Catholics on Yoga

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Alright, I’m not really educated on the origins of Yoga, but the impression I get is that it is an Eastern Tradition stemming from those who practice buddhism/hinduism (are these 2 one and the same?)

My mother is a cradle Catholic and years ago she spent a month training to become a yoga instructor. Now she claims that it helps her to focus and meditate on her contemplative prayer. My stance has always been that as long as it is Christo-centric, if it helps you to get closer to Christ, great! I think I’ve heard of “Christian” yoga (not sure if there’s anything out there by Catholics), but this isn’t the material she uses.

I have made a point not to discuss this topic with her b/c it gets very heated and I end up very angry w/ her and she just won’t see it any other way. Her latest comment last night was that yoga ‘heps the god in me see the god in you.’ Immediately I thought of Matthew Arnold’s talk on the new-age movement and thought of his quote from Shirley McClain that we are our own god and we shouldn’t worship any god but that. I think/hope what my mom really meant to say (but would be damned to put a Christian spin on it) was something of a take on the idea that we should see Christ in everyone.

She has a buddhist/hinduist meditating statue outside of her home that I have often wanted to abduct and and throw in the trash. My Catholic friend mentioned that next time I visit, when everyone’s gone to bed, take holy water and sprinkle it around her home and pray the rosary. I have tried to explain that what this statue symbolizes is not Christo-centric and that she should replace it w/ a meditating monk or saint statue. She won’t hear anything of it.

So basically all I can do is turn her over to our Lord and pray that she will be open to God’s direction. But just so I know, how should a Catholic approach yoga-type practices and what precautions should we look for as far as being led away from Christ and towards other gods?
 
I don’t have an answer for your particular story, but I did want to let you know that I will be praying for your mother and your family.

I know it’s really hard to deal with someone, especially your own mother, walking away from the one thing that you find to hold the most Truth. My parents decided to stop going to church years ago. My mom constantly tells me that if she is a good person and does good deeds, and if she prays on her own time, then that should be good enough for God. It’s really sad to see them walk away (from the Eucharist, of all things!). I myself didn’t grow up in a very Catholic home because of this, but when I was old enough to realize what I was missing (after many years of going in the exact opposite direction), I came to understand my little-known Catholic faith.

Like I said, I don’t really have any insight in regards to the yoga part of your story, but I do sympathize with you in the fact that our mothers turn a blind eye to the fullness of truth that is the Catholic faith.
 
A book called: The Way of Silent Love, Carthusian Novice Conferences, by: A Carthusian has about 10 pages on techniques of good yoga. It contrasts Hatha yoga as an en-stasis with the goal being interiority closed in on itself, and Christianity as an ex-stasis that means an open interiority of love. Something like that. I hope someone else gives a better explanation. Sounds like your doing all you can to help her. I’ll keep your mother in my prayers as well.
 
I’ve done Yoga for exercise a couple times before. I don’t meditate because I have a hard enough time holding the poses. I did it for exercise. I guess I must not understand Yoga because I don’t see what the big deal is. I get the statue thing but the exercises themselves can’t be anti-catholic. If I was to meditate I would just think about Jesus. This whole topic confuses me. What am I missing?
 
We’ve been through this topic many times before. Hopefully it will not become heated as it has in the past.

For most of us who do “yoga exercises”, we are in fact not doing yoga, in the classical sense of what yoga is.

Many of us, learned from a video or YMCA. Others have learned from other Christians.

This is not “Yoga,” in the traditional sense.

There is no meditation and there is not much difference in doing this form of exercise than any other forms.

In fact, if you play sports, or do other forms of exercise like palates, you will probably do some form of yoga exercises, because the fact is, Yoga exercises are good for your body.

If you want to know who does yoga, watch a baby. I was amazed to see my grandchildren, when they were under 2 years of age, going into various yoga postures, naturally, as they played on the floor.

