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Is Yoga A "Religion" ??????

Dragonfly said:
Judge to rule on whether yoga tied to religion

Ummmm... what????

Since when is yoga "inherently religious"?

Anybody?
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From what I've heard, it doesn't have to be but it can be, depending of how its caught. If its just the exercises probably not, but if the meditations and included, possibly. I well known and respected theologian came to my church years ago and did a meeting on the dangers of the occult where he warned of Yoga being an entry to occult spiritism.


Yoga (Sanskrit: योग) is a commonly known generic term for the physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India with a view to attain a state of permanent peace.[1][2] Specifically, yoga is one of the six āstika ("orthodox") schools of Hindu philosophy. One of the most detailed and thorough expositions on the subject is the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, which defines yoga as "the stilling of the changing states of the mind"[1] (Sanskrit: योग: चित्त-वृत्ति निरोध:). Yoga has also been popularly defined as "union with the divine" in other contexts and traditions.[3] [SIZE=3[B]]Various traditions of yoga are found in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.[/B][/SIZE][4][5][6]

Post-classical traditions consider Hiranyagarbha as the originator of yoga.[7][8] Pre–philosophical speculations and diverse ascetic practices of first millennium BCE were systematized into a formal philosophy in early centuries CE by the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.[9] By the turn of the first millennium, Hatha yoga emerged as a prominent tradition of yoga distinct from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and marks the development of asanas into the full body postures now in popular usage[10] and, along with its many modern variations, is the style that many people associate with the word yoga today.

Hindu monks, beginning with Swami Vivekananda, brought yoga to the West in the late 19th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga
 
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It's hard to fathom that anyone would attempt to connect Americanized yoga, the type that you do in your local fitness center with religion.

Having said that, you can religionize (if that's a word) just about anything.

The type of yoga in question is something called Asthanga yoga (Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), though students are being taught a "simplified version of it".

Being a non-theist, I don't see any issues with Asthanga yoga, per-se. Unless someone knows something I don't, I don't see where the group attempts to explain anything via supernatural belief, though having said that, groups like this often teach that a person healing oneself through belief or positive thoughts (as if your belief can manifest in physical transformation), which can be harmful if you forgo necessary medical treatment. In my opinion, a positive outlook avoids the negatives associated with stress, more than thinking positively to make your cancer go away, as an example.

Having said all of that, the yoga being brought to these schools is, allegedly, a "simplified" version and most likely contains little if any of the mantras that go along with it. In the end I have no more issues with yoga as an exercise than I do the golden rule being taught as a simple moral code independent of any religion.
 
BTW: I support Yoga being taught in schools to families of students who WANT it and nobody is forced.
 
Is Yoga A "Religion" ??????
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The Latin verb "religare", where "religion" comes from, basically means the same as "yoga" - re/connect with the divine. :peace
 
Canell said:
The Latin verb "religare", where "religion" comes from, basically means the same as "yoga" - re/connect with the divine. :peace
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thats why praying to god by sincerely focusing on what you are doing creates the same influence as yoga can do

l pray whenever l want

but l felt this nirvana only once in my life

l was flying over paradise
 
Medusa said:
l was flying over paradise
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You should feel lucky. Theophany is a very rare event even for the hard practicing religious guys. :)
 
So back to the question posed in the title of thread:

Is yoga (as mainly practiced in the USofA - in 2013) a religion?

Connecting the mind, body, and breathing - and possibly in a way that some would say is or can be spiritual?

Of course if it does become spiritual, isn't that specifically in the context of the individual's own beliefs, and not something foreign?

As in, a christian doing seriously spiritual yoga will be connecting with their inner, personal christianity, and not some ancient Hindu or Buddhist ideologies. Right?
 
Dragonfly said:
Can martial arts schools and yoga schools file for tax exempt status?

Are they basically churches?
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It's a good point. If this law suit succeeds then the first yoga school to apply for tax-exempt status will be straight into the IRS, albeit slowly and veeeery deliberately.
 
Judge goes to mat for yoga, rules it's irreligious

Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer rejected the pleas of parents from a San Diego County school district where yoga is taught on nine campuses who said the classes are inherently religious and violate the constitutional principle of separating church and state.

Meyer sided instead in the Monday ruling with administrators from the Encinitas Union School District who argued the practice while often religious is taught in a secular way to promote strength, flexibility and balance.

The judge said parents who objected relied on personal opinions, some culled from Internet searches.
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Bravo!!!!!!

The judge emphasized that the school district stripped classes of all cultural references, including the Sanskrit language. The lotus position was renamed the "crisscross applesauce" pose.
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:lamo

It'll turn our poor christian babies into pagan/heathen/cow worshipping blasphemers if they do yoga!!!!!!!! :roll:
 
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Heya DF. :2wave: Wouldn't Shaolin Monks say that marital arts of the Gung Fu, the Way. Is a part of the religion? Wonder why the Judge thought the Jois Foundation was troubling?

The district is believed to be the first in the country to have full-time yoga teachers at every one of its schools. The lessons are funded by a $533,720, three-year grant from the K.P. Jois Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Encinitas that promotes Ashtanga yoga.

The twice-weekly, 30-minute classes are offered to the district's 5,600 students north of San Diego, in addition to regular physical education.

The judge said the Jois Foundation's involvement was troubling but rejected parents' arguments that it amounted to a stealth attempt to guide students to Eastern religion. The foundation insists that the classes are not religious.

