To me, yoga means stretching. I'm not going zen on anybody. I just want to be able to touch my toes when I'm 65. Yoga relieves sore muscles and helps me fight off the creakies. And when you are lifting 30 pound toddlers for 17 years like I've been, you're fixing to get some cumulative creakies.
Beyond that, yoga has no meaning for me. I learned to bust my yoga moves using a VHS tape. So that tells you how long ago I learned yoga. I memorized the stretches 12 years ago and didn't need the video anymore. Which is good because, like anything, there can be a religious component with yoga. Now I'm not saying yoga is evil. But it can have a spiritual component, and the level of that spirituality depends on the teacher and the student.
We have three forces working together here, "tri" meaning "three," where we get the word Trinity. God is the mind (Creator and Father, all that good stuff) + Son is the body (Jesus said, "this is my body broken for you") + Holy Spirit (um, that's the spirit.) So the yoga people are on the right track actually, but they are confused because they don't know the Scriptures. The term Trinity is not in the Bible anyway. A good early Christian church dude made it up. And he had the right idea. It is a Biblically sound idea. Maybe you and I could blast onto the scene with a fourth component and send the theologians into a tizzy having to change all their little documents to refer to a Quadrinity. The point is, for yoga to reflect the holy trinity is not necessarily spooky or alarming.
The way yoga can get dangerous though, is in the insidious way that a non-Christian atmosphere might begin to influence us. When a teacher starts getting yah-yah and saying things like, "You Have To Fie-eend Your Center," or "the key is to tap into your inner peace," then they've lost me. Especially if they go all, "The balance in your souuuul is becoming one with the essence of mother natuuuuuure as you acquiesce the stones of your very being and releeeeeease all energy from the top of your head out through your big tooooe," stop stop stop.
It might seem harmless at first, but hearing this sort of crazy talk over and over really can start to mess with your mind and make you think a peaceful, well balanced life apart from Christ is possible. Which it's so not. Not even remotely. Also, I would request an all-ladies class because that is very strange, to do all that leg twisting and body rearranging in front of some guy who is not your husband.
If you are the only Christian in a class full of people who think all of that is normal, then you've just gone and set yourself up to be spiritually vulnerable. Yoga classes tend to be a little too yah-yah, so it's buh-bye.
Beyond that, yoga has no meaning for me. I learned to bust my yoga moves using a VHS tape. So that tells you how long ago I learned yoga. I memorized the stretches 12 years ago and didn't need the video anymore. Which is good because, like anything, there can be a religious component with yoga. Now I'm not saying yoga is evil. But it can have a spiritual component, and the level of that spirituality depends on the teacher and the student.
We have three forces working together here, "tri" meaning "three," where we get the word Trinity. God is the mind (Creator and Father, all that good stuff) + Son is the body (Jesus said, "this is my body broken for you") + Holy Spirit (um, that's the spirit.) So the yoga people are on the right track actually, but they are confused because they don't know the Scriptures. The term Trinity is not in the Bible anyway. A good early Christian church dude made it up. And he had the right idea. It is a Biblically sound idea. Maybe you and I could blast onto the scene with a fourth component and send the theologians into a tizzy having to change all their little documents to refer to a Quadrinity. The point is, for yoga to reflect the holy trinity is not necessarily spooky or alarming.
The way yoga can get dangerous though, is in the insidious way that a non-Christian atmosphere might begin to influence us. When a teacher starts getting yah-yah and saying things like, "You Have To Fie-eend Your Center," or "the key is to tap into your inner peace," then they've lost me. Especially if they go all, "The balance in your souuuul is becoming one with the essence of mother natuuuuuure as you acquiesce the stones of your very being and releeeeeease all energy from the top of your head out through your big tooooe," stop stop stop.
It might seem harmless at first, but hearing this sort of crazy talk over and over really can start to mess with your mind and make you think a peaceful, well balanced life apart from Christ is possible. Which it's so not. Not even remotely. Also, I would request an all-ladies class because that is very strange, to do all that leg twisting and body rearranging in front of some guy who is not your husband.
If you are the only Christian in a class full of people who think all of that is normal, then you've just gone and set yourself up to be spiritually vulnerable. Yoga classes tend to be a little too yah-yah, so it's buh-bye.
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