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
We’ve been through this topic many times before. Hopefully it will not become heated as it has in the past.

For most of us who do “yoga exercises”, we are in fact not doing yoga, in the classical sense of what yoga is.

Many of us, learned from a video or YMCA. Others have learned from other Christians.

This is not “Yoga,” in the traditional sense.

There is no meditation and there is not much difference in doing this form of exercise than any other forms.

In fact, if you play sports, or do other forms of exercise like palates, you will probably do some form of yoga exercises, because the fact is, Yoga exercises are good for your body.

If you want to know who does yoga, watch a baby. I was amazed to see my grandchildren, when they were under 2 years of age, going into various yoga postures, naturally, as they played on the floor.
Jim
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That’s what I thought it was… I bought a Yoga video and the couple times I did it I turned the sound off and follow the moves when I am at home wiht my son in my tiny house. Since you are just doing your exercises slowly in one spot it is good for a tiny house. But then I read somewhere that it was a hot topic for Catholics and I don’t understand why exercise would be. But I have stopped out of fear of the unknown. I just want someone to tell me why I shouldn’t do them.

Essentially I wonder why do Christians get upset about Yoga then? Do people turn it in to a religion? Do you go to church and do Yoga exercises instead of praying? I am still confused… I probably sound like I am joking but I am totally serious. I want to understand why it is hot topic and why people get heated about Yoga without starting a huge discussion about it.

sorry for my lack of knowledge
 
Coreopisis said:
That’s what I thought it was… I bought a Yoga video and the couple times I did it I turned the sound off and follow the moves when I am at home wiht my son in my tiny house. Since you are just doing your exercises slowly in one spot it is good for a tiny house. But then I read somewhere that it was a hot topic for Catholics and I don’t understand why exercise would be. But I have stopped out of fear of the unknown. I just want someone to tell me why I shouldn’t do them.

Essentially I wonder why do Christians get upset about Yoga then? Do people turn it in to a religion? Do you go to church and do Yoga exercises instead of praying? I am still confused… I probably sound like I am joking but I am totally serious. I want to understand why it is hot topic and why people get heated about Yoga without starting a huge discussion about it.

sorry for my lack of knowledge
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As I’ve been told by priest, if you can seperate the exercise from the spiritual side, there’s no problem.

With that in mind, there are new age people teaching yoga classes, and yes, they bring in their own spiriutual aspecs that would even upset Hindus. 🙂

Jim
 
For my own reference, and not to put down anyone on the thread- what is the letter from the bishops/vatican regarding meditation/centering/yoga/etc?
 
my :twocents:
a) hinduism and buddhism are two separate religions, although buddhism has a hindu background in it
b) Yoga is not the only way to find “inner peace”. I’ve found that reading the Bible (OT+NT), praising and praying to God and following a disciplined Christian life and reducing life-needs lead to a very serene and peaceful mind-state. You don’t need Yoga for that.

Mt 6:33 is very appropriate here -
But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.
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and Galatians 5:22-23
In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
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Yoga also purports to give inner peace, but Yoga is wisdom from Man, but getting real inner peace is a gift from God.

Yes I know I wasn’t much help there in your particular problem but I just wanted to state that Yoga is not the only way to inner peace.

As far as using the statue as a meditation aide, I haven’t seen that one before. I’m from India and I’ve seen people concentrate by staring at a candle flame or by concentrating on some part of their body. Using a statue for meditation must be a Buddhist thing.
 
As far as references from the Vatican go, here’s one -

Letter on certain aspects of the Christian meditation – Orationis formas (Epistula ad totius Catholicae Ecclesiae Episcopos de quibusdam rationibus christianae meditationis), October 15, 1989
AAS 82 (1990) 362-379; DeS 13 (1991)
OR 15.12.1989 [Ital.]; DocCath 87 (1990) 16-22 [Gall.]; EV 11, 1668-1705; LE 5360; Dokumenty, II, 24

Link at ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFMED.HTM
 
JimR-OCDS said:
As I’ve been told by priest, if you can seperate the exercise from the spiritual side, there’s no problem.

