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

[Nirvikalpa]

yet you reject the scriptures. I would like to know what Christ do you follow. The Christ of the scriptures or some other christ.

Before you start pointing fingers, please make sure your own hands are clean.

And thanks, Eduardo. Same.

 

[wannaberocker]

I think that's why she called herself a "Christian" and not simply a Christian.

I think you are actually right. I remember she once said something while saying "Christian" in it. When I took offence to it. She explained to me that in forums "Christian" sort of means not really Christian. While Christian without quotes means real.

 

[PatriotOne]

I had a girlfriend (Catholic) who had barely started practicing yoga. She was sitting on her bed cross legged meditating and when she opened her eyes she was out of body and looking at herself on the bed from above. Scared the crap outta her since she wasn't even trying to go out of body. She was just trying to relax...lol.

 

[Brown Sapper]

Your not getting the concept. You are worshiping the body. The same spirit in Jesus was the same spirit in Krishna but the are the same god. When he said he is the one true god he was right. He is the one true spirit for god but the body of Jesus Christ was just a vessel.

 

[eduardo89]

I had a girlfriend (Catholic) who had barely started practicing yoga. She was sitting on her bed cross legged meditating and when she opened her eyes she was out of body and looking at herself on the bed from above. Scared the crap outta her since she wasn't even trying to go out of body. She was just trying to relax...lol.

Shrooms.

That's my answer to any experience like that or weird dream.

 

[WilliamC]

Just trying to keep the harmony twixt all us freedom loving Ron Paul supporters.

I appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers, and kind wishes for his success and our future.

 

[wannaberocker]

Before you start pointing fingers, please make sure your own hands are clean.

And thanks, Eduardo. Same.

I cannot clean my own hands. It is only Christ that can wash away my sins.

now back to my question, if you would like to answer it.

 

[eduardo89]

Your not getting the concept. You are worshiping the body. The same spirit in Jesus was the same spirit in Krishna but the are the same god. When he said he is the one true god he was right. He is the one true spirit for god but the body of Jesus Christ was just a vessel.

But Jesus Christ is not the Father. He is not a vessel for the Father, he is a completely distinct being consubstantial with the Father and the Holy Spirit, together they are one godhead. They are distinct, yet co-exist in unity. He was not created as a vessel, He has always existed and will always exist.

 

[PatriotOne]

Shrooms.

That's my answer to any experience like that or weird dream.

And you would sound like a naive person saying that to those who have out of body experiences.

 

[eduardo89]

And you would sound like a naive person saying that to those who have out of body experiences.

I'm just joking around. I've never experienced anything like that, but if I do, I know I will freak out!

 

[Yieu]

I think it's time for a scripture quote.

BG 18.64: Because you are My very dear friend, I am speaking to you My supreme instruction, the most confidential knowledge of all. Hear this from Me, for it is for your benefit.

BG 18.65: Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.

BG 18.66: Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.

BG 18.67: This confidential knowledge may never be explained to those who are not austere, or devoted, or engaged in devotional service, nor to one who is envious of Me.

BG 18.68: For one who explains this supreme secret to the devotees, pure devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me.

BG 18.69: There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear.

 

[eduardo89]

I cannot clean my own hands. It is only Christ that can wash away my sins.

now back to my question, if you would like to answer it.

She won't answer because I don't think she knows how to answer that. And I think you should add her to your prayers tonight and ask God to help her with that.

 

[wannaberocker]

She won't answer because I don't think she knows how to answer that. And I think you should add her to your prayers tonight and ask God to help her with that.

fair enough.

 

[Nirvikalpa]

Why answer when dongkong already appears to know me and has formed an opinion of me? I don't feel the need to explain myself to anyone. My actions spread the word of Christ more than your words ever could.

 

[SisCyn]

Regarding yoga, it does remind me of a practice I am familiar with called trance posturing.

Throughout ancient civiliazations, such as Egyptian and Meso-American, small figurines molded in positions similar to yoga positions have been found in archaeological digs. The documenation and technique was developed by Dr. Felicitas D. Goodman: http://www.cuyamungueinstitute.com/

Remaining in such a pose during meditation and facilitated by drum beats, if performed correctly, will cause the practitioner to experience a light trance state complete with psychedelic color bursts and visions. The visions are dependent on the prior suggestion of the subject being meditated on.

