Is yoga demonic or no?

[LilyM]

The Church belongs to Christ, and Satan will never prevail against it. And priests, or anyone who has received the Sacrament of Holy Orders, are consecrated to act In Persona Christi. St. Francis of Assisi was so well-aware of God’s special protection of His Church that he once said:

We know the Church belongs to Christ, but to whom do these strange practices belong to?

The physical poses associated with Yoga belong to the same source as the stretches that athletes, dancers, animals and babies do to keep their bodies flexible and mobile - a completely benign one. The Hindu philosophical and religious accretions of course Are a different story.

The physical exercises probably, in various forms, have existed for as long as human beings have had bodies and moved them, and observed (for example) how cats and dogs and snakes move and imitated them. hence cat pose, dog pose, cobra pose. I have seriously had people try to tell me that they were so called in honour of cat or dog deities - never mind that to my knowledge no such deities exist in Hinduism.

In any event, all of this points to the fact that the physical poses are not inextricably entwined with religious practice.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

which is contrary to

He may just be misinformed or may have ulterior motives in giving his advice. I’d stick to what the RCC says about important issues.

Riiiiiight, condemning superstitious belief in horoscopes is EXACTLY the same as using the theme for aesthetic, literary, or other artistic purposes like fanfiction.

Jharek over there has a point that you seem to enjoy ignoring. I’ve been here longer and therefore, many people here know what I’m about.

Oh and FYI, given my years here, let me inform you that you have committed a coupe of offenses against forum rules: going off-topic and getting too personal with a user.

 

[ValPal]

is there any way to do these poses ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asanas ) and not call it yoga?

Sure…just do the poses. I looked through the list and there are a few I do on a regular basis. I have no idea what the Indian names for the poses are and couldn’t care less, nor do I care if they have any meaning in Hinduism.

or is it impossible to separate the asanas from yoga?

Who cares what some people call them. Are the exercises beneficial? If so, do them; if not, don’t.

 

[maxdouglas402]

yoga CAN be dangerous! I just did some research on the type of yoga class i participated in known as “anusara yoga.” Anusara yoga was founded in 1997 by a man involved in a wican coven.

Im still doing research.

 

[R_C]

The physical poses associated with Yoga belong to the same source as the stretches that athletes, dancers, animals and babies do to keep their bodies flexible and mobile - a completely benign one. The Hindu philosophical and religious accretions of course Are a different story.

The physical exercises probably, in various forms, have existed for as long as human beings have had bodies and moved them, and observed (for example) how cats and dogs and snakes move and imitated them. hence cat pose, dog pose, cobra pose. I have seriously had people try to tell me that they were so called in honour of cat or dog deities - never mind that to my knowledge no such deities exist in Hinduism.

In any event, all of this points to the fact that the physical poses are not inextricably entwined with religious practice.

Great post!! :tiphat:

 

[CrimsonThorn]

Oh and FYI, given my years here, let me inform you that you have committed a coupe of offenses against forum rules: going off-topic and getting too personal with a user.

IMHO when you start giving people advice to get into the occult (as in the thread Demons And Angels of the Zodiac) I have reason to believe that you are giving out malicious advice and advice that is directly contradictory to the Catechism. You should expect to be corrected on a Catholic forum.

I wanted to point out to the OP to read your posts with a grain of salt, because he may be thinking he’s receiving his advice form a practicing Catholic.

But to stay on topic, OP, what more evidence do you need of yoga being spiritually dangerous? Numerous priests conclude that it is and they are not simply ignorant, they are well-versed in knowledge of spirituality and some even having dealth with these things up front and in person. They know better, what experience and study have we done to compare their words to?

Also, if you want to be “flexible and buff” I recommend training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Some of the most fun you’ll ever have

 

[R_C]

offenses against forum rules: going off-topic and getting too personal with a user.

