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PRmerger
Guest
These are all important questions that have never been addressed by the anti-yoga apologists.
What, exactly, about a posture makes it occult-inducing, and what makes it harmless, in the anti-yoga group’s rationale?
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What, exactly, about a posture makes it occult-inducing, and what makes it harmless, in the anti-yoga group’s rationale?
K
kozlosap
Guest
I have to put some of the blame for normally thoughtful adults getting jerked around on the subject of yoga squarely on the shoulders of the woman who is the star of Women of Faith radio show. I can’t even imagine how this show is still being aired, the superstition and downright false old wives tales that are given credence are harmful. My dear old friend who is a Sister of Mercy has been doing her morning yoga routine for years and guess what ********her so called demonic chant is the Rosary!!
L
lilymc
Guest
It’s not the postures that people take issue with, it’s the spiritual part of yoga. I’m sure you realize that yoga is rooted in eastern religions like Hinduism. The physical practices are supposed to go hand in hand with the spiritual part of it…things like offering oneself to the ‘gods’ , breathing in the impersonal ‘life force’ , etc, etc… You can laugh at me if you want, but I would say that even being in a yoga studio, practicing yoga with people who believe in all that stuff could open oneself up to spirits that are not of God.
Besides, in the bible, there are TONS of commands from God to be set apart, different than the world. To not mix with false gods or false religions. (I could post a ton of scriptures, but you must already know that). Even if you’re not practicing the spiritual aspect of yoga, just being into it is associating with practices that are antithetical to Christianity.
For anyone who is involved with it, I would suggest you pray and ask God if it’s something you should be doing, or if there are better ways to exercise that don’t involve opening oneself up to other spirits.
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PRmerger
Guest
I think that if you read some of the posts from this thread you will see that there are some who are of the belief that certain postures of yoga are invitations to demons, and/or are a form of worship of Hindu deities.
That belief is, of course, ga-ga la-la nonsense.
P
PRmerger
Guest
Christians ought to be able to separate the physical practice of yoga from the spiritual worship of false gods.
Stretching, relaxing, calming one’s mind and focusing on Christ while doing yoga, what could be wrong with that?
That is, at least, a more consistent position than some here who have said they wouldn’t have a problem with being in the same studio doing other exercises while demonic exercises were being performed (i.e. yoga) in another room.
If you believe yoga to be demonic, it’s curious that you would be nearby doing ballet in another room.
So I give you a
for being consistent with your beliefs.Agreed. If someone is doing yoga and worshipping false gods, she needs to cease and desist immediately!!
M
Michael_Mayo
Guest
You can say the same about burning incense.
M
Michael_Mayo
Guest
If we look at yoga as a cultural development perhaps we can also see that it can enrich the way the Gospel is preached.
In these first two Christian millennia, countless peoples have received the grace of faith, brought it to flower in their daily lives and handed it on in the language of their own culture. Whenever a community receives the message of salvation, the Holy Spirit enriches its culture with the transforming power of the Gospel. **The history of the Church shows that Christianity does not have simply one cultural expression, but rather, “remaining completely true to itself, with unswerving fidelity to the proclamation of the Gospel and the tradition of the Church, it will also reflect the different faces of the cultures and peoples in which it is received and takes root”. **In the diversity of peoples who experience the gift of God, each in accordance with its own culture, the Church expresses her genuine catholicity and shows forth the “beauty of her varied face”. In the Christian customs of an evangelized people, the Holy Spirit adorns the Church, showing her new aspects of revelation and giving her a new face. Through inculturation, the Church “introduces peoples, together with their cultures, into her own community”, for “**every culture offers positive values and forms which can enrich the way the Gospel is preached, **understood and lived”. In this way, the Church takes up the values of different cultures and becomes sponsa ornata monilibus suis, “the bride bedecked with her jewels” (cf. Is 61:10)”.
vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.pdf
That does not mean becoming Hindu or worshipping other gods. It does mean using all that is good, healthy and helpful from all cultures in the flowering of faith in daily life. Yoga can be a means to evangelize.
In these first two Christian millennia, countless peoples have received the grace of faith, brought it to flower in their daily lives and handed it on in the language of their own culture. Whenever a community receives the message of salvation, the Holy Spirit enriches its culture with the transforming power of the Gospel. **The history of the Church shows that Christianity does not have simply one cultural expression, but rather, “remaining completely true to itself, with unswerving fidelity to the proclamation of the Gospel and the tradition of the Church, it will also reflect the different faces of the cultures and peoples in which it is received and takes root”. **In the diversity of peoples who experience the gift of God, each in accordance with its own culture, the Church expresses her genuine catholicity and shows forth the “beauty of her varied face”. In the Christian customs of an evangelized people, the Holy Spirit adorns the Church, showing her new aspects of revelation and giving her a new face. Through inculturation, the Church “introduces peoples, together with their cultures, into her own community”, for “**every culture offers positive values and forms which can enrich the way the Gospel is preached, **understood and lived”. In this way, the Church takes up the values of different cultures and becomes sponsa ornata monilibus suis, “the bride bedecked with her jewels” (cf. Is 61:10)”.
vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.pdf
That does not mean becoming Hindu or worshipping other gods. It does mean using all that is good, healthy and helpful from all cultures in the flowering of faith in daily life. Yoga can be a means to evangelize.