Physiologically, it is explained by phosphenes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphene

There is some concern that the triggering of phosphenes could create a kindling effect that triggers epilepsy.

The pastor's argument is probably against something close to Kundalini Yoga, which a Christian of the the fundamental view would probably agree that it sounds demonic.

I believe, as I said, that it can be explained physiologically. So called out of body experiences and vision quests can also be achieved without the use of psychodelics using TM type techniques to induce visions by sustaining a particular pose, such as one often seen in statues of the Buddha.

There is some evidence that over use of such a practice could cause neurological damage.

Light trance states of lesser impact are induced by repetitious music and prayer, so the experience is a fairly universal. But many people are in a much more suggestible state, which could explain the experience posted by TER. This kind of vision would be known as mass hysteria.

 

[TER]

And who is only him? Don't you think that if god could manifest himself on this plane of existence in one form that he can do it again. You are worshiping the body but not the spirit. That is the essence of Hinduism; the spirit and its relationship with God. Just one example of this is why Hindus are cremated upon death. It is a notion of letting go of the material and accepting the spiritual world. This is kinda hard to explain in perspective.

We Christians believe that the One God came down from heaven and took on our flesh in order to save us - all - including our flesh. Christ fulfilled all righteousness. Coming into time, being restrained by His own condensation out of His divine love for us, He humbled Himself so that we might know how to reach Him and to share eternal life. God felt hunger only in Jesus Christ so that hunger could be vanquished. God felt thirst, so that our thirst would be satiated. God felt sadness so that sadness could find joy. God experienced loneliness so that we might never know it. God felt pain so that pain could be healed. He experienced death so that death would be destroyed and hold no power over us.

We believe in the santification of flesh, for Christ saves ALL of us, and only in Christ is this accomplished. Indeed even the very bones of the saints have become vessels of the Holy Spirit and have perform miracles not unike they did in the times of Elisha.

While all faiths and beliefs share in degrees the ultimate truths of this world, only in Christ do we find salvation. And not in part, but all of us - body soul and spirit. Our entire trinitarian being raising from the dead just as He did in His glorious Resurrection and just as He did with Lazarus who was four days rotting in the heat of the tomb. We will be raised trinitarian just as we were created trinitarian, and only in the fullness of Christ is this possible, for only the very God and Supreme Lord of Creation could do this. And this is the teaching of Christ, and what the Church has confessed with their very lives. "and if anyone preach to you a different gospel... ".

That we worship One God, that is not really the issue at all. I can accept that in good measure. We differ in our understanding in how we are saved and by Whom we are saved, and what salvation really means.

Our differences come from the very issue above. I believe that only in Christ do I or you or anything in all of creation, living or dead, finds true life and paradise and salvation. Not only in Christ, but by Christ.

That is why we do not the burn the bodies of our beloved ones, because even the flesh has Christ saved.

And even by the flesh of the dead has God used to perform His miracles, and the lives of the saints are replete with such doings of Divine Providence.

Unless you can convince me that Hinduism saves me as I was created first, then I can never be persuaded that Christ is not the Truth of the world and our salvation. The very Logos/Tao/Word/Reason/Wisdom/Power/Son of God, born of a virgin and fulfilling all prophecies, Who is the Food, the Life, the Truth, the Way, the Gate, the King, the Lord and Savior of all of creation and Who on the Last Day will be the Final Judge over all of creation. And He alone is Judge for Christ alone has saved our entire nature by uniting it with the divine nature, and Who alone has lived sinlessly and overcome the world in every way imaginable.

Say whatever you wish, but you cannot claim to love Jesus and understand who he is if you don't take Him for His very words. And that is why I urge you to open up the Gospels and read the one according to St. John carefully, every line and every word that comes out of Jesus' mouth. Do not skim over parts or automatically judge what Christ is saying, but rather come with an open mind and allow His words and His actions to make their impression on you. Unless you do this, then you cannot know the God I worship and how much He loves us and nothing I have ever heard from a Hindu or Muslim or anyone else could convince me otherwise. We must then accept that while we seek the same One God and nirvana, the Christian makes the claim that in Jesus Christ the One God has fully revealed Himself and that only through Christ do we find nirvana, not in the mind or the soul sense, or even just the bodily sense - but in the whole self, transfigured in Christ - in the fullness and stature of Christ - in eternal loving communion with God.