So you do agree that users may want to keep off-topic, personal discussions private

 

[Veronica97]

yoga CAN be dangerous! I just did some research on the type of yoga class i participated in known as “anusara yoga.” Anusara yoga was founded in 1997 by a man involved in a wican coven.

Im still doing research.

Maxdouglas, you have to follow your heart and your own conscience. I have just been through a similar dilemma (see my post about Farmville Halloween scruples and their new “fortune teller/tarot feature”), and even though I realize it’s just a “game”, the devil can and does sometimes work through things that we think are harmless. That’s how we get “roped in”, so to speak and led further into other things. If you don’t feel good about it, then by all means don’t do it. Given the fact that you have had bad experiences with evil in the past, I’d say RUN don’t walk! Simarly, given the fact that I have been led astray into occult or new age things in the past, I chose to RUN not walk from this aspect of my Farmville game. For someone else, it may be no problem at all. But for ME, I think God was trying to protect me by putting my conscience into full gear. I think somebody up there is trying to protect you, too.

 

[ValPal]

But to stay on topic, OP, what more evidence do you need of yoga being spiritually dangerous? Numerous priests conclude that it is and they are not simply ignorant, they are well-versed in knowledge of spirituality and some even having dealth with these things up front and in person. They know better, what experience and study have we done to compare their words to?

The focus of the objections is ALWAYS on the religious practice, not on the exercise.

Also, if you want to be “flexible and buff” I recommend training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Some of the most fun you’ll ever have

You mean the martial art whose whose founders were familiar with Japanese martial arts, associated with the Shinto religion?

If flexibility and fitness is the issue, I recommend wu shu all the way.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

IMHO when you start giving people advice to get into the occult (as in the thread Demons And Angels of the Zodiac) I have reason to believe that you are giving out malicious advice and advice that is directly contradictory to the Catechism. You should expect to be corrected on a Catholic forum.

Correction: Contradictory according to YOU.

I wanted to point out to the OP to read your posts with a grain of salt, because he may be thinking he’s receiving his advice form a practicing Catholic.

Nice. Just cuz I don’t advocate the Dial-An-Exorcist route of the spiritual warrior camp means I’m not a practicing Catholic. I’d give you my biography about how I’m the only serious practitioner in my household but go head, keep your fantasies oh great, holy warrior.

I have proven time and again that your citations and arguments have flopped. But like anyone in your camp, you let your hot head do all the thinking for you.

But to stay on topic, OP, what more evidence do you need of yoga being spiritually dangerous? Numerous priests conclude that it is and they are not simply ignorant, they are well-versed in knowledge of spirituality and some even having dealth with these things up front and in person. They know better, what experience and study have we done to compare their words to?

Correction: Priests whom YOU cite.

So you do agree that users may want to keep off-topic, personal discussions private

No, they should not happen at all. Hence, they’are a violation.

 

[CrimsonThorn]

You mean the martial art whose whose founders were familiar with Japanese martial arts, associated with the Shinto religion?

Except the moves and positions are not an outward spiritual sign, like the outward positions and symbolic posturing is in Yoga. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is not religious in any context and has more in common with collegiate wrestling.

 

[CrimsonThorn]

Sorry but nope.

Can a person practice Catholicism, like receiving the Eucharist, going to Mass, going through the Act of Reconciliation, and claim they are not practicing the religion of Catholicism? Can they correctly claim they are just practicing the act of eating, meditating, and speaking with a therapist? No they cannot correctly claim that, because they are engaging in the direct sacraments and religious aspects of what it means to be a Catholic. So goes the same for Yoga. You cannot engage in its spiritually submersed positional symbolism and claim it’s just stretching. Then why not just do stretching and why insist on doing Yoga?

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Except the moves and positions are not an outward spiritual sign, like the outward positions and symbolic posturing is in Yoga. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is not religious in any context and has more in common with collegiate wrestling.

What a coincidence! You’re describing the very thing that exercise Yoga is doing (even to the chagrin of Hindu practitioners).

