Christian Yoga? It's a Stretch...(Is Yoga Demonic? Yes, it is.)

[eduardo89]

How would you feel if I called your religion demonic?

It's not true, and it's not nice.

I would think you're wrong and not really care to be honest. I'd tell you I disagree but you have the right to think and say whatever you want.

And I didn't say your religion is demonic, but I believe that anything that separated you from Christ is demonic.

 

[libertyjam]

Christianity Today is a joke. They had a huge series where they invited a RABBI to talk about Jesus. Wtf?!

Oh and you really should do a bit of research and you'll see Easter is not a pagan tradition.

Good thing I had no liquid in my mouth when I read that, I might have had it all over the screen!

 

[eduardo89]

Yeah, kinda fails that whole "do unto others" test.

It doesn't. If you believe something separates you from Christ you are expected to speak out about it. If you believe someone is sinning, you don't just sit back and let them do it.

 

[Lishy]

And this is why being Atheist, Deist, Agnostic (And Buddhist!) is so wonderful! We can enjoy something like Yoga without worrying whether or not it conflicts with our religion!

I do Yoga, and I love it! Not many know that Atheists can still be spiritual even without the belief in a god, but it's true!

 

[Yieu]

That's true, but it's used in its secular form in the West most of the time.

The word Yoga is misused in the West, but that does not mean we should accept that definition or settle with it.

Yoga is a relationship with God, not mere stretching.

Bhakti Yoga is the path I follow. Bhakti means devotional service and Yoga means having a relationship with God, so it is a relationship with God in the mood of serving Him.

That doesn't sound very demonic, to me.

 

[Yieu]

It doesn't. If you believe something separates you from Christ you are expected to speak out about it. If you believe someone is sinning, you don't just sit back and let them do it.

You believe my religion separates you from Christ?

Let me tell you something -- it does not.

I can have a relationship with God and with His son.

You believe I am sinning by worshiping the same God slightly differently?

There's a mote in your eye.

 

[eduardo89]

The word Yoga is misused in the West, but that does not mean we should accept that definition or settle with it.

Bhakti Yoga is the path I follow. Bhakti means devotional service and Yoga means having a relationship with God, so it is a relationship with God in the mood of serving Him.

That doesn't sound very demonic, to me.

I don't know anything about Bhakti Yoga, but personally if it separates you from Christ then for me it is demonic.

 

[eduardo89]

You believe my religion separates you from Christ?

Let me tell you something -- it does not.

I can have a relationship with God and with His son.

You believe I am sinning by worshiping the same God slightly differently?

There's a mote in your eye.

The fact that you say "God and His Son" means you do not worship the same God that I do. Jesus is God.

 

[Yieu]

I would think you're wrong and not really care to be honest. I'd tell you I disagree but you have the right to think and say whatever you want.

And I didn't say your religion is demonic, but I believe that anything that separated you from Christ is demonic.

The thread title calls my religion demonic.

I would recommend taking that back, or else that would mean you would be a bigot.

 

[Yieu]

I don't know anything about Bhakti Yoga, but personally if it separates you from Christ then for me it is demonic.

It does not separate you from Christ.

But then, I already stated that.

Why did I have to repeat myself?

 

[wannaberocker]

Just doing a review and the Yamas are pretty damn close to the 10 Commandments.

Ahimsa -- Non-violence. 6th Commandment
Satya -- Truthfulness. 9th Commandment
Asteya -- Non-stealing. 8th Commandment
Brahmacarya -- Sexual responsibility. 7th Commandment
Aparigraha -- Abstention from greed. 10th Commandment

I'm pretty sure all these principles called Niyamas are shared with Christianity too. I cited a few verses.

Sauca -- Cleanliness. Not only external cleanliness of the body, but attending to internal cleanliness such as avoiding the impurities of anger and egoism.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Santosa -- Contentment. Not spiritual complacency, but acceptance of the external situation we are allotted in this life.
10th Commandment
Tapas -- Austerity. Deep commitment to our practice.
James 4:7
Svadhyaya -- Self-study. Spiritual self-education. Contemplation and application of the scriptures or sacred texts of our chosen path.

Isvara pranidhana -- Surrender of the self to God. Acknowledgement that there is a higher principle in the universe than one's own small self.




Yes I can and I believe I just did. Booya

you point to common ideas of right and wrong generally accepted by almost all faiths as a way to suggest that all the different faiths lead to the same God. That is sufficient as long as your concept of "God" stays only at an elementary level.

however, if one does decide to get past the elementary level. We cannot combine the ideas of following only one God Jesus and also maintaining that other faiths lead us to the same God.

 

[Yieu]

The fact that you say "God and His Son" means you do not worship the same God that I do. Jesus is God.

I disagree. We just have different understandings of the same God, that is all. I believe Jesus is God's son, as Jesus claims.

That does not make him less divine. If you understood the concept of avataras then you would be able to understand how I view Jesus as part of God.

