Catholic-safe yoga practices?

[PRmerger]

Then you haven’t been doing yoga.

Please don’t tell me what I’ve been doing.

Is there a Designated Spokesperson For True Yoga?

Please direct me to this person and how he/she came to this authority.

 

[PRmerger]

If one brushes their teeth in the shower, then they may have a problem of some kind, although I doubt it would be of spiritual origin.

There is indeed, for reasons of safety, an order for one to carry out obligatory tasks when in a vehicle, but not necessarily in that order.

Beatles music is not necessarily evil in itself although the music does contain references to some less-than-healthy parts of an abusive lifestyle.

Again, as as with everything, context is very important.

But you’re dealing with unknowns here.

Your words.

How do we determine when it’s an unknown and permissible, and when it’s an unknown and forbidden?

 

[PRmerger]

Well, ‘friar’ means ‘friar’, whilst friard, doesn’t.

But what’s friard?

 

[JimR-OCDS]

One ought not need “mindfulness” as a Catholic. This stems from Buddhism.

“No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.”

Darn Archbishop Fulton Sheen was teaching heresy when he spoke about the need for mindfulness.

Jesus too, as he said, Watch and Pray. In other words, awareness and mindfulness are the same thing with different names.

Jim

 

[JimR-OCDS]

St. Francis was speaking metaphorically/symbolically, not literally. The Church examined his theology very thoroughly during his lifetime and determined he was not heretical. The Hindu theology, on the other hand, is heretical.

Semantics

If you can’t see God in everyone and everything, you really don’t know God.

Jim

 

[friardchips]

Is there a Designated Spokesperson For True Yoga

Exactly. So, who is your teacher?

 

[JimR-OCDS]

So you are calling the Johnnette Benkovic and the Board of Directors at Women of Grace fanatics? womenofgrace.com/en-us/about/default.aspx

Two Bishops are on that board, and Johnnette is a very well respected member of the ETWN community.

And you still didn’t answer my question: why not be open to Catholic Stretching and Exercising programs?

Here is just a small example of what Pope Francis said about Yoga: catholic.org/news/health/story.php?id=59107

Yeah, Johnette Berkovic is wrong on this and Centering Prayer, another aspect of Contemplative Prayer which she knows very little about.

Jim

 

[friardchips]

Semantics

No. Specifics.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Here is just a small example of what Pope Francis said about Yoga: catholic.org/news/health/story.php?id=59107

You left out what Pope Francis said; bold is my emphasis

“You can take a million catechetical courses, a million courses in spirituality, a million courses in yoga, Zen and all these things. But all of this will never be able to give you.freedom”, he explained.

In what Pope Francis is saying, only God can give you true freedom, not being a catechetical expert or even a theologian with a PHD which also incluided in other talks on the same subject.

It’s not the method of prayer or in this case, exercise that brings you to God, but God’s grace alone which draws you.

Jim

 

[Michael_Mayo]

So…Yoga came before bodily positions?!

No That is a good point. First body postures. Someone says, “Hey, this makes me feel better! I will make it part of my religion.” You come along and say, “We can do that pose as long as we dont call it religion.” We say a rose by any other name is just a posture, not a religion.

As some one pointed out, postures is just one aspect of Hinduism and classical yoga. So is celibacy and truthfulness, honesty and cleanliness, by the way.

 

[Michael_Mayo]

This is what phil19034 meant by cultural appropriation. The authorities on yoga are the people of India and the religions that came from Hinduism. According to them, union with the divine is the goal of yoga.

Personally, I think it’s possible to respectfully adapt it to Christianity without cultural appropriation, but only by keeping every aspect of it intact, and not just taking the stretching exercises. Basically, if someone is doing yoga, they should be doing it as a path to God, not that it’s any substitute for God’s grace, of course.

Even in Classical Yoga there is room for grace.

Could we technically call St Theresa’s Prayer of Unity yoga?

Of course there is a difference between Classical Yoga and the Yoga of the Upanishads and Vedas but it comes down to a search for TRUTH and a unity with something greater than the ego. I think religions just have different names and interpretations for the mystic experience and how to get there.

 

[PRmerger]

Exactly. So, who is your teacher?

Someone who doesn’t claim that she is the Designated Spokesperson of True Yoga.

She’s just a plain yoga instructor.

And she’d be awfully insulted if I told her, “Well, I just learned from someone on the internet (who I"m pretty sure is not a Designated Spokesperson of True Yoga) that we’re not doing yoga”.

 

[Michael_Mayo]

Someone who doesn’t claim that she is the Designated Spokesperson of True Yoga.

She’s just a plain yoga instructor.

