Zoë Slatoff

Lancaster University

Ph.D.

Religious Studies

2022

Columbia University

M.A.

MEALAC (Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures)

2009

Columbia University

B.A.

MEALAC (Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures)

2006

Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral: Our Karmic Connection to Those Born from Horizontal Wombs

Anual AAR Conference  Boston

2025-11-23

Dharmic Cultivation: Bhāvanā Across Indic Traditions

Peace and Dharma: Constructive and Critical Explorations  California State University, Fresno

2025-10-05

Like Milk and Water: Breath, Mind, and Liberation in Hemacandra’s Yogaśāstra

History, Scripture and Debate: Studies in South Asia in Memory of Paul Dundas  University of Birmingham

2025-09-14

Discerning: Food for Non-Thought: The Role of Diet in Yoga Texts as an Aid to Stilling the Mind

Edited by Yudit Greenberg and Benjamin Zeller

2026-02-05

As anyone who practices yoga regularly knows, what and when we eat and drink affects not only our ability to twist, but also our capacity to concentrate and still our minds. While modern yogis often preach veganism, the fifteenth-century Haṭhapradīpikā says the yogi should eat food that is “nourishing, very sweet, oily, from a cow, supporting the constituent elements of the body, desired by the mind, and suitable,” suggesting that the best food for yoga practice might be something like payasam, the Indian version of rice pudding. The Haṭhapradīpikā gives various other dietary advice, including cautioning against food that is bitter, sour, spicy, salty, hot, or reheated, or eating too many vegetables. Other contemporaneous texts recommend filling the stomach half with food, one-quarter with water, and one-quarter with air to aid digestion. While the circa 400 CE Yogasūtra makes no mention of food, the earlier epic Mahābhārata considers right control of food (samyag āhāra) as part of its eight-fold path, and this becomes a more prominent feature with the advent of haṭhayoga, beginning around the thirteenth century, making clear that what one eats affects one’s ability to still the mind and be present for meditation. Some texts include moderate diet (mitāhāra) as one of their restraints (yamas) or observances (niyamas), and even the postures added to the original seated positions show a focus on digestive health. It is said, for example, that one who does mayūrāsana, peacock pose, can eat poison. Perhaps the Bhagavadgītā’s counsel that “yoga is not for one who eats too much, nor for one who doesn’t eat at all” offers a middle way that still rings true. Through a historical examination of both proscriptive and prescriptive verses on food in yoga texts, this chapter seeks to add nuance to the discussion of a yogic diet and shed light on its role in modern yoga practice.

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What’s in It for Her?: Codependence (saṃyoga) and Independence (kaivalya) from the Perspective of prakṛti

2025-03-08

The Sāṃkhyakārikā repeatedly emphasizes that prakṛti (material nature) and her constituents exist solely for the sake of the puruṣa (the self). And yet, since she is blind, she needs puruṣa to see her full glory, and he needs to witness her actions to become liberated (21). Gauḍapāda explains their connection in terms of a pitcher filled with hot or cold liquid, which takes on that property, temporarily, through association. This article looks closely at commentarial passages to explore both the nature of their conjunction and codependence (saṃyoga), which leads to mistaken identification, as well as the method given in the Sāṃkhyakārikā for their ultimate separation and independence (kaivalya) through the practice of negation of the twenty-five true principles (tattvābhyāsa), which evolve from this association of puruṣa and prakṛti, comparing this with similar ideas in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra. While these concepts have been examined before, it has generally been from a rationalistic, masculine, and linear viewpoint that reduces prakṛti to mere matter or one that goes to the other extreme, reading later concepts backward and glorifying her as a Tantric goddess. In a world of shifting gender paradigms, this article seeks to re-examine their entanglement through the perspective of prakṛti, to understand how this intimate union is of benefit to her too, and, in turn, what we can learn through understanding the world from this angle.

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Yoga

Edited by Ed. Brendan N. Wolfe et al.

2024-08-15

Yoga represents both a philosophy and a practice, with the goal of liberation. Although ascetic practices existed previously, and the word yoga appears in the Vedas, the first definition is in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, where it is described as ‘the steady restraint of the senses’, building on the idea of yoga as yoking, like a horse and carriage. The Bhagavadgītā, contained within the epic Mahābhārata, describes multiple types of yoga, reframing it as a world-affirming practice, explained as ‘skilfulness in action’. The first codification of yoga appears in Patañjali’s c. 400 CE Yogasūtra, which defines it as ‘the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind’, attained through practice and detachment, with the aim of isolation (kaivalya) of the self from material nature, like the philosophy of Sāṃkhya. The well-known eight-part (aṣṭāṅga) path also originates in this text, culminating in meditative absorption (samādhi).

Beginning in the twelfth century – although most well-known from the fifteenth-century compilation, the Haṭhapradīpikā – a new kind of yoga emerged, with roots in Tantra. This haṭhayoga placed more emphasis on postures (āsana) and breath-control (prāṇāyāma), as a counterpart to rājayoga, whose aim was the union of the individual and universal self. While a Vedāntic yoga was first brought to the West by Vivekananda, who was dismissive of haṭhayoga, later teachers – particularly Krishnamacharya’s students – emphasized these physical practices, giving birth to modern yoga, which is now practiced by millions across the world, although often divorced from its roots. The enduring popularity of yoga is largely due to its adaptability through the ages.

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