In June, I took a class that fulfilled my annual training requirement - Stress Management Techniques - that included yoga and guided imagery. Just prior to attending the class, I ran across a thread on the Catholic Answers forum where several posters felt that yoga was not compatible with Christianity, that it was Hindu in origin, and should be avoided. Guided imagery was also discouraged as New Age. I don't really know what is New Age, and what isn't - it is very unclear. What came to my mind when I thought of New Age was Scientology. I read about Scientology a long time ago - in the 70's - before the computer age. People would connect to an electronic device - kind of like a lie detector or EKG - that measured energy or "enngrams", and the goal was to reach a state of clear - to eliminate any negative "enngrams". I couldn't beleive that people were buying into this (and that many still do). So back to yoga. I did approach yoga with caution, but didn't find anything that was not compatible with my Christian beliefs. I found the exercize & relaxation very beneficial - something that works with any religion or none. There was some mention of "the God within", which I thought of as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I thought the instructor was quite careful to keep it neutral, though we watched a film called "What the Bleep Do We Know?" - which did, IMO, attack my beliefs. When I got back from the class, I did a bit more reading. There were opinions on both sides of the yoga issue. One church document regarding New Age, which lumped yoga, guided imagery & even 12-step programs as things that can lead to "New Age thinking", but did not comdemn the practices. Then another document that was supposed to clarify, but did not. I asked a Deacon friend, and his guidance was that yoga as exercize is fine, but not as philosophy - and that guided imagery has great benefits, but could be misused. Pretty much what I thought to begin with. All that being said, I purchaed a book - Prayer of Heart & Body by Fr. Thomas Ryan, and a "Christian Yoga" CD.
I once had a friend from Ethiopia who was (I believe) a Coptic. She was attending a Catholic College to learn accounting but I knew religion was part of every course. I once asked her if that bothered her and she said that she chose to view those classes as a course in History, Sociology Geography, etc. In fact that's what other's views are. Reality plus faith. (c;
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that on that particular board, as well as many other religion boards, there are the "holier than thou" folks, and then there are the rest who are just trying to live their faith. I still do yoga - it's good exercise.
ReplyDeleteMy wife was attending Yoga classes but when the got to the point of introducing the "spiritual" side of Yoga she dropped out. She didn't want to, she had wanted to stay a keep at the lower level but they wouldn't let her. Sounds like they're drafting new recruits into their "beliefs". Not fair.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Some of my Christian friends believe that it it very difficult to separate Yoga from the Eastern spirituality associalted with it, if not impossible. There is an alternative program developed by a woman who was a former yoga instructor, called Praise Moves, but I haven't tried it yet.
ReplyDeleteIf you do attend it'll be interesting to see how things progress.
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