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The doctrine of man as sinner is degrading to human beings, and it may artifically create more human problems than we can imagine. The doctrine enslaves man into an artificial dependency on a being called God only by whom that stigma can be removed with little or no personal effort. The implications for mental ill health can be enormous for all such believers, especially when doubts come in, and guilt comes in about abandoning the religion.
But worse yet, man is promised that all he has to do is accept Jesus in his heart as his savior, and he will receive salvation as recompense for his so called original sin for all times, yet he has to live in conformity with the life of Jesus or go to Hell for eternity.
It sure comes across as a tricky or deceptive invitation into a trap of blackmail with acceptance of instant salvation, yet conditioned with going to Hell if you don't accept the offer. Again the implications for promoting various forms of mental ill health here seems enormous.
http://www.dlshq.org/religions/yogachristian.htm
This article is from the book "Guidelines To Illumination".
YOGA AND CHRISTIANITY
By
SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA
I shall speak to you at some length upon the subject of 'Yoga and the Christian Religion' because most of you are from a Christian background, very pious and very religious. Some are only Christian because they are born Christians, but some are halfway going to the Church once in two months, but all are from a Christian background, may be some Roman Catholics, may be not, may be Protestants, may be Methodists, may be some other. Some of you are Jews. Whatever religion you belong to, when I speak about Yoga and the Christian religion, it could equally apply to Yoga and any other religion.
So, what is the connection between Yoga and one's religion? One takes it for granted that Yoga is of the Hindu religion, and asks: 'What is the connection between, this Hindu thing and my religion?' Anyone belonging to another religion must wonder. So, it is worth-knowing how to relate Yoga to religion. Is it like other religions or are there sharp divergences between Yoga and other religions? If these things are not clear, may be some would feel a sense of guilt. 'O, I am a Christian, am I doing the right by coming and taking to Yoga? Perhaps, I am being a little irreligious in the particular area of my interest in Yoga.' Thus, a vague sort of uneasiness may be felt.
First and foremost, it has to be known that Yoga has arisen from a background or basis of the Hindu religion. It has its origin in India and it is part of the Hindu religion. But it is not Hindu. It is a universal science that has arisen out of the Hindu religious ground-a science that has risen above religion. It is a universal technique. Because in Yoga, as it is given in the Yoga-Darsana of Patanjali, one of the six systems of philosophy, no particular dogma is laid down and no particular God is pointed out for your worship.
Yoga doesn't say that you must worship Rama or Siva or meditate upon Krishna, or you must worship Kaali or Durga, or Hanuman; Yoga has nothing to say upon all these things. Yoga doesn't say that you must repeat any particular Name of God. Yoga only says that repetition of one of the Divine Names is one of the ways of concentrating the mind. It says repeat the Divine Name. You may repeat the Divine Name, you may say the prayer of Jesus, you may say Allah, you may say Rama, you may say the name of Siva, or you may say some other Name if you are in some other religion, but it does not specify that Name and also whom to worship.
The All-perfect Divine Being, who is ever-free, ever-perfect, free from all the imperfections, ever-free beyond Maya, the Supreme Purusha, means the Supreme Being, Almighty Father in Heaven, Allah, Jehovah, you can call it by any name, it does not matter, the ever-free Being is not bound by Maya, and who is free from affliction, who is of the nature of Bliss-Absolute, Consciousness-Absolute; that is the object of meditation to be attained, that is the goal of Yoga. So, it does not give for you a goal other than the goal of Yoga; it does not give for you a goal other than the goal of your religion. It does not point out a God different from the one pointed by your own religion—Christianity, Islam, etc.—and it does not give a special name of that God so that you will have to change Gods. It does not give any special name to the one God. Emerging from the ground of Hinduism, it goes beyond religion.
Yoga is a Religious Science, which means that it goes beyond religion, and assumes a universal characteristic. Secondly, Yoga is a science for Man. It is not a science either for an Easterner or a Westerner, an Oriental or an Occidental. Yoga is for man on earth. It was given to mortal man on this earth of birth, pain and death. It was given to man on earth, no matter what he is or who he is; and it is given to man for all times. It was not given to an ancient man or medieval man or a modern man, or anyone who might come, wanting to go beyond all sorrow, pain and suffering, go beyond bondage and delusion. If he takes to this path, it brings him to the place of supreme experience. So it is the answer to the need of mortal man, on this earth plane. So it is something that is the property, the heritage of humanity—Yoga is the heritage of humanity. It does not interfere with religion. What does Yoga do? Yoga supplies to the life of man and makes up for certain lack brought about by religion failing man or man failing religion. There is a condition created by the failure of religion administering to man's highest needs, or the failure of man to take advantage of religion or properly utilise his religion which it is, we cannot say.
Some say religions have failed. I say, no. Man has failed to follow religion. It is not due to religion that man suffers. It is due to the neglect of religion, the ignoring of religion and its teachings and its wisdom. Mostly, this is the situation. But in some places where religion has become totally institutionalised, it has become a great impersonal structure, and lost living contact with the individuals. Under it, then, it becomes barren of real spirit. It becomes only a pattern for dogma and ritual, and ceremony and belief.
You are a Christian; if you say 'I believe in salvation through the blood of Christ'. Yes, I believe, then you are a Christian. You are a very good Christian; so go your way. Do what you like, drink, smoke, break all the ten commandments, but you are a Christian. Religion has come to mean just accepting certain things which an institution has set to be the very heart of religion—a set of dogmas, and if you say you accept all this, then, you are a religious man. But, then, this is not religion. In each religion there is a certain spiritual content which has direct relevance to that part of you which is your innermost essential being, which is your innermost reality, a true, essential reality, and where religion fails to touch that part of your being, and loses its concern with that, and only concerns itself with the way in which you live, your social life and pattern of your social life, and your domestic life, whether you pay your tithe and whether you attend the Church regularly once in a week, or whether you go through all the various sacraments.
You Baptise, and you are Christian. It is interested only in that, but not in that highest part of you. It never asks you to question yourself or query 'What is the purpose of my life? Why have I come here? What have I to attain? What is the true meaning of my life? What is my goal?' In organised religions, the structure does not encourage you to ask these questions, does not insist that you raise these questions and seek an answer and make life a quest of that great goal which you ascertain through the answer. In such case, religion is not ministering to you in depth, while it is ministering to you on the surface. It fails to deal with you in that dimension of your being where you are the real being. Other dimensions are touched and affected, but that dimension is left untouched.
So, when the spiritual content in religion is no longer active, no longer progressive, then that religion has petrified. It is not alive in such cases. Yoga is a wonderful answer because the prime concern of Yoga is the spiritual reality within you, the attainment of the spiritual goal for which you have taken this human birth; that is the prime concern of Yoga. Yoga is the path to God-realisation. Yoga is the path of Divine Experience, and the Divine Experience is the heart of religion.
Trying to attain God-realisation is the very heart, the very essence of religion. That is the inner spiritual core of religion, and where that spiritual core has been neglected and cast aside, and is forgotten, then religion is only there as a great forum; a great structure is there, but inside there is no one living. There are a hundred houses, only a built palace is there, no one is living. It is a deserted palace. Like that, religion becomes a huge imposing structure with no life; and if such has become the religious life of any person, be he a Christian, a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Parsi, or a Muslim; if such it has become, then Yoga comes as life-giving waters, the living waters to revive that withering, languishing inner spiritual core, that innermost spiritual path that has been neglected and dried away.
Yoga comes as the life-giving force. Once again it makes spring into life the spiritual centre of your religion. It makes your religion alive for you. It can make religion alive for anyone, be he a Christian or a Muslim, and it gives back to you the life within your religion. It is the common experience of many people that after Yoga came to them they started being really religious. After Yoga came to them a Christian became a real devoted Christian, started going to Church, started reading the Bible and trying to find out more interest in the words of Jesus, began to understand the meaning of many things he is now doing in the name of Christianity, which he otherwise stopped doing because he found it to be meaningless,—'I find no meaning, it is mechanical'. It has no meaning, and once now he has found meaning, he begins to get interested in it. He begins to practise the teachings. Many things which were just meaningless once, become now meaningful. So one becomes a better Christian.
In many cases Yoga has helped a person to find the inner meaning of his religion. He begins to see the reason behind the practice and then he begins to take more interest in his own religion, understand it better than he understood it before. Yoga restores to people whatever religion they may belong to. It restores to people the inner spiritual content of their religion. It restores to people the spiritual life which is the centre of any real religion, lacking which religion becomes merely an external facade. Yoga restores, makes it alive, makes it green, brings it forth into life. Yoga can be applied to Christianity and to any other religion.
In what way does it differ? That also we shall see. It differs in its refusing to accept the doctrine of 'original sin'. It does not call man a sinner. It may call man a fool but it doesn't call him a sinner. Man is God playing the fool, or, man is God who has lost his way home, wandered away, stumbling and running about in circles. It clears up the path, puts light and puts man on the path again and says, 'go ahead now, go straight to your home'. So it doesn't want you to consider yourself a sinner. And the other thing is this: Much of Christianity, unfortunately, in certain of its areas, becomes wholly a preoccupation with avoiding hell, trying to avoid hell, and somehow or other slip past the doors of heaven; somehow or other, even if you are not fully qualified for it.
Yoga says: 'This is a little childish, you have got something more glorious. Why do you play this game of heaven and hell?' Yoga rejects hell, and Yoga rejects heaven also. Go to the Creator of heaven, the Master of heaven. Why heaven? Heaven is also a petty desire. You don't want it. 'I want God. I want to experience God, the Supreme Being, the Master of heaven'. Yoga concerns itself with God, not heaven or hell. You can say these are some of the differences, the way that Yoga differs from Christianity. It is where orthodox Christian doctrine differs from Yoga.
