Is it a sin for Catholics to do Yoga?

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Thank you. At least we have a line.
Yes. Contorting one’s body into a Hindu worship poses while repeating “I choose to let go” is not a spiritually healthy thing to do, regardless if you are simply doing it for exercise.
 
The goal of yoga is Communion with the Hindu deities, thus a Catholic should not be naive. This should settle it:

“the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons” 1 Cor 10:20-21

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babochka:
That sounds like a reasonable place to draw a line, but your other posts indicate that this isn’t really where you draw the line.
Again, Yoga involves Hindu deity poses, breathing, meditating, and chanting mantras. if you are doing yoga you are involving all of those elements. Here’s another example of typical Yoga class:

I’ve never done Yoga, so I just have to rely on what others have told me. I just watched several YouTube videos- 6, to be exact - of various Yoga classes. Two of them had explicit spiritual reference to prayer, meditating, mantras, etc. One had implicit references. The other three were purely stretching and exercising, but included breathing for relaxation. These breathing techniques are common sense and commonly used outside of Yoga and I could see absolutely no problems with them. I suspect it’s a mixed bag out there in the western world of Yoga. Perhaps better to stay away because you never know what you’re going to walk into, but I remain unconvinced that simply taking a pose, “prayer position” or not, evokes demons.

If a person makes the sign of the cross (or facsimile thereof) because he or she has seen others do it, does that make it a prayer to the Holy Trinity?

A while back, I saw a homeless woman walking down the street screaming. I said a quick prayer for her, finishing with the sign of the cross. She saw me do it and mockingly made the sign of the cross back to me. Was that a prayer on her part? Did she even know what I was doing? What she was doing? She was not invoking the Trinity, to be sure.

If you do not believe that an unknowing sign of the cross holds the power of a prayer, why do you believe that simply holding one’s body in a particular position, even in if is a Hindu prayer position, holds the power of that prayer.
 
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Shakuhachi:
Thank you. At least we have a line.
Yes. Contorting one’s body into a Hindu worship poses while repeating “I choose to let go” is not a spiritually healthy thing to do, regardless if you are simply doing it for exercise.
This was not present in any of the six videos I just watched. 🙂
 
So if I stand like that woman I am automatically worshipping and sacrificing to some Hindu god?

That is superstition and not at all what St Paul was talking about.

Sorry to disagree.
 
If a person makes the sign of the cross (or facsimile thereof) because he or she has seen others do it, does that make it a prayer to the Holy Trinity?
That may be a very good question. Baseball players used to do it and millions of us young kids saw it. So if we imitated without knowing what it is, does The Holy Trinity notice?

And by the way, what was the intention of those baseball players? As a prayer to do well at bat?
 
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babochka:
If a person makes the sign of the cross (or facsimile thereof) because he or she has seen others do it, does that make it a prayer to the Holy Trinity?
That may be a very good question. Baseball players used to do it and millions of us young kids saw it. So if we imitated without knowing what it is, does The Holy Trinity notice?

And by the way, what was the intention of those baseball players? As a prayer to do well at bat?
I think some baseball players do it as a prayer, some as a superstition, some as a bit of both. But I assume that those who do it know its meaning and therefore it has some aspect of a prayer.
 
Probably so. For us Christians it is a gesture of great meaning, a blessing and the symbol of our discipleship. To non believers it is nothing or they ascribe their own meaning.
 
Contorting one’s body into Hindu worship poses and breathing, meditating and repeating mantras seeking inner peace.
I see a few verbs here: contorting, breathing, meditating, repeating and seeking.

Breathing, you are of course referring to a particular technique of breathing. Meditating, well even Catholics meditate so it depends on the subject. Repeating, we also do that with some of our prayer forms. And seeking, again it depends on what we are seeking. Is anything so wrong with “inner peace”?

I just don’t think it is a s simple and black and white as some would like to make it. Intention is what gives meaning to human actions.

The Ouija board thing, it would seem someon has to be asking questions and expecting something to answer. Spirits? God? Some sort of automatic nervous response? i don’t think anyone knows. I would like t see some skeptics test it. I think I’ll do a search.

I am skeptical.

 
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So if I stand like that woman I am automatically worshipping and sacrificing to some Hindu god?
No. If you contort your body to the Hindu god being worshipped with the pose, meditate and repeat mantras in the name of relaxation and inner peace, then you are opening yourself to demonic influence in your life, meaning deception from the truth and an ushering into new age concept of mind body and spirit.

It’s one thing for a Hindu to do practice yoga, it’s quite another for a Catholic to do it being that yoga itself by it’s very nature denies Christ,.
 
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If a person makes the sign of the cross (or facsimile thereof) because he or she has seen others do it, does that make it a prayer to the Holy Trinity?
Obviously not. Though if the same person makes it a regular practice of of setting aside time to cross themselves repeating in the words of the sign of the cross, and spend time meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary for relaxation and inner peace , they are certainly opening themselves up to God. Likewise those who regularly practice going through the motions of yoga open themselves up to the spirits behind it.
 
If you contort your body to the Hindu god being worshipped with the pose, meditate and repeat mantras in the name of relaxation and inner peace …
Sounds too complicated for me. I just know that stretching my legs helps me sleep better.

Thanks for the discussion.
 
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If you really want to be down on yoga watch (I think on Netflix). Something like “Naga”. Those are the guys who live in the jungle, go around naked smeared with mud, smoke giant rolls of I’m not sure what, roll thier member up on a stick and have someone stand on it and one guy held his arm up in the air for 15 years as a religious discipline.

That is some crazy yoga!
 
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Shakuhachi:
So if I stand like that woman I am automatically worshipping and sacrificing to some Hindu god?
No. If you contort your body to the Hindu god being worshipped with the pose, meditate and repeat mantras in the name of relaxation and inner peace, then you are opening yourself to demonic influence in your life, meaning deception from the truth and an ushering into new age concept of mind body and spirit.

It’s one thing for a Hindu to do practice yoga, it’s quite another for a Catholic to do it being that yoga itself by it’s very nature denies Christ,.
Not aware of any Hindu god who looks like a triangle. Or like a person bending over and touching their toes. Or a person doing a shoulder stand or a head stand.

And Christ Himself doubtless lay down flat when He slept - so it doesnt seem credible for anyone to say I am imitating a Hindu god if I do the same.

Christianity has borrowed quite a few things from other earlier faiths. Incense, prayer beads and so on. Pagan Romans called their chief priest Pontifex Maximus - Supreme Pontiff - for centuries before our Popes co-opted the title.

Our days of the week are named for Norse and Roman gods, as are our months of the year.

We are literally repeating the names of pagan deities on a continual basis. If our faith can survive our speaking their names, then I fail to see why it cannot survive our supposedly putting our bodies in postures that imitate them.
 
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As you know, Wikipedia is edited by regular people like you or me. Mr Akin is a serious, reasonable researcher, I find his stand to be the most plausible. YMMV
 
“the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons” 1 Cor 10:20-21
In context, St Paul was warning against idolatry. One cannot commit idolatry “accidently”.
 
then you are opening yourself to demonic influence in your life,
If you commit mortal sin, you are opening yourself up to demonic things. For the final time, how can one accidentally commit mortal sin?
 
Is that magic eight ball worrisome too?
It was to my mother-in-law, which is why I would consult it when she was around.
It’s been a few years, but I think I still have both.

You can stretch and breathe and meditate and still have it be spiritually benign. But the only purpose for a Ouija board is to connect with occult powers. It’s not a multi-use device.
 
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