With that in mind, there are new age people teaching yoga classes, and yes, they bring in their own spiriutual aspecs that would even upset Hindus. 🙂

Jim
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Well I think that answers my question because for me it is nothing more than stretching and trying to hold very difficult poses until my muscles shake. I find no “inner peace” when doing it only outer pain. 🙂
 
ACL said:
my :twocents:
a) hinduism and buddhism are two separate religions, although buddhism has a hindu background in it
b) Yoga is not the only way to find “inner peace”. I’ve found that reading the Bible (OT+NT), praising and praying to God and following a disciplined Christian life and reducing life-needs lead to a very serene and peaceful mind-state. You don’t need Yoga for that.

Mt 6:33 is very appropriate here -

and Galatians 5:22-23

Yoga also purports to give inner peace, but Yoga is wisdom from Man, but getting real inner peace is a gift from God.

Yes I know I wasn’t much help there in your particular problem but I just wanted to state that Yoga is not the only way to inner peace.

As far as using the statue as a meditation aide, I haven’t seen that one before. I’m from India and I’ve seen people concentrate by staring at a candle flame or by concentrating on some part of their body. Using a statue for meditation must be a Buddhist thing.
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Good information thanks!
 
ACL said:
As far as references from the Vatican go, here’s one -

Letter on certain aspects of the Christian meditation – Orationis formas (Epistula ad totius Catholicae Ecclesiae Episcopos de quibusdam rationibus christianae meditationis), October 15, 1989
AAS 82 (1990) 362-379; DeS 13 (1991)
OR 15.12.1989 [Ital.]; DocCath 87 (1990) 16-22 [Gall.]; EV 11, 1668-1705; LE 5360; Dokumenty, II, 24

Link at ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFMED.HTM
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Thanks for the information. Upon glancing through it I think that the article is focused on the meditation and not the exercise / poses. I think I can safely conclude that if you are simply doing the poses and not the associated meditation you should be fine as I see nothing in there that says the physical poses are of any religion.
 
Right, just to clarify, I have no objection to the exercises of yoga, but my concern w/ my mother is that she is really into the spiritual aspect of it. When she went to this month-long retreat, I believe they taught the origins of yoga and the full-blown spiritual part of it - which, from my understanding is not Christo-centric. I think this is the ‘stuff’ she’s getting into, rather than taking the exercises and applying Christian prayer to it. I think she’s more into the meditating part of it more than the exercise - my concern is, just what is it she’s meditating on and is it Christo-centric? In talking to her, it doesn’t sound like it is. BTW, she is also really enamored w/ the Eneagram which Matthew Arnold spoke against in his ‘Overcoming the New Age Movement’ speech.

I realize my mother’s prayer life is none of my business, and I’m really not trying to change her or give her advice or ‘enlighten’ her on this, I’m really just interested for my own understanding. Again, with the statue she has, I think she doesn’t see it as a big deal, but I tend to be a little more serious and cautious and think that the devil could use this statue and religion it stands for to lead my mother and her home away from Christ.

She has many Catholic prayers and books and images in her ‘prayer room,’ but don’t you think the devil could use something like the statue and the infatuation w/ the self-centering ‘sprituality’ to thwart her efforts? She has talked even talked about putting up stations of the cross in her hallway, but I just think she’s overlooking the very real nature of having a non-Christian symbol such as this meditating statue at her home.

Just need some insight. If I get up the nerve, I’ll talk to my priest and see what he says. Thanks for any advice you have.
 
