Anybody here do yoga exercises?

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Didn’t you say you were in your ninetys? 😃

jk

Here then…
 
That’s more like it if you replace the TV with the microprocessor controlled Rosary.
 
Ummm…cost wise, I don’t think that would be profitable. You’ll have to come back with a new design proposal.

(and stop cluttering up the yoga thread!!!)
 
Well if you are going to do that how about working on a virtual rosary where you put on a V-suite and get totally emersed in a video program running through the mysteries. Too New Age?
 
These articles on the history of gymnastics and influence on yoga are quite interesting. I wonder if Sheva is made that he is not given any credit 🙂

It was actually Eugen Sandow, a native of East Prussia typically viewed as the inventor of modern bodybuilding, who played a pivotal role in the development of contemporary Yoga practices.

 
Hmmm. Interesting thought, but a bit too new agey. I tend to the simple, functional solutions. I can see assistance in keeping track of where I am on the Rosary, but I’ll do the mental contemplations myself.
 
A few years back a group of Christians put together a series of yoga postures and movements and incorporated them into Stations of the Cross. Each posture was that of Jesus passion carrying his cross, and death. . The participant would meditate on each station, as they flowed into each posture. The final posture was a relaxed posture where the participant meditated on Jesus resurrection

I won’t mention any names here, but many including one priest who has a website which is followed by many Catholics, had a meltdown over the idea of Yoga Stations of the Cross.

Because of his meltdown, I decided to see for myself and I watched the video of the Yoga Stations of the Cross. What I saw was beautiful and I thought what a great idea and I incorporated them into my routine for a while.

I’m sure this will upset some people here, but they get upset over anything that threatens their ego-identity attachment to their religion, which is treated like an exclusive club,

Jim
 
I first started doing yoga when I took karate classes, as a warm up. I picked it up and dropped it back and forth over the years until I started getting pain in the leg socket of my hip. It kept happening, so I finally gave it up for good.

I am not going to refute or argue statements made by exorcists, they know a lot more about their ministry than I do of course, but if you don’t know for example they yoga move “welcoming the sun” by name, what harm could you be doing? Still, they may know something I don’t. It seems foolish to dismiss their advice out of hand.
 
Hatha yoga is not practiced merely by assuming a bodily pose used by practitioners of Hatha yoga, contrary to the claims of some Catholic critics. Susan Brinkmann, a staff writer for the Catholic apostolate Women of Grace, writes, “Even in [yoga] classes where Christians change the names of the postures to more biblical concepts doesn’t negate the source of the [preternatural] power within the postures” (“Yoga,” Women of Grace Study Series, pp. 19–20).

This assertion shades into superstition, ascribing magical effects to a physical action based solely upon its external performance (cf. CCC 2111). But let’s be clear: The body postures of yoga are in themselves neutral. Moving the body into a certain position does not necessarily engage the person in any particular spiritual activity.The Trouble with Yoga
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hope said:
This assertion shades into superstition, ascribing magical effects to a physical action based solely upon its external performance (cf. CCC 2111).
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Well, there it is. Thank you.
 
But do you see my point? If the practice of yoga leads one to Satanism, and somewhere up thread there is a comment about yoga and Hinduism, wouldn’t it follow that Hindus are Satanic?
I do not believe this at all, but I’m just sayin’ this is where such comments can lead us.
 
It is (mis)using inductive reasoning: going from the specific to the general.

X, Y, and Z people have used yoga and have also been Satanists, or allegedly ended up with demonic possession/oppression, therefore, yoga must be bad.

Which really isn’t true at all, and not even necessarily related. People can misuse all sorts of things without the object being intrinsically evil. Intrinsic evil has a very specific usage in Catholic moral theology. It means something is evil in of itself.

I think it’s a common mistake for people to underestimate how big the world is, with its 7 billion inhabitants. I think many people don’t appreciate that if you look hard enough, you’re going to almost always find an example of something being used badly.

The reality is that Hinduism, like other faith traditions of the East, came about and developed over a very long time span. It has had people who have loved, hated, married, warred, invented, dreamed, died, searched for God as they knew how, and did everything else that human beings do. They are not angels and they are not demons. But they were made in the image of God and they have a lot to offer to the world, and even if some or even a lot of their spiritual beliefs are not compatible with Magisterial teachings, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be treated with respect, and that doesn’t mean the many arts they practiced and explored don’t have value.

India is going to be the world’s greatest superpower in another 2-3 generations - bigger than China or the US - and maybe they’ll be easier to evangelize if we don’t treat everything about their culture like it was radioactive.
 
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on_the_hill said:
Are Hindus Satanists?
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Frankly, I am disgusted that this forum, of the Catholic Answers Apostolate, which was very graciously and magnanimously granted a recognitio by His Excellency the Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego, has so radically changed in these past weeks. It is utterly beyond “disappointing” or “lamentable.”

Why are Catholics on this forum not of one mind and one heart with Nostra Aetate?
2 From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history; at times some indeed have come to the recognition of a Supreme Being, or even of a Father. This perception and recognition penetrates their lives with a profound religious sense.

Religions, however, that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language. Thus in Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition either through ascetical practices or profound meditation or a flight to God with love and trust. Again, Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing “ways,” comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.(4)

The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.
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Your point is one that I have mulled over a lot. I have never been able to find a reliable source for the connection of yoga with possession. It is a “sound bite” that gets attention without context. We have no idea what was meant by yoga. Was it the use of it for only exercise or did they mean the actual worship of a false god? When I was ten a classmate showed me some positions. I had no idea that it belonged to a religion. My brother said I should keep it up so that when I was older I would be limber. Eventually I used the WII fit which has yoga in it Again I had no idea that it came from a religion. In fact, some of the exercise are the same as the strength exercises. I had a friend tell me that it was worshiping the devil even if I didn’t know it was. It struck me as being superstitious. Doing research I found I was not the only one disturbed by this. Personally I am not going to give the devil power over me by slipping into superstition. Stopping because you could worship the devil unknowingly by a particular posture is practicing superstition. Your right comments that have been made here would lead to this superstition.
 
The ethos has changed because the moderation has dramatically changed. I suppose I take some things much as I take the weather. It is not wholly without some advantages, though.

When it comes to dealing with other religions, most Catholics do not have a catechetical framework with which to interpret or relate to a worldview that is not Christian. Without the former system of moderation in place, dissension and a certain lack of charity are a necessary result.

Yoga is one of the most controversial topics, however, amidst Catholics, so this doesn’t really surprise me much. I think both sides can teach one another something.
 
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hope said:
I have never been able to find a reliable source for the connection of yoga with possession.
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There isn’t one. All the published research support the benefits unless one does it wrongly or to an extreme which, like any physical endeavor, can lead to physical injury.
 
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