Please everyone, could you kindly help me with a question about Christianity and yoga?

[OmShantiEasterBunny]

Ok, strange thread title, I know... .

A little bit of background first.
I don't come from a religious background. I think I'd call myself a humanist agnostic. I don't know if there is a god, but am open to the possibility that there might be. For myself, I believe in a universal spirit or consciousness. I don't know how much this universal spirit guides us, necessarily - but I do believe it is benevolent.

I'm doing a yoga teacher training course (so am learning how to become a yoga teacher), and an odd thing came up this weekend. I was speaking with a friend who is a devout Christian, and she said: "oh, I could never do yoga, it's against my religion."

I found this really confusing, because yoga doesn't come from a religious perspective at all. It is not associated with Buddhism or any other religion or philosophy. It did come from India but that doesn't mean it's either Sikh or Hindu or any of the other Indo-ethnic religions.

I asked her what she meant, and she couldn't really explain, only that it was against her religion to chant (Om or any of the mantras) and meditate. But she couldn't explain why.

I tried to explain that you don't have to chant or Om in a yoga class, and most of them really don't involve meditation. But it didn't seem to make a difference.

I can foresee having this kind of thing crop up again as I actually start to teach yoga, and would like to have some insight into how to appropriately answer.

Does anyone have any insight?
(I know this isn't AIBU, but still, please don't flame me, I'm really hoping for an answer or at least a good discussion - I'm not in any way trying to be disrespectful of anyone's beliefs.)

Yes, Yoga is very tied up with Hinduism and arose from it. There are a lot of Christians who don't approve of it.

Of course you don't have to be Hindu to do Yoga but the Hindu origins of it are very clear. It is one the systems of Hindu philosophy.

Just because something is part of one religion doesn't mean it is against another. The reason she can't explain why it's anti-Christian is probably because she hasn't thought it through

I had this mental debate a while ago!

I even started a thread on here (on Mumsnet) to discuss this.

I am a Christian (have been for 28 years) and I also wanted to get into stretching and exercise. I thought about it a lot and ended up going for a Christian alternative to yoga, which also involves stretching etc.

wholyfit.org/about-us.html

I decided I did not want to do yoga and I am guessing others who are Christians may feel the same (although probably not all).

It's totally up to you but if various people feel they do not want to attend your classes I am not sure why that would be a problem as I am sure there would be many who would want to come.

You could explain what you do in your class and what it means to you etc.

My understanding is that the origins of Yoga are in Hinduism but Wikipedia says "Yoga (Sanskrit, Pāli) ... refers to traditional physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines, originating in India, whose goal is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility.[1] The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism."

So if your class is just stretching and stuff you can tell people that but some Christians may well not wish to praticipate becuase they feel it is connected to other religions. You may find some Christians who want to do it and are not worried about the origins of yoga. But my guess is that you will find a number of Christians who do not want to do yoga.

I'd just started doing yoga and then read an article about the conflicts between yoga and Christianity and was a bit - had never even considered there to be a conflict!

We had a discussion in our home group with our minister. My argument was that my faith is strong and I wanted to do it to get fit, so couldn't see an issue with yoga. Minister said that if there was a Christian who was not as strong in their faith and they saw me doing it, they might think it was ok but then be influenced by it. I couldn't really understand his point, and we're still discussing it! I'll mark this post and if I start to understand it better I'll let you know.

My other friend recommended Pilates so I've switched for now!

As a Christian I know that some things are not helpful for my faith. To some extent this will vary between different people. For example some might have a problem with drinking alcohol, others not. Persoanlly, I don't have a problem with drink but would not drink alsohol in the company of a recovering alcoholicor someone else who had any kind of problem with it. If you see the connection?!

In terms of a spiritual side I think yoga does have spiritual orgins and they are not Christian. Some people may find this a problem and maybe others may not.

I decided for myself that I wanted exercise that was not spiritual (like basic keep fit, which is stretching and moving about etc) so go to a class but I also choose the Wholeyfit dvds because they were spiritual but they were based around the Christian faith, with Bible passages etc as part of the exercises.
For me, personaly, this is a good combination. I know not everyone will agree with me but as a Christian I have found this helpful.

Livinginoz and OmShantiEasterBunny hope you find the answers you are looking for.

... And Happy Easter!

OmShanti - I think some churches wont rent out their halls for yoga classes.

I was brought up by evangelicals and yoga was highly disapproved of in the 70s and 80s.

If someone's faith is so weak that bending, stretching and breathing can damage it then whether or not to go to yoga would, I think, be the least of their priest/pastor/rector/what have you's problems.

I think yoga as most punters practise it bears as much resemblance to its original roots as rolling easter eggs on Sunday will have in common with Pagan symbolism.