JLCecilia said:
Right, just to clarify, I have no objection to the exercises of yoga, but my concern w/ my mother is that she is really into the spiritual aspect of it. When she went to this month-long retreat, I believe they taught the origins of yoga and the full-blown spiritual part of it - which, from my understanding is not Christo-centric. I think this is the ‘stuff’ she’s getting into, rather than taking the exercises and applying Christian prayer to it. I think she’s more into the meditating part of it more than the exercise - my concern is, just what is it she’s meditating on and is it Christo-centric? In talking to her, it doesn’t sound like it is. BTW, she is also really enamored w/ the Eneagram which Matthew Arnold spoke against in his ‘Overcoming the New Age Movement’ speech.

I realize my mother’s prayer life is none of my business, and I’m really not trying to change her or give her advice or ‘enlighten’ her on this, I’m really just interested for my own understanding. Again, with the statue she has, I think she doesn’t see it as a big deal, but I tend to be a little more serious and cautious and think that the devil could use this statue and religion it stands for to lead my mother and her home away from Christ.

She has many Catholic prayers and books and images in her ‘prayer room,’ but don’t you think the devil could use something like the statue and the infatuation w/ the self-centering ‘sprituality’ to thwart her efforts? She has talked even talked about putting up stations of the cross in her hallway, but I just think she’s overlooking the very real nature of having a non-Christian symbol such as this meditating statue at her home.

Just need some insight. If I get up the nerve, I’ll talk to my priest and see what he says. Thanks for any advice you have.
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I think I understand you now. I think that your concern for your mothers soul is very sweet. We should all care for eachothers souls as much.

I think that it is possible the devil could use her infatuation with Yoga against her and I think she is walking a fine line. It is hard to know where her heart is at though, only God knows.

It is my opinion that Satin knows where each or our weaknesses are and will test us with them. This could be a test for your mother induced by God. How are we to know? It sounds like your mother has strong spiritual beliefs in Christ despite the Yoga, and that is a very comforting thought.

I read somewhere (unfortunately I can’t remember where) that God allows evil to exist because He is so awesomely all knowing and all powerful that he can even create good out of that very evil. War is a perfect example because war is full of evil, people are killed and terrible things happen. But out of war peoples piety, faith and prayer grow exponantially.

My advice is to pray for your mother. Maybe you could ask for prayers for her through this forum? Pray that no matter what path she takes that in the end it leads to God.

Love conquers all. Maybe if you do mention anything to your mom you just simply say “Mom, I am scared because I want you to go to heaven.” I can’t imagine any mother who would take that bad.

I hope this helps. ~Sarah
 
I have a sister who may be the age of your mom who also takes her yoga seriously. About 20 years ago I thought it was a good idea that she was so enthusiastic about doing her yoga every morning before breakfast. She is a very sweet loving gal and has a very trim figure. She has always lived many states away from me so we didn’t get into big discussions about religion…until last month. She now tells me that “she is her own god” does not believe in hell, believes in reincarnation, believes Jesus was merely a prophet and has completely renounced her Catholicism. I have tried reasoning with her but she calls me a bigot.
I suggest you go to the prayer intention forum and go to the thread Maggie started a few weeks ago for families of fallen away Catholics. We are all praying for St Monica’s help to intercede for our fallen away family members.
 
onetruechurch said:
I have a sister who may be the age of your mom who also takes her yoga seriously. About 20 years ago I thought it was a good idea that she was so enthusiastic about doing her yoga every morning before breakfast. She is a very sweet loving gal and has a very trim figure. She has always lived many states away from me so we didn’t get into big discussions about religion…until last month. She now tells me that “she is her own god” does not believe in hell, believes in reincarnation, believes Jesus was merely a prophet and has completely renounced her Catholicism. I have tried reasoning with her but she calls me a bigot.
I suggest you go to the prayer intention forum and go to the thread Maggie started a few weeks ago for families of fallen away Catholics. We are all praying for St Monica’s help to intercede for our fallen away family members.
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This is often the case of a person who does not have faith in Christ. Although they called themselves christian, it was nothing more than their upbringing. They are in search of spirituality and end up in something other than Christianity. All is not lost however, I know of many who return to Christ, after the illusion of easy religious spirituality shows itself for what it is.

