£15.00
Over four lectures, Gavin Flood explores the idea of “the truth within” — the conviction, found across the world’s great traditions, that hidden inside each of us is a deeper, more authentic self, reached through meditation, prayer and yoga. Tracing this idea through Hindu, Buddhist and Christian sources, he asks what this inner truth actually is, how different civilizations have understood it, and whether it still speaks to us in today’s global society.
2 hours and 51 minutes
Try a free sample
Over four lectures, Gavin Flood, professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion in the Theology and Religion Faculty at Campion Hall at Oxford University, gives an overview of the idea of the truth within: that available to everyone is an inner source of power, healing, and confirmation of life. He traces this idea across the world’s great contemplative traditions, exploring what this inner truth is, how different civilizations have understood it through history, and whether it still speaks to us in today’s global society.
• Session 1 – The Hindu Truth Within: Yoga in the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Yoga Sutra
• Session 2 – The Union of Opposites in Tantra
• Session 3 – Buddhist Meditation and the Inner Guiding Light
• Session 4 – Christian Meditation and the Threat of Heresy
Gavin Flood is a Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion in the Theology and Religion Faculty and academic director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.
Gavin read Religious Studies and Social Anthropology at Lancaster University and taught at the universities of Wales (Lampeter) and Stirling before coming to Oxford. He was elected to membership of the British Academy in 2014. His research interests are in medieval Hindu texts (especially from the traditions of Shiva), comparative religion, and phenomenology. Two recent books are The Importance of Religion: Meaning and Action in Our Strange World (Oxford: Blackwell, 2013) and The Truth Within: A History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2014).
