with the sceptic's strongest objections, Gaudapada's radical teaching of ajata vada, and the elegant mapping of the whole teaching onto the sound of AUM. This episode is intimate rather than academic in tone - less a lecture, more an invitation to look at something you already have direct access to, tonight, in your own bed. In this episode: The three states — waking (jagrat), dreaming (svapna), and deep sleep (sushupti) Why the Mandukya Upanishad uses your own nightly experience as its method, not abstract argument Gaudapada's Karika and Shankara's commentary - the layered philosophical foundation What deep sleep actually reveals about the nature of the self Turiya - the fourth, and why it isn't a state at all The sceptic's case, addressed directly and without dismissal Gaudapada's Ajata Vada - the doctrine of non-origination How AUM maps onto the entire teaching, sound by sound Why this matters: suffering, the fear of death, and the nature of the present moment References and further reading: The Mandukya Upanishad - trans. Swami Nikhilananda or Swami Gambhirananda (the source text — twelve verses, readable in minutes) The Mandukya Upanishad with Gaudapada's Karika - trans. Swami Nikhilananda The Mandukya Upanishad and the Agama Shastra - T.M.P. Mahadevan Being Aware of Being Aware - Rupert Spira The Nature of Consciousness - Rupert Spira Swami Sarvapriyananda on the Mandukya Upanishad - YouTube, Vedanta Society of New York Who Am I? - Ramana Maharshi I Am That - Nisargadatta Maharaj

14. 

    18 Jul 2026

    3. The instruments - part3/3

    Episode 1 and 2 gave us the map of Indian philosophy. Now - what do you actually do with it? This is the final episode in The Ground Tone, and the one where philosophy finally lands in the body. Across the first two episodes, Nicky built the full philosophical architecture - the six schools of Indian philosophy, the difference between dualist and non-dual thought, and the depths of Advaita Vedanta. This episode answers the practical question every serious student eventually asks: how do the actual practices - yoga, meditation, chanting, ritual, service - relate to all of it? Most people treat these as a menu of interchangeable options. This episode makes the case that they're something far more interesting: instruments, each one built for a different part of the same composition. Karma yoga, bhakti, hatha yoga, and tantra are each explored in depth - what they actually are, where they come from, and what they're specifically designed to do - before the episode moves into an extended and deeply personal exploration of Kashmir Shaivism, one of the most elegant and inclusive philosophical traditions Nicky has encountered, and a school she returns to again and again. The episode closes with the synthesis the whole series has been building toward: how the philosophical schools, the nastika traditions, and the practical instruments all fit together as facets of one whole - and why understanding that whole matters, not as an intellectual exercise, but as the foundation for genuine discernment, a more embodied practice, and a life lived with more grace and less confusion. In this episode: Why the practices are instruments, not a menu of interchangeable options Karma yoga - action without the ego's ownership of the outcome Bhakti yoga - devotion, the symbology of the deities, and love as the natural expression of non-dual understanding Hatha yoga - its tantric roots, and why it's a world away from a modern studio class Tantra - the philosophy that refuses to leave anything out Kashmir Shaivism - spanda, pratyabhijna, and why Nicky keeps returning to this school How the philosophical schools and the practical instruments form one integrated whole The final synthesis of the three-part series - and where it all points References and further reading: The Bhagavad Gita - trans. Barbara Stoler Miller or Georg Feuerstein Tantra Illuminated - Christopher Wallis The Recognition Sutras (Pratyabhijnahrdayam) - Christopher Wallis translation The Stanzas on Vibration (Spandakarika) - Mark Dyczkowski translation The Hatha Yoga Pradipika - trans. Brian Dana Akers I Am That - Nisargadatta Maharaj The Nature of Consciousness - Rupert Spira Abhinavagupta: An Historical and Philosophical Study - K.C. Pandey This concludes The Ground Tone series. New episodes exploring individual concepts in greater depth - free will, suffering, the mind, pranayama, and more - continue weekly.

15. 

