This week’s episode offers a deeply restorative yoga nidra practice titled Body of Joy. Unlike other guided meditations previously shared on the podcast, this one invites you to lie in stillness - awake, aware, and fully relaxed out of the impulse to move. While yoga nidra is often used as a tool for rest, this practice is not for sleep but for remaining conscious in the liminal space of deep relaxation. It offers an exploration of the subtle body, guiding awareness through physical sensations, energetic qualities, and emotional tones to evoke a felt experience of joy and well-being.

Discover a treasure trove of guided meditations, teachings, and courses at tantrailluminated.org.

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This week’s episode is a deep and moving conversation with Artur Appazov, returning to the podcast for a second time. Artur shares his perspective on the nature of suffering, how it arises from mistaken identity and resistance to pain, and how it can dissolve through the recognition of our true nature as openness itself. Through inquiry and reflection, he offers a powerful invitation and tools to soften into internal stories and meet experience directly. The conversation explores identity, embodiment, nonduality, and the subtle ways suffering perpetuates, often in the name of healing. With clarity, compassion, and presence, Artur points toward the radical freedom available when we stop trying to fix ourselves and simply rest as what we already are - allowing the change to arise naturally. The episode offers a glimpse into how this unfolds in what could resemble a client session from Artur’s coaching practice. More of his reflections can be found on his blog.

Discover a treasure trove of guided meditations, teachings, and courses at tantrailluminated.org.

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This week’s episode features a reading of six foundational articles on Shaivism, originally written for the Encyclopedia of Religion in the late 1980s. These are: Kashmir Shaivism, Krama Shaivism, Trika Shaivism, and Abhinavagupta by Alexis Sanderson, Pratyabhijñā by André Padoux, and Pāśupata by David Lorenzen.

Together, they offer a concise yet profound overview of several key lineages within the Shaiva tradition. These short but potent articles explore the evolution of Shaiva metaphysics, ritual practice, the dynamics of tantric initiation, goddess worship, and the philosophical doctrines of recognition and liberation.

The reading also highlights the role of Abhinavagupta as a pivotal figure who synthesized and transmitted these teachings in Kashmir and beyond.

Discover a treasure trove of guided meditations, teachings, and courses at tantrailluminated.org.

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