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momtokea
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| Posted: June 16 2008 at 11:24am | IP Logged
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I have heard that practicing yoga is not a good thing for Catholics.
Has anyone else heard, or know anything about this?
I was reading a discussion online about a lady who said her priest told her not to practice yoga.
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Helen
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momtokea wrote:
I have heard that practicing yoga is not a good thing for Catholics.
Has anyone else heard, or know anything about this? |
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Yes, I've heard this as well. Years ago, I read a very good article critiquing the practice of yoga from a Catholic perspective.
I wish I could remember more, but I do remember the article beginning by contrasting the traditional Christian prayer position and the yoga position.The article also went on to discuss the inward focus of yoga compared to the outward, God seeking quality of Christianity.
My terms are probably not the best. I'm trying to answer the question, "Has anyone else heard?"
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Loren
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| Posted: June 16 2008 at 1:13pm | IP Logged
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I've heard the same sorts of things, also. The problem seems to be in the origin of the exercise and the intent of the user.
There is nothing inherently sinful about the positions taken during the exercises, if there were we would be sinning when we "accidentally" make those postures while playing with our kids. There is nothing sinful about doing something to make our bodies more limber and healthy, as a matter of fact we are supposed to treat our bodies like the temples they are.
Problems start cropping up when the simple stretching exercises become a gateway, if you will, to the originating spirituality. If you are burning incense, playing Buddhist music, and trying to find your center, you might have gone too far (I am not an expert!). If, instead, you just do the stretches for their physical benefits, I see no reason to discontinue. You could even pray the Rosary or some other devotion to bring you closer to the true center of the universe while you exercise.
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SusanJ
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I have a "yoga" routine that is my main form of exercise. I would never go to a yoga class and I would hesitate to say that I "practice" yoga because for those who do seriously practice it, yoga is often taken as seriously as we take our faith. Yoga, at its fullest, is supposed to be a way of life and I, of course, think there is much more to life than just bodily energies.
But I do think that yoga can be a beneficial form of exercise and a healthy contribution to life. I look at as one more way I care for my body--exercise, good posture, proper breathing, awareness of my movement. You can go too far with focusing inwardly, of course, but I think the exercises themselves can be done without too much fear.
There are a lot of different kinds of yoga, too, and they all have a different focus. I use this book and I'm not sure that real yogis would allow this to be called yoga, anyway.
Susan
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Angie Mc
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Yes I've heard these concerns. Yoga was originally a group of spiritual practices with related physical positions first founded in India. Now it has a strong connection to New Age philosophy. For these reasons, caution is prudent. The catch may be that some people, including health care professionals, are recommending the physical positions (removing them from the philosophy) in order to improve physical ailments through increased flexibility and proper posture.
Some of the same arguments against yoga are used against practicing other physical activities such as martial arts. For our family, the key has been to focus on the physical and mental discipline of martial arts and to work with instructors who respect our religion and do not make martial arts their religion. This may be more easily done with martial arts, though.
Love,
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stacykay
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I went to a talk given at a local parish, called "Spiritual Warfare." The topic of yoga came up in the question and answer period.
Father John Riccardo stated that the actual exercise or movement of the body isn't the problem. He said just the exercise is fine, but the problem comes in when you are dwelling in your mind on "spirits" other than God, or "emptying your mind," which allows evil access. He cautioned against the new "ageness" of the "centering" and the "core" ideas. I have never done yoga, am not sure of the terminology, so I am just passing on what I hastily scribbled in my notes on this evening.
If you are terribly interested, I think there are still cds available on this talk. I just heard a replay the other night on Ave Maria Radio.
God Bless,
Stacy in MI
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MaryM
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This topic was even discussed here a couple years ago, ironically in a thread also titled Yoga?.  A basic truth is yoga is part of eastern spirituality. The discussion we had a couple years ago was around separating the movements and physical parts of yoga from the spiritual and still using it. While I know good well-formed folks who can use it as a physical exercise without ill effects, I do still feel that it can be a possibly dangerous element to introduce for someone not well formed in the Faith. There are people who are led to eastern spirituality though this. There are links on the older thread that are very specific to this.
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MaryM
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Some info here as well:
LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN MEDITATION - Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Catholic United for the Faith has a Faith Tract discussing this document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. There is a specific section on yoga which discusses its uses as a means to health and relaxation vs. being part of a religious and philosophical system.