    14 Jul 2026

    2. Dual & Non-Dual Philosophy - Part 2/3

    The witness is not the destination. It's the doorway - and Advaita Vedanta shows you what's on the other side. This episode is the philosophical heart of the 3 part series, and the most personal. Picking up from Part 1, Nicky goes deep into the distinction that changed everything in her own practice: the difference between dualist and non-dual philosophy. Not as an abstract debate, but as a live question with real consequences for how you experience your life, your mind, and your sense of self. Using a simple but precise analogy drawn from classical Advaita - a shadow in a dim room mistaken for a figure - the episode shows the fundamental difference between the Samkhya-Yoga approach (developing a stable witness that stands apart from experience) and the Advaitic approach (investigating the very nature of the witness itself, and finding something that was never what you assumed). The difference is not subtle. One is a practice of skilful relationship. The other dissolves the need for a relationship altogether. From there, the episode moves through the three major sub-schools of Vedanta - Madhvacharya's devotional Dvaita, Ramanuja's elegant Vishishtadvaita, and Shankara's radical Advaita - showing how three great minds reading the same foundational texts arrived at the full spectrum from dualism to complete non-dualism. And it introduces the ocean and wave teaching - one of the most precise and enduring analogies in the entire tradition — to show what non-dual philosophy is actually claiming about the nature of consciousness, experience, and what you are. The episode closes with the three stages of Vedantic learning - sravana, manana, nididhyasana - and a reframe that changes the purpose of practice entirely: not climbing a ladder toward liberation, but cleaning a lens through which what was always already present becomes more clearly visible. Intimate, philosophical, and pointing at something you can verify right now. In this episode: The personal itch that the witness-based practice couldn't resolve Dualist vs non-dual philosophy - what the distinction actually means in daily life The shadow-in-the-room analogy - and why turning on the light changes everything The ocean and the wave - consciousness, identity, and what you're actually made of Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita, and Advaita Vedanta - three sub-schools, one foundational text Madhvacharya, Ramanuja, and Adi Shankaracharya Sravana, manana, nididhyasana - the three stages of Vedantic learning Avidya — why the problem isn't lack of experience but a specific misperception The ladder and the lens - what changes when the purpose of practice changes What consciousness, happiness, and integration actually look like from a non-dual perspective References and further reading: I Am That - Nisargadatta Maharaj The Nature of Consciousness - Rupert Spira Who Am I? - Ramana Maharshi (short, essential, available free online) The Vivekachudamani - Adi Shankaracharya, trans. Swami Madhavananda The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Edwin Bryant translation How to Attain Enlightenment - James Swartz I Am - Jean Klein Self-Inquiry - Francis Lucille The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda - particularly the Jnana Yoga volume Swami Sarvapriyananda - YouTube, Vedanta Society of New York

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    11 Jul 2026

    1. Mapping Indian Philosophy - Sad-Darshana - Part 1/3

    The Ground Tone — Part 1 of 3 You've may have heard the Vedic teachings. But do you know where they come from and what they actually mean? This episode is the map that changes everything. In yoga studios, on social media, in wellness spaces - fragments of some of the most sophisticated philosophical thought in human history float around without context, without lineage, and often without their original meaning intact. This episode gives you that context. Not to replace your practice, but to deepen it completely. Nicky introduces the Sad-darshana (the six classical schools of Indian philosophy) and explains how six extraordinarily different systems of thought all emerged from the same ancient source: the Vedas. From the atheist dualism of Samkhya to the rigorous logic of Nyaya, from the ritualism of Mimamsa to the exceptional non-dualism of Advaita Vedanta - each school is a different raga played in the same key. Understanding the difference between them is one of the most clarifying things a serious practitioner can do. The episode also covers the nastika schools - Buddhism, Jainism, and the materialist Carvaka - and why their existence tells us something important about the intellectual honesty of the tradition. Plus: why modern postural yoga is not what Patanjali was describing, where Hinduism fits in the picture, and a compelling introduction to what Vedanta is actually proposing and why it might be the most significant philosophical discovery available to a human being. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES The Principal Upanishads — Radhakrishnan (scholarly) The Upanishads — Eknath Easwaran (warmest entry point) Yoga Sutras of Patanjali — Edwin Bryant translation What the Buddha Taught — Walpola Rahula Tantra Illuminated — Christopher Wallis (for context on the nastika/tantric overlap) This is Part 1 of a three-part series called The Ground Tone.

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