T
TheWarriorMonk
Guest
I do all sorts of basic exercises, which vary depending on what training program I’m working on at the time, or what injuries I have at the time.
Sometimes I do yoga exercises to get stretched out real good. Does that mean I’m practicing Hinduism?
If my back is thrown out of whack, I’ll do qi gong exercises. Does that mean I’m practicing Buddhism?
If I’m doing general stretching, I my do some wu su (secular) exercises. Does that mean I’m an atheist?
If I’m weight lifting, I do some exercises developed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Does that mean I support taking steroids and not treat woman well?
Etc., etc., etc.
If people are seeing demons in everything, it might be time to stop blaming to object/exercise/etc., and start reflecting on why they see demons in everything. People that see demons in everything are more susceptible to possession than those that don’t.
B
BluesPicker
Guest
Here is two questions out of 30 questions his Grace, Cardinal Ratinger, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, answered from an interview by Ignatius Artizzu taken from the magazine “A voice cries out …” 9 - marzo 1999 *(Nine day of March 1999). It was in Italian and translated using the Google Translator. Topics covered in the interview are Magic, Yoga, Transcendental Meditation, and the Sin Against the Holy Spirit i.e. the Sin of No Return. You can’t imagine how many times the Mass Media just doesn’t show the complete interview. For those who find that there is no relation between the topics, what can I say but you need to make an appointment with your priest or deacon. Yes, I am trying to be possessed, possessed by the Immaculata and the Holy Spirit. This is the goal of partaking of the sacraments. I have the complete document attached. These two questions and their answers are relevant to this discussion.
Kicking the Dust Off My Shoes & Leaving this Thread,
BP
Was there this transformation or enlightenment? (in direct reference to yoga)
Not generally. It may be, however, some people have tried to exclude the religious and ideological elements, keeping these practices on a level of pure physical exercise. This can not be excluded.
What are the roots of this thirst for occult?
I think this mix is a trend towards the divine and the loss that ended the man himself.
None of the occultists openly operate with the help of the devil. Indeed, almost all claiming to be believers, and to do good. They use sacred images, crucifixes …
Yes, the lie deep then takes the form of the most obvious lies. The magician, in his personal orientation, has come to lie. Then, it becomes natural to use all practical means to express and act to make the lie. Of course syncretism is one of the fundamental elements of the magical and occultist community, that employs religions, and in particular the Christian’s, both perverting fraud in order to attract people and make credible, is also hoping to use the hidden power of the Christian reality. We see it in the Acts of the Apostles with Simon the magician, who would want to buy the power of the apostles. "Simon saw that the Spirit was given with the ‘laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit. "But Peter answered him "Your money goes with perdition in you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money There is no part nor lot in this thing for you, because theyour heart is not right before God Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God that you may be forgiven the thought. I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. "(Acts 8:18-23)
Kicking the Dust Off My Shoes & Leaving this Thread,
BP
Was there this transformation or enlightenment? (in direct reference to yoga)
Not generally. It may be, however, some people have tried to exclude the religious and ideological elements, keeping these practices on a level of pure physical exercise. This can not be excluded.
What are the roots of this thirst for occult?
I think this mix is a trend towards the divine and the loss that ended the man himself.
None of the occultists openly operate with the help of the devil. Indeed, almost all claiming to be believers, and to do good. They use sacred images, crucifixes …
Yes, the lie deep then takes the form of the most obvious lies. The magician, in his personal orientation, has come to lie. Then, it becomes natural to use all practical means to express and act to make the lie. Of course syncretism is one of the fundamental elements of the magical and occultist community, that employs religions, and in particular the Christian’s, both perverting fraud in order to attract people and make credible, is also hoping to use the hidden power of the Christian reality. We see it in the Acts of the Apostles with Simon the magician, who would want to buy the power of the apostles. "Simon saw that the Spirit was given with the ‘laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit. "But Peter answered him "Your money goes with perdition in you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money There is no part nor lot in this thing for you, because theyour heart is not right before God Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God that you may be forgiven the thought. I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. "(Acts 8:18-23)
M
Michael_Mayo
Guest
Actually that provides a point I have been trying to make:
There is a yoga reduced to a kind of gymnastics: it offers some element that can provide help for the relaxation of the body. Well, if yoga is actually reduced to a gym you can also accept, in the case of movements that have a purely physical sense. But it must be really low, I repeat, in a pure exercise of physical relaxation, free from any ideological element. On this point one must be very careful not to introduce into a physical training a certain vision of man, the world, the relationship between man and God. This purification method in itself a logical ideas incompatible with the Christian life, it might be compared for example with the "demythologizing" of the pagan traditions about the creation of the world, made in the first chapter of Genesis, where the sun and the moon, the great gods of myth are reduced to “light” created by God, lamps that reflect light of God, and make us imagine the true Light, which is the Creator of light. And so, even in the case of yoga and other Eastern techniques would require **a transformation **and a radical shift that really out of the way every ideological claim.
