Posted on 07/01/2014 4:20:15 PM PDT by NYer
Yelling “fire” in a crowded theater can get you into trouble. So can saying “yoga” in a group of Catholics.
I just do it for the stretches, I don’t do anything religious.
It’s evil…the work of the devil.
Oh please! The next thing you’ll be telling me is the number 13 brings bad luck.
Practicing yoga breaks the First Commandment; it’s pagan worship.
And so it goes. And goes. And goes.
Three years ago, I did an article titled “To Yoga or Not to Yoga.” Initially, I wrote it then put it aside for around a year. I was not sure I was up for putting my head into a hornet’s nest. When the time seemed right, I posted it. The hornets came. So did a number of radio interviews in which the listener lines lit up the whole time. “Can you stay on for another half hour,” I was asked by host Drew Mariani at Relevant Radio. “This happens every time we talk about yoga.”
There are a lot of issues that come with controversy—contraception, supposed same-sex marriage, and abortion, being among them. The difference is that the Church has spoken definitely on those issues. People can agree or disagree with the Catholic Church but they cannot pretend the Church is in favor of any of those issues. With yoga, interpretations abound. Debates can get heated, with both sides convince that yoga for exercise is either harmless or evil.
In a definition from About.com, yoga is described as, “ . . . a disciplined path for purification of our attachments to the temporal world of form (bodies and objects) and the ever changing world of energy and mind, to experience the bliss and unity of consciousness as the unchanging, ever permanent, immortal and infinite Being.” Wow. Cool. Wait, what’s that about the immortal and infinite Being? Is that God? Or the devil? Or is it nothing if I just show up with a mat and stretch pants ready to limber up?
Yoga is considered a whole body experience originating in Hinduism as a means to reach enlightenment through exercises and meditations that unite the body, mind, and spirit. For Catholics, worshiping or becoming one with a yoga deity breaks the First Commandment. No one argues that point. The question is, can we claim to just be there in pursuit of physical fitness alone?
Hatha yoga, the one used in exercise classes, prepares the body for enlightenment through physical postures. Some people say they don’t participate in the meditations or postures that could be religious. After all, if an atheist folds his hands, he’s not praying. So if a yoga posture used for worship means nothing but a balance exercise to you, then is that all it is?
Putting your body into a particular posture does not automatically turn it into a form of worship. But what if that is the purpose of the pose as many of the yoga postures are? Can you remain neutral even if the instructor is not? Isn’t the intent of the person what matters most?
The controversy with yoga goes beyond a person’s intent. No one is accusing Catholics of going to yoga class specifically to worship a Hindu God. The problem is that yoga holds that all existence is one; there is no distinction between God and the universe. Through enlightenment a person becomes one with all of existence.
Having taken a yoga class myself many years ago, I know that the stretches, relaxation meditations and poses, all mesh together. It would be hard to discern the instructor’s meaning behind everything. For instance, a classic yoga mantra: “So’ham” means, ‘I am the universal Self,’” which is often used repetitively, timed with your breathing.
A friend who took a yoga class told me everyone was supposed to fold their hands and bow before they began. She said she did not do that but upon considering that yoga exercise is one part of a bigger pagan spiritual practice, she decided to quit. “Why take a chance?” she said. “If parts of it are wrong, then I’m not going to participate in any of it.”
In part 1 of the 3 part series, “What is Yoga? A Catholic Perspective,” Fr. Ezra Sullivan O.P., a Dominican Friar of the Province of St. Joseph pointed out that one indication of yoga’s spiritual nature even in exercise classes is the way it affects practitioners over time. “The International Journal of Yoga published the results of a national survey in Australia. Physical postures (asana) comprised about 60% of the yoga they practiced; 40% was relaxation (savasana), breathing techniques (pranayama), meditation, and instruction. The survey showed very significant results: although most respondents commonly began yoga for reasons of physical health, they usually continued it for reasons of spirituality.
“In addition, the more people practiced yoga, the more likely they were to decrease their adherence to Christianity and the more likely they were to adhere to non-religious spirituality and Buddhism. In other words, whatever their intentions may have been, many people experience yoga as a gateway to a spirituality disconnected from Christ.”
Regardless of the warnings or information, there are always Catholics who say they will not give up their yoga because it makes them feel good and they personally don’t use it for religion. But there is a further consideration with yoga. By participating in yoga, or when a school or church sponsors classes, it gives the message of blanket approval. If yoga is okay with the Church or with Sally Stretchy, then it’s obviously okay, is the impression. So, if just part of it is wrong, is it still okay to practice some of it? What do you think?
(To read all three parts of the yoga article or for daily spiritual direction go to: http://spiritualdirection.com.)
And who is to decide what alters spirituality? Who is to make perfect judgment on what is ‘bad’? I go to church every Sunday, and I see families come to Mass in clothing we would’ve considered ‘bad’ when I was a child. St. Joan of Arc, the patron saint of my parish was considered bad for wearing men’s clothing while she was fighting and proclaiming the word of God.