Yoga restores the most precious part of religion, which, unfortunately, by and large, it is not.
Falcon
08-21-2009, 01:25 PM
The doctrine of man as sinner is degrading to human beings, and it may artifically create more human problems than we can imagine. The doctrine enslaves man into an artificial dependency on a being called God only by whom that stigma can be removed with little or no personal effort. The implications for mental ill health can be enormous for all such believers, especially when doubts come in, and guilt comes in about abandoning the religion.
But worse yet, man is promised that all he has to do is accept Jesus in his heart as his savior, and he will receive salvation as recompense for his so called original sin for all times, yet he has to live in conformity with the life of Jesus or go to Hell for eternity.
It sure comes across as a tricky or deceptive invitation into a trap of blackmail with acceptance of instant salvation, yet conditioned with going to Hell if you don't accept the offer. Again the implications for promoting various forms of mental ill health here seems enormous.
I hope you're not the author of that- I would have thought you to be much more enlightened with the depth in which you study the Bible, brag. :roll:
Yes , it is what I wrote. So Falcon, I did not study well. Teach me.
Falcon
08-22-2009, 07:51 AM
It is obvious you'e not in this for enlightenment- only to promote that which you claim ironically is converse to the fare you're dishing out here......but I'll bite for a couple posts at least/most.
First of all, some aspects of what your swami friend wrote:
You are a Christian; if you say 'I believe in salvation through the blood of Christ'. simplistic, misinformed, misleading and patently incorrect.
Do what you like, drink, smoke, break all the ten commandments, but you are a Christian. the swami coming from a hindu background can explain why he can think like this.
You Baptise, and you are Christian. It is interested only in that, but not in that highest part of you. It never asks you to question yourself or query 'What is the purpose of my life? Why have I come here? What have I to attain? What is the true meaning of my life? What is my goal?' again, mr swami doesnt understand basic concepts presumably because like you, he was never in it to learn, just to try and throw stones. First he said you're a christian because you accept that Jesus' blood gains your salvation, then he says you're baptised and christian. If someone accepts salvation, the next step is to be baptised, and the next step is to use whatever can to carry out the great commission. Christianity says youre not here for yourself otherwise you'd have probably been raptured the moment you accepted salvation. Let me guess, hinduism asks those 'important' question better than anyone else....
actually ah fed up writing to someone who aint listening, but humour me in a subsequent post and I might continue with mr swami then deal with the incorrect assertions you posted. Really, ah feel ah wasting me time.
Falcon, I am not sure which post you believe I used to humor you. It would help if you would explain. If you are speaking about my asking you to teach me, it was a genuine attempt to know your views on original sin, especially when you said you expected more from my depth of understanding of the Bible, which depth I question myself. If anything, I believe I humbled myself in even asking that question of you.
Falcon
08-22-2009, 05:38 PM
Sorry brag, your earlier posts seemed to be strident and unwilling to support dialogue- if untrue then I unreservedly apologise for my earlier impatience.
I continue then..... :|
After Yoga came to them a Christian became a real devoted Christian, started going to Church, started reading the Bible and trying to find out more interest in the words of Jesus, began to understand the meaning of many things he is now doing in the name of Christianity, which he otherwise stopped doing because he found it to be meaningless,—'I find no meaning, it is mechanical'. It has no meaning, and once now he has found meaning, he begins to get interested in it. He begins to practise the teachings. Many things which were just meaningless once, become now meaningful. So one becomes a better Christian.
I cant support this misleading example. It is in fact what it says it's fixing. The fact that you have to chant something repeatedly, almost detached (tell me if I am now making asumptions) is what I would interpret as mechanical, deviod of deeper thought, moving away from a real relationship and more towards having to touch your toes 16 times, say hello tp the sun 10 times and jump up and down 34 times in order to be closer to God.
If original sin and subsequent salvation is the crux of 'becoming a christian', then saying Yoga enhances a Christian by teaching that we arent sinners, wont go to either destination, nor should we even think about it........then how does yoga justify its influence? If indeed yoga distracts a person from the core message and their duty, then it isnt something positive for a christian.
The fact that yoga makes you closer to God, I am not arguing because I cant speak for hindus. However, from a christain perspective- it is unproductive to sit at home/go to church and pray pray pray and meditate meditate and meditate and not do good to your fellow man, take care of your family, help the poor, befriend the hopeless, spread the love that God has shown you, show mercy to persons around you, share grace to all you meet. You do that by engaging people, and by putting yourself out there to be used by God, not sitting (what I call selfishly) and thinking you're getting closer to God- to find your deeper self or some other equally misguided philosophical reason.
now your post:
artificial dependancy?? You think you can do ANYTHING without God? thinking youre doing it on your own is like a house of cards.....
mentally ill? I think not. If one truly got the message of salvation, they'd understand that it is a message of freedom rather than of enslavement- mentally or otherwise.
yet he has to live in conformity with the life of Jesus? He was the example, but everyone has a different skill which they use to make a full body of Christ. You use whatever talent you have, and you use it as effectively as you can. You werent put here for yourself, as I said before.
It's not a tricky or deceptive invitation. It's a message of love. I have heard the persons who try to spread the message of christianity using a story of fear and trying to get people to turn their lives around because they dont want to 'suffer'. I'm sorry but the fact that they say a prayer out of fear doesnt cut it, and surely doesnt give them any impetus to live as Christ lived. How could they, they havent heard the real version of the message, have they..........
My position regarding the Christian concept of original sin and the Swami's position are not new. Many Christians themselves are able to reject it, and make new adaptations to Christianity in the same way many others do in any religion.
If everyone agreed with all Church doctrines, would we continue to have so many different factions as we have today in all the popular religions? Take Islam for example which is the last of the Abrahamic religions and perhaps the most regulated religion as a showcase for universal consistency and purity, and yet you have several factions fighting each other for supremacy based on the rejection of one set of doctrines or another.
No one is less religious or committed to his Church if he rejects one or two of the Church's positions. Hinduism goes further by saying that among the thousands of proscriptions for salvation, only one, when practiced with love and devotion, is all that is necessary.
Yoga is a philosophy that is universally applicable also for salvation in any religion. The Orthodox Christians of Russia repeat the name of Jesus just as Hindus do in their repetition of the favorite name of God. Kirtans, bhajans and Japa are repetition of the names of God for Hindus. It is only one of nine forms of devotion to God for salvation. The rosary in many religions facilitate repetition of names and prayers and concentration on the process. It is again one of the many practices borrowed from another religion.
The Vedas, too, are universally applicable for all times and all people. The universal Hindu beliefs in salvation is broad. It includes "manava sevaye madhava seva" or service to man is service to God as one of the nine types of devotion and glorification of God. Each person chooses the kind of devotion he feels most comfortable with according to his disposition at any given time.
The essential point of the Swami is that the practice of Yoga does not preclude anyone from practicing it as another form of enrichment in his life and religion.
The Swami said exactly what many Christians say today and who continue adhering to their beliefs in Christianity with modifications. Even the Church of Rome, as I pointed out in another thread, is slowly coming around to the position that all religions lead to salvation, and which is the central theme in all my discussions about religion and spirituality.
If you observe, few people now comment on my posts on the religion and spirituality board, and so I may often come across as having a discussion with myself. That is ok, as my intention is only to share all points of views I encounter in my research, and let people decide for themselves, not neglecting to share my own opinion when I believe I need to do so.
When you said you did not want to argue with me in an earlier post, you clearly indicated you did not wish to get extensively involved in religious discussions. I have no problem with that, only that I ask for a clear message that you do not wish to discuss religion and spirituality or have an argument with me and stick to it.
People are involved in service all the time but only when service is valued as an offering to God in the Hindu tradition, the value of our work changes and becomes a holy affair that enriches our lives to make life a joy and less stressful. The elderly Hindus would repeat "Om Narayan" all the time as they worked in the fields. Service to man is service to God.
http://www.darisisevasamstha.org/services.htm
SERVICES
It is with joy that we do this dedicated selfless service for relieving the suffering and distress of our fellowmen. Service of man meant an adoration of the Divine Presence that indwelt man as the hidden God within. Nothing would please Worshipful GOD better. Nothing else would make a more appropriate memorial to almighty's ideals of compassion and service. Such good Service can be fully achieved only with the loving active participation, active help and goodwill of all good men and women of noble intent. Therefore, you are cordially invited to join hands with us to realise its fulfillment.
Participate in this Seva Yajna by helping it in all the ways you can. Persuade, induce and inspire others also to do likewise.
Thus, with your noble goodwill, generosity and dynamic participation, this Darisi Seva Samasthan may be able to render most valuable seva to our brethren. Crown yourself with the glory of selfless and spontaneous generosity and loving adoration to the Lord in and through the service of His family- humanity.
The gratitude of the patients and sufferers thus served will be your reward. May God bless all of us!
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The examination of all religions can be a satisfying and rewarding experience for the sincere believer in God as the universal experiencer, the experiencing and the experienced. The entire article can be found in the link below.
http://www.religion-online.org/showchap ... 268&C=2684 (http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=3268&C=2684)
"...It is hard now, forty years later, to remember the impact of the first weeks in India. Certainly I recall the humidity and the delight in the cool stillness of the early morning. I had to adjust to the food and to the way of life in an Indian student hostel --although almost at once I was taken out to buy a bed as it was assumed that unlike my fellow students a ‘white man’ could not sleep on the floor!
