Hindu Concepts for Modern Life

True Power and False Authority

A two-day online weekend school exploring how classical Hindu ideas help us cultivate discernment and think with greater clarity.

Online Weekend School

28 February – 1 March 2026

We live in a world that often feels unsettled: information is abundant, certainty is fragile, and many people feel unsure of what can truly be trusted. Alongside extraordinary technological progress, we see anxiety, division, and a need for deeper discernment.

Hindu Concepts for Modern Life is a two-day online Weekend School designed as a focused opportunity to engage classical Hindu ideas as enduring ways of thinking through times like these. Drawing on concepts such as dharma, jñāna, buddhi, śakti, and pramāṇa, we approach these traditions not simply as topics of study, but as tools for clearer judgement, ethical reflection, and intellectual steadiness.

Across the weekend, participants will engage with these ideas in a thoughtful, accessible format designed to help recognise confusion, examine assumptions, and develop greater clarity in how we understand the world and our own lives.

Many participants experience these Weekend Schools as concentrated opportunities to deepen and extend their ongoing study.

Who is this for?

  • Anyone interested in Hindu philosophy who wants to explore its ideas in relation to modern life.
  • Students, practitioners, and thoughtful learners seeking deeper clarity rather than quick answers.
  • Yoga practitioners or previous students looking to deepen their engagement with Hindu thought.
  • Suitable for both newcomers and those already familiar with Hindu philosophy.

Details and Enrolment

Saturday 28 February – Sunday 1 March 2026

11am–5.30pm UK Times with breaks between sessions and lifelong access to recordings for any sessions you miss.

£295

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Designed for thoughtful learners — no prior specialist knowledge required, and recordings ensure you can engage at your own pace.

Saturday 28 February

Dharma and Ṛta: Timeless and Timely Principles

Dharma

Dr Ruth Westoby

In this session we introduce dharma as ethics, law, and religion, alongside ṛta as cosmic and social order. For some, these principles describe how life in the world does operate; for others, they offer visions of how it should operate. Historically, how have these terms been used to understand conflicting values, and what is their relevance today in individual, interpersonal, and ecological contexts?

11:00am–12.10pm

The Stranger and the Sacred

Atithi Devo Bhava

Anuradha Dooney

Atithi Devo Bhava (“the guest as divine”) offers a way of understanding hospitality, care, and responsibility toward others. We explore how Hindu traditions can shape our perception of those who are unfamiliar or vulnerable, emphasising relationship and human encounter over policy or argument

12:30pm–1:40pm
 

Vairāgya and the Ethical Life

Vairagya

Prof. Gavin Flood

Vairāgya (non-attachment) is a practice concerned with loosening compulsive attachment. Drawing on classical sources, we consider how clarity, restraint, and freedom are cultivated through non-attachment, and how ethical life takes shape when action is guided by discernment rather than impulse, especially in times of excess and distraction.

3:00–4.10pm

Ahiṃsā and the Ethics of Care

Ahimsa

Prof. Chris Chapple

Ahiṃsā (non-violence and non-harm) is explored here as a lived ethic in Hindu traditions. Focusing on restraint, compassion, and responsibility, we examine how care for others, for life, and for the wider world is cultivated through practice, and why non-violence remains vital in times of vulnerability and threat.

4:20–5:30pm

Sunday 1 March

Viveka: Learning to See Clearly

Viveka

Daniel Simpson

This session explores the cultivation of discernment (viveka) in yogic traditions. As a learnable quality, it helps us to distinguish illusions from truth. In an age of distraction, agitation and confusion, we will reflect on the difference between responding with wisdom and rushing to judgement. We will also consider which practices help to develop a supportive combination of restraint and attention, bringing greater clarity to everyday life.

11:00am–12.10pm

Mind and Intelligence: The Meaning of Buddhi

Hindu Concepts for Modern Life: True Power and False Authority 1

Dr Jessica Frazier

What does it mean to be intelligent? We examine buddhi as the faculty of insight, judgement, and discernment. Hindu thought does not equate intelligence with speed, calculation, or performance, but with the ability to see wisely and respond well. What kind of thinking leads to steadiness rather than restlessness? Wisdom rather than cleverness? And understanding rather than reaction?

