Evil Yoga?

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“Men fear what they do not understand”

The thing I find funny is that the position that Yoga is inherenly evil even if not intended as worship is almost hypocritical. If anyone ever tells you that ask if they wear a wedding ring, that is a purely pagan custom which Christianity absorbed. And of course if Yoga posing is evil you certainly could never let your kids watch a movie like Herculeas or Thor, idolizing pagan dietys, the blasphemy.
 
If you speak to practitioners of the Hindu religion, Yoga is considered an actual religious practice. It is not just done for “health purposes;” the supposed health benefits are only the by-product of yogic practice. Yoga incorporates both physical and spiritual exercise. Yoga is practiced to help to attain moksha, which is essentially the freedom/liberation from suffering, as well as from the cycle of rebirth.

Moksha is not compatible with Catholicism or Christianity. No matter who practices Yoga or not, the fact still stands that it is rooted in actual Hindu religious belief. They don’t practice Yoga to “feel better,” even if the health benefits are there.

This comes from someone like me who seriously contemplated converting to the Gaudiya Vaisnava sect of Hinduism before my “re-conversion” to Catholicism. Although Gaudiya Vaisnavas may or may not practice other forms of yoga, Bhakti Yoga is purely a religious practice like all other forms of yoga.
 
Tous_Logous said:
If you speak to practitioners of the Hindu religion, Yoga is considered an actual religious practice. It is not just done for “health purposes;” the supposed health benefits are only the by-product of yogic practice. Yoga incorporates both physical and spiritual exercise. Yoga is practiced to help to attain moksha, which is essentially the freedom/liberation from suffering, as well as from the cycle of rebirth.

Moksha is not compatible with Catholicism or Christianity. No matter who practices Yoga or not, the fact still stands that it is rooted in actual Hindu religious belief. They don’t practice Yoga to “feel better,” even if the health benefits are there.

This comes from someone like me who seriously contemplated converting to the Gaudiya Vaisnava sect of Hinduism before my “re-conversion” to Catholicism. Although Gaudiya Vaisnavas may or may not practice other forms of yoga, Bhakti Yoga is purely a religious practice like all other forms of yoga.
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You talk to a practitioner of ancient Scandinavian paganism trees were at least sacred objects - worthy of worship and, if my understanding is correct, cut down and decorated for that purpose.

Of course this means we can’t cut down and decorate trees. Never mind the fact that Christians consciously - deliberately - coopted this custom and Christianised it in our own tradition of the Christmas tree. We even call it, some of us, a ‘Yule log’. Yule is used for Cristmas but is the name of the pre-Christian midwinter festival. So we even kept the pagan name!

A stretch is a stretch is a stretch, just like a decorated tree is a decorated tree is a decorated tree. The fact that some faiths use it as a form of worship does NOT mean we Christians cannot employ the physical aspects of it. And the fact that the stretching might still be called Yoga is of no more significance than the fact that we still call Christmas ‘Yuletide’
 
LilyM said:
You talk to a practitioner of ancient Scandinavian paganism trees were at least sacred objects - worthy of worship and, if my understanding is correct, cut down and decorated for that purpose.
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As myself and the OP do that I’d say we don’t worship the tree itself so much as use it as a symbol, the same way a Christian would treat a icon or crucifix.

In the old days there were sacred oaks, most famously Donnars oak (thors oak) in Germany, and traditional Germanic pagans bless stands of trees as opposed to build churches. However A certain Holy Roman emperor put an end to that for the most part.

But your correct, it’s an old tradition which can have religiouse significance if you want it to.
 
Tous_Logous said:
Moksha is not compatible with Catholicism or Christianity.
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We need to get beyond this view that anything that is not explicitly European Christian is incompatible with it. Moksha is derived from the Sanskrit root which means free, let go, release, liberate. The Buddhist and Hindu methods and understanding of what one is liberated from seem different from Christiainity because they predate it and are spoken in a different language. But Jesus was all about freedom, all about overcoming the world. That is Moksha. In Christian terms it is equinimity, fortitude and patience in adversity, it is not avoiding or being removed from adversity but a state of mind to transcend it just as Jesus did.

John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,

2 Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

John 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Even in Buddhism and Hinduism it does not have to be something that once accomplishes on his or her own. They pray to their gods and Boddhisattvas for help but there is also an emphasis on doing all one can. In Christianity we have the benefit of knowing Christ and are freed in him. He calls us to embrace our cross with peace in heart. That is Moksha , the ability to accept one’s cross and endure it. Now in their cosmology it also mean liberation from the cycle of reincarnation. One does not have to accept that cosmology

Yoga, whether Hatha (body), Bakhit (worship) or Jnana (wisdom) are methods to bring the mind under control. That is required for liberation. Bringing the mind under control is also a value in Christianity. That is why we do things like the Rosary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Lectio Divina.

"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. "
 
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