God's of the New Age

[Montalban]

I am speaking of history in terms of what is known of human history, not the theological timeline of any given religion. Many religions claims as part of their theology that they go back to or before the beginning of time. Christianity as a visible religion did not exist before the birth of Christ. Prior to that we have Judaism.

When we worship in kneeling befoer God we follow what the angels do.

But, it doesn’t matter if it weren’t for this. I don’t mind if something dates to Judaism, because I don’t believe that the God I worship and the God that they worship are different gods.

Okay, the point was that the methods are essentially the same regardless of what you call them, but the intents are different. Just because one group uses beads on a string to help count prayers doesn’t mean that it can’t be used by another group as well. Here’s an Orthodox thing that uses the term. westernorthodox.com/rosary.

No the method was established for a particular ends. It’s like weightlifting. You might start weightlifting in an effort to practice art, but you’re going to develop/tone muscles.

Yoga is a spirtual exercise with a particular ends.

To believe otherwise would allow me to paint myself in goat’s blood and offal, calling on Satan’s minions and call it “Christian worship”. It just won’t work. I don’t believe ‘anything goes’. I believe Christ not only gave us structures in our body of worship (ie. church, priestly offices, etc.), but in forms of worship.

At least you didn’t try to counter with Hesychasm in general as an example to argue with. But you touched upon it with the issues of ‘prayer ropes’.

Firstly, Orthodox who use a ‘rosary’ are, like Charismatic Catholics, not ‘mainstream’.

Though they *resemble *the Western rosary, prayer ropes should not be confused with this Latin devotional device and are not used in the same way as the rosary."
orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/guidech1.pdf

… they hear the prayer rope described as a “rosary.” They make associations with a distinct western practice with no relationship to the “Jesus Prayer,” or the central practice of the hesychastic tradition, and thus create, from information resulting from ignorance of an ancient Orthodox tradition, a new and wholly improper understanding of an important part of Orthodox spirituality. The list could continue from the “Mass” through “last Rites.” The point is that we do not have an authentic Orthodox cultural tradition in America and that the so-called “traditions” that we do know come to us in distorted form.
orthodoxinfo.com/general/cultural_par.aspx

The rosary was championed by an apiration few Orthodox accept as genuine.

 

[KarenNC]

No the method was established for a particular ends. It’s like weightlifting. You might start weightlifting in an effort to practice art, but you’re going to develop/tone muscles.

Yoga is a spirtual exercise with a particular ends.

To believe otherwise would allow me to paint myself in goat’s blood and offal, calling on Satan’s minions and call it “Christian worship”. It just won’t work. I don’t believe ‘anything goes’. I believe Christ not only gave us structures in our body of worship (ie. church, priestly offices, etc.), but in forms of worship.

You are really missing the entire point, which is that the people who are engaging in yoga for exercise are not intending it as worship of anyone at all. This isn’t a case of doing puja in front of a statue of Ganesha and saying that it is really Christian worship or not a worship practice at all. That would be inappropriate and I would agree that anyone who did so had some very unorthodox (small “o” ) ideas about what constitutes both Hindu and Christian worship.

The objections that are being raised to yoga as exercise are like saying that one should never put flowers in one’s home because Hindus offer flowers on the altars of their Gods and you might unknowingly be led into worshipping Kali by putting flowers on the dining room table for a dinner party. Pretty much everyone I know can tell the difference in what they are intending.

 

[mwmroe]

At the time of my original post on this forum about my experiences with Hinduism and the New Age I felt uncomfortable talking about the type of Hinduism and New Age I practiced. I guess I felt uncomfortable getting into a discussion about my personal experiences with gurus and the New Age, so I avoided any kind discussion about it. I felt like if I talked about it I would in some way be advocating it, but I was avoiding the negative feelings from those experiences. I know now that it is okay for me to talk about these things. Maybe others will have had similar experiences, but by mentioning my own personal experiences others can avoid some of the things I got involved with. I’m sorry that I was incapable of talking about it at the time, so now I would like to mention the types of Hinduism and New Age I practiced.

Hinduism

Ruchira Avatara Bhakti Yoga - This is the yoga of Adi Da Samraj. I practiced this yoga for about five years, first, by an expensive correspondence course through the mail. The relationship to this guru had a devastating effect on my life. At one time I even moved to Clear Lake California to be closer to him at one of his ashrams.

Jnana yoga - Sri Ramana Maharshi - This yoga had a strong influence on me. I studied it mainly through books.

Sri Ramakrishna - Swami Vivekananda – I read many of their books and attended services at Vedanta Society of Berkeley.

Jiddu Krishnamurti – The teachings of Krishnamuriti had powerful influence on me. I got deeply involved in his philosophy and attended a conference at Ojai California.

Kriya yoga - Paramhansa Yogananda - I took a correspondence course thru the mail. I don’t remember much about it.

Integral yoga - Sri Aurobindo and the Mother – I studied his philosophy, but had a difficult time comprehending it. I moved into an ashram with some of his devotees in California where we practiced Karma yoga.

Towards the end I got involved with Transcendental Mediation, Tantra yoga and Kundalini yoga. I also dabbled with the I Ching

I’ve had several other experiences with swamis, gurus and teachers, but I just mentioned the ones that had the greatest influences on me. At one point I even received Shaktipat from a local guru after spending a substantial amount of money to receive it.

The New Age

Hemi-Sync – Created by Robert Monroe – I spent a substantial amount of money to purchases his hemi-sync technology to induce out-of-body experiences. I was fascinated by the idea of out-of-body experiences and over the years read several books on the subject.

I got involved with:
Channeling and the use of crystals – divination
Meditation
New Age music
Lucid dreaming
Astrology and Numerology

I hope that by talking about these things others will avoid them. None of them ever brought me the peace like I’ve found in Jesus Christ.

God Bless,
Mark

 

[Nandarani]

Want to compliment Mark for having begun this thread. Typed “Yogananda” into the search function to see what would turn up regarding Self-Realization Fellowship-whether any Catholics, orthodox in their views (not necessarily Eastern Orthodox), have been a part of that group. Mark finally identifies the vast experience he has indeed had (wow!) with Hinduism and new age; he stopped along the way with SRF. He reached the same conclusions as I have. It was pretty cool reading his writing; I seldom find someone as frank and with such similar experiences.

I am as you can see the ex-Hare Krishna. This thread came to my attention on the day someone sent me a link to a short article in one of the national news magazines on the subject of how many many people are self-identified Hindus in the US today. That in my view has to do with the fact that New Age and Hinduism dovetail very closely. Both are bankrupt approaches to life. Ulimately bankrupt, not bankrupt on their own levels. Plenty of people buy into them on their own level, thinking they are at the highest level of what is possible.

The reason for that is the lack of sacrifice and suffering in their value system.

Hinduism and new age are, on the face of it, very attractive and relaxing.

I like very much when posters are frank. I loved to read one poster say, people who worship Hindu gods, referencing Krishna specifically, are invoking demons. Or using the word “pagan.” I don’t think any of the western Hare Krishna devotees think of themselves as pagans. They are pagans.