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

So goes the same for Yoga. You cannot engage in its spiritually submersed positional symbolism and claim it’s just stretching. Then why not just do stretching and why insist on doing Yoga?

Eating the same wafer that’s used in Mass doesn’t make someone a Catholic.
We use wine too but that doesn’t make every wine drinker a Catholic.

I said so before but I’ve used Shinto hand signs just for the heck of it. I’m still Catholic (no matter how much you insist I’m not).

 

[CrimsonThorn]

Eating the same wafer that’s used in Mass doesn’t make someone a Catholic.
We use wine too but that doesn’t make every wine drinker a Catholic.

You’re right it doesn’t, but it does mean the person is engaging in the Catholic Sacraments when done at Mass.

Engaging in the occult or in Yoga doesn’t make someone an occultist or a Hindu necessarily, it means they are engaging in those activities. And those activities alone are harmful.

If you’re just stretching, then that isn’t Yoga, and then why do people feel compelled to specify that as Yoga?

If you’re just eating un-consecrated wafers all day, why would someone feel compelled to state that they’re munching on the Holy Eucharist all day, if that is not the case?

 

[ValPal]

Except the moves and positions are not an outward spiritual sign, like the outward positions and symbolic posturing is in Yoga. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is not religious in any context and has more in common with collegiate wrestling.

I can link anything in Jiu Jitsu with an eastern martial art if you’d like, and hence link it with an eastern religion.

Jiu Jitsu has it roots in Japanese martial arts and hence the Shinto religion. If you claim that is has no religious element, then the argument applies for any other eastern martial art/exercise regimen/etc. that is practiced with no religion.

 

[agnes_therese]

If you’re just stretching, then that isn’t Yoga, and then why do people feel compelled to specify that as Yoga?

From the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Yoga - a system of exercises for attaining bodily or mental control and well-being.

Why should anyone feel compelled to specify it’s not yoga if it is?

 

[CrimsonThorn]

I can link anything in Jiu Jitsu with an eastern martial art if you’d like, and hence link it with an eastern religion.

Jiu Jitsu has it roots in Japanese martial arts and hence the Shinto religion. If you claim that is has no religious element, then the argument applies for any other eastern martial art/exercise regimen/etc. that is practiced with no religion.

No it can’t because Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is just a name and an alternate version and evolution of Judo, and a certain aspect of Judo at that (newaza/ground grappling). In other words you can say it is influenced by Judo techniques but not it’s philsophy or retaining anything that relates to religion or spirituality. That’s like saying because my wrestling coach is Buddhist that me learning wrestling from him makes me Buddhist. Incorrect.

Yoga is different. Learning religious symbolic posturing and then engaging in religious symbolic postures (if even done for secular reasons), is practicing Yoga and the spirituality of Yoga (like a atheist receiving the Holy Eucharist during Mass -if even done for secular reasons- doesn’t qualify that person as a Catholic, but it does qualify them as engaging in Catholic activities).

 

[CrimsonThorn]

Why should anyone feel compelled to specify it’s not yoga if it is?

Exactly my point.

So I’ll ask again, what’s wrong with just doing stretching? Why does everyone insist on Yoga? Now I’m just interested in hearing everyone’s reasons and why they feel the need to make a distinction and pick one over the other if they also claim they’re “the same thing?”

 

[maxdouglas402]

Exactly my point.

So I’ll ask again, what’s wrong with just doing stretching? Why does everyone insist on Yoga? Now I’m just interested in hearing everyone’s reasons and why they feel the need to make a distinction and pick one over the other if they also claim they’re “the same thing?”

Im personally attracted to yoga because its a completely different kind of stretching. Its very different than stretching at the gym or on your own, and it works out the muscles like I’ve never experienced before. I am just extremely fascinated by the way it works out the muscles and aligns the body. The breathing aspect of yoga is, what I think, makes it such a unique thing. Yoga almost seems to make the body workout itself (or at least in anusara yoga it does).

I still have been searching for an answer so Im still abstaining from participating.