I quit Yoga. Did I do the right thing? What does the Church say about Yoga?

[beckycmarie]

I stopped doing yoga, because the Hindu philosophy was too intrusive and contrary to my Catholic beliefs, even though I offered my class up to God and prayed during the whole thing. I was benefitting from it physically, though; and it did help with my stress. I want to be a good Catholic example. I don’t want people to think that I ascrbe to those Eastern beliefs.

You’re going to get a lot of different answers on this one. If you do a search on yoga in the Ask an Apologist forum, you’ll find conflicting responses there.

The most compelling argument I have against it is that the deliverance ministry I work with has had to deal with several cases of people being demonized as a result of yoga.

Fr. Mitch Pacwa explains in his book Catholics and the New Age how yoga poses were not designed as exercise - the intent is to put a person in an altered state of consciousness to open oneself up to spiritual influences:

“Yoga” means “yoke” since it yokes or joins one to divinity. Hindus did not devise these exercises for athletic limbering or muscle building. All were meant to lead the practitioner to enlightenment and the awareness of his or her divinity." (Catholics and the New Age, p. 33)

 

[LilyM]

I have read that Yoga postures are actually stances that one takes to address a Hindu god when one has that belief. So, in that case – o.k. the thinking goes there is the possibility that evil slowly will creep into your soul when you practice the exercises with that in mind, directing some “god.”

My question: What if you do not follow a Yoga class, but some of the exercises you do are not known to you as Yoga poses, what then, are you exposing yourself to evil? IOW there is no intent of doing Yoga, just a wish to follow a routine of exercises that have been described to be good for lungs, back, legs, etc. but some of those exercises are taken from Yoga without your being aware of it. So, one unwittingly will experience the same consequence of evil slowly taking over?

Can someone please answer. Thank you.

Put it this way - assume the worst case, that Hindus DO use these postures in order to address their deities. It STILL doesn’t mean they’re unsafe for other people to do, and can’t be used in other harmless contexts.

It’s a bit like we kneel in prayer to God, but that fact doesn’t prohibit us from using the SAME posture (kneeling) before an earthly king or queen, or even our own parents or grandparents as people do in some cultures. It doesn’t expose us to any ‘danger’ of accidentally worshipping our king or queen, our parents or grandparents, or any other evil.

 

[a_mirror_dimly]

Am I the only one who read this thread and was reminded of eating meat sacrificed to idols? It seems that this is the same issue: there’s nothing inherent in doing certain stretches and assuming the physical postures of yoga that is in any way contrary to God’s will, but such actions may be misinterpreted by others as including the hindu or new age spiritual ideas associated with yoga. Thus, if your participation in yoga is a hindrance to your brothers and sisters then refrain from it for their sake, but if it is not a stumbling block for those around you then do not be troubled over it.

Does that not seem to be the scriptural take on this issue?

 

[LilyM]

You’re going to get a lot of different answers on this one. Unfortunately, the Church hasn’t come out and clearly said “don’t do yoga.” If you do a search on yoga in the Ask an Apologist forum, you’ll find conflicting responses there.

The most compelling argument I have against it is that the deliverance ministry I work with has had to deal with several cases of people being demonized as a result of yoga.

Fr. Mitch Pacwa explains in his book Catholics and the New Age how yoga poses were not designed as exercise - the intent is to put a person in an altered state of consciousness to open oneself up to spiritual influences:

No, yoga poses weren’t designed purely as exercise, but they can certainly be used purely as such. Just like our churches aren’t designed as purely artistic or architectural endeavours, but it doesn’t prevent lots of people from appreciating them purely for their art or architecture on a secular level and not engaging at all with their spiritual aspect.

You can’t be accidentally and unwillingly demonised as a mere result of putting your body into a particular posture any more than you can accidentally and unwillingly become an alcoholic by merely being around a bottle of wine.

People who are demonised become so as a result of some susceptibility they had previous to and outside of doing yoga - the yoga in their case may have been a trigger, sure. But they can just as easily become demonised without it. There is no end to the variety of ways the devil can get at us.