I will give up my worldly life in order to witness to this truth.

And when I live a life of virtue and do God pleasing works of mercy and charity, I find peace and love and happiness.

And when I don't, then I waddle in the darkness and search for the fulfillment of my own passions and my own selfish desires, making in effect an idol of my mind.

But our Lord has risen from the death, and destroyed the gates of Hades! He is the Conquerer over Hell, the Destroyer of the power of sin! He is God Himself in the world. The Incarnate Word and Logos of God Who has come down to save us and grant all men to salvation. Our worship is of Christ, the Living God who reveals Love in all love's fullness, by Whose Love, we obtain eternal life. But not only life, but joy in the Kingdom of Heaven! Where He went, ascending on clouds and escorted by angels, the Messiah and Lord Jesus Christ, now ascended at the right hand of the Father. The One Who will save us from our sins.

So you can see why the Christian can easily become a martyr in order to gain the whole world and the Kingdom of Heaven. This is Christ's promise, and I take Him at His word.

But I cannot do this without my own willingness and participation. For Christ gave me hands to help my neighbor, a tongue so that I might tell the truth, feet so that I can search out the ones whom I abandoned and arms to outstretch and embrace them in the spirit of forgiveness and hope and divine love. When we humble ourselves and see our neighbor greater then ourselves, and treat them with worth and dignity and respect, we find the Kindgom of Heaven and enter into eternal peace and joy, being living temples of the Holy Spirit and abiding in divine communion with God.

This communion happens here, now. The Kingdom of God is approachable and obtainable here.. NOW. For Christ has revealed it! He has provided the way! The world He created, He also sanctified and gives life and sustenance. For Christ is the Creator and the Redeemer. The entire world was baptized when Christ was being baptized in the Jordan. The waters of the Jordan did not santctify Christ, as if the Christ, the Perfect Man - Perfect God, required baptism. Rather, He did it to fulfill all righteousness and as High Priest, infuse the River Jordan with the Holy Spirit, for as the Holy Prophet St. John the Baptist baptized with water, He baptizes with the Spirit, and by doing it as He did it, we too fulfill all righteousness.

All the waters have been blessed and all of the world sanctified by His entering into it and revealing for the first time in fuller revelation the Holy Trinity - the Holy Spirit coming down in the form of a dove and the voice of the Father proclaiming Jesus to be His Son. In fact, the feast days of the Holy Acension and the Holy Theophany are two of the twelve great feast days of the Church through the calendar year, the first being Great and Holy Pascha, which is soon approaching!!!

 

[TER]

I had a girlfriend (Catholic) who had barely started practicing yoga. She was sitting on her bed cross legged meditating and when she opened her eyes she was out of body and looking at herself on the bed from above. Scared the crap outta her since she wasn't even trying to go out of body. She was just trying to relax...lol.

I know someone very closely who had a similar episode and only by praying His Holy Name did it cease. These night terrors are not unique and these practices of transcendentalism are fraught with spiritual dangers. We allow ourselves into a realm where demons have much more power and put our very spiritual selfs and whole being into danger. Blessed is the man who walks in the road of the righteous. To them are the greatest treasures and rewards stored and shared in fullness and light.

 

[SisCyn]

I had a girlfriend (Catholic) who had barely started practicing yoga. She was sitting on her bed cross legged meditating and when she opened her eyes she was out of body and looking at herself on the bed from above. Scared the crap outta her since she wasn't even trying to go out of body. She was just trying to relax...lol.

Seriously, this sounds like the same experience that Paul and John the Revelator had.

 

[wannaberocker]

Why answer when dongkong already appears to know me and has formed an opinion of me? I don't feel the need to explain myself to anyone. My actions spread the word of Christ more than your words ever could.

I asked the question how one can know Christ while rejecting the gospels. The idea that you reject the gospel is not my opinion, its based on your own words that you shared in chat.

so I ask the question- which Christ do ya believe in? The Christ of the gospels or some other Christ?

I simply want to understand what it means to you, to spread Christ word, what that word looks like and what the message is.

 

[TER]

I think it's time for a scripture quote.

I very much like that quote. . It reminds me of the God I worship. I never said there were not truths to be found in the Bhagadva Gita. I am only saying that God came once down to earth as the Lamb of God in the Person of Jesus Christ, and that only through Him are we saved and are raised from the dead.