#143 Zoë Slatoff - The Practice of Sanskrit

Keen on Yoga Podcast

Zoë Slatoff - The Practice of Sanskrit (www.ashtangayogasanskrit.com | @yogasankrit )

Introduction to yoga | One month of led Intermediate with Pattabhi Jois in NY | Qutting school for Mysore at 21 years old | Falling in love with Sanskrit | Interest in he texts | Integrated study with practice | Giving up neuroscience | Inspiration | Sanskrit for yoga students book | Sanskrit classes online | The stilling of thoughts | Deeper understanding of Sanskrit

Online classes:

https://ochsonline.org/learning-pathways-sanskrit/

Zoe’s Book

https://www.amazon.com/Yogavataranam-Translation-Integrating-Traditional-University/dp/086547754X/

About Zoe Slatoff-Ponte

Zoë teaches Sanskrit and Yoga Philosophy in the Yoga Studies M.A. program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, as well as online courses for the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. She has a PhD in Religion and Philosophy from Lancaster University and an MA in Asian Languages and Culture from Columbia University.

Zoë is the author of Yogāvatāraṇam, a Sanskrit textbook for yoga students, which uses extracts from classical yoga texts to integrate traditional and academic methods of learning the language. Zoë is also the Sanskrit editor for Pushpam, and has done Sanskrit editing for Nāmarūpa and Robert Svoboda's book Vāstu.

Zoë also taught for many years at her yoga shala in NYC, Ashtanga Yoga Upper West Side. She discovered yoga at the age of 15 and has been devoted to a daily practice ever since. She first traveled to Mysore in 2000 to study with Pattabhi Jois and Sharath and has returned almost annually. She is honored to have received Guruji's blessing to teach in 2002, and level 2 Authorization in 2009.

Her PhD centers around a translation of the Aparokṣānubhūti, an Advaita Vedānta text attributed to Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, which is particularly relevant to yoga practitioners. It explains how we get caught up in illusions about our bodies and the world and how we could instead use practice to help us discover and be more connected to our essential nature.