Just like the alcoholic may have a genetic predisposition to addiction, which if not manifested as alcoholism would just as easily be something else - drug use, overeating, sex addiction or what have you.

So in essence, saying ‘don’t do yoga, people have been demonised through it’ is like saying ‘don’t have alcohol, people have become alcoholics because of it’ or ‘don’t eat, some people are food addicts’.

This is silly advice to give the normal person who has no problems with food or alcohol. You can say ‘be sure to drink in moderation’ or ‘be sure to eat healthily’, but it’s needless fear mongering to want a blanket ban on such things.

 

[beckycmarie]

Goosestepping about one’s neighborhood while doing the “heil Hitler” hand could also be done as aerobic exercise. But most would choose not to do it because of what it represents.

Why is it then, that yoga poses, which were created as a form of Hindu worship okay for Christians if they just “do it for the exercise?”

I’m with the OP on this one. Demonization aside, Christians should avoid yoga because of what it represents.

 

[LilyM]

Goosestepping about one’s neighborhood while doing the “heil Hitler” hand could also be done as aerobic exercise. But most would choose not to do it because of what it represents.

Why is it then, that yoga poses, which were created as a form of Hindu worship okay for Christians if they just “do it for the exercise?”

I’m with the OP on this one. Demonization aside, Christians should avoid yoga because of what it represents.

No-one could shout ‘heil hitler’ as mere exercise, and many armies to this day still DO do the goose-step in formal parades. Without the ‘heil Hitler’ it loses the particular significance and you’d just think they were pretending to be soldiers.

 

[CatsAndDogs]

I quit Yoga. Did I do the right thing? What does the Church say about Yoga?

Yoga bad.

Stretching good.

Do stretching.

You did good.

No yoga.

Fr. Pacwa on “yoga” and other “new age” things:

“Who Do You Say I Am?”
(audio series, with Fr. Mitch Pacwa)
(( search for “yoga” on the page ))

(( also: Yoga ))

:shamrock2:

 

[aimee]

No-one could shout ‘heil hitler’ as mere exercise, and many armies to this day still DO do the goose-step in formal parades. Without the ‘heil Hitler’ it loses the particular significance and you’d just think they were pretending to be soldiers.

Hi there LilyM… I read your posts and agree with you…maybe people can’t seperate the spirituality of Yoga and the excercise…

I like the exercise myself…

 

[beckycmarie]

Am I the only one who read this thread and was reminded of eating meat sacrificed to idols? It seems that this is the same issue: there’s nothing inherent in doing certain stretches and assuming the physical postures of yoga that is in any way contrary to God’s will, but such actions may be misinterpreted by others as including the hindu or new age spiritual ideas associated with yoga. Thus, if your participation in yoga is a hindrance to your brothers and sisters then refrain from it for their sake, but if it is not a stumbling block for those around you then do not be troubled over it.

Does that not seem to be the scriptural take on this issue?

A very good point.

Those eating the food weren’t really worshiping the idols, they were just in it for the food. Yet the Bible still tells us not to even have the appearance of idol worship.

 

[Joseph_L_Varga]

Hi everyone,
I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and some very good points made on the thread. I would like to build on previous posters’ observations and suggest to examine and adapt everything from traditional yoga that would be useful for exercise and maintaining our health in good conscience knowing that we are children of God the Father, and he made our bodies which are temples of the Holy Spirit. It is good to take care of our bodies by every means including healthy eating, exercise, hygiene etc, and exercise can certainly legitimately include such things as deep breathing, stretching and bending that preserves the mobility of the spine, standing on one’s head which temporarily increases blood flow to the brain, etc. So, basically, let’s strip those yoga exercises of their Hindu religious mumbo-jumbo component, and use the positions, stretchings, breathing exercises themselves as long as they build and maintain health as confirmed by our ordinary knowledge of medicine and physiology.

