Pilates & the Church

[beckycmarie]

The first principle of discernment I learned early in life is, “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. . .” you know the rest.

St. Paul admonishes us to avoid the appearance of evil. How can someone tell by looking at people practicing yoga whether they are Christians “just there for the exercise” or they are actively seeking an “ASOC” as Martha puts it?

By the way, the Catholic mystics didn’t seek an ASOC. Infused contemplation is given by God, not something one can achieve through self-hypnosis.

And also note that two of the three links say that one can practice yoga in the manner described by a few folks in this thread. One of those two is the opinion of a rather solid Dominican priest.

Uh huh. But Jim Blackburn quotes the Pontifical Councils for Faith and Interreligious Dialogue. Vatican trumps Dominican priest.

 

[djrakowski]

The first principle of discernment I learned early in life is, “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. . .” you know the rest.

“If it looks like exercise, if it feels like exercise, if it smells like exercise, then it’s exercise.” (and just ask my wife… when I’m done working out, it definitely smells like exercise )

St. Paul admonishes us to avoid the appearance of evil. How can someone tell by looking at people practicing yoga whether they are a Christian “just there for the exercise” or they are actively seeking an “ASOC” as Martha puts it?

Nobody sees me practicing yoga but my wife and kids… and all they see is a sweaty guy getting a good workout and struggling to maintain his balance while standing on his tippy-toes with his arms stretched behind him… nothing more, nothing less

 

[beckycmarie]

Some food for thought, from a Hindu.

Yoga Renamed Is Still Hindu

In the past few months I have received several calls from journalists around the country seeking my views on the question of whether the newly minted "Christian Yoga " is really yoga.

My response is, “The simple, immutable fact is that yoga originated from the Vedic or Hindu culture. Its techniques were not adopted by Hinduism, but originated from it.” These facts need to be unequivocally stated in light of some of the things being written to the contrary by yoga teachers. The effort to separate yoga from Hinduism must be challenged because it runs counter to the fundamental principles upon which yoga itself is premised. . . Efforts to separate yoga from its spiritual center reveal ignorance of the goal of yoga.
Source: Hinduism Today, 2006

 

[djrakowski]

beckycmarie, I can see you’re clearly concerned about people falling into sin through the practice of yoga, but I assure you that for people like myself, it’s not dangerous and it’s not Hindu. It’s exercise, plain and simple. There’s not much else to be said on the topic that won’t simply run it into the ground, so I guess I’m done here

 

[mom4truth]

BeeSweet:

Your post gave me the most information. It doesn’t sound like Pilates is against the Church in any way. I would’ve like to have seen it “in print” somewhere, like CCC, that states it is not against our Faith.

I think my dd will be o.k. with this.

Thanks all!