Here was a Letter to the Editor of the U.P. Catholic written in response to my article on Yoga (previous post). My reply to this response is in the Comment Box-
6-20-10
Dear Editor,
I wish to respectfully disagree with Fr. Isodore Bard on his assessment of the practice of yoga. Throughout his response he seems to refer to yoga as a type of religion. Yoga is not a religion of itself, it is a discipline, much along the lines of any discipline such as Pilates (based on yoga), or dance, or any athletic training. It is also a form of physical therapy, and as such is used by physical therapists world-wide. As a yoga practitioner for nearly forty years, a yoga instructor for the past nine years, and a born and bred Catholic, who attended Catholic school for twelve years, I have found that the practice of yoga has greatly enhanced my spirituality and my faith.
The primary goal of yoga is to allow practitioners to gain familiarity with their own bodies and mental states. The breathing exercises are designed to enhance the various poses and create a feeling of comfort within oneself. We Catholics are instructed to care for the temple of the Lord, our bodies. By keeping them healthy, and becoming more aware of who we are, and our purpose, we naturally seek contact with the Higher Being God, the Holy Spirit, with Jesus Christ, with Mother Mary, and with the saints. Using the poses and the breathing, remaining in the posture is given more meaning when a prayer is uttered and sent upward. You are focusing on using your body’s energy to send the prayer on its way. It is a refocusing of who we are and why we are here. It is a moment of peace when we can recall all that has been given to us, away from the noise and distractions of daily life. The meditation and chanting are not meant to dissolve one’s individual self in search of emptiness, but to clear the mind and make it more receptive to the flow of grace, to clarify one’s self, and to seek out God’s purpose. This practice is no different than that of Monks and priests who chant and meditate in search and praise of God’s grace.
His assertion that there is nothing about serving other people in a yoga practice, I also find questionable. Is it not a service to help others attain physical well-being so they are better able to go out and do God’s work? Yoga is not about “escaping the world” it’s about becoming better, more healthy, human beings.The ability to practice yoga is a gift from God. The power we are striving for is God’s grace. Enhancing our physical well-being through a consistent practice of yoga, gives strength to our bodies and to our immortal souls, and better enables us to achieve our purpose on Earth of helping others.The practice of yoga, with its accompanying stretching of the muscles, ligaments and tendons has proven to be beneficial to many sufferers, including myself, of arthritis, fibro-myalgia, and other auto-immune diseases. It provides a way to get relief without the use of pain medication (which can be truly “mind-altering”), and enables those sufferers an opportunity to get out and practice their faith by helping others.
I would also like to address his comment about yoga postures and his comparison to the sign of the cross and kneeling. I agree that motions can have “spiritual significance.” In fact, in my personal practice of yoga, I have applied that significance to some of the postures. For example: The triangle pose, or down-dog pose: meditating on the trinity while in these poses can provide powerful insights into this mystery. The Salute to the “Son” (my interpretation) is a series of poses that can directly relate to the way of the cross. The warrior poses for me have always been a reminder that we are strong, brave, balanced warriors for Christ. The Pose of the Child is a recognition that we are children, and that to attain our heavenly reward, we must remain spiritually child-like. The Corpse pose is a complete surrendering to God’s will. Of course we cannot forget the prayer hand pose, which brings to mind Our Mother Mary. In fact, I refer to my personal yoga practice as “Hail Mary Yoga” since the time it takes to pray a Hail Mary is also a good length of time to maintain a posture. These positive connotations of specific motions are just as affirming as the sign of the cross or kneeling and have true and good spiritual underpinnings.
It has always been my belief that what a person gets out of life is directly related to what they put into it. There is nothing evil or occult in the practice of yoga, unless there is evil in the practitioner. Yoga, by itself, does not open the door to a spiritual realm; prayer does. And yes, the world is occupied by God and angels, and demons. Someone who chooses an evil path will find evil in anything they do, but the reverse is also true. When a good path is chosen, good can come from anything they do. Are we not here to obliterate evil? Is turning something some theologians consider wrong into something in praise of God evil? For me it is a tool, a weapon in my personal assault against the demons that stalk us all.
It would probably be beneficial to restrain oneself from denouncing something of such strong physical and spiritual benefits, until one has personally explored it. In this exercise-oriented culture we live in, the merits of yoga exercises are abundant. The physiological benefits are scientifically proven. Many of the postures used are therapeutic and are utilized by physical therapists, sports people, dancers, gymnasts, and those unable to perform aerobic exercises. The gentle movements are conducive to relieving stress and increasing cognitive functioning, and are geared to individual abilities. Are all Catholics then to refrain from physical therapy and other forms of disciplined exercise?
I am not a theologian, but over the years I have done extensive reading on our faith and on the lives of the saints, along with my study of yoga and physiology. Nothing I have read has indicated that the practice of yoga is a sinful one. Yoga, along with regular walking, has been a tool for me to find a more dedicated mental prayer life. It has given my prayer life a discipline and enabled me to apply that discipline to my daily Rosary, Divine Mercy, and prayers for others. It has fostered my gratitude for all God has provided for me, and has been a blessing in my life. Yoga has been in use since biblical times, and continues to benefit people today. It can be a path to better health, more dedicated mental prayer, and to the banquet.
Thank you.
Yours in Christ,
Jill M. Bevins, MALD, EdS
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
What about Yoga?
While watching EWTN, I heard that we as Catholics are to stay away from Yoga. What exactly are the spiritual dangers associated with this activity? - Cedarville, MI
The goal of practicing yoga is not heaven, but rather a sort of melting of oneself into the energy of everything, thereby excusing one from the cycle of reincarnation. Some say the goal of yoga is union with “God,” while this radically different conception of “God” is viewed vaguely as a sort of impersonal cosmic ooze of transcendence.