But perhaps intellectually the first surprise was that the reality of God was taken for granted. I am not just thinking of the images of divine beings that are omnipresent, but the philosophic acceptance of spiritual knowledge. Horst Georg Pöhlmann, writing of his first visit to India in 1989, says, "Religion is practiced as a matter of course; people pay brief visits to the temple between their shopping. . . Everyone in the street can see through the open temple door the sacred fire which burns in the dark sanctuary of the temple before the image of God. . . There is no distinction between the sacred and the profane, between religion and everyday, as with us. Here God really is a God of the everyday. Religion is something natural. . . It is an innermost need. . . There is no secularization. Everyone is religious. Among the Hindus every house, every shop, every rickshaw has the picture of a deity."
The situation in the sixties was more ambiguous. Recently Indian religious communities have affirmed their identity --often over against other groups -- by building new temples or restoring old ones. In the sixties the humanism and socialism of Pandit Nehru was still influential and perhaps the majority of students at Madras Christian College, except for the committed Christians, put their trust in Western values rather than traditional religious beliefs, although this was probably not true of students at the Hindu Vivekananda College, where I attended some lectures. In the West too, many people assumed the role of religion would continue to decline in the modern world.
1963 saw the publication of John Robinson’s Honest to God, of which I first heard in a one paragraph report in an Indian newspaper, and of Paul van Buren’s The Secular Meaning of the Gospel. Both writers acknowledged their debt to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was put to death by the Nazis. In his letters from prison he wrote of the world ‘coming of age’. By this he meant that people no longer believed in a transcendent realm and did not require God as an explanation of what happened in the world. ‘Honesty demands’, wrote Bonhoeffer, ‘that we recognize that we live in the world as if there were no God.’ ‘People feel that they can get along perfectly well without religion,’ said John Robinson and added that ‘Bonhoeffer’s answer was to say that God is deliberately calling us in this twentieth century to a form of Christianity that does not depend upon the premise of religion’.
At the same time, there was growing interest in Rudolf Bultmann’s call to ‘demythologize’ the Gospel. He claimed that whereas New Testament writers assumed divine intervention in history, such a belief was unintelligible to modern man and that the entire conception of a supernatural order which invades and perforates this one must be abandoned. It was argued that in a secular age people no longer believed in divine intervention or activity. For example, miracles could be given a ‘scientific’ explanation and few people spoke of natural disasters as ‘the judgement of God’. ‘But if so’, asked Robinson, ‘what do we mean by God, by revelation, and what becomes of Christianity?’ These ideas stimulated what became known as ‘Death of God’ theology. It was claimed that the idea of a transcendent God was outmoded, although writers differed on whether the image of God had to go or whether there was no God of whom to speak.
At the same time the questioning of the language and indeed of the reality of God was central to the study of religious philosophy in most British universities. Religious Language was under scrutiny from a school of philosophy known as ‘Linguistic Analysis’. In part, this was an attempt to answer the accusation of A. J. Ayer, a leading Logical Empiricist, that religious and theological expressions are without literal significance because there is no way in which they can be verified or falsified. Religious language, Ayer claimed, is entirely emotive and lacks all cognitive value. Linguistic analysts examined the way in which religious statements are actually used. They appear to make factual claims, for example, that after the Resurrection Jesus ascended into heaven, whereas this may be a coded way of expressing the hope that ‘Love is the strongest power in the universe.’ Religious belief was regarded as only an expression of intent to act in a certain ethical way. Religion was about how to behave and not about how to relate to a Divine Reality.
Suddenly to be immersed in Indian religious thinking, which assumes the existence of a Divine reality and that union with the Divine (moksa) is the goal of the spiritual quest, was liberating and refreshing. There are in classical Hinduism three recognized paths (sadhanas) to God: the way of disinterested service of others, the way of devotion and the way of knowledge (karma-yoga, bhakti-yoga and juana-yoga). The word yoga, which is cognate with the English word ‘yoke’, means union with God and the way to that union. The third path, juana, means spiritual insight rather than intellectual knowledge. There are two kinds of knowledge: one is the result of the study of the scriptures, but the other is realization or experience of union with the Divine. Intellectual knowledge is not enough. In the Chandogya Upanishad, the student Narada complains, ‘I have studied all the Vedas, grammar, the sciences and the fine arts, but I have not known the self and so I am in sorrow.’ Another conceited young student, Svetaketu, is asked by his father, ‘As you consider yourself so well-read . . . have you ever asked for that instruction by which we hear what cannot be heard, by which we perceive what cannot be perceived, by which we know what cannot be known?...
Studies of meditation show that there are many health benefits to meditation. Meditation transforms the heart and leads to a healthy body and a healthy mind regardless of the kind of meditation or who promotes it. Many are fearful of meditation since it is too associated, they say, with Hindu meditiation practices which are often God centered. But most religions promote one form of meditation or another. The link below discusses the benefit of meditation for good health.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/200 ... tate_N.htm (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-06-07-meditate_N.htm) 'Mindfulness' meditation being used in hospitals and schools
By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY
Challenges are landing fast and furious on Capitol Hill. So Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, feels he has to arrive at the top of his game every day. And Ryan says he has found a way to do that: He meditates for at least 45 minutes before leaving home.
Ryan, 35, sits on a floor cushion, closes his eyes, focuses on his breath and tries to detach from any thoughts, just observing them like clouds moving across the sky — a practice he learned at a retreat. "I find it makes me a better listener, and my concentration is sharper. I get less distracted when I'm reading," he says. "It's like you see through the clutter of life and can penetrate to what's really going on."
Once thought of as an esoteric, mystical pursuit, meditation is going mainstream. A government survey in 2007 found that about 1 out of 11 Americans, more than 20 million, meditated in the past year. And a growing number of medical centers are teaching meditation to patients for relief of pain and stress.
More than 240 programs in clinics and hospitals teach the same type of meditation that Ryan learned, says Jon Kabat-Zinn, who developed mindfulness-based stress reduction 30 years ago at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Other types, such as transcendental meditation, use a mantra or repeated phrase.
Some kind of meditative practice is found in all the world's religions, says Shauna Shapiro of Santa Clara (Calif.) University, co-author with Linda Carlson of the new book The Art and Science of Mindfulness. Most include focusing attention and letting thoughts and emotions go by without judgment or becoming involved.
Kabat-Zinn credits "a colossal shift in acceptance" to accelerating research on the benefits of meditation.
Studies suggest the practice can ease pain, improve concentration and immune function, lower blood pressure, curb anxiety and insomnia, and possibly even help prevent depression. Newer research tools, such as high-tech brain scans, show how meditation might have diverse effects.
In a brain-scan study of long-time meditators compared with a control group that never meditated, the meditators had increased thickness in parts of the brain associated with attention and with sensitivity to internal sensations of the body. "These are people who would notice their muscles tensing when they're angry or butterflies in their stomach if they're scared," says study leader Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
And a UCLA study out in May found that, compared with a non-meditating control group, meditators' brains have larger volume in areas important for attention, focus and regulating emotion. They also have more gray matter, which could sharpen mental function, says study leader Eileen Luders, a neuroscientist.
Of course, nobody knows whether these meditators' brains were different to begin with. And that's the problem with much of the meditation research so far. Although studies have improved, most still aren't large and lack good control groups, says Richard Davidson, a pioneering meditation researcher and neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin.
His research shows that even novice meditators have greater activation in a part of the brain tied to well-being. The more activation, the greater their antibody response to a flu vaccine, which makes the vaccine more protective. By changing the brain, meditation could affect many biological processes, he says.
Settling down, not lashing out
A cutting-edge approach to meditation practice starts with children. In scattered pockets across the USA, students are learning meditation at school.
Steve Reidman, a fourth-grade teacher at Toluca Lake Elementary School in North Hollywood, Calif., says teaching meditation to children has curbed fighting while sharpening their focus. "You can just watch them breathe deeply and settle down rather than lashing out."
Susan Kaiser Greenland, whose InnerKids Foundation teaches in Los Angeles-area schools, works with Reidman's class.
Preliminary research shows that Los Angeles preschoolers who were taught meditation improved in their ability to pay attention and focus. For early elementary school kids, improvement came only in those who had attention problems at the start, says Susan Smalley, a UCLA behavioral geneticist who did the research with psychologist Lisa Flook. Very young brains may be more malleable, she speculates.
As research expands, scientists expect to unlock more of the mysteries around meditation. Meanwhile, for those such as Ryan, proof of benefit is already evident. "I'm much more aware now than I used to be," he says. "I enjoy my life more because you notice, and you really appreciate."
The God centered person has no fear of being influenced by any other religious/spiritual practices as he deepens his faith in th Divine by intent in whatever environment he finds himself. The Christian, Muslim, Jew, and others become better persons and believers in the Divine regardless of a new religious environment. Only the one who is not sure of his beliefs are afraid of immersing himself in new environments of spiritual practices.
"As Tilden Edwards says, “What makes a particular practice Christian is not its source, but its intent. If our intent in assuming a particular bodily practice is to deepen our awareness in Christ, then it is Christian. If this is not our intent, then even the reading of Scripture loses its authenticity.” (PH&B, page 149) Both these methods cultivate an inner environment that attunes us to God’s loving presence."
http://www.christianspracticingyoga.com/understand.htm
An Integral Approach
by Amy Russell
INTRODUCTION
We are writers and teachers, pastors, preachers, and soccer moms. We are dancers, musicians, and artists, medical doctors, counselors, social workers, and community activists. We come together as “Christians practicing yoga”, inspired by our individual and collective experience that yoga deepens our Christian faith. Fr. Tom writes: “Shining through the material world is the spiritual world that upholds and enlivens it. Hidden in the mystery of our own bodies and the body of all creation is the Unseeable One.” (Reclaiming the Body in Christian Spirituality by Fr. Tom Ryan, page 84. Hereafter: RBCS) Through yoga we experience this profound reality.