My friend, you are no more Catholic than I. One thing I recognize from studying history and experiencing life is that we humans make an awful lot of mistakes when we presume to know the will of God. Jesus Christ made it very simple - we are first called to love. With love, fear always loses. To say that practicing yoga may separate us from the Holy Trinity and God’s love, is utter nonsense.
And who is to decide what alters spirituality? Who is to make perfect judgment on what is ‘bad’? I go to church every Sunday, and I see families come to Mass in clothing we would’ve considered ‘bad’ when I was a child. St. Joan of Arc, the patron saint of my parish was considered bad for wearing men’s clothing while she was fighting and proclaiming the word of God.
My friend, you are no more Catholic than I. One thing I recognize from studying history and experiencing life is that we humans make an awful lot of mistakes when we presume to know the will of God. Jesus Christ made it very simple - we are first called to love. With love, fear always loses. To say that practicing yoga may separate us from the Holy Trinity and God’s love, is utter nonsense.
Gregorian chants were devised by pope st Gregory
A saint
Inspired by the Holy Spirit
Some holy people, FR b groeschel, for one, have stated that the enemy hates latin
When you go to a church, during mass, with the Eucharist present and men are chanting gregorian, words of praise to God, and all who and that are holy, thousands of angels from heaven are present, including the guardian angel of everyone present, you can be certain that if evil or pagan gods are around, they are far from the incense,
You can think its about introspection and nothing necessarily to do with God, but that does not make it true
Yoga in a shopping center gym invites spirits which have nothing to do with those which Gregorian chant invites
Go to a local parish service which has them, and you will see
This post itself might just inform a lot of people who are asking in their prayers.
Some guy might be asking, ‘why is my marriage off?’
This is how it works
Joan of arc is recognized as a very holy woman, a saint. Don’t doubt it. To bring up how she was treated is silly
Go to Rouen if you doubt it
My understanding of the yoga postures is that they are indeed prayer positions and that those positions indicate to the demon (Hindu god) that one is receptive to it.
IOW it invites the demonic being by indicating an openness to its presence.
Putting on the asbestos clothing, for the flaming I am about to get.
You are missing my point. In Joan of Arc’s time, the informed view among the powers of the church was that she was a heretic, a nut. They were fearful of her and did not object to her being burned. We perhaps have been enlightened over 500 years and now don’t see things that way. It wasn’t that long ago that Catholics directly laid the blame for the crucifixion at the feet of the Jews and shunned and persecuted them. Who was our Pope just visiting and embracing a few weeks ago? Did God will us to have the hatred and rift, or the rapprochement and embrace?
Pope Francis is getting awfully close to blessing gay unions? What is God’s will on this? Our faith and growth in holy spirit is far, far more rich than some ideologue claiming that practicing yoga may separate us from the Holy Trinity. That’s so small and silly that in the big scheme of the challenges we face as a faith, it’s simply a laughable claim.
The devil speaks New Age. "Yoga is the work of the devil,” says Pauline priest Father Gabriele Amorth, founder and honorary president of the World Association of Exorcists. And Harry Potter, the literary and cinematic idol of so many children, is a testimony of magic; science is "not able to ’invent’ anything." At the seventh edition of "Peoples and Religions Umbria Film Fest," Father Amorth declared that "even seemingly innocuous Eastern practices like yoga are devious and dangerous."
Thank-you for common sense.
Back up.
You are proving the point of the headline.
If you think we are enlightened, compared with those in former times, you might want to rethink your premises.
people think, now, that they are impervious to the enemy.
It’s never been more wrong a notion.
The Pope might be off on his advice in economics, and other things, but he will never be able to bring the Church to an acceptance of the practice of homosexuality.
Read the papal document on human sexuality
Thank you for reassuring me that I am not the only one who thinks this way. Sometimes the things I see and read make me wonder.
Thanks. I don’t know how we can live in this complex world of ours and abide the judgments of some who are really out of touch with what faith and Holy Spirit are all about.
Thank you. Glad I am not alone in thinking this way.
-— “ Father Amorth declared that “even seemingly innocuous Eastern practices like yoga are devious and dangerous.” -—
My understanding is that in Hinduism, the positions are a part of Hindu prayer/worship. The concern is that, as when innocent children play with a Ouija board, these practices may open a door to the demonic.
At the very least, yoga-for-stretching can serve to interest people in Eastern spirituality, i.e., Hinduism or New Age practices. New Age practices are particularly dangerous.
Sure, as soon as you stop making it a public issue by posting about it, I will.
Versus what - that the universe is made of something other than God? Which would mean that God is not infinite, because there's something outside of God?
LOL, sorry, but no. It's all God. All of it. That's what the word "infinite" means.
Yoga’s OK all he wants is a full picnic basket. Boo Boo needs to catch on and stop being a wimp. Two baskets is better than one. Ranger Smith needs to mellow out. Cindy? A tease Yoga needs to move on.
Thank you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.