---
path: "/posts/spiritual-texts"
date: "2022-07-19T23:19:51.246Z"
title: "Svadhyaya (Spiritual Study)"
type: "wiki"
level: "1"
style: "prose"
image: ""
description: ""
note: "Max Fowler"
---

Svadhyaya is a sanskrit word that means "self-study", but which through in person teachings, 
I understood to in more everyday language have a dual meaning of "spiritual study", and can take the form of reading scripture, 
books, poetry, or any other type of study that you feel drawn to. 

Below are various texts, teachers and centers that I found helpful at different times.

[Shambhavi](https://jayakula.org/) is a teacher that has been resonating with me a lot in the past year since I came into contact with her. 
Her weekly [podcast recordings of her satsang](https://jayakula.org/podcasts/) is a really 
nice way to learn about [Jaya Kula](https://jayakula.org/), or listen to her from another timezone. 

[Hridaya](https://hridaya-yoga.com/) has also been a big influence on me. They have centers in Mexico and in France which I have both attended.
They offer yoga courses, meditation retreats, and a karma yoga volunteer/service program.
Hridaya is the first place that I experienced Sangha and met deeply committed devotional practicioners.
I think recommending something on the internet doesn't really make sense, because its all a matter of whether it fits you.
But I leave these references here, in case someone might stumble across them at a serendipitous time for them.
I also met many people at Hridaya who had healed chronic illness and injury there. If you are able to do a three week course like Module I,
there is something I found very supportive about living in an immersive environment for a period of time like this.

hridaya newsletters <br/>
[The True Sense Of Belonging](https://mailchi.mp/hridaya-yoga.com/eng-july-2022-newsletter?e=6859fd6bec)  <br/>

I have been slowly reading [Zen mind, beginner's mind](https://bookwyrm.social/book/49713/s/zen-mind-beginners-mind) by Shunryu Suzuki
over the past few years. I read a chapter every month or so. I originally started doing this because reading it all at once felt like too much too quickly,
and I felt I needed time to digest. This is the only book
I've read in this way. It feels like a companion that I can continually return to. We'll see what happens but I could imagine continuing this practice even after I finish
the book, by just starting it again.

ram dass lectures <br/>
[Path Of The Heart - Ram Dass 1992](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKV_DuUcpws&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3tWOSAKyl2KuyfqOzkE7ARy_5bxYBj7wArd1o1574NbOwCB-v2AfNvlQU)

[The Study with Raviv Ullman](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-study/id1528872739) - I am Jewish by birth, but not a very active practicioner,
although I am interested in it, and I sometimes feel a desire to learn more about Judaism as a way to connect with my ancestry. I haven't listened to many episodes of this podcast, 
but it felt like an avenue to explore, and I appreciated their framing of text interpretation as a living practice, 
that is embodied and re-embodied through re-interpretation, and that conversation about spiritual texts in community, is itself a form of spiritual practice, 
even when the texts are not taken at face value. 

[Xavier Dagba](https://www.instagram.com/xavier.dagba/) - I am thankful for xavier's work and voice which has inspired and supported me in many ways. 

A list is in some ways a ridiculous format, but I'm thankful for these teachers. I leave this here with the hope that maybe someone 
will find something unexpectedly, which is in some ways the whole point of this wiki. 

