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question about yoga
Some christians are very "anti" yoga, because of the spiritual connatations. They argue that the basis of yoga is spiritual and is to revere a snake. ?
As you might know, in Christianity, the snake (also known as the serpent, satan, deciever, devil, adversary) is not a good symbol.
Wondered what your thoughts are on yoga, can / should you practise it if you are a christian?
What is the purpose of yoga to buddhists?
namaste
As you might know, in Christianity, the snake (also known as the serpent, satan, deciever, devil, adversary) is not a good symbol.
Wondered what your thoughts are on yoga, can / should you practise it if you are a christian?
What is the purpose of yoga to buddhists?
namaste
0
Comments
These are my thoughts on your questions:
- Many Christians tend to be "anti" anything that is not Christian, usually without doing any investigation, so of course they will be anti-yoga.
- This business about a "snake" probably is referring to the kundalini, which is spiritual energy coiled at the base of the spine, which one can supposedly release through certain meditative practices, so that it rises up to the top of the head, generating cosmic consciousness (which is what I mean by forming opinions without investigating them ...!)
- Yoga is basically a Hindu mystical approach to God. "Mystical approach" means that one believes that there is a possibility of direct communion/communication/union with God. Christianity (the original Christianity, i.e. Catholicism) has mystics in its past and present. The differences between mystics of all religions are pretty small ... For instance, St. Theresa d'Avila wrote a treatise on "contemplative prayer" in the 1500's that reads like a treatise on meditation .... Thomas Merton (20th century Trappist monk) sounded like a yogi when he talked.
- You will, however, find differences in dogma between Christianity and yoga. Primarily: (1) reincarnation vs. one human life, (2) karma vs. mysterious God's will, and (3) heaven only by one's own striving to join with God vs. heaven only through salvation by Jesus. However, Yogananda interpreted the Bible as supporting yogic doctrine, so it is possible to follow Christianity and yoga simultaneously, although you will be heavily interpreting the Bible in ways your pastor/minister/priest will not approve of.
-There really is no purpose of yoga to Buddhists. Both traditions believe in rebirth, karma, benefits from meditation, and a reality beyond this obvious mundane reality. But similarities end there.
...Yogis focus on an end goal, which is merging with the Ultimate and as such live in the future. Enlightenment is to be achieved only through meditation and is a "someday" thing which occurs through "amazing" meditative experiences. God is the goal. Bhakti yoga focuses on love of God.
...Buddhists focus on a process, which is the ending of suffering and as such live in the present ... enlightenment is achieved both through meditation and through every second of your daily life and gradually becomes a "now" thing. Tibetan buddhists teach that any amazing events that occur during meditation are to be viewed as irrelevant distractions. Mahayana Buddhism focuses on love of all sentient beings. The question of whether or not there is a God is irrelevant. Oddly enough, though, there is much more importance put on kindness and correct behavior in Buddhism than you will find in yoga.
This is my understanding based on my experiences and the teachings (from all 3) that I have had.
It's answered my question.
:cool:
On my part, I have been practicing yoga for many years now and have my own personalized philosophies and reasons for it that differ somewhat from my teachers and they are ok with it (I have two with two different schools and yoga practices). I am very agnostic when it comes to god and yet I am still able to practice yoga without it conflicting or interferring with my Buddhist practice as well.
If you are to do yoga and want to avoid alot of the mysticism, I would suggest to not do an ashtanga or tantric style yoga. I practice hatha yoga (I guess all yogas are hatha more-or-less) but it seems in the west hatha has become more of a general middle road ( more-buddhists compatible) pratice.
Do you mean the Interior Castle? It is so mandala-like. It's interesting :P
We all take the path that is right for us ... and that makes it the right path!
Wanted to just tweak the yoga schools. When I took my training in yoga, there were 5 (I think I remember) schools, and each could all be practiced simultaneously. They were: (1) Hatha - the physical discipline/postures, (2) Bhakti - yoga of devotion for God (emotion), (3) Jnana yoga - yoga of discrimination (intellect), (4) Karma yoga of right action (action without attachment to results), and (5) Raja yoga - yoga of meditation, the "king" of yoga and the true yoga, because this is what accomplishes the goal of mysticism ... namely the dissolving of self into Cosmic Consciousness.
I vaguely remember something about tantric yoga ... I think it was using sex to merge male and female energy, but it wasn't taught anywhere that I knew of, so I never knew for sure what it was. Certainly, I don't understand how mysticism could be involved. Please correct me if I misunderstand.
Ashtanga was not a word I remember hearing at all. From what someone recently said, I think it fits under the Hatha banner, does it not? In which case I don't see how mysticism is involved with this, either. Please enlighten me ... oh no, not literally enlighten me! (although if you can, I wouldn't turn it down!)
Perhaps since I took my training so long ago, the yoga in the West has become Westernized, and meditation is now included with the body discipline, lumping both under the term "Hatha".
Yoga's focus on the breath and relaxation in the face of resistance has been a complement to my meditation practice. My ability to sit for longer periods of time with much less discomfort has been a direct result of yoga.
As to the spirituality component, each yogi can pursue this to whatever degree they are comfortable.
If you ask a swami or an Indian yogi, they will tell you that yoga IS a spiritual path, and that a yogi is one who does their practices with a goal of spiritual unification with Brahman. Yoga is not a Western tradition, so it doesn't matter how we Westerners choose to define it ... it remains what it is. If you are not "doing" the spiritual component, you cannot honestly call yourself a "yogi".
You are correct that many yoga leaders and teachers express this. My hesitation to use the term spiritual under any circumstances is a result in a belief that what people refer to as spiritual is in reality a physical phenomenon. Also, for me, the goal of unification with Brahman, or whatever name one chooses to use for the ineffable universal intelligence, is unecessary since we are never separate from this source no matter how much we may feel or think that we are.
Please understand that I could be completely wrong and FOS.
The Protestant Christians are anti-yoga because they believe if you are a practising Christian, receiving the love of Christ should make you content.
As a Buddhist, practising yoga in a moderate way can benefit one's physical health which in turn can have some mental benefits.
But for mental contentment, a Buddhist would focus on the Eighfold Path.
Kind regards
DDhatu
For example, unification with Brahma is a state of unified consciousness and seeing the mind is the creator.
But this state does not necessarily have the scope of wisdom of a Buddha.
Oh, we could ALL be wrong, oh so wrong! The only one who can speak correctly is the one who speaks only from personal experience, and maybe some of them are only crazy.
But the goal of unification with Brahman, or Cosmic Consciousness, or Self-Realization, as taught by Eastern yogis, is not supposed to be an intellectual understanding of our unity with universal intelligence. To them it is not an intellectual concept, but an state-of-being.They say that is it experiential ... in other words, I was diligently involved in pushing papers across my workdesk while Haiti rocked with an earthquake, but a true yogi would have suddenly cried out "We are dying!" as buildings tumbled down. Either that, or "Luke, I feel a disturbance in the Force!"
Can such an experiential awareness of unity with all exist? Don't know. And as a Buddhist, I don't really care. I won't know where I'm going with Buddhist until I get there, and I'm just fine with the process rather than then some end goal that's been defined by somebody else.