The Zero-Sum Trap

The Zero-Sum Trap

Predatory hegemony isn’t strength—it’s avidya dressed up as strategy, mistaking extraction for security and deference for respect.

Stephen Walt’s analysis of predatory hegemony in Foreign Affairs reads like a case study in what happens when avidya — fundamental misperception — drives policy. The premise is simple: if you believe the world is zero-sum, you’ll act like a predator. You’ll extract, exploit, demand tribute. You’ll mistake deference for respect and compliance for partnership. Walt describes a shift from benevolent hegemony — where the U.S.

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Read the full article: https://theyoga.club/the-zero-sum-trap/
Original source: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/predatory-hegemon
All content: https://mjh.yoga

Concepts: Avidya · Aparigraha · Dharma · Santosha

#ashtanga #yoga #ashtangayoga #yogapractice #theyogaclub

Yoga Filter #2: Systems, Suits, and Who Gets To Know

Yoga Filter #2: Systems, Suits, and Who Gets To Know

Yoga Filter: Algorithms, Translation, and Who Controls What We Know

Michael Joel Hall reflects on who controls information and how algorithms sort, predict, price, and exclude, arguing they don’t remove bias but relocate it into opaque systems that resemble an old “digital caste” logic. He highlights Matthew Luko’s work translating government bureaucracy as a model for yoga teachers demystifying practice and notes his new “Tech Support Tuesday” answering Ashtanga questions. He connects this to real-world community as an antidote to tech-driven loneliness, describing how the yoga club mirrors “incidental intimacy” found in run clubs and other offline meetups. He then turns to memory research showing scientists can delete or alter mice memories, questioning what happens if suffering is removed, and contrasts deletion with yogic practice: working with samskaras, acceptance, and changing one’s relationship to pain rather than erasing it.

00:00 Weekly Theme Setup
00:15 Algorithms And Bias
00:25 Algorithms & The Digital Poorhouse
00:47 The Question Mark Suit Man
00:50 Translators And Yoga Teachers
01:04 Yoga as Translation
01:32 Tech Support Tuesday & Real Life Meetups
02:13 Deleting Memories
02:37 Joyce Carol Oates & Identity
03:08 Who Controls What We Know
03:12 The Thread: Who Decides?
03:19 Closing And Next Steps
03:21 Where Are You Going?
07:50 The Digital Poorhouse
09:34 All Eight
12:34 Forget About It

Forget About It

Forget About It

Our memories aren’t meant to be erased—they’re meant to be transformed, held differently, integrated into who we’re becoming.

Scientists can now manipulate memories in mice, but the real question is whether we should erase our painful past. From Every time we think of the memory, we may boost, weaken or even change it on sciencefocus.com

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Read the full article: https://theyoga.club/forget-about-it/
Original source: https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/memory-manipulation
All content: https://mjh.yoga

Concepts: Samskaras · Avidya · Impermanence · Meditation

#ashtanga #yoga #ashtangayoga #yogapractice #theyogaclub

The 40Hz Protocol: Ashtanga Yoga as a Multimodal Gamma Entrainment System

The 40Hz Protocol: Ashtanga Yoga as a Multimodal Gamma Entrainment System

Neuroscientists are designing elaborate protocols to induce gamma oscillations in the human brain — flickering lights, transcranial currents, near-infrared light helmets. A 2024 review in Frontiers in Neuroscience catalogues four distinct stimulation methods to achieve what the brain needs to perceive clearly, move well, and regulate emotion. Reading it, I kept having the same thought: Ashtanga yoga already does all of this. Not metaphorically. Simultaneously, and without a single device