LG35 – Karen O’Brien-Kop – Purusha and Prakriti

Lonely Guru Dialogues with Ryan Spielman

My guest is Karen O’Brien-Kop. In this episode we discuss two foundational concepts found in the Sankya philosphy, Purusha and Prakriti or pure consciousness and nature, which underpin the main ideas in much of yoga practice including the seminal text, the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali.

Karen has been practising yoga in different forms since 1995. After a decade teaching yoga she began pursuing the academic study of yoga. Karen completed the MA in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, in 2014 and is now continuing a PhD in the Department of Religions and Philosophies. Karen is in the third year of her research project, which centres on the Yogasutra of Patanjali as well as other cross-religious textual accounts of yoga in the 4th-5th century CE. Karen has studied Sanskrit with Dr James Mallinson of SOAS, and has been a recipient of the Phiroz Mehta scholarship and the Ouseley Memorial language scholarship.

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