To reach this goal, one must strip away the external, supposedly illusory world in order to reach the spiritual. This process involves the dismantling of one’s own personality and individuality, since these too are considered an illusion.
For this purpose one seeks altered states of consciousness and an awareness in which rational thought is absent, reached by the aid of breathing techniques and specific posturing of the body. It works. This is real. But not good.
Some Spiritual Dangers:
1. You might just reach the goal toward which yoga is aimed. The reincarnation bit is bosh of course, but I mean the part about the absence of rational thought and the dissolving of one’s individual self. Emptiness. And emptiness is a pretty poor goal! Christians empty themselves out in service to others and to God, in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but throughout we remain the unique individuals whom God has created, and that is good!
2. Just as yoga is self-emptying in all the wrong ways, so it is also concerned with the growth of the self in all the wrong ways. Yoga is a totally self-absorbed practice. There’s nothing in it about serving other people. It’s all about escaping the world, as opposed to engaging and redeeming it.
3. Yogic techniques open the door to the spiritual realm, occupied not only by God and angels, but demons as well. They also work, are real, and are not good.
4. In experiencing the pleasant effects of yoga, one may have the delusion that they are spiritually healthy and are even receiving consolations of the Holy Spirit, when in fact their moral life may be in shambles.
So here’s what all the Christian ladies practicing yoga say:
Father, I only do yoga for the physical benefits. I could care less about the original intention for which yoga was created.
I’d like to have a pet grizzly that I pretend is a dog. I’d take it for walks and pet it and throw sticks for it to fetch. Cute idea, but sooner or later all things work according to their nature. When it finally decides to eat me, it won’t much matter what I imagine it to be.
Yoga’s postures were designed to have a specific spiritual impact, and they do. Those spiritual goals run contrary to Christianity.
Apply the same logic to a physical action in Christianity: say, making the sign of the cross or kneeling. Even if done absent-mindedly it “counts:” we still consider it to have a spiritual significance, which it does. Likewise, “going through the motions” of yoga has a spiritual significance and effect as well. It’s no more neutral to practice yoga than it is to make the sign of the cross: both are physical, religious practices. Likewise, yoga will always work according to the purpose for which it was designed. It’s a physical means to a spiritual end, and the physical benefits are inseparable from the false spiritual underpinnings.
The desire for spiritual and bodily health is good (and much needed in our distracted and noisy culture) but it needs to be subordinated to the desire for holiness in Christ. Our Catholic Faith has a rich tradition of mental prayer that is often ignored! Ditch the feeding trough and come to the banquet!
Further Reading:
“Catechism of Mental Prayer” by Joseph Simler TAN books.
The goal of practicing yoga is not heaven, but rather a sort of melting of oneself into the energy of everything, thereby excusing one from the cycle of reincarnation. Some say the goal of yoga is union with “God,” while this radically different conception of “God” is viewed vaguely as a sort of impersonal cosmic ooze of transcendence.
To reach this goal, one must strip away the external, supposedly illusory world in order to reach the spiritual. This process involves the dismantling of one’s own personality and individuality, since these too are considered an illusion.
For this purpose one seeks altered states of consciousness and an awareness in which rational thought is absent, reached by the aid of breathing techniques and specific posturing of the body. It works. This is real. But not good.
Some Spiritual Dangers:
1. You might just reach the goal toward which yoga is aimed. The reincarnation bit is bosh of course, but I mean the part about the absence of rational thought and the dissolving of one’s individual self. Emptiness. And emptiness is a pretty poor goal! Christians empty themselves out in service to others and to God, in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but throughout we remain the unique individuals whom God has created, and that is good!
2. Just as yoga is self-emptying in all the wrong ways, so it is also concerned with the growth of the self in all the wrong ways. Yoga is a totally self-absorbed practice. There’s nothing in it about serving other people. It’s all about escaping the world, as opposed to engaging and redeeming it.
3. Yogic techniques open the door to the spiritual realm, occupied not only by God and angels, but demons as well. They also work, are real, and are not good.
4. In experiencing the pleasant effects of yoga, one may have the delusion that they are spiritually healthy and are even receiving consolations of the Holy Spirit, when in fact their moral life may be in shambles.
So here’s what all the Christian ladies practicing yoga say:
Father, I only do yoga for the physical benefits. I could care less about the original intention for which yoga was created.
I’d like to have a pet grizzly that I pretend is a dog. I’d take it for walks and pet it and throw sticks for it to fetch. Cute idea, but sooner or later all things work according to their nature. When it finally decides to eat me, it won’t much matter what I imagine it to be.
Yoga’s postures were designed to have a specific spiritual impact, and they do. Those spiritual goals run contrary to Christianity.
Apply the same logic to a physical action in Christianity: say, making the sign of the cross or kneeling. Even if done absent-mindedly it “counts:” we still consider it to have a spiritual significance, which it does. Likewise, “going through the motions” of yoga has a spiritual significance and effect as well. It’s no more neutral to practice yoga than it is to make the sign of the cross: both are physical, religious practices. Likewise, yoga will always work according to the purpose for which it was designed. It’s a physical means to a spiritual end, and the physical benefits are inseparable from the false spiritual underpinnings.
The desire for spiritual and bodily health is good (and much needed in our distracted and noisy culture) but it needs to be subordinated to the desire for holiness in Christ. Our Catholic Faith has a rich tradition of mental prayer that is often ignored! Ditch the feeding trough and come to the banquet!
Further Reading:
“Catechism of Mental Prayer” by Joseph Simler TAN books.
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