Five Element Meditations in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Yogas with Christopher Chapple

This is a recording of an event held for the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies on 15th November 2021.

Meditation on the five elements can be found throughout the religious literature and practices of India. This talk will summarize a multi-decade investigation of the five great elements (pañca-mahābhūta) in the Vedas, Upanisads, the Yogavāsiṣṭha and Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā of Hinduism; the Mahārāhulovāda, Dhātu Vibhaṅga and Visuddhimagga of Buddhism; and the Ācārāṅga Sūtra and Jñānārṇava of Jainism. Drawing from his recent book Living Landscapes (SUNY Press, 2020), Chapple will share images created by Gabriela Ayala-Canizares and reflections on how this material has helped shape the training of Yoga teachers through the Green Yoga Association and the LMU certificate in Yoga, Mindfulness, and Social Change.

Christopher Key Chapple is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology and founding director of the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He has published more than 20 books and serves as advisor to multiple organizations including the Forum on Religion and Ecology (Yale), the Ahimsa Center (Pomona), the Dharma Academy of North America (Berkeley), the Jain Studies Centre (SOAS, London), the South Asian Studies Association, and the International School for Jain Studies (New Delhi).

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