It's a free country, reject what you like, but what a shame to be so misguided. I imagine if a Christian overlaid the physical practice with their own meditations, it could be really valuable.

I'm a Christian and have never heard of this being an issue, ever. I went to pregnancy yoga at the Methodist church around the corner, and my (Catholic) church also rents out the hall for yoga classes. I've been going to church all my life and heard a lot of bizarre stuff, but never heard of this!

It's not about if your faith is so weak it's about being aware of what you're doing and why. It's a practice that is part of another faith, however much of it is included for most people, so some people feel being involved in it breaks commandments. Some Christians choose to do it still either in ignorance (they don't know the origins) or because they don't think it's important. Maybe it won't have an effect on someone to be involved in yoga but it's a matter of their conscience and whether they feel being involved with something with that origin is acceptable and compatible with their faith and beliefs.

I can think of other examples but don't want to spark those debates all over MumsNet.

I don't understand how any Christian, or a member of any other religion could object to a practice whose goal is "the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility".

I don't understand that either... surely that's what prayer is supposed to do?

Prunnhilda, what does "punter" mean? I could look it up, I suppose, but a find that dictionary definitions and MN definitions aren't always the same thing :o

But you're right in that the yoga that was started in Krishnamacharia's time bears little resemblance to what we practice now. And vinyasa yoga (flow yoga classes, where the poses are linked together) only came along this century.

(It's the OP, btw :))

Punter = customer (or someone who bets, I suppose, but customer as well).
I wanted to be a yoga teacher at one point, but I am really, really not flexible enough!

Thanks P!
Here's a secret for you - if you're not flexible enough or can't get into a specific pose as a teacher, you get a STUDENT to demonstrate :o

Butterbur and TheEasterBunnyDoesYoga with respect people are all different and have different views about how to achieve spiritual insight and tranquility. Christians who do not want to practice yoga probably (I can't speak for them all of course) but probably do not want to practice yoga because they feel it conflicts with their faith.

This is not because they do not want peace or tranquility but because they don't think it can really be achieved through these practices.

I guess I should say that personally, rather than on behalf of others! I don't think I will get tranquility through yoga (but I expect some other Christians would feel the same way as me).

In one sense Prunnhilda I think that Wholy Fit www.wholyfit.org/ does use some yoga type stretches with scripture - as you mentioned in your post. Not knowing all about yoga (or much about it) and not having done much of the exercise DVD I have just bought (so far!) I can't say exactly what is different but as I say there are Bible verses that associate some of the actions with some qualities mentioned in the Bible in the DVD.

OP is any of this helping you to understand your original question?

Hi, I am new to this site so please excuse me if I make any frowned upon mistakes.

I am a yoga and meditation teacher and a lot of the comments sadly highlight the problem of how religion can get in the way of God. Yoga asanas (the exercise part of yoga) are practiced widely across the world without any attachment to religious belief. I would respect the origins of any activity I take part in, but that doesn't mean I would believe that they could somehow 'taint' my own values. Pilates also has derivatives from yoga, but we don't hear of it being banned from church halls etc. Does a yogic 'Sun Salutation' need to be renamed to say 'Expand and Fold' just because someone attaches fear to the religious beliefs of who may have thought of it first? Non-religious spirtual teachers like Eckhart Tolle remind us that words are only signposts.

I believe that your view that there is a universal spirit or consciousness, is one and the same thing that a lot of people call God and it's a great way to think of the higher energies which we can only intuit and not necessarily fully understand with our thinking mind. But many people need to follow, and have a man-made rule book to adhere to - otherwise understanding something the mind can't logically grasp and relate to would be impossible. I'm not disrespecting or understimating the value of the collective energy of group worship, (any type of good intent has a positive effect) but there are inevitable problems once one club or religion believes their way is the only way - it creates an 'us and them' mentality. This is what puts a lot of people off the various dogmas which stake their claim to being the only ones who know God.

Every teacher finds their own unique way of delivering learning and I could rename my yoga classes to something like 'Alpha Stretching Healing' and copyright it so that nobody nicks my ideas, but it wouldn't make a jot of difference to how I teach, or the individual benefits that my students choose to take from it.

RhYthM137 What would be in your 'Alpha Stretching Healing' class? Just curious.

Hi Italiangreyhound, hehe I plucked the name ad hock, but I guess it would be for beginners who aren't looking for an end result ;-)

PS As you can guess, I don't know how to do the smiley face stuff!

RhYthM137 you do know there is a real Alpha course don't you!

uk.alpha.org/

here

Alpha is for beginners who are looking for a result!

But I am sure you knew that! For smiley face type smile inside these brackets [] here