Just as the Book of Genesis demythologized pagan traditions, so also can yoga be demythologized and so transformed.
We know also from the pre-Christian religions, they have created a world of fear. When it came to the Christian, did not bring a political liberation, as we would say today, but deliverance from fear of demons. There is only one God who is the strongest of all: this is the proclamation that freed the world really. And even today, in some parts of the world are not yet evangelized, you can see how the fear of demons and wizards creates a climate of fear and immobility. You can not act because at every step you can fall into the hands of a demon. Therefore, we must proclaim the liberating power of the ad that there is one God, and that God is Love and He loves us and has the power to guide us and give us true freedom, and with that invincible power frees us from this slavery.
“There is only one God who has the power to guide us and give us true freedom”. No need to fear demons. Let us proclaim the liberating power of Christ as “every culture offers positive values and forms which can enrich the way the Gospel is preached.”
"Your Eminence, what is the magic?
The use of seemingly mysterious forces to have a dominion over the physical and even psychological. The attempt, that is, to manipulate supernatural powers for their own use.
Magic is the warning and the danger, manipulation of supernatural powers. People have tried that in countless ways including planting a statue of St Jospeh upside down on property to sell. Why should yoga be singled out? Why should anything, simply because it comes from another culture, be viewed as demonic? The real test deals with our willingness to submit to the love and power of God and then to live that love in our relationships with others.
We must be very careful about the ideological context, which makes it part of an almost mystical power. The risk is that yoga will become a stand-alone method of “redemption”, without a real encounter between God and the human person.
There is a yoga reduced to a kind of gymnastics: it offers some element that can provide help for the relaxation of the body. Well, if yoga is actually reduced to a gym you can also accept, in the case of movements that have a purely physical sense. But it must be really low, I repeat, in a pure exercise of physical relaxation, free from any ideological element. On this point one must be very careful not to introduce into a physical training a certain vision of man, the world, the relationship between man and God. This purification method in itself a logical ideas incompatible with the Christian life, it might be compared for example with the "demythologizing" of the pagan traditions about the creation of the world, made in the first chapter of Genesis, where the sun and the moon, the great gods of myth are reduced to “light” created by God, lamps that reflect light of God, and make us imagine the true Light, which is the Creator of light. And so, even in the case of yoga and other Eastern techniques would require **a transformation **and a radical shift that really out of the way every ideological claim.
Just as the Book of Genesis demythologized pagan traditions, so also can yoga be demythologized and so transformed.
We know also from the pre-Christian religions, they have created a world of fear. When it came to the Christian, did not bring a political liberation, as we would say today, but deliverance from fear of demons. There is only one God who is the strongest of all: this is the proclamation that freed the world really. And even today, in some parts of the world are not yet evangelized, you can see how the fear of demons and wizards creates a climate of fear and immobility. You can not act because at every step you can fall into the hands of a demon. Therefore, we must proclaim the liberating power of the ad that there is one God, and that God is Love and He loves us and has the power to guide us and give us true freedom, and with that invincible power frees us from this slavery.
“There is only one God who has the power to guide us and give us true freedom”. No need to fear demons. Let us proclaim the liberating power of Christ as “every culture offers positive values and forms which can enrich the way the Gospel is preached.”
"Your Eminence, what is the magic?
The use of seemingly mysterious forces to have a dominion over the physical and even psychological. The attempt, that is, to manipulate supernatural powers for their own use.
Magic is the warning and the danger, manipulation of supernatural powers. People have tried that in countless ways including planting a statue of St Jospeh upside down on property to sell. Why should yoga be singled out? Why should anything, simply because it comes from another culture, be viewed as demonic? The real test deals with our willingness to submit to the love and power of God and then to live that love in our relationships with others.
We must be very careful about the ideological context, which makes it part of an almost mystical power. The risk is that yoga will become a stand-alone method of “redemption”, without a real encounter between God and the human person.
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