What Christians Got To Do With Yoga ?

[bhakthi]

Yoga is an Hindu religious practice from the ancient times Yoga has nothing to do with Christianity or the Bible Then why some Christians in America are practicing this? This is what Paul wrote,"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

[Jefferiah]

I think when you hear someone say they are practicing "Yoga" it can mean a lot of things, and not neccessarily heresy. The philosophical teachings and spiritual teachings behind hindu yoga may not be in synch with Christianity, but the raw physical exercises cannot be in themselves evil. If I stretch my body a certain way with no other intent than to make my body more supple, then I am certainly not sinning. I think it depends on whether a person is looking for truth from yoga or just using the physical exercise aspect. To borrow a series of physical exercises developed by another culture is not bad, but perhaps the philosophy behind it is. To a lot of people I think the yoga they are practicing is purely physical, like Pilates or Tae Bo. The purely scientific health benefits of slow stretching and breathing deeply and slowly are not evil, but perhaps it could be said that much of the heretical philosophy can be wheedled into our belief system through Yoga books. Nonetheless you cannot condemn touching the toes, standing on ones head, or sitting in a cross legged position-----these things are not evil in themselves. If there were a cult out there which honoured its idols by drinking a large glass of water, would we then say that drinking water is bad. The cult in question does not have the monopoly on the overall meaning of water drinking. It is the same with the purely physical aspect of yoga, sitting in a physical position to make the body more supple does not mean you are worhsipping idols or believing in heresy. If you sit in a stretched position while believing in heresies then it is wrong.

[sierra21]

Yoga is an Hindu religious practice from the ancient times Yoga has nothing to do with Christianity or the Bible Then why some Christians in America are practicing this? This is what Paul wrote,"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

[Jefferiah]

ONce again though, mere physical positions have nothing to do with the spiritual world. If a hindu uses yoga to help his body and believes in the religion behind it and uses it to contact spirits thats his own malarky. Hindus have no monopoly on the body and the way in which it can be stretched and moved. These things belong to God and subsequently to all of us since he gave us the ability to move our bodies. The mere physical practice of contorting yourself into a certain position is not evil. Evil comes from the heart. If one intends to use physical exercises plus the added Hindu spiritual practices to contact spirits and such then it is bad. But to copy the physical exercises because they are good for the health is not evil. No matter what position you put your body in you are not doing anything wrong. Physical contortions are not bad, its what you have in your mind and in you heart that is defiling. It is quite possible that a western medical expert who is Christian could do research on physical exercises and stretching, having no knowledge of the yoga exercises, and could develop a similar set of stretches on the basis that they are healthy for the body. Sitting a certain way doesnt make you more in touch with spirits. The body is physical and spirits are spiritual. I believe that tea before it became popular in the west was used by buddhist monks to keep them awake and aware for proloonged meditation periods. But now we all drink tea, yet our intent is not to stay awake for meditation is it. So in a sense one could make the claim we are practicing an aspect of buddhism when we drink tea, but really we are not involved in any of the philosophy. Because Buddhists do not have the monopoly on tea leaves. God created the plant. Same with the body and the way it can move and the health benefits that can be derived thereof. So once again I must say that "Yoga" can mean simply a series of physical exercises to some, that happened to be devised by Hindus for their own purposes. I believe from what I have read that the belief in the yogic system is that in order to practice the spiritual life one must have control over ones body and keep it healthy. So the physical aspect was developed as a way to keep the body healthy so they could practice the other aspects of Yoga (the spiritual ones), which we do not agree with. If the stretches happen to achieve the end of making the body more supple there is nothing wrong with that. So close attention must be paid to what we mean by "Yoga". If any heretical philosophy is taught in your yoga class, things contrary to the Gospel, then it is heretical to our faith. But if you are simply using the exercises there is nothing wrong with that.

[Jefferiah]

Another way to illustrate this point is that the health aspect of Yoga teaches eating good food. Now diet and exercies have nothing to do with how good a Christian you are, but to use diet is not bad either. So if someone borrows the idea that eating certaiin foods is healthier it is not evil. The bible tells us not to be concerned about faiths that tell us to eat only vegetables, that it is ok to eat meat. Granted that is true. But if a person feels that his health benefits from eating vegetables he is not sinning by doing so, but he cannot say that it is a sin for others to eat meat, its his own personal choice. Vegetarianism doesnt bring people closer to heaven (Hitler was a vegetarian)....but it also is not evil if thats what you choose to eat. Yogis are vegetarian and so therefore if a western Christians decides to become a vegetarian on the grounds that he believes it is healthier for the body, and this happens to also be a Yoga belief, this does not make it wrong. Though we do not believe in Hinduism it does not mean that a Hindu is always wrong about things. If you were in India and needed directions to a store and asked a Hindu "how do I get to this store?"....he could tell you the proper directions. It is the same with the physical exercise aspect of Yoga. Though we dont agree with the spiritual beliefs of the Indian Yogis, the fact that they were able to develop a series of exercises that is healthy does not make those exercises evil in themselves. If you were sick and went to the doctor and got medicine it is quite possible that the doctor may have prescribed you a substance that was developed by an Islamic researcher.

[sierra21]

Yoga is an Hindu religious practice from the ancient times Yoga has nothing to do with Christianity or the Bible Then why some Christians in America are practicing this? This is what Paul wrote,"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

[Tribulation]

I've never really tried Yoga. But I can't see much wrong in carrying out certain stretches which help our physical fitness - as long as we are using Yoga solely for our physical and bodily needs.

It is very important that any hindu or alternative spiritual teaching is put aside while doing it though!

[billie]

I agree, Trib.

[Kabowd]

This topic was discussed at length not too long ago. You might do a search and look it up. I believe it was in this same forum too.

[KeilanS]

I have not done Yoga, but I imagine that if you do it just for the physical health benefits, it's fine, once you start trying to contact your inner-self and all that stuff, then you're in trouble.