12:30pm–1:40pm
 

Pramāṇa: Knowing What to Trust

Hindu Concepts for Modern Life: True Power and False Authority 2

Dr Alan Herbert

This session introduces Hindu approaches to reliable knowledge (pramāṇa) and explores how traditions understand truth, authority, and trustworthiness. Drawing on classical sources, we reflect on how insight is tested, how error arises, and why careful judgement remains essential in complex and uncertain times.

3:00–4.10pm

Knowledge and Illusion: Jñāna and Avidyā

Jnana-and-avidya

Prof. John Nemec

What is the difference between being well informed and seeing clearly? Hindu traditions understand jñāna as knowledge that transforms understanding, not merely an accumulation of information. This session examines avidyā not as stupidity, but as mis-seeing or misunderstanding ourselves, others, and reality. We ask how clarity arises, how confusion takes root, and why more information does not always bring understanding.

4:20–5:30pm

£295

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Your Tutors

Prof. Christopher Key Chapple

Prof. Christopher Key Chapple is the Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology and founding director of the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles).

Author of over twenty books including Karma and Creativity; Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions; Yoga and the Luminous; Living Landscapes: Meditations on the Elements in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Yogas; he specialises in South Asian religions, ecology, and nonviolence. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fulbright-Nehru Program.

Hindu Concepts for Modern Life: True Power and False Authority 3

Anuradha Dooney was awarded a Masters in the Study of Religion at Oxford. She is a faculty member of the OCHS Continuing Education Department and has played a key role in curriculum development.

Prof. Gavin Flood

Prof. Gavin Flood is Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion at Oxford University, Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, and Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall. His publications include Religion and the Philosophy of Life (2019), The Truth Within: A History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism (2013), The Importance of Religion: Meaning and Action in Our Strange World (2012), and The Ascetic Self: Subjectivity, Memory, and Tradition (2004). He is also the General Editor of the series ‘The Oxford History of Hinduism’ and is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Hindu Concepts for Modern Life: True Power and False Authority 4

Dr Jessica Frazier is a scholar of religion and philosophy, with a focus on Vedānta and post-Heideggerian phenomenology. She studied at King’s College, Cambridge and Wolfson College, Oxford, and completed her doctorate on Rūpa Gosvāmin and Gadamer at Queen’s College, Cambridge.

She is Managing Editor of The Journal of Hindu Studies (Oxford University Press) and contributes to BBC programmes. Her work explores concepts of being, self, and value across cultures. Current projects include Religion, Hinduism and the Sacred (Cambridge) and a study of the sublime in modern thought.

Alan Herbert

With a D.Phil. in Theology and Religion at Oxford, Dr Alan Herbert is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. His current projects include philosophical approaches to the Vaiṣṇava concept of God and the intersection between Hinduism and secular society.

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Prof. John Nemec is Professor of Indian Religions and South Asian Studies at the University of Virginia. He is the author of two volumes on Somānanda’s Śivadṛṣṭi (Oxford University Press, 2011, 2021), foundational texts of the Śaiva Pratyabhijñā school. His third book, Brahmins and Kings, explores religion and political authority in Sanskrit narratives. He serves as Editor of the AAR’s Religion in Translation series and is a Trustee of the American Institute of Indian Studies. His current research focuses on tantric philosophy and intellectual culture in medieval Kashmir. He holds degrees from Oxford, Penn, UCSB, and Rochester.

Daniel Simpson

Daniel Simpson brings yoga history and philosophy to life. He’s the author of two books on these subjects – The Truth of Yoga (2021) and The Evolution of Modern Yoga (forthcoming) – as well as hosting the Ancient Futures podcast. Daniel has an M.A. in yoga studies from SOAS (University of London), where he subsequently taught. In a previous career, he was a foreign correspondent, which helps him to demystify complex topics and make them accessible. His website is: http://www.danielsimpson.info

Person with short, styled hair.

Dr Ruth Westoby is a researcher and practitioner of yoga and Asian religions. She is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Jaina Studies at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, focusing on technologies of the body in ascetic, yogic, and medical traditions. Ruth also researches menstruation in contemporary religions as an Associate at Inform (King’s College London). Her PhD from SOAS (2024), supervised by Prof. James Mallinson, explored The Body in Early Haṭha Yoga. Ruth teaches at Roehampton University and has published both scholarly and public work. She collaborated with the SOAS Haṭha Yoga Project interpreting premodern yoga postures.

£295

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True-Power-and-False-Authority an OCHS Weekend School
Hindu Concepts for Modern Life: True Power and False Authority
£295