 

[Simple]

Instead, feel free in Christian liberty to stretch however you’d like, participate in exercise, calm your nerves through breathing, and even contemplate the Scriptures in silence. But do so in a way that does not identify with yoga and non-Christian mysticism. Do not seek to negate your mind, but rather renew your mind with the Word of God. Do not seek to empty yourself, but rather be filled with the Holy Spirit. Do not seek to turn into yourself for enlightenment, but rather look out to the God of the Bible. Do not seek to become one with the universe, but rather be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

Thanks for reposting because I actually did miss this post. If all the principles of yoga are also Biblical, then how is this eastern mysticism? This is a step in the right direction, but it still strikes me that you fear what you do not understand.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

The word Yoga is misused in the West, but that does not mean we should accept that definition or settle with it.

Yoga is a relationship with God, not mere stretching.

Bhakti Yoga is the path I follow. Bhakti means devotional service and Yoga means having a relationship with God, so it is a relationship with God in the mood of serving Him.

That doesn't sound very demonic, to me.

Interesting. What is the proper word for what we do in the West, if Yoga is incorrect?

 

[eduardo89]

I disagree. We just have different understandings of the same God, that is all. I believe Jesus is God's son, as Jesus claims.

But you do not agree that He is God, do you?

 

[Yieu]

But you do not agree that He is God, do you?

I believe he is shaktivesha avatara, which to explain it more simply you could say that is considering him to be God.

But God the Father is... his Father. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the topmost figure.

 

[wannaberocker]

Why does Jesus have to be a liar? We have a book that is 2,000 years old, it wasn't written until decades after he died and was controlled by what were posing as religious but were actually political structures for over a dozen centuries.

Jesus could have been like, "Yo bros, I'm the love and the light! You cannot have eternal happiness without me." and some how, some king, ruler or magistrate was all like, "dude, we could change this around a little bit and make this Jesus guy sound like he is the ultimate authority, then we can claim that ultimate authority and use it to control the peasants!"

Maybe Jesus was all about people accepting love into their hearts and there was a mistranslation or something somewhere and suddenly it became all about him rather than his ideas.

maybe, but the overwhelming evidence by different authors of the gospels point to Christ being the Only path.

now you can conclude that Christ was like a 60s hippie all about peace and love. But your conclusion would not be based on any real evidence, but rather simply your own feelings and assumptions.

sorry but I I'll take the word of the gospels over your word regarding Jesus.

 

[Yieu]

Interesting. What is the proper word for what we do in the West, if Yoga is incorrect?

Stretching.

What the West calls Yoga involves some exercises which are a part of the first 2 steps of the 10 step process known as Raja Yoga, one of the 4 main branches of Yoga.

The Western idea of "Yoga" is a stripped down version, with the religious aspects removed.

Meaning, it has had everything of value removed.

There are 4 main paths of Yoga: Bhakti (Yoga through devotion to God), Raja (see above), Jnana (Yoga through study of the Vedic scripture), and Karma (Yoga through action)

Considering that the goal of Yoga is to be with God, one of these paths appears to be more direct than the others, to me.

 

[The Northbreather]

Breathing and meditation are not just an Eastern philosophy. I read a book by the Dalai Lama where he spoke to a Christian monk that had secluded himself for years. He asked the monk what he had been doing and the monk answered that he had been meditating on Love. The Dalai Lama said that this meant that Christianity and Buddhist are not so different.

I was just going to touch on this when I returned. Eduardo,how do you know that the theta waves produced by the brains of monks while meditating and nuns in prayer doesn't bring them closer to communication with their god.

Were you there and did you see and experience what the writers of these highly anecdotal scriptures did? How do you know that they didn't perform yoga or some other type of relaxing and focusing ritual before they received their message? Just because it wasn't written? I pretty sure they didn't record 99.99999999999999% of their lives in the bible either.

As far as this guy saying that his christian god only exists externally "there's a spark of divinity within you. its not about giong out to god its about going in to yourself. we don't go into ourselves we go out to jesus" well

John 14:15-21

15 “If you love me, obey[a] my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.[c] 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”



11-12"I'm baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I'm a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned.

6 The way a sinful person thinks leads to death. But the mind controlled by the Spirit brings life and peace. 7 The sinful mind is at war with God. It does not obey God's law. It can't. 8 Those who are controlled by their sinful nature can't please God.

9 But your sinful nature does not control you. The Holy Spirit controls you. The Spirit of God lives in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ.

10 Christ lives in you. So your body is dead because of sin. But your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. So the God who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your bodies, which are going to die. He will do this by the power of his Spirit, who lives in you.

On and on...

I wouldn't worry so so much about the grannies down the street doing yoga as much as I would about this Mark guy telling you judge your aunt Barbera (who bakes you cookies) as a demon and to be scared while he makes a living fabricating new ways to frighten people and perpetuate hate. Look at the motivation for the message with a little objectivity.. He makes that cheddar promoting this idea.

This shit is how we get to such wonderful events as the salem witch trials. Please don't get mad at my aunt for extenending her time on earth through a little healthy exercise.

 

[Simple]

you point to common ideas of right and wrong generally accepted by almost all faiths as a way to suggest that all the different faiths lead to the same God. That is sufficient as long as your concept of "God" stays only at an elementary level.

however, if one does decide to get past the elementary level. We cannot combine the ideas of following only one God Jesus and also maintaining that other faiths lead us to the same God.

Yes my understanding is on an elementary level. I think people of different religions share the belief in a single divine creator and all of these different groups use different names. In religion as in politics I look for the common good that might bring us together.