If anyone wonders whether it’s possible to sift the medically-physiologically useful part from the religious and philosophical mumbo-jumbo, I have at least one positive example for that from the area of pharmacognosy (the study of medicinal plants). The use of various plants was widespread in non-Christian religious practices around the world including in shamanistic, witchcraft practice, and traditional medicines of various tribes where the “medicine men” or “witchdoctors” used plants as a component of a religious system of healing. Does this mean that we should have avoided the scientific study of these plants, isolating their pharmacologically active components, and putting them to good use by modern medicine and the pharmaceutical industry? No, and let’s remember that God created all plants for our benefit, including to give us medicines (this is specifically told in the Bible), BEFORE the practitioners of witchcraft or shamanism hijacked their use for their religious practices. Similarly, the human body and all its capabilities for exercises of postures, stretchings, breathing and other exercises were created by God for good purpose, BEFORE the yogins hijacked them and started to use them for worshipping pagan idols and “deities”. Just because something inherently useful and created for good purpose happened to be used by certain people in a way that did not conform to the Creator’s original purpose, we shouldn’t abandon using that thing in a way that is good and useful. I say let’s use those plants to make medicines, let’s use those exercises to preserve our health, and give thanks to God for all of them, because He created and made them possible, for our benefit.

The goose-steps and Hitler hand remind me of one more thing that was hijacked at a certain point in time: Charlie Chaplin’s small moustache, originally invented by Chaplin, later plagiarized by Hitler. But Hitler didn’t succeed in giving a bad name to Chaplin’s moustache, because Chaplin fought back with “The dictator” movie, big time.

 

[inquiringmind]

Isn’t pilates the same as yoga, just without the mediation? So, if I do the stretching exercises I learned from my Christian yoga DVD at home, while praying the rosary and focusing my breathing on Hail Mary’s, am I doing something contrary to Church teaching? I can see where attending a class in a studio that has a definite eastern relig. slant can be contrary, but if I’m just stretching my chunky body, is that bad? Please note, I don’t mean to sound sarcastic, but I just wanted to get straight to the point. Thanks!

 

[Contarini]

That is what you think. If someone gave you a glass of orange juice and told you it had poison in it but that the poison would not have an affect on you because of the benefits of the orange juice, it would still affect you. If someone gave you orange juice with poison in it but didn’t tell you about the poison, and you drank it because of the benefits of orange juice, it would still affect you.

But you have to establish the validity of your analogy. It isn’t self-evident that yoga is the same sort of thing as poisoned orange juice. For one thing, it isn’t self-evident that false ideas work on our brain as poison works on the body.

Edwin

 

[Contarini]

I have read that Yoga postures are actually stances that one takes to address a Hindu god when one has that belief. So, in that case – o.k. the thinking goes there is the possibility that evil slowly will creep into your soul when you practice the exercises with that in mind, directing some “god.”

So the fact that ancient Near Eastern people prostrated themselves and bowed before their idols means that we shouldn’t prostrate ourselves or bow as part of worship?

Furthermore, the primary purpose of yoga is not to worship any particular “deity” (or, as many Hindus would say, manifestation of God). In fact, yoga has different meanings depending on which Hindus are practicing it. But generally “hatha yoga” (the form of yoga being discussed here, the physical postures) is seen as a preparatory discipline which calms and disciplines the body so that the soul can reach liberation/union with the divine through meditation. I have yet to hear any good theological reason why Christians cannot use yoga for the same purpose. In particular, I don’t see that Catholics have any ground for such objections. Some Protestants might because of their distorted view of what “works righteousness” entails.

Edwin

 

[Contarini]

Goosestepping about one’s neighborhood while doing the “heil Hitler” hand could also be done as aerobic exercise. But most would choose not to do it because of what it represents.

Why is it then, that yoga poses, which were created as a form of Hindu worship okay for Christians if they just “do it for the exercise?”

For the obvious reason that the connotations of yoga are not the same as the connotations of doing the goosestep.

Edwin

 

[Contarini]

Please don’t bring Father into this.