From its ancient beginnings, yoga was a rigorous spiritual discipline that demanded strict adherence to an ethical code of life as well as intense physical practices. It was understood that how we think, behave, and move are deeply interrelated, and that to know God we must gain control over our mental and physical impulses. Yoga developed in India, a primarily Hindu culture, but was intended as a universal human practice. As “Christians practicing yoga” we approach yoga with a deep sense of gratitude and respect for its ancient history. Our intention is not to “christianize” yoga. Rather, we share a strong desire to live a holistic Christian spirituality and to benefit from practices that contribute to it. In this website we share our experience of how and why yoga and meditation help us as Christians, and how we practice in ways consistent with the logic of our own faith, adjusting our understanding as needed.
We live in pressured environments. Stresses of job, family, education (too much or not enough), aging parents, the rise in technological advances all bring new pressures. To cope, we tune out, numb out, disconnect from ourselves, and from our own sense of aliveness. We experience without presence. We live without life. We exist without fully inhabiting our own beings. Yoga helps us reclaim our alive-ness. As we practice, we discover that yoga is not something we merely do. Rather, yoga is a way of being with our selves, with one another, and with the world. Through yoga we claim our embodiment, our flesh, as God’s own, given as pure gift.
The word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit verbal root “yuj”, which means “to yoke” or “to join” or “to bind together”. Yoga is systematic way of experiencing the union that is already there but that has been clouded over with the stresses and strains of life. Yoga is an ancient science, a systematic program for peaceful living in fuller self-awareness. It is a process of exploring one’s body and mind for the purpose of stimulating the latent potential within us and, ultimately, leading towards communion with God. Yoga, understood not just as hatha yoga, is about experiencing our capacity for union with the divine, and experiencing this reality in our very beings. “The human person is not a soul and a body, but inspirited flesh, an animated body. One is one’s body and is one’s soul at one and the same time.” (RBCS, page 78) Yoga is not about becoming someone else, but rather becoming more and more of who we are: creatures made by God to give and receive love.
Today, especially in the west, one finds both “traditional” yoga and a dizzying variety of expressions of “contemporary” yoga. “Traditional” approaches continue to emphasize the spirituality of yoga, and the deep integration of moral and physical principles. “Contemporary” approaches may emphasize one aspect or another of practice. For instance, there’s the physical/workout approach; or the psychological/de-stress approach; or the spiritual/meditation-in-motion approach. These approaches are by no means mutually exclusive, but each one has its particular emphasis that will appeal to different people or maybe even to the same person at different times. Sometimes one may just want to work out or chill out, and at other times one may want to pray through the postures. Yoga today is a “spacious” practice, and employing one approach at any given time should not be read as devaluing the other approaches.
As Christians, we hear the cries of the human heart echo through the Psalms -- the agony of suffering, loss, betrayal, defeat; the joys of love known and shared. We touch this place of compassion that is shared by practitioners of all religions. We recognize our deep connection with the entire human family, held together through the sacredness of our human bodies. We share the embodied condition with all people, regardless of culture, religion, and history. We share the longing of the human heart that thrives on love and is beaten down by violence, abuse, and neglect. As “Christians practicing yoga”, we practice to expand our capacity to love. We learn to bring compassion to ourselves and one another.
Our practice includes four basic and traditional disciplines: study, devotion, selfless acts, and meditation. These are described below.
STUDY
Study comes in various forms. We study Holy Scripture, individually and in groups. We may read books about Christian theology and spiritual practice. We may be drawn to study the sacred writings of other faith traditions. We may take classes to learn more about yoga tradition, philosophy, and discipline, and to strengthen our practice. The purpose of our study is to consciously and willingly participate in God’s transformation of us (Romans 12:2).
Most of all, our study takes the form of practice, “on the mat” and “off the mat”. Much of what we practice are yoga postures (or asanas). These postures are specific positions of the body that have been handed down from one generation to the next, and are specific ways of helping our bodies open. Each posture opens the body in a particular way; each posture serves as a small window into who we are.
Practice reveals our habits of body and mind, and we come to know our strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. While holding postures, and moving from one posture to another, we observe our bodies, following the changing patterns of sensations moving through joints, muscles, and bones. We study our minds, our through thought patterns that arise in response to the pose, and learn to recognize the deeply ingrained patterns of mind affecting body and of body affecting mind. “The result (of practice) is an experience of equilibrium, peace, and interior harmony. Stretching and lengthening muscles that are chronically contracted helps to rebalance both body and mind… This holistic union of body and mind provides the climate, the “environment,” for a spiritual, intuitive experience of God.” (RBCS, page 90) Through this process we are transformed from the inside out, as we learn to cultivate non-judgmental, discerning awareness.
DEVOTION
Our yoga practice is fueled by our faith in Jesus Christ. The opening words of St. John’s Gospel are, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” As Christians, we understand this word in terms of incarnation, God taking the form of Jesus Christ. Fr Tom writes: “The doctrine of the Incarnation stands at the center of Christian faith and is the bedrock for our understanding of the major truths of Christianity: the Trinity, the church, the sacraments, grace, and life after death. In broad terms the Incarnation is the doctrine about Jesus of Nazareth as the eternal Word of God become flesh (John 1:14). The second person of the Trinity comes down from heaven and enters fully into the human condition in the life and death of Jesus.” (Prayer of Heart and Body by Fr. Tom Ryan, page 143. Hereafter: PH&B)
For us “Christians practicing yoga” our devotional practice centers in allowing this reality to become flesh in our own lives; allowing the reality of Jesus – human and divine – with all the individual and cosmic significance this implies to penetrate our bodies, minds, and spirits. Like Christians everywhere, devotional practice involves prayer and regular attendance at worship. Devotion means regularly surrendering the fruits of our practice to God. We often approach our yoga practice as a form of prayer. We may do this by offering a surrendering prayer at the beginning of practice. Or we may dedicate our practice for the benefit of someone or a group that we are concerned about. “Off the mat” our yoga way of being includes being mindful of how we behave toward one another and ourselves. (See section Yamas and Niyamas). As we practice these yoga principles, we do so with the conscious intention of drawing closer to Christ.
SELFLESS ACTS
Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is “Love the Lord Your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…” and the second commandment is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 23:37-38) In yoga we learn how deeply these two commands penetrate each other. As Christians, we look out upon the suffering world, suffering in our communities, in our families, in ourselves, and we hear Christ’s call to act, to reach out our hand in love. Paradoxically we grow in our capacity to give to others by becoming more fully who we already are: creatures of God made in and for love.
Our practice “on the mat” fuels us, energizes and renews us, for selfless acts of service “off the mat”. Our giving may be small, like giving up a seat on the bus to someone in need; or it may be a larger act of service like helping to build new homes for the poor. What matters is not the size of the act but our giving in itself, and our willingness to help where we can.
Like Christians throughout the centuries, we struggle at times individually and as a community to find the balance between prayer and action, between practice “on the mat” and “off the mat”. Sometimes yoga practitioners are rightly criticized for being too inwardly focused. “The tensions between self-realization and participation in common life, between contemplation and action, are healthy and creative, even if not always comfortable. We simply need to find the balance.” (PH&B, page 148)
MEDITATION
Today there is an unprecedented degree of interest in and information about spirituality and spiritual disciplines. The term “meditation” means different things to different people, in different contexts. Christianity, like all religions, has a rich tradition of meditation practice. While the methods differ, the essence of meditation is to help still the mind and to bring the practitioner into deeper contact with what is Real.
There are basically two streams of meditation practice: narrowing the field of awareness down to an object of mental focus (concentrative practice), and opening wide the field of awareness to whatever is happening in the body/mind (awareness practice). In concentrative practice in the Christian tradition, the object of focus is most often a sacred word or phrase to anchor the mind. As thoughts arise, the practitioner lets them go and returns to the word or phrase. Christian teachers such as John Main and Thomas Keating have adapted this ancient practice for modern life and have brought Christian meditation into the mainstream. (See "Three Schools of Meditative Practice")
Awareness practice comes from Buddhism and opens out to become fully aware of thoughts, feelings, and sensations as they arise. Here, the mind is anchored on the breath, returning to the constant flow of inhale and exhale as awareness expands. There are Christians such as Mary Jo Meadow (of Resources in Ecumenical Spirituality) who work also with this method in the light of the teachings of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila.
As Tilden Edwards says, “What makes a particular practice Christian is not its source, but its intent. If our intent in assuming a particular bodily practice is to deepen our awareness in Christ, then it is Christian. If this is not our intent, then even the reading of Scripture loses its authenticity.” (PH&B, page 149) Both these methods cultivate an inner environment that attunes us to God’s loving presence.
Our perspective, as “Christians practicing yoga” can be summed up in this prayer:
THE GRAIL PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I give you my hands to do your work.
I give you my feet to go your way.
I give you my eyes to see as you do.
I give you my tongue to speak your words.
I give you my mind, Lord, that you may think in me.
I give you my spirit, that you may pray in me.
Most of all, I give you my heart, Lord,
That you may love in me your Father and all humankind.
I give you my whole self, so that it is you, Lord Jesus,
Who lives and works and prays in me.
Who can argue that I am not a better Hindu just by attending Catholic Churches and daily masses for the greater part of my life?
All that is done in the name of Yoga is for bhakti, mutual love between man and God that shines like a million suns. Everything else in religion is a means and a discipline to this end.