On the other hand, I know many faith filled Catholics, priest and lay people alike, who do yoga exercise every morning, do centering prayer, and have a strong relationship with Jesus Christ.

Christ feeds us, no yoga, or methods of prayer. He is the source of all we receive that is good.

In Christ
Jim
 
I got involved in Hinduism and the New Age movement many years ago. Hinduism is everywhere and it is infiltrating every area of our society and the Church. At the heart of yoga is Hinduism. You can’t separate yoga from Hinduism. For me, my guru was all important. He was God! I loved him and I gave my life to him. The goal of my guru was to convert people to his religion. At the time I was looking for a family community. I was looking for a sense of meaning and belonging and I tossed my Christian beliefs aside for Hinduism and the New Age. I was very naïve. I ended up surrendering myself to my guru and I gave up most of my possessions in pursuit of non-attachment. My Hindu beliefs taught me that there was no such thing as sin and that led me to die to the voice of conscience inside that told me that something was wrong. I had very little or no moral standards. I become completely consumed with my guru he was all I thought about. Everything I did or thought about was about my guru. If I were in his presence I would have been completely under his control. Eventually over time I loss my sense of identity. I no longer knew who I was. And it took me many years to recover my sense of identity. This was a horrible experience. I now realize the redemptive power of suffering, but to a Hindu suffering is only in the mind it is and illusion they call Maya. I learned that Hinduism teaches the opposite of Christianity. Hinduism teaches reincarnation, Christianity teaches the resurrection. They both can’t be true. Thru the practice of yoga I aroused the psychic force within called kundalini. I experienced the supernatural and it completely consumed my life. I felt like I was being possessed. This was very strange and dangerous, because I really didn’t know what I was doing. Eventually I gave up Hinduism and any New Age practices for Christianity and now I can say that I am much happier.

I found this video God’s of the New Age it has a lot of good information you may find informative and helpful. Also, Fr. Mitch Pacwa is very knowledgeable about New Age trends. You may find his book or his radio program helpful as well. When you start the video be patient. It takes a few seconds before it will start. You may want to wait until it is convenient for you to watch this video, because it is 1 hr 46 min long.

God’s of the New Age
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6272335793596892362&q=god%27s+of+the+new+age

Also, Fr. Mitch Pacwa’s book Catholic’s and the New Age

EWTN Audio Library File Index Audio by Fr. Mitch Pacwa
ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/file_index.asp?SeriesId=842969394&pgnu
 
mwmroe
I got involved in Hinduism and the New Age movement many years ago. Hinduism is everywhere and it is infiltrating every area of our society and the Church. At the heart of yoga is Hinduism. You can’t separate yoga from Hinduism.
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This of course is different than Catholics doing yoga exercise from a video tape or taking lessons at the local YMCA.

Also, at this time, you were not involved with your Catholic Faith, which is why you were able to be sucked into the New Age Movement and Hinduism.

As a several Catholic priest have told me, if you can separate the spiritual aspects of yoga, there’s no problem.

Its when you being to go into the spiritual aspects that can be harmful, especially for some one who has no spiritual faith to begin with.

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
mwmroe

This of course is different than Catholics doing yoga exercise from a video tape or taking lessons at the local YMCA.

Also, at this time, you were not involved with your Catholic Faith, which is why you were able to be sucked into the New Age Movement and Hinduism.

As a several Catholic priest have told me, if you can separate the spiritual aspects of yoga, there’s no problem.

Its when you being to go into the spiritual aspects that can be harmful, especially for some one who has no spiritual faith to begin with.

Jim
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Of course being a Catholic that practices Hindu religious practices is not the same as a Hindu practicing Hindu religious practices. For Hinduism is safe to practice if one is a Catholic and only Unsafe for non-Catholics.:rolleyes:
Why don’t you take some time out and watch the video that was suggested.
 
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