Yoga: OK or NOT Ok?

It is Tuesday, so why not start a nice little debate.

Breathe...

I have always been mildly opposed to YOGA for several reasons. They aren't well researched reasons, they are those gut instincts one gets. So I wouldn't call my objection to YOGA well researched. Now before you chop my head off, let me start with two things:

1. It is natural for people that like something, to be defensive of it. So if you practice or use YOGA, you will most likely have stopped reading this and are already constructing ideas in your head about how to counter my yet unmade arguments. Breathe. Relax. Free your mind. Center yourself. Disconnect from all your tension. (Irony stings doesn't it?)

2. I know a lot of faithful Catholics that use some form of Yoga. They use it as an exercise tool, and I am sure they have some justification in their head as to why it is ok. In fact, for a long time my wife used it as an exercise tool. We talked about it, and I expressed my opinion. She explained that she didn't give into all that new-agey stuff and would often pray while doing it. I bought the pitch and agreed that was a perfectly acceptable way of having the best of both worlds. I still wonder if you sacrifice your ability on both ends when you do this, meaning your Yoga suffers because you are concentrating on the prayer and your prayer suffers because you are concentrating on your Yoga. In other words, your prayer is half-hearted and your exercise is lackluster. What then is the point?

Shouldn't or Can't?

I haven't thought much about this lately, until reading a blog post that I found at Where Angels Blog. The blog post was simply a link to Metanoia and their post about why Catholics shouldn't do Yoga, period. Now I think that in their post there are a lot of assumptions. I will grant that. I also will grant that they are talking about a strict practice or adherence to Yoga as it is taught in the fullness of its technique. Therefore, I still am open to the idea that you could have the physical exercise actions as an exercise tool, and find a way to reconcile that with Catholic teaching. I have not found a way to do so, but I am open to it.

The problem that plagues me though is the idea that you can't fully succeed with either prayer or yoga if you use them together. This was reiterated to me when I read the following in the Metanoia post:

What we think is exercise is actually Asana, the third limb of yoga that is supposed to purify the body to be a proper vessel for the soul, to help the yogi gain mastery over the body for the sake of deep, sustained inhales and exhales, which we now know are prayers to the self as God. Here in the West, because we think Asana is exercise we skip over the first two limbs, which promote indifference toward the world and others. Indifference would certainly help quiet the mind loaded with worries and cares, but it should set off serious alarms in any properly formed Catholic. Isn't Christ's great commandment to love one another? Also, the deep breathing of Asana poses allows the yogi to achieve such a deeply relaxed physical state. Recall that the purpose of yoga is to escape pain and sorrow. I believe that the intense relaxation is the primary reason why so many people find themselves seeking out a more disciplined yoga practice, as I did. The racing mind disturbs relaxation, and if determined, the yogi will break his or her mind, move on through the remaining limbs, deepen the rift between the body and soul, and turn the mind in on itself.

The Response...

Now I know a couple of my readers that use Yoga as an exercise technique. In fact, I doubt they even utilize any of the philosophy behind Yoga in terms of breathing, centering, Asana, etc... Or maybe they do? So I am hoping that I get some responses. (I expect as much, especially in light of my two points above.)

I am by no means trying to argue that Yoga is some new-age trick of the devil. (Or am I?) I am just posing the question: Can we reconcile its use if we are Catholics if its true mastery comes at the expense of Catholic teaching?

I am still trying to open my mind to all of this, but I would like to hear what others think? I think that if we could figure out a way to use it as EXERCISE only, in terms of the poses... that would be OK, but can we separate the physical from the breathing, centering, etc...? If we use it for meditation, contemplation, stress, etc... isn't that what prayer is for?

A final thought...

The ascetic saints took the opposite approach didn't they? Wasn't they approach to God and centering all about pain and suffering? Wasn't the idea that suffering was Christ-like, a path to perfection? In Yoga, the yogi attains a level of success when centering, breathing, and disconnectedness from pain and suffering occur. The Mind, Body and Soul become distinct entities, pain and tension essentially float away. When a Catholic attains a level of some sort of spiritual achievement they receive things like the agony & ecstasy or the Stigmata. Should be spend our time on things that might move us away from our goal?