Fear of yoga is irrational, for yoga can be practiced in any religion and deepen faith in that religion. Yoga is not about proselytizing. I believe the whole problem is about losing memebership for fear that the years of preachings to members may be lost to yoga as a religion. I watched John Ankerberg, James kennedy, Dave Hunt, Pat Robertson and many others for years and observed how they inflict fear of other religions on their audience.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/artman/pub ... _930.shtml (http://www.onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_930.shtml)
Beware the Yoga Demon! The Christian Right’s fear of self-realization and spirituality
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jun 22, 2006, 00:39
They’re still at it. Those paranoid Christian fundamentalists are again attacking yoga.
This is not the first time they’ve done so. On September 6, 2005, the Christian “news service” Agape Press carried an article titled “School Yoga Fitness Programs May Be Unhealthy Alternative, Author Warns.” The author cited was Dr. Walter Larimore, who wrote Alternative Medicine: A Christian Handbook. Dr. Larimore argued that because yoga has spiritual roots outside Christianity, the practice can be dangerous. He argued that “involvement with Eastern spiritual practices is known to cause psychological and emotional problems in some people.”
In all probability those “some people” had psychological and/or emotional problems before even considering taking a yoga class. Or perhaps Latimer defines “psychological and emotional problems” as questioning the no-thinking-allowed dogma of Christian fundamentalism. The billions of people worldwide who have practiced yoga for centuries certainly do not support Larimore’s preposterous claim.
On June 15, 2006, Agape Press carried this article:
Author Wants to Enlighten Christians About Yoga's Demonic Influence
Christian author Dave Hunt, co-founder of the Oregon-based ministry, The Berean Call, has written a new book called Yoga and the Body of Christ. In it, he contends that yoga is a spiritually dangerous practice designed to expose people to demonic influences.
Mr. Hunt is quoted as saying, “If you want to benefit yourself physically, then do exercises that were designed for that. Do not get into things that were designed for self-realization . . . If you want to do some exercises, please don’t call it yoga, because as soon as you do, you’ve put a certain connotation on it.”
Why would Mr. Hunt fear “self-realization”? Why would he advise “Christians” to avoid it?
Could it be that if people achieve self-realization they will recognize the sinister mind-control techniques of “ministries” such as The Berean Call? Could it be that they would also realize that if they develop a “personal relationship with God,” there is no need for ministries? The clergy would become little more than “middlemen” who, like all middlemen, leech off others for their own self-aggrandizement. In fact, the clergy would become “demonic influences” interrupting, twisting and poisoning one’s personal relationship with Divinity for their own power and profit.
Matthew 4:8-9 comes to mind: “The devil took him [Jesus] to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’” The socio-political message of the Christian Right to Americans is exactly the same, especially at election time.
“Please don’t call it yoga, because as soon as you do, you’ve put a certain connotation on it.” Why does Mr. Hunt fear the word “yoga”? Is he saying that the word alone invokes demons? If one intones the word “yoga” does Mephistopheles appear in lotus position?
Aside from centuries of spiritual healing, the health benefits – both physical and mental – of yoga are well documented. What really seems to be at the heart of Dr. Larimore’s and Mr. Hunt’s warnings is a desire to prevent Christians from knowing about or exploring other belief systems and the self-realization true spirituality brings. But that Machiavellian “Christian” message – and the call to ignorance – is a common one.
One place it can be heard loud and clear is at TrueU.org, which isn’t a university at all but part of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family media syndicate. Dobson is the “religious” middleman who has set “himself up as the moral authority of the nation.” TrueU frequently offers “lectures” explaining why Christianity is the only true religion and why Jesus is the only “God” and, by implication, why those who wish to avoid thinking for themselves as well as self-realization should enroll in TrueU, which is actually Focus on the Family Institute.
One TrueU lecture, “Choosin' My Religion” by J.P. Moreland, claimed to offer “objective principles to guide one in choosing a religion.” The oxymoron is obvious: religion is anything but “objective.”
“Why Believe That Jesus Is The Only Way?” by Douglas Groothuis presented incestuous, self-serving “biblical evidence for Christ’s lordship” [italics added]. Groothius also offered “Learning From an Apostle” in which he argued “Unless we establish a Christian worldview . . . people will likely place Jesus into the wrong worldview, taking Him to be merely a guru or swami or prophet, rather than Lord, God and Savior.”
Eastern religions are a favorite target for these middlemen profiteers, as one of the books promoted by TrueU attests. Jesus Among Other Gods: as the TrueU promo stated, “Ravi Zacharias’ latest work is a brilliant defense of the unique truth of the Christian message. Exposing the futility of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism . . ."
In another “lecture,” Denver Seminary professor Groothuis “explained” why Islam is false: “Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?” His “reasoning” bore a striking resemblance to the “thinking” of Pat Robertson – who called for the assassination of the Venezuelan president and blamed Hurricane Katrina on the choice of (lesbian) Ellen Degeneres to host the Emmys – on Islam (and other “false religions):
Under no circumstances is Jehovah, the God of the Bible, and Allah, of the Koran, the same. First of all, the God of the Bible is a God of love and redemption, who sent His Son into the world to die for our sins. Allah tells people to die for him in order to get salvation, but there is no understanding of salvation. Allah was the moon god from Mecca. That is why Islam has the crescent moon. The flag of Turkey has a crescent moon with a star in it. Well, the crescent moon is because Allah was the moon god, and that is the deal. But we don’t serve a moon god. We serve the God of creation, the Creator of everything.
They are not the same. To translate Allah as God is wrong. When you see something in there and it says Allah, you translate it Allah. Don’t call it God because it is different. God is Elohim. He is the Creator, the Jehovah God, Yahweh. Yahweh of the Old Testament was the Father who brought forth Jesus into the world.
Organized religion is, by definition, predicated upon bigotry and discrimination: the “my God is better than your God” mentality. As a direct result, the fundamentalist dogma of organized religions is responsible for the torture and murder of millions of people throughout human history.
Even today, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, some Christian fundamentalists continue the call for hatred and the violence that inevitably follows. Although not calling for their execution, Rev. Lou Sheldon, founder and chairman of the rabidly homophobic Traditional Values Coalition, has claimed gays and lesbians need “an exorcism” and has called for their segregation into “cities of refuge” (aka “concentration camps”).
Another notorious homophobe is Dr. D. James Kennedy, president of Coral Ridge Ministries. His former vice president, George Grant, wrote Legislating Immorality, a sermonic tome that included a fire-and-brimstone rant on America’s abandonment of a Scripture-inspired death penalty for homosexuality.
And then there’s Michael Marcavage of Repent America, a radical fundamentalists organization, who claims he’s not calling for the extermination of gays, but some take his words to mean just that. At least fellow “Christian” crusader and certified wing-nut Rev. Fred Phelps – of “GodHatesFags.com” infamy – is blunt about his desire to execute gay Americans.
Fanatical Phelps has much in common with other dogmatic monotheists, such as Muslim cleric Yusuf Qaradawi who couldn’t decide whether gay people should be “throw[n] from a high place” or whether “we should burn them.” Not surprisingly, Yusuf Qaradawi is also a vocal supporter of suicide bombers.
It must be noted, however, that the Eastern spiritual philosophies that spawn yoga do not advocate hatred toward or the murder of gays, or anyone else. Indeed, the Dali Lama supports “gay rights.” When’s the last time you heard a yogi call for the execution of gays, or doing harm to any living creature?
So feel free to join the estimated 30 million Americans who practice yoga, and beware those who argue against self-realization and thinking for yourself.
Falcon
09-02-2009, 10:27 AM
Once the experience of yoga goes beyond stretching and into mind control and 'journeys', then you're in to very dangerous territory. Not, as the author wants us to think, because of 'thinking', but more because of the 'self' aspects of the practices. Put the dangerous TM into this category.
Falcon
09-02-2009, 10:35 AM
No fear. Knowledge.
With knowledge, you can make informed decisions.
Funny your argument should centre around not thinking and instilling fear.
And then you use the word propaganda?? :lol:
You are absolutely correct about knowledge. Who can argue with that? That is a given. But yoga is also one form of expanding knowledge and removing any kind of debilitating fear through self confidence and what Hindus also refer to as God.
Falcon
09-02-2009, 05:58 PM
^^ cant argue with that....
Experience through faith and belief is the objective and is like the medicine of the doctor. Without it the healing does not begin. Only when the medicine is taken the results are seen. So how did the healing happen and would the patient continue to have faith in the doctor if the healing was not there. Is it like the doer, the done and the act of doing that is all one as God itself with many hands of healing?
It is so true that Swami helps us in the subtlest way possible for the smallest of problems. Yesterday i had the good fortune of meeting a Sai devotee. He confessed that he was a non believer. He happened to accompany his brother, several years ago for some surgery for the brother to Sathya Sai hospital at Puttaparthi. The surgery didnot take place. However, they returned home with this gentleman have turned into a strong devotee of Swami. His brother still is a non believer. The miracle in this case he told me was how by merely sleeping on the holy soil of Puttaparthi transformed him into a firm believer. He gradually became less aggressive, more loving. Love has become the centre point of his life he told me with tears in his eyes- love for Swami, love for animals, love for fellow beings.
When I asked him to tell me about the miracles in his life, he looked at me and said that they could only be experienced and not described as there was no proof for any of his experiences. A simple example he gave me was that in a bus he was standing and travelling. the bus took a sharp turn and he would have fallen. Just then he felt that someone was standing and physically supporting his body till the bus righted itself. He has been fortunate to have experienced similar things in his every day life-things that he KNOWS are indicators of the divine presence of Sai Baba in his life.
http://www.lifescript.com/Body/Shape/Wo ... 919T000000
Yoga is no mere fad. This ancient Indian practice has gone mainstream with a multitude of styles to meet every body’s needs. In recognition of National Yoga Awareness Month, find out which is right for you. Plus, test your yoga IQ with our quiz…
Just glance at all the different yoga class listings at your local gym, and you’ll see it’s no longer a New-Age celebrity craze.
