The Narrow Path Ministries

My limited understanding of yoga tells me that it originated as a religious practice, and that the postures are prayer stances toward a pagan god. I also understand that yoga's goal is to "yoke" oneself with the supreme being or achieve oneness. Yoga is very widely accepted in the U.S. and just about anyone you talk to will tell you that it's just a form of exercise or stretching and has nothing to do with spirituality; however, anytime you hear about yoga helping a cancer patient or mentally ill person the cure is almost always attributed to the mind, body, spirit connection that is only achieved through yoga.

Another thing I often hear about are churches who start a "Christian" based yoga class. Can a Christian practice yoga without offending God? How? If I took the hard stance that yoga is unacceptable to God, would I be a hypocrite to still celebrate Christmas or Easter (or allow my kids to trick or treat)?

I have the game "Wii Fit" which I occasionally take advantage of. Yoga is part of the program in the game. There is no mention at all of anything spiritual-- it is simply getting into postures and holding them, which takes a surprising amount of effort and coordination. I personally think it is rather boring, so i dont do it a lot. In short, I do believe that the physical aspect of yoga could be beneficial to one's physical health if one sticks with it.

Of course, I am sure that are yoga classes that include the spiritual aspects which I personally would avoid.

TK

TK wrote:I have the game "Wii Fit" which I occasionally take advantage of. Yoga is part of the program in the game. There is no mention at all of anything spiritual-- it is simply getting into postures and holding them, which takes a surprising amount of effort and coordination. I personally think it is rather boring, so i dont do it a lot. In short, I do believe that the physical aspect of yoga could be beneficial to one's physical health if one sticks with it.

Of course, I am sure that are yoga classes that include the spiritual aspects which I personally would avoid.

TK

TK,
I guess my problem is I realize those postures are spiritually based, and I tend to associate yoga with the new age movement. Something just feels wrong about performing postures that have Hindu connotations. Even if we don't intend them to have those connotations. Aren't we just inviting spiritual problems on ourself?

wwalkeriv wrote:TK,
I guess my problem is I realize those postures are spiritually based, and I tend to associate yoga with the new age movement. Something just feels wrong about performing postures that have Hindu connotations. Even if we don't intend them to have those connotations. Aren't we just inviting spiritual problems on ourself?

I would like to respond to the 2 underlined thoughts

1. If your conscience doesn't feel good about yoga b/c of its associations, you should avoid it.
2. Christians who utilize yoga postures w/o realizing the connections are, in my opinion, not opening themselves up to spiritual problems. After all, they are morally neutral postures and can actually have some positive benefits for our God given bodies. Furthermore, even Christians who DO realize the connection may still practice them if they are mature enough to realize that new age stuff is silly and they simply intend to use the postures for exercise and to God's glory.

It's sorta like with 'meditation.' The New Age Movement tried to hijack meditation and, subsequently, some Christians began to think of meditation as a dangerous thing. But actually meditation, when done for the Lord, is a good thing. And so can exercise. There's nothing inherently evil about certain exercise postures.

wwalkeriv wrote:

I guess my problem is I realize those postures are spiritually based, and I tend to associate yoga with the new age movement.

I am no expert on Yoga, but some of the postures are very commonly used in any workout program-- for example what we call pushups is a "plank" with variations, in yoga. p90x has a yoga segment and let me tell you it kicks your butt. definitely not for wimps.

I agree with Matt that if your conscience does not allow you to get past the queasy feelings about yoga, then you should not practice it. This has no bearing on your maturity, etc. We all have things that we are queasy about and therefore should avoid. We should not, however, condemn Christians who don't see anything wrong with practicing the physical aspects of yoga. Now if they start chanting "OM" to the sun god, that is a different matter.

TK

mattrose wrote:Furthermore, even Christians who DO realize the connection may still practice them if they are mature enough to realize that new age stuff is silly and they simply intend to use the postures for exercise and to God's glory.

I participated in a "Tai Chi" class once. I didn't go out of my way to try it, but I was in a hospital at the time and they were offering a class on it. I just did it as an act of worship to God. I thoroughly enjoyed it (especially the peaceful music they played in the background). I'm sure there is some weird pantheistic origin to it, but I didn't think about it and just did the postures and breathing exercises as worship. It was edifying (and hopefully a sweet aroma to God), and brought peace to my mind when it was in quite a troubled state.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I should clarify that I am in no way condemning or judging anyone for practicing yoga. After re-reading my posts I guess it may sound that way. That wasn't my intention.

The truth is my kids have been exposed to yoga in the public school system and I'm trying to decide my stance on it or if it's really a big deal. The school system claims it's exercise/stretching only.

wwalkeriv wrote:The truth is my kids have been exposed to yoga in the public school system and I'm trying to decide my stance on it or if it's really a big deal. The school system claims it's exercise/stretching only.

For me, that puts the question in a very different light than if we were talking about a mature Christian adult.

Let's assume for the moment that the school is telling the truth and it's exercises only with no spiritual component whatsoever (not a safe assumption, I realize, as it seems it's only Christian spirituality that's unwelcome in public schools; but I digress..). Later on, when your kids encounter real yoga with its spiritual side, will they have the maturity and wisdom to know they should stay away from it, or will they say, "Well it's just yoga, and dad/mom said yoga is OK"?

And how much do you trust the people leading it? How sure are you that they won't slip in comments and explanations from yoga's spiritual origins? How likely do you think it is that the professional yoga instructor(s) who are probably teaching your kids yoga, aren't heavily involved with yoga's new-age associations, and teaching those associations to your kids, off the record, no matter what the school says?

If it's really just exercises and stretches, why do they need to use yoga? There are plenty of exercise and stretching systems that don't have their roots in demonic religion and would serve the purpose just as well.

backwoodsman wrote:Later on, when your kids encounter real yoga with its spiritual side, will they have the maturity and wisdom to know they should stay away from it, or will they say, "Well it's just yoga, and dad/mom said yoga is OK"?

Good question. I have explained to my kids (twin, second graders) what yoga is and where it came from. Now, I have the dilemma of finding a way to justify them being able to participate with their class (since it's just exercise) or us taking a stance against it.

As a side note, the yoga is lead by their normal P.E. teacher and is only taught once every few weeks (twice so far this school year). However, participation is required unless I speak up.