Article: What is Yoga? A Catholic Perspective

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As someone who has been doing yoga and Pilates to recover from some major injuries – and who has found both extremely beneficial – I found this article interesting: rcspiritualdirection.com/blog/2014/01/29/what-is-yoga-catholic-perspective-part-i

I’m curious what others think about this. Having taken yoga classes at 24 Hour Fitness, I’ve encountered teachers who teach yoga exclusively as a form of exercise, and some who try to bring Hindu spirituality into the class. When a teacher does start talking about life-forces and whatnot, I typically tune it out and avoid that teacher in the future, as it’s hard to focus on the exercise when the teacher keeps talking about things that run against my beliefs. But most teachers don’t do that.

In Pilates classes, I’ve yet to have a teacher try to sneak in spirituality of any kind.

It would be sort of interesting to see what would happen if a yoga instructor were to start saying things like, “And as you do this pose, think about the love of the Holy Spirit and the wonder of Christ’s mercy. Ask Blessed Mary to pray for you that you might become more Christlike throughout your life’s journey.” Somehow I doubt 24 Hour Fitness would look the other way if you did that.

While I’ve always maintained that as long as yoga remains an exercise program and not a spiritual practice, it’s okay, I’m interesting in seeing the rest of the articles in this series. I would give up yoga immediately if I thought it could do spiritual harm.
 
Cimachol said:
As someone who has been doing yoga and Pilates to recover from some major injuries – and who has found both extremely beneficial – I found this article interesting: rcspiritualdirection.com/blog/2014/01/29/what-is-yoga-catholic-perspective-part-i

I’m curious what others think about this. Having taken yoga classes at 24 Hour Fitness, I’ve encountered teachers who teach yoga exclusively as a form of exercise, and some who try to bring Hindu spirituality into the class. When a teacher does start talking about life-forces and whatnot, I typically tune it out and avoid that teacher in the future, as it’s hard to focus on the exercise when the teacher keeps talking about things that run against my beliefs. But most teachers don’t do that.

In Pilates classes, I’ve yet to have a teacher try to sneak in spirituality of any kind.

It would be sort of interesting to see what would happen if a yoga instructor were to start saying things like, “And as you do this pose, think about the love of the Holy Spirit and the wonder of Christ’s mercy. Ask Blessed Mary to pray for you that you might become more Christlike throughout your life’s journey.” Somehow I doubt 24 Hour Fitness would look the other way if you did that.

While I’ve always maintained that as long as yoga remains an exercise program and not a spiritual practice, it’s okay, I’m interesting in seeing the rest of the articles in this series. I would give up yoga immediately if I thought it could do spiritual harm.
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Yoga essentially means to “yoke” to the divine. This means our prayer, meditation, sacraments and so on “yokes” us to God. So we are constantly doing “yoga”.

Excercise “yoga” is Hatha Yoga. It can hurt the western body. But it can help too. That’s an eastern concept. To really achieve something you have to go a lot farther. But that’s a deep subject.

HTH
 
I have looked into this question because I also did not want to practice something that is against my faith. (I find yoga very beneficial for my posture and back pain, and I do it at home with DVDs, so no Hinduism chat of any kind).

I have learned that what we call yoga - the physical exercise -is only one of the elements that actually comprise yoga.
There is nothing magical about it. Exercises are not worship in themselves.
 
I think if you take out any religious affiliation with yoga (and maybe even meditate on God while doing the exercise) it’s okay. I remember last year for gym class eleventh grade students had the option between yoga and hockey. I picked yoga, and the teacher made sure to keep it as neutral and non-religious as possible (we were told to focus on waterfalls and all that good stuff). When the unit was over a few months later, I was so sore and messed up I couldn’t sit correctly for two weeks! This year we could choose between yoga and basketball, and I stood by the boys and toughed it out in basketball. I even ended up gaining some slight muscles (but lost them over Christmas break :o).

Just stay away from the teachers that try to insert Hindu beliefs into the poses and you should be fine, but if it bugs you that much, maybe talk to a priest?
 
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