No wonder: This practice with roots that extend back thousands of years offers many documented health benefits. Yoga:
Lowers blood pressure, cholesterol level and pulse rates
Improves cardiovascular, endocrine and digestive function
Boosts immunity
Promotes better sleep
Lessens chronic pain
Increases energy and endurance
Reduces risk of depression
Improves memory and concentration
It also "defrags" your brain, says John Kepner, executive director of the International Association of Yoga Therapists.
With all the varieties of yoga, there's a class to suit everyone, whether you want a great workout with absolutely no chanting or an introduction to Eastern spirituality with some light stretching.
So what’s the right yoga class for you?
Shabda Yoga or the Yoga of sound.
http://www.russillpaul.com/articles/art ... /10598.htm (http://www.russillpaul.com/articles/article/1162814/10598.htm)
Shabda Yoga teaches us that we can learn to manifest our own universe if we apply the principles outlined in St. John’s gospel. These principles were well understood and practiced by the ancient Vedic seers and Rishis, who were also great poets. Vedic mantras, which are the classic form of Shabda Yoga, are well-sculpted poetic nuances. Another form of shabda yoga is poetry from around the world. Rap music too is a type of shabda yoga, provided it is employed with yogic consciousness and with the intention of transforming the world rather than as an unbridled outlet for negative energy and frustration.
Present-day motivational speakers and self-help authors have drawn attention to this age-old understanding of the power of human speech to manifest our dreams, our desires, and our fears. They teach us to change self-negating thoughts into positive affirmations in order to create more wealth and success in our lives. Much of what we think does, in fact, manifest into reality.
Imagine, then, we widen the scope of this possibility, beyond personal wealth and ambition, to include profound matters of the soul. Imagine we could draw energy from the sound of animals and birds, from the stars, the sun, and moon. Imagine channeling all that energy into our own nervous system. We would be able to build an immense reservoir of power to transform our families, our communities, our planet, and ourselves with the same power we have been seeking outside ourselves. Shabda Yoga is an age-old system that is a spiritual technology of the soul, a system already in use that can be expanded to create a better world for us all.
KEY PRINCIPLES OF SHABDA YOGA
The principles of Shabda Yoga are essentially based on the spiritual power of words. These principles are as follows: a) The sound of the word truly represents the sound of the thing it is associated with. b) There is an irrefutable sense of truth to the word and sound. c) The composite structure of the words in the form of a sentence, or group of sentences, awakens spiritual illumination. d) A force field of energy is generated by employing the rhythmic meters of intoning the words. e) The sounds establish energetic connections between the user, the listener and thing signified...
punjabtrini
10-19-2009, 09:58 AM
SOME POINTS
1. Salvation is not association with a thing but the thought, word and deed with right conduct and action or acts thereof.
2. There are actually 8 yogas but the one most think of is yogasana - yoga postures and such that is beneficial for what ails you!
Understanding is not the privilege of the few. The body itself is neither Hindu nor Baptist nor Muslim.
http://www.beliefnet.com/Holistic-Livin ... raditions- (http://www.beliefnet.com/Holistic-Living/Yoga/How-To-Yoga/Learning-From-Other-Traditions-)
While-Staying-Within-Your-Own.aspx?p=1
Learning From Other Traditions While Staying Within Your Own
A Christian asks if studying yoga is against her religious beliefs.
BY: Mirka Knaster
Q: I am a Christian and love Jesus Christ. I want to practice yoga and meditation because I feel the need to be centered. Is this against my Christian beliefs? I pray continually and still feel led in this direction. Please help.
A: Take heart, for you're not the first person to struggle with this issue. Many Westerners drawn to Eastern practices have wondered whether they're violating their religious beliefs, even committing heresy.
In the past 40 years, despite warnings about the dangers of stepping outside the bounds of Judaism and Christianity and falling into an abyss of paganism and occultism, large numbers of people have dared to explore yoga, meditation, chanting, and martial arts to fulfill needs that otherwise weren't getting met. What they learned by immersing themselves in the Asian traditions has literally changed their lives, though not necessarily their core religion. I know of many people, including myself, who have greatly benefited from crossing over into what fundamentalists consider forbidden territory.
The body itself is neither Hindu nor Baptist nor Muslim.
One man immediately comes to mind. He was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family and entered a religious order. After more than 30 years as a Jesuit, he decided to enrich his prayer life by going on sabbatical to the Hindu-Buddhist world. For 13 months, he participated in Buddhist forms of meditation, chanted bhajans (hymns sung individually or collectively in praise of a deity, such as Vishnu, Rama, or Krishna), took yoga courses, and lived with laypeople and monks of the different traditions in several countries. But it wasn't until he returned to his Jesuit lifestyle and his graduate theological world in California that he realized what a deeply positive impact his Asian experience had on him.
Continued on page 2: »
5 Tibetan Energy Rejuvenation Rites
http://www.lifeevents.org/5-tibetans-en ... rcises.htm (http://www.lifeevents.org/5-tibetans-energy-rejuvenation-exercises.htm)
Yoga and Non-duality.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid46208169001?bclid=46657464001&bctid=47647997001
Sri Ramakrishna used to say there are three classes of devotees. The lowest class conceives of God in heaven; the second class of devotee sees God within; and the highest class sees God both within and without himself or herself. Such a devotee sees nothing but God. My master, Swami Brahmananda, taught me this truth: as long as you think the Lord is somewhere outside of yourself, you will be restless. "But when you feel he is here," he added, pointing to his own heart, "then only will you find peace."
Falcon
01-30-2010, 04:34 PM
Wow, a holy man teaching about a class system
an you in it, up front and centre............why am I not surprised?:blink
Oh I forgot, you are in the Pope's class, and you can walk in and out of the Vatican as you please.
Falcon
01-30-2010, 05:56 PM
comes back full circle then..........ANY PERSON ANYWHERE who'd rather follow men than God, deserve to be members of the controlled masses.
Falcon, when you learn to stop scoring points, at every opportunity, you may learn something about Hinduism and its liberal acceptance of all pathways to God, pathways that do not extinguish the light of the other. The Religion and Spirituality Board is like a smorgasbord. It presents a rich and wide array of religious and spiritual delicacies. It is open for each person to bring his own dish, and inquire about the menu, smell the fragrance, entertain the eyes, or bring one's own delicious dish for sharing, etc.
Falcon
01-31-2010, 06:36 AM
Falcon, when you learn to stop scoring points, at every opportunity, you may learn something about Hinduism
this, from the president of the 'aye look how Christianity bad and hinduism great' posse??rofl
No Falcon, this is not the first time that you take a single word from a post and try to destroy a beautiful philosophy or a thought which you do not understand or which is alien to you. It is a pattern you developed and can be seen in most of your posts in response to mine. It is about how you twist words to defend your one-way-to-salvation doctrine and agenda.
I highlight the similarities and misinterpretations of religious doctrines, and the one source from which they may have come. In so doing, I point out how wrong it is to proselytize a one-way-only doctrine that is centered only on wining converts through religious and social bigotry. Such a doctrine only creates unrest in many God-centered countries. It is most harmful to society, and perhaps the greatest danger to world peace.
Furthermore Falcon, many Christian denominations are beginning to reject the only-way doctrine because they can see for themselves how it came about from a misinterpretation of scriptures. I showed you the source right here, and how it was misunderstood or deliberately re-programmed for one purpose only.
Falcon
01-31-2010, 08:15 AM
No Falcon, this is not the first time that you take a single word from a post and try to destroy a beautiful philosophy or a thought which you do not understand or which is alien to you. It is a pattern you developed and can be seen in most of your posts in response to mine. It is about how you twist words to defend your one-way-to-salvation doctrine and agenda.
I highlight the similarities and misinterpretations of religious doctrines, and the one source from which they may have come. In so doing, I point out how wrong it is to proselytize a one-way-only doctrine that is centered only on wining converts through religious and social bigotry. Such a doctrine only creates unrest in many God-centered countries. It is most harmful to society, and perhaps the greatest danger to world peace.
Furthermore Falcon, many Christian denominations are beginning to reject the only-way doctrine because they can see for themselves how it came about from a misinterpretation of scriptures. I showed you the source right here, and how it was misunderstood or deliberately re-programmed for one purpose only.
Riiiiiiiiight, so some swami say a class system is good to show God who better dan who because they 'more religious' and you telling me about what is divisive to society and what threatens world peace?
You believe everything you read once it fits in with your agenda and when challenged you cower behind "well who is to say it isnt". so how you could come now and say you KNOW that the converts have it wrong? Like you using your rules, and mine, as per the situation..........
You STILL ent tell me why people getting converted in India. Some hogwash about brainwashing but that assumes these people are somehow susceptible.....oh yeah I forgot.....they are from a lower class than real indians and trini indians.........
So you believe class stratification does not exist everywhere, under different names and behaviors? Just try to get an invitation to a party with the likes of Tony Blair, Queen Elizabeth, any of your priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, etc., in your very own England.
The reference to class above is about different understandings, not class structure as such. Swamis and holy men are among the the most liberated people on earth. They would forgive you even if you tried to wipe them out. But I understand that in your rush to score points and proselytize, you may be blinded to clarity and understanding.