So much for the idea that priests should be treated with at least some respect.

Edwin

 

[beckycmarie]

For the obvious reason that the connotations of yoga are not the same as the connotations of doing the goosestep.

Edwin

Exactly. Because the world views breaking the First Commandment, or having the apperance of doing so, as socially acceptable.

 

[Contarini]

Exactly. Because the world views breaking the First Commandment, or having the apperance of doing so, as socially acceptable.

And so we can quite nicely ignore silly questions about what people would think (except when dealing with “weaker brethren” within the Church) and focus on the intrinsic merits or demerits of doing yoga.

Nothing whatever about doing yoga violates the first commandment, unless explicit invocations to Hindu deities or acts of veneration of their images are involved.

Edwin

 

[Allnamesused]

I stopped doing yoga, because the Hindu philosophy was too intrusive and contrary to my Catholic beliefs, even though I offered my class up to God and prayed during the whole thing. I was benefitting from it physically, though; and it did help with my stress. I want to be a good Catholic example. I don’t want people to think that I ascrbe to those Eastern beliefs.

There are a lot of nut jobs who agree with you:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia’s top Islamic body, fresh from banning tomboys, issued an edict Saturday that prohibits Muslims from practicing yoga, saying that elements of Hinduism in the ancient Indian exercise could corrupt them.

The National Fatwa Council’s chairman, Abdul Shukor Husin, said many Muslims fail to understand that yoga’s ultimate aim is to be one with a god of a different religion — an explanation disputed by many practitioners who say yoga need not have a religious element.

“We are of the view that yoga, which originates from Hinduism, combines physical exercise, religious elements, chanting and worshipping for the purpose of achieving inner peace and ultimately to be one with god,” Abdul Shukor said.

 

[LilyM]

There are a lot of nut jobs who agree with you:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia’s top Islamic body, fresh from banning tomboys, issued an edict Saturday that prohibits Muslims from practicing yoga, saying that elements of Hinduism in the ancient Indian exercise could corrupt them.

The National Fatwa Council’s chairman, Abdul Shukor Husin, said many Muslims fail to understand that yoga’s ultimate aim is to be one with a god of a different religion — an explanation disputed by many practitioners who say yoga need not have a religious element.

“We are of the view that yoga, which originates from Hinduism, combines physical exercise, religious elements, chanting and worshipping for the purpose of achieving inner peace and ultimately to be one with god,” Abdul Shukor said.

These’d be the same people who think that it’s OK to slaughter infidels en masse, no? The same ones who believe seventy-odd virgins are waiting in heaven for those who kill in Allah’s name? I wouldn’t exactly call them trustworthy benchmarks of morality.

 

[beckycmarie]

There are a lot of nut jobs who agree with you:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia’s top Islamic body, fresh from banning tomboys, issued an edict Saturday that prohibits Muslims from practicing yoga, saying that elements of Hinduism in the ancient Indian exercise could corrupt them.

The National Fatwa Council’s chairman, Abdul Shukor Husin, said many Muslims fail to understand that yoga’s ultimate aim is to be one with a god of a different religion — an explanation disputed by many practitioners who say yoga need not have a religious element.

“We are of the view that yoga, which originates from Hinduism, combines physical exercise, religious elements, chanting and worshipping for the purpose of achieving inner peace and ultimately to be one with god,” Abdul Shukor said.

These’d be the same people who think that it’s OK to slaughter infidels en masse, no? The same ones who believe seventy-odd virgins are waiting in heaven for those who kill in Allah’s name? I wouldn’t exactly call them trustworthy benchmarks of morality.

What you’ve just done is a perfect example of one tactic of obfuscation - attacking the messenger, rather than making some sort of rational argument about why you think the message is wrong. In the end it doesn’t matter one iota whom the messenger is if they speak the truth. All truth is God’s truth.

It’s also a demonstration of lack of charity - not only are you calling the Muslims nut jobs (what makes them nut jobs, just that they’re Muslim?) but you’re also implying the OP is as well.