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happymama
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yes to all the above. :) My experience:
I first did yoga last year as part of a workout program I absolutely love called P90X . It's one of 12 different workouts on DVD that you rotate through. What is astonishing is how HARD it can be to do yoga, how amazing it can be for your strength and flexibility. It includes a lot of positions which require balancing - something that you don't often do in other sports or fitness programs - and I've heard that while you're balancing (think of standing on one foot) and you're kindof wobbling back and forth a tiny bit, it's essentially a massage for your nervous system... anyway, trying to balance different poses for 30-60 seconds each was a very beneficial part of the exercise, because concentrating took me mentally away from everything else. A Yogi can call it centering or whatever he wants, I just call it concentrating!
obviously, i would only do a yoga workout for reasons that have nothing to do with Eastern spirituality. Just trying to take care of this temple. :)
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domchurch3
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Has anyone heard about Yoga Prayer? It's by a Catholic priest and I found it on amazon.com. I don't know if he's a moderate or liberal Catholic. Also, at Christian bookstores and amazon.com you can find videos that put Christian meditation in place of Buddhist meditation (or whatever spirituality Yoga stems from).
If you're doing it for toning how about trying Pilates? As far as I know there's no spirituality behind it and the movements are similar to yoga. I really enjoy the fluidity of the Pilates movements.
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momtokea
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| Posted: June 17 2008 at 11:48pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for all the replies. I am not doing yoga, but the opportunity came up for my dd's to take yoga through our homeschool group and I remember reading something about it not being appropriate for Catholics. We belong to a secular homeschool group.
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12stars
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Here is my 2 cents about this. Your body is a conduit for God and what we do with our bodies is to glorify God. I think when Yoga is practiced even in exercise form it does not escape the roots that it came from. Each Yogic pose is as a prayer to the 330,000 Hindu dieties. It is also done to have a cleared mind.To achieve cleared conciousness. Western culture took this form of prayer and put a twist on it and called it exercise. Hindus have scoffed at the westernized form of Yoga.
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Heliodora
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Domchurch3 suggested Pilates as an alternative to yoga, and that is my recommendation as well. While I don't think there is any harm in a Catholic using some of the exercises in a very casual way, I don't think it is prudent when Pilates offers many of the same benefits. If it were me, I would not consider putting my children in a yoga class. They will undoubtedly learn the basics of centering and meditation that Catholics should stay away from, as others have pointed out. That's my two cents. 
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donnalynn
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I just wanted to comment that it depends very much on the style of yoga - once upon a time I taught yoga - it was very rigorous and did not at all approach "centering" or "meditation".
In the form of yoga I practiced - the actual postures were the third "limb" on the tree of yoga which had a total of eight limbs. The first two have to do with basic moral principles which were not discussed in class. The postures were for improvement of health and fitness of the physical body. The idea behind the postures is that a physically fit body is more prepared for the breathing exercises and the higher "limbs" that later include things like "withdraw of the senses", "meditation", and such. (It's been a while - I would have to look up the actual progression). Besides the postures, I did only the very basic breathing, anything was else was never really discussed - even in my teacher training classes.
I did teach a few children's classes and I didn't even use the Sanskrit (ancient Indian language) names for the poses - but instead used the English names that often translate to basic shapes, animals etc...trianlge pose, dog pose, tree pose etc...
The postures basically imitate the shapes found in nature. However - there are a lot of styles that are what I would call wishy-washy, new agey, and in some cases dangerous (physically speaking).
I left the yoga "scene" when it became apparent that the process for certification was very political - it seemed you had to be buddies with a more senior teacher. And while our certification process was rather intense - other styles would certify teachers in a weekend! It also became increasingly difficult to keep up my own practice once I had my second child.
I was in the best physical shape of my life when I did yoga - I was always very flexible - really too flexible and yoga helped me to increase strength. There are also routines that help a lot with menstrual cramps and such.
If you are interested in a yoga class for you or a child - I would ask questions - lots of questions - and ask to sample a class - even if you just watch. Especially important is to ask the teacher about their own training and practice. I don't know that I would join a class now for many different reasons but I don't think there is anything inherently dangerous about the postures on a spiritual level - there is some physical risk if you or the teacher don't know what you are doing. I would avoid any class that focused on any breathing practices, meditation, centering, or had a lot of talk about chakras or kundilini.
It's been about ten years now since I left teaching - I have no idea what the current trends are even in the style I used to teach.
I hope this helps - I do feel I am taking a risk - but I would rather help others make an informed choice and not jump to false assumptions. One funny aspect is that yoga is probably a bigger thing in this country than in India!
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