Falcon
01-31-2010, 09:39 AM
SO you use Christian systems to justify Hindu systems to show that Christian systems flawed????? :confused:
No, the imports from Vedanta were not well understood by the researchers at the Council of Constantinople, but appealing enough to be imported and re-packaged as Christian dogma with a new wrapping. But that is not the central issue. it is about using other theologies and using them to exclude others from salvation. You know very well that the Trinity is a prime example. See if your double can help you out here.
Falcon
01-31-2010, 12:56 PM
speaking about doubles, I goin an eat....ah will dead wid you tamarrah
A slip of the tongue. I never intended to send you into dead silence.
letric
02-03-2010, 03:19 AM
Set thy heart upon thy work but never upon its
reward. Work not for reward: but never cease
to do they work.
Do thy work in the peace of Yoga and, free
from selfish desires, be not moved in success or
in failure. Yoga is evenness of mind - a peace
that is ever the same.
Bhagavadgita
ch.2, v. 58
letric
02-09-2010, 09:09 AM
A practice of Hindu philosophy, involving the withdrawal
of the physical senses from external objects. Adepts in
yoga are able to hold their breath for protracted periods
and to do other things in apparent contravention of natural
requirements. Hypnotism and self-motivation are part of
the cult. Union of deity became its object.
letric
02-09-2010, 09:16 AM
A yogi is someone who practises yoga
.
A practice of Hindu philosophy, involving the withdrawal
of the physical senses from external objects. Adepts in
yoga are able to hold their breath for protracted periods
and to do other things in apparent contravention of natural
requirements. Hypnotism and self-motivation are part of
the cult. Union of deity became its object.
letric
02-16-2010, 06:33 AM
Ghose Aurobindo combines traditional elements of the theistic
philosophy of * Bhagavadgita contemporary science, and
his own mystical encounter with God. Cambridge educated,
was sent to prison for anti-British 'terrorism. In
prison he had life-transforming mystical experiences. The
evolution of matter into life and mind suggests that the
individual psyche too can further itself,
through integral yoga, into an overmind.
This overmind can then commune with the supermind,
eventually merging with Existence-Consciousness-Bliss,
the Ultimate Reality. The present world with all its distinctions
and disharmonies is real, but awaits the compensating descent
of divine life which will gradually lead to spiritual perfection for
every individual.
Sri Aurobindo, Life Divine (1983)
letric
02-20-2010, 03:34 AM
When in recollection he withdraws all his senses
from the attractions of pleasures of sense,
even as a tortoise withdraws all its limbs, then
his is a serene wisdom.
Bhagavadgita
Yoga is being taught in the most prestigious Catholic Cathedral in the heart of Chicago. Click on the link below for more details.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=605895
Hindus have welcomed Roman Catholics to yoga practice.
Holy Name Cathedral Parish (Roman Catholic) on Wabash Avenue in Chicago (USA) has launched weekly 75-minute yoga sessions every Wednesday at the Parish Center.
Its website says: "...yoga has evolved across the ages as a means of tuning the body for better communion with God through prayer and meditation. Join us as we explore the multiple spiritual and physical benefits of yoga practice...Typical sessions will include an opening prayer, inspired movement and strengthening, and contemplative prayer to close." It organized a Special Workshop on Ash Wednesday-"Holy Name Yoga-Based Prayer for Body and Spirit: Creating Your Home Practice"-with proceeds supporting weekly yoga program.
Instructors include Ali Niederkorn (who "has cultivated a daily home practice making yoga a part of her regular prayer" and offers "yoga classes encouraging yoga practice as a form of prayer and meditation") and Dina Wolf (teaches a spiritually inspired vinyasa flow yoga class). Reverend Dan Mayall is Pastor of Holy Name Cathedral under Archdiocese of Chicago headed by Archbishop Cardinal Francis George.
Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that yoga (referred as "a living fossil"), whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, was one of the six systems of orthodox Hindu philosophy. Founded by Yajnavalkya around 800 BCE and codified in Yoga Sutra by Patanjali around 300 BCE, yoga was actually a mental and physical discipline by means of which the human-soul (jivatman) united with universal-soul (parmatman). Swami Vivekananda brought yoga to USA in 1893.
Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, further says that some sages have described yoga as the silencing of all mental transformations, which leads to the total realization of the Supreme Self. Some have used yoga attempting to gain liberation by removing all sensory barriers. According to Patanjali, yoga is a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical. Yoga is based on an eightfold path to direct the practitioner from awareness of the external world to a focus on the inner. Ancient Hindu scriptures Upanishads were the first yoga writings and Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord), which is a comprehensive yo
ga-sastra (treatise on yoga), talks about karma yoga, jnana yoga and bhakti yoga. (ANI)
(I was not finished posting when I received a message that this post would be reviewed before posting.)
Can a Christian practice Yoga? Take a look at the Videos in the link.
http://www.swamij.com/yoga-christianity.htm
Can a Christian Practice Yoga or Yoga Meditation?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQXAYioSQ9I&feature=player_embedded
Philip Goldberg
Spiritual counselor, Interfaith Minister, and author
Posted: May 27, 2010 06:14 PM
Yoga: Reaffirming the Transformational Practice's Hindu Roots
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-goldberg/yoga-reaffirming-the-tran_b_589652.html
Recently, a debate played out on the Washington Post's On Faith blog between Aseem Shukla, a physician who heads the Hindu American Foundation, and Deepak Chopra. The argument, which was also reported in Newsweek, began with Shukla's essay, "The Theft of Yoga," in which he lamented that the phenomenal popularity of yoga has been achieved at a cost, namely its disconnection from the tradition that gave it birth. "Yoga originated in Hinduism," he wrote. "It's disingenuous to say otherwise. A little bit of credit wouldn't be a bad thing, and it would help Hindu Americans feel proud of their heritage." Chopra countered on historical grounds -- which Shukla later refuted -- and on the grounds that modern yoga is one response to the need for a secularized spirituality that transcends religious forms.
It seems like an almost comical irony: yoga proponents, including many of Indian descent, disassociate yoga from Hinduism, while many Hindus wish to claim it. In fact, it is a tribute to the tremendous depth and complexity of India's spiritual heritage that both sides can be considered correct. The same teachings can be understood in spiritual/religious terms and in secular/scientific terms.
The problem is largely one of language. "Hinduism" is, by definition, a religious term. It was coined by British imperialists to describe the dominant spirituality of the "Hindus," which is what the inhabitants of the Indus River region were called by earlier invaders. What we call Hinduism is actually so multifaceted that it makes the sects of Christianity look uniform by comparison. It has also been the victim of centuries of misconceptions (e.g., that it is polytheistic) thanks to mendacious colonists, condescending missionaries, and ordinary ignorance. Further complicating the matter, the everyday religion of India is as different from the teachings that caught on in America as everyday Judaism is from Kabbalah or as Sunday morning Christianity is from the mysticism of Meister Eckhart or John of the Cross. As a result, many people prefer not to use the term Hinduism, favoring instead Sanatana Dharma (the original term, commonly translated as "Eternal Path"), or phrases such as "Vedic tradition" or "Indian philosophy." All of this means that you can argue for or against the premise that yoga stems from Hinduism, depending on how you define "Hinduism" and interpret its history.
None of this is new. About 200 years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson, America's greatest homegrown philosopher, read the first translations of Hindu texts to land in Boston Harbor. While he made explicit his debt to Vedic philosophy, he blended those ideas with other ingredients in his Transcendentalist stew, and the individual flavors are not always easy to identify. That kind of adaptation has been going on ever since.
The first Indian-born guru to grace our shores was Swami Vivekananda, the star of the landmark Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893. In the face of attacks from Christian leaders, Vivekananda patiently explained and fiercely defended Hinduism. But, when he created an organization to carry on his teachings, he named it the Vedanta Society, not the Hinduism Society. It was an accurate term, since Vedanta was the component of Hinduism that he emphasized, but it was also an expedient one, since it did not carry religious baggage that might cause people to think he was out to convert them. To this day, there are monks and nuns in Vivekananda's lineage who refuse to call themselves Hindus, while others happily accept the label.
A few decades later, Paramahansa Yogananda made similar choices. He named his organization the Self-Realization Fellowship, not the Hindu Fellowship, and the title of his enormously popular memoir was Autobiography of a Yogi, not Autobiography of a Hindu. Then came the perfect storm of the Sixties, when Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (with the help of the Beatles) ushered Transcendental Meditation into the mainstream and convinced scientists to study the practice. His organization was an educational non-profit, not a religious one, and his rendering of Vedanta was called the Science of Creative Intelligence.
Like those three seminal figures, virtually every guru and yoga master who came to the West made similar adaptations. They expounded one component of Hinduism or another, but in a universal context, and they were circumspect about using the word Hinduism. They offered a spiritual science -- a science of consciousness, if you will -- and not a religion as such. Therefore, Americans were free to utilize the teachings on their own terms, whether religious or secular. Millions took them up on it. In the process American spirituality changed, and so did health care, psychology, and other fields of endeavor.
I just devoted about 400 pages to analyzing this history for a book that will be published in November. Its title is American Veda, not some variation on Hinduism in America. My publisher (Doubleday) and I made that decision because: 1) if Hinduism were in the title, potential readers might think it is only about the religion practiced in Hindu temples, and 2) what influenced American culture was a combination of the philosophy of Vedanta and the mental and physical practices of yoga, not the everyday Hinduism that most people associate with exotic rituals and colorful iconography.
From the perspective of Hindus who are proud of their great heritage, such choices are unfortunate. Advocates like Dr. Shukla are doing exactly what ought to be done to rehabilitate the image of Hinduism, and I for one hope they succeed. At the same time, we probably would not be having this conversation at all if the influential gurus had not made the choices they did. How many Americans would have taken up meditation or yoga if those practices had been offered to them as Hinduism?
