Can a Catholic do Yoga?

[PhilOSophia]

Words might change their meaning, but what they point to, does not. The word takes on the connotations of the thing. ‘Gay’ is a slang word for homosexual. It was used by homosexuals to describe themselves in a pleasant way. It was then pushed as a term to be used to show that homsexuality was to be tolerated and even propagandised for.

Now the funny thing that has happened is that ‘gay’ is now a term of abuse amongst young men. Why? Because homsexual acts are repellent to most men and effeminancy is not a quality which is wanted in men in the wider society and the long term: we need men to be men. A sensitive young man with lovely manners is not able to put the boot in, when required.

This is also an argument for retaining Latin in our rites: it’s ‘dead’, so the words can’t take on vulgar connotations. Your generation snickers at this or that word in the vernacular; the Ship Of Rome could sail on, oblivious, if it made its language obligatory in its rites.

With Yoga, we have a problem: is Yoga in the West the same as Yoga in the East? No. Like Hollywood does to everything, we’ve watered it down, sugared it up and made it banal.

I would only be concerned on a few fronts:

1. Is the teacher also teaching Eastern philosophical/religious ideas? Who is his master, if he has one i.e. who made him a teacher?
2. Are students also being taught to mediate, to make their minds blank or ‘work on their chakras’?
3. Are the more promising students invited to ‘explore Yoga in more depth’, by exploring Hindu philosophy?
4. Is it an avenue for the ignorant modern Catholic to get into some half-assed, syncretic version of Hinduism which leaves him vulnerable to demonic oppression?

 

[Steady_Eddy]

Hatha Yoga yes. Your question does not specify what type of Yoga.

Yoga is Yoga, and one form I think can lead to another.

 

[Baelor]

Yoga is Yoga, and one form I think can lead to another.

Must it?

 

[Steady_Eddy]

Hello again,

If you go to Google and type in the following (CATHOLIC CHURCH AND YOGA) you will get lots of information on the subject. I was going to post each one of you an article starting with Tomster but the text was too long to send, and of course it’s too long to post here also. I used to do Yoga (purely physical I thought) but I gave it up when I discovered what it really was. It’s a personal choice I suppose, I’m not trying to influence anyone here, but the one thing I want is to live and die as a true Catholic, and I would give up anything which even remotely hinders that.

2 Cor 13:13
Eddy Barry

 

[agnes_therese]

No, don’t do Yoga. Even if you aren’t actively practicing the spirituality, the positions are historically poses of worship to pagan gods.

There is a yoga pose that is simply lying flat on your back. Are you seriously saying that no one should sleep on their back?

 

[agnes_therese]

Yoga is Yoga, and one form I think can lead to another.

“I think.” Fine, then stay away from it yourself, if you really think that stretching your muscles and joints will lead you to worship Hindu gods. There are many people who are capable of just stretching.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

If you go to Google and type in the following (CATHOLIC CHURCH AND YOGA) you will get lots of information on the subject.

Anti-Catholics say the same thing when they tell you to google Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal yet you aren’t necessarily going to believe the top results are you?

Lemme let you in on a little secret about search engines that I picked up from my job. They don’t care about the actual meanings of the word you type. They’re just set with an algorithm that treats the words you put in and takes you to pages that are fat loaded with them (and then some).

If you want to be stricter with yourself, you’re more than welcome. Do take note though that it doesn’t make you any more of a ‘true Catholic’ than the rest of us who don’t live our faith exactly as you do.

 

[agnes_therese]

Other religions also use incense, and candles. I’m sure one of the yoga-is-demonic folks will explain to us why that’s “different.”

 

[Steady_Eddy]

Anti-Catholics say the same thing when they tell you to google Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal yet you aren’t necessarily going to believe the top results are you?

Lemme let you in on a little secret about search engines that I picked up from my job. They don’t care about the actual meanings of the word you type. They’re just set with an algorithm that treats the words you put in and takes you to pages that are fat loaded with them (and then some).

If you want to be stricter with yourself, you’re more than welcome. Do take note though that it doesn’t make you any more of a ‘true Catholic’ than the rest of us who don’t live our faith exactly as you do.

Hello there, thanks for your reply,

Yes it’s true I am strict with myself but not with other people. Nor do I believe giving up Yoga makes me any better than others, like I said before it’s just a personal choice, and I wanted to know how others felt about same. But it seems to me some people here can get very uptight when you disagree with them, even a little bit. You have to be very careful what you say, and that can only inhibit any discussion.

Meditation always came first with me and that as a very young man. Yoga was something I added simply to wake myself up in the mornings, and to give me a steadier posture for meditation. I still rise very early 4am, and spend a little more time meditating, but I don’t doYoga, that’s the only difference.

2 Cor 13:13
Eddy Barry

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

You have to be very careful what you say, and that can only inhibit any discussion.

This same rule should apply to you. Saying things like “I want to live and die as a true Catholic” is not disagreement. It can be interpreted as a judgment call.

A humbling admission of “I can’t trust myself to do Yoga” would suffice (and would make more sense, theologically).

 

[Steady_Eddy]

This same rule should apply to you. Saying things like “I want to live and die as a true Catholic” is not disagreement. It can be interpreted as a judgment call.

A humbling admission of “I can’t trust myself to do Yoga” would suffice (and would make more sense, theologically).

Hello again,

It is in a sense a judgment call, but one I made on myself having studied the situation, I’m not judging others, merely asking opinions. It’s easy to judge others, much harder to judge and then discipline yourself. I’m 60 years old now, and still working on it.

Anyway, thanks again for your very interesting replies.

2 Cor 13:13
Eddy Barry

 

[Steady_Eddy]

Hello there and thanks.

You guys are here a long time I suppose, so you may have covered all this before. As for me I’m pretty new to the Internet and CAF too, and I have never discussed these issues before. As I’ve said already I’m merely asking opinions of fellow Catholics, and I thought that would be an okay thing to do. If I was tired of discussing a certain subject or topic, or burnt out as you put it, I would simply ignore similar threads when they appear again. You guys had the option of doing just that, and you chose to answer my thread instead. I’m glad you did of course; your reply also is most interesting. But some people it seems answer to disgust rather than discuss. I hope they don’t go to any of my other threads or I’ll be burned-out too

2 Cor 13:13
Eddy Barry