And she’d be awfully insulted if I told her, “Well, I just learned from someone on the internet (who I"m pretty sure is not a Designated Spokesperson of True Yoga) that we’re not doing yoga”.

What is “Yoga”?

THE MASTER and Mover of our works is the One, the Universal and Supreme, the Eternal and Infinite. He is the transcendent unknown or unknowable Absolute, the unexpressed and unmanifested Ineffable above us; but he is also the Self of all beings, the Master of all worlds, transcending all worlds, the Light and the Guide, the All-Beautiful and All- Blissful, the Beloved and the Lover. He is the Cosmic Spirit and all-creating Energy around us; he is the Immanent within us. All that is is he, and he is the More than all that is, and we ourselves, though we know it not, are being of his being, force of his force, conscious with a consciousness derived from his; even our mortal existence is made out of his substance and there is an immortal within us that is a spark of the Light and Bliss that are for ever. No matter whether by knowledge, works, love or any other means, to become aware of this truth of our being, to realise it, to make it effective here or elsewhere is the object of all Yoga.

Sri Aurobindo

 

[PRmerger]

What is “Yoga”?

THE MASTER and Mover of our works is the One, the Universal and Supreme, the Eternal and Infinite. He is the transcendent unknown or unknowable Absolute, the unexpressed and unmanifested Ineffable above us; but he is also the Self of all beings, the Master of all worlds, transcending all worlds, the Light and the Guide, the All-Beautiful and All- Blissful, the Beloved and the Lover. He is the Cosmic Spirit and all-creating Energy around us; he is the Immanent within us. All that is is he, and he is the More than all that is, and we ourselves, though we know it not, are being of his being, force of his force, conscious with a consciousness derived from his; even our mortal existence is made out of his substance and there is an immortal within us that is a spark of the Light and Bliss that are for ever. No matter whether by knowledge, works, love or any other means, to become aware of this truth of our being, to realise it, to make it effective here or elsewhere is the object of all Yoga.

Sri Aurobindo

Is this guy ^^ the Designated Spokesperson of True Yoga (DSTY)?

 

[friardchips]

Someone who doesn’t claim that she is the Designated Spokesperson of True Yoga.

She’s just a plain yoga instructor.

And she’d be awfully insulted if I told her, “Well, I just learned from someone on the internet (who I"m pretty sure is not a Designated Spokesperson of True Yoga) that we’re not doing yoga”.

Point being…that you don’t know from where or by whom Yoga originates and so this is an unknown, and not just a practical unknown, but a spiritual one.

We do however know from where and by whom Christian meditation stems from.

Have you ever asked your Yoga teacher whether Yoga can be separated from all its spiritual aspects?

 

[PRmerger]

The authorities on yoga are the people of India and the religions that came from Hinduism.

Whutttt???

Someone becomes an authority on yoga by virtue of being born in a particular country?

Really?

Is Bradski, a poster here who is from Australia, an authority on kangaroos?



(Actually, IIRC, he wasn’t born in Australia. But let’s just say for the sake of discussion he was…)

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Point being…that you don’t know from where or by whom Yoga originates and so this is an unknown, and not just a practical unknown, but a spiritual one.

We do however know from where and by whom Christian meditation stems from.

Have you ever asked your Yoga teacher whether Yoga can be separated from all its spiritual aspects?

I have spoken with priests in various religious orders and secular priests.

All said Yoga exercise alone is perfectly OK. Some even do the exercises themselves.

The reality is, any Catholic who does yoga exercises as the participants in this thread, know you can separate the spirituality of Hinduism from Yoga exercise.

You can incorporate Christian meditation into it, if you’re up to it.

I remember the melt down Fr Z had when there was a video of Yoga Stations of the Cross. I watched the video and it was awesome !

Jim

 

[PRmerger]

Point being…that you don’t know from where or by whom Yoga originates and so this is an unknown, and not just a practical unknown, but a spiritual one.

LOL.

The internet is an unknown. You don’t know by whom it originated from, Al Gore notwithstanding.

So…again, you should be afraid. Very, very afraid.

 

[Michael_Mayo]

Is this guy ^^ the Designated Spokesperson of True Yoga (DSTY)?

Well, he’s dead so I guess not. But he is ne of the most highly respected Indian philosophers.

 

[Michael_Mayo]

Someone becomes more of an authority on something by virtue of being immersed and culturally invested in it. You are likely more of an authority on Catholicism than someone who has had minimal exposure to it, and you would probably look at them funny if they said they were practicing Catholicism just by drinking a glass of wine. The same is true for yoga.

Or praying the Rosary?