I look forward to the day when people like me can use the term Hinduism without fear of being misconstrued. In the meantime, it is incumbent upon yoga proponents to give credit where it is due, not just because India deserves it after centuries of exploitation, but to keep the spiritual and philosophical foundation of yoga in the foreground. If those deeper elements are lost and yoga comes to be seen as just another fitness exercise, we will fail to take full advantage of its gifts. Most veteran yoga teachers recognize this, which puts them on the same page as the Hindu advocacy groups -- except for that pesky issue of nomenclature. I would urge them all to not let arguments over terminology overshadow what really matters: the depth and authenticity of the teachings. Putting substance over form would be in keeping with the most fundamental premise of Hinduism and the Vedic tradition that predates that term by centuries: "Truth is one, the wise call it by many names."
Christians may be getting antsy about Yoga, fearing the influence of yoga on Christian minds.
http://www.merinews.com/article/hindus-disappointed-at-uk-church-banning-yoga-group/15827699.shtml
Hindus disappointed at UK church banning yoga group
Rajan Zed pointed out that yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche. About 16 million Americans, including many celebrities practice yoga.
CJ: Correspondent Fri, Jul 30, 2010 13:05:09 IST
ACCORDING TO reports, Bridge Methodist Church in Radcliffe, near Manchester (UK), banned an over-50s yoga group which has paid £60 a week for the last about ten years and met there twice a week, fearing its classes could be spiritually confusing.
Group founder member Iris Turner said, :This is an insult…we are offended…yoga helped the group's health. She invited the church minister to take part in a class "to allay her fears". Currently this group of about 30, which has members up to 82 years old, is homeless."
Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that although the church had every right to use its premises as it wanted, but yoga, though evoled under Hinduism and whose traces went back to around 2000 BCE, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse and anyone could enjoy its benefits.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline. For Patanjali, author of the basic text, the Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.
Rajan Zed pointed out that yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche. About 16 million Americans, including many celebrities practice yoga. Yoga never had any formal organization and yoga practice had been handed down from one guru to the next.
Zed argued that turning this yoga group of older people away from the church resulting in it becoming homeless was simply “un-Christian”. Church authorities should act like a shepherd to this flock as Jesus Himself said that he had sheep from other pastures, he added. Print | Post comment Ads by Google Stunning Yoga Jewelry www.IsabellaCatalog.com
Explore our elegant selection of yoga jewelry & other lovely pieces.
Philip Goldberg -Interfaith minister- author of the forthcoming book 'American Veda'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-goldberg/calm-down-christians-yoga_b_748644.html
Calm Down Christians, Yoga Is Not a Threat
Read More: Christian Fundamentalism , Christianity , Fundamentalism , God , Henry David Thoreau , Hinduism , Pluralism , Ralph Waldo Emerson , Spirituality , Yoga , Religion News
In a widely circulated blog last week, Reverend Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, took aim at yoga. "When Christians practice yoga," he wrote, "they must either deny the reality of what yoga represents or fail to see the contradictions between their Christian commitments and their embrace of yoga." The essay got attention, but it's really just the latest variation of an old story. In fact, Mohler is practically ecumenical when compared to some of his predecessors.
Conservative Christians have been issuing lurid warnings about contamination from the East for more than a century. Back in the 1890s, Swami Vivekananda, the first Hindu leader to make a splash in the U.S., was mercilessly assailed on his Midwestern speaking tour. In newspaper exchanges that would have made for great TV had the technology existed, the erudite Vivekananda gave as good as he got, blasting Christian arrogance and winning the hearts and minds of open-minded Americans in the process. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the gurus and yoga masters who trickled into the West were greeted with alarm by xenophobes and self-appointed defenders of womanhood. Articles like "American Women Going after Heathen Gods" stoked fears of innocent maidens being seduced by dark-skinned pagans. In 1911 a broadside titled "The Heathen Invasion" claimed that yoga "leads to domestic infelicity, and insanity and death." Come the late 1960s and early 1970s, a tidal wave of popular gurus attracted followers and were accused of doing the Devil's work. In 1975, for instance, when Maharishi Mahesh Yogi appeared on Merv Griffin's talk show (the Oprah of its day), protesters outside the studio carried signs like, "Jesus Is the Lord, Not Maharishi."
Now the anxiety is directed at what has aptly been called modern postural yoga. Fifteen to 20 million Americans attend yoga classes each year, and naturally most of them are from Christian backgrounds. On top of that, several varieties of Christian Yoga have cropped up. This has caused consternation and sometimes alarm among certain clerics; Reverend Mohler apparently is one of them.
I can't help thinking: What are they afraid of? Are they that insecure? Do they think so little of their flock as to fear that they'll convert to Hinduism because they chant some Sanskrit mantras, or say "Namaste" instead of goodnight, or hear some tidbits of Vedic philosophy while stretching? Non-Christians absorb through osmosis countless doses of Christian theology just by living in America. We sing Christmas carols like they're pop tunes. Yet, despite the relentless exposure, there is no sign of mass conversion. One is tempted to tell worried Christians to calm down with a few forward bends and some alternate nostril breathing.
What makes the fear of stealth Hinduism especially bizarre is that the ancient tradition has never even entertained the concept of conversion. Every Indian teacher who made a mark in America has presented his or her teachings as more of a spiritual science than a religion -- something students can try on for size and adapt to their own lives as they see fit, whether for secular self-improvement or as a spiritual practice that need not interfere with their own religions. This is, of course, especially true of contemporary yoga, which most students see as a fitness or wellness regimen and many find compatible with their various spiritual orientations.
Based on my research for my book, American Veda, the Christians and Jews who have leaped body and soul into Hinduism or Buddhism were not seduced away from their ancestral religions; they were already out the door and searching for alternatives. In fact, there is a far more common trajectory among alienated seekers: they study Eastern ideas and then rethink, reinterpret and reevaluate their own religions, and many of them return to active participation on their own terms. The history of Americans whose Christianity was broadened and deepened by exposure to Hinduism goes back to the days of Emerson and Thoreau and has continued into modern times with millions of people, including leading thinkers such as Joseph Campbell, a lifelong Catholic, and Huston Smith, the son of Methodist missionaries. In fact, the current revival of Christian and Jewish mystical practices was triggered by the popularity of Eastern meditation forms in the 1970s. (Centering Prayer is probably the best-known example of that phenomenon.)
This should comfort most Christians, although it might alarm fundamentalists all the more. The truth is, Christians who believe that theirs is the one true religion, that Jesus is the one and only savior of all humankind and that the Bible is to be taken literally as God's only revealed word, will always feel threatened by a spiritual tradition that recognizes many pathways to the divine and many ways to engage in any particular religion. Old-fashioned religious supremacists are under threat not from yoga but from the currents of history itself. Reverend Mohler and his brethren may lament that, but those of us who welcome the rise of genuine pluralism and the advent of a rational spirituality can only say Amen.
A Seattle pastor calls yoga an agent of Hinduism and therefore demonic. Can he be convinced that Christianity was founded on Hinduism, and would he leave Christianity when he is convinced of it?
http://mail.aol.com/32797-111/aol-1/en-us/Lite/MsgRead.aspx?folder=Inbox&uid=1.31559994&seq=0&searchIn=none&searchQuery=&start=0&sort=received
SEATTLE: Ever seen a demon in padmasana? A pastor in Seattle, US, is seeing millions of them. Mars Hill Church pastor Mark Driscoll's statement that yoga is an agent of Hinduism, and hence demonic, has many yoga gurus seething and practitioners confused.
Adding fuel to the fire, The Seattle Times newspaper last week quoted R Albert Mohler Jr, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, as saying that yoga was against Christianity. Some see the statements as acknowledgement of the popularity of yoga, which has been growing as rapidly as religions once did.
A system of meditation and exercise passed down generations in India, yoga has been found to give physiological, psychological and therapeutic benefits. An estimated 15.8 million people practice yoga in the US, where yoga studios are proliferating in every city.
Those who flock to these studios feel that the pastor's statement is an attempt by the church to interference in their lifestyle. "The church has nothing to do with my choice of exercise," says April Mallery, 32, a yoga practitioner and a regular church-goer at Renton, Seattle. "The benefits of yoga are great and never in contradiction to one's practising religion," she said.
What irked people like Mallery was a recent question and answer session of Driscoll with church members.
"Should Christians stay away from yoga because of its demonic roots?" Driscoll asked, before replying: "Totally. You sign up for a little yoga class, and you are signing up for a little demon class."
Contesting the idea of yoga seeking to "connect to the universe through meditation" and not "connecting to God through the mediatorship of Jesus", Driscoll dubbed yoga "a form of pantheism and absolute paganism". Richard Brenin, a teacher at Glow Yoga Center, Washington DC, called Driscoll's comment "a bit of racism".
Contesting the pastor relating yoga with Hinduism because of use of Sanskrit words, Brenin told TOI: "I suspect that there's a bit of racism and nationalism coming from church leaders, who harp on language issues and images of Hindu deities which for many studios are mere decorations or at most stories that inspire and challenge. There is no worship in a US yoga studio."
While many Indians in the US see in Driscoll's sermon a conspiracy against Indian culture, Hari Gopinathan, an Oracle employee in San Francisco, finds streaks of rebellion in Christian yoga practitioners, especially women.
"With an increasingly nuclearised society, women, at the first chance of a free choice, rebel. Yoga started off as one such sub-culture avenue for rebelling. It cuts out middle-men when it comes to spiritualism and offers freedom of expression and minimal diktats on things like sex and gender equality. Add to this the health benefits, and you have a potent adversary to organised religion," says Gopinathan.
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