The lawsuit did not seek monetary damages but asked the court to intervene and suspend the program.

Yoga is now taught at public schools from the rural mountains of West Virginia to the bustling streets of Brooklyn as a way to ease stress in today's pressure-packed world where even kindergartners say they feel tense about keeping up with their busy schedules. But most classes are part of an after-school program, or are offered only at a few schools or by some teachers in a district.....snip~

California judge allows yoga in public schools

Although, they could offer Tai Chi to help reduce stress as well as control and flow.
 
220px-Autobiography-of-a-Yogi.jpg

Great book, I highly recommend it. Yes, since Americans have basterdized yoga like they do everything else, I can imagine it might come to a shock that Yoga is a spiritual practice. It is one of the 6 schools of Hinduism and it is also found in Buddhism as well.
 
Dragonfly said:
It'll turn our poor christian babies into pagan/heathen/cow worshipping blasphemers if they do yoga!!!!!!!! :roll:
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The lotus position was renamed the "crisscross applesauce" pose.
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Now, THAT sounds like blasphemy to me. How could anyone come up with something quite that ugly?
 
Huh. I had no idea yoga had religious origins. Learn something new every day.

Well then certainly public school isn't the place to teach it. Although I wouldn't have a problem with a class that is really just "stretching with names." Non-religious yoga, if you will. Leave out the stuff about chi and chakras. If those are yoga things, i don't know anything about yoga ok!
 
My proposal would be this:

There are really two distinct words that are spelled the same way, that is, "yoga." They're similar, in relevant respects, to "dove" and "dove." The first is the past-tense of "dive," the second is a bird. They have nothing to do with each other except for spelling.

Yoga began as a religious discipline. One branch of Yoga is Hatha Yoga. The main purpose of Hatha Yoga is to be able to sit in a single asana for 1-3 hours at a time without moving at all, which is thought to help with later stages of meditation. Most people find this very difficult, and so other exercises were developed by yogis, with the sole purpose of increasing the health and balance of the body.

We have adopted those exercises, and that's what we commonly call "yoga" in America today. Calling that yoga inherently religious would be like calling calisthenics invented by a Catholic priest inherently Catholic.

For those who think the American yoga must be indelibly tied to hinduism, I've got some very bad news. Hatha yoga includes a huge range of physical disciplines. Unless you live your life sitting in an overstuffed chair eating nothing but beef and cheese, you're probably doing something described as part of somebody's hatha yoga program even before it was "Americanized.' So, does Jesus (or Moses, or Mohammed) really care if you go jogging? Because that's technically something described in hatha yoga. Is it a violation of your religious purity to eat a pear? Because I hate to tell you, B.K.S. Iyengar thought his chelas should eat pears--it would bring them closer to Brahman. Do you realize you're betraying Christ if you lay on your stomach? That's makarasana.

Geez.
 
Bob Blaylock said:
Since it first was invented, actually.

Yoga is a series of religious disciplines, originating in Hinduism, and having spread to some other related Eastern religions. Some of the disciplines that compose Yoga revolve around physical exercises, that many who have no interest in the religious aspect believe to be useful as physical exercises, but this doesn't change the fact that all of it is rooted in religion—primarily in Hinduism.
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What it does change is the intention, which makes all the difference in the world. If not, then an Atheist in a kneeling position, with his/her hands clasped under the chin, is praying.

Even the mental component beyond the Asanas isn't strictly spiritual, unless one argues that absorption suffices as a parallel with divinity, which would be inapplicable by definition. One could claim that eating bread and drinking wine is taking Communion, but sans the inclusion of God to render the gesture symbolic, it's only a meal.

There is no 'inherently religious' physical expression.
 
Canell said:
You should feel lucky. Theophany is a very rare event even for the hard practicing religious guys. :)
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l know and really feel so lucky canell,l hope l can experience such a thing again
 
NoC_T said:
What it does change is the intention, which makes all the difference in the world. If not, then an Atheist in a kneeling position, with his/her hands clasped under the chin, is praying.

Even the mental component beyond the Asanas isn't strictly spiritual, unless one argues that absorption suffices as a parallel with divinity, which would be inapplicable by definition. One could claim that eating bread and drinking wine is taking Communion, but sans the inclusion of God to render the gesture symbolic, it's only a meal.

There is no 'inherently religious' physical expression.
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Well, the problem might arise from much of the language and "science" used in relation to yoga. Where certain exercises are deemed beneficial because the assumed effects it's having on the body, in relation to a physiological theory directly derived from religious ideals and principles. Also, while you can find many forms of Yoga and yogo organizations that attempt to approach it from a secular perspective, many fall short due to this (travel a bit in india and you'll meet many educated, modern people who would want nothing to do with religion, but will tell you about their stay in mysore and couch the experience in pseudo-religious muck).

So while it is possible to teach yoga as simply a form of exercise, I would approuch it with the same skepticism I would approach classes on secular meditation and "prayer". Where extended focus needs to be placed on the organization promoting it, exact curriculum and the justifications behind it, and general philosophical approach.


take for instance the example mention above about pears. If the yoga class was teaching that students should eat pears based on some modern and scientific nutritional theory that would be fine. if they were doing so without a clearly stated purpose, I would look at it as a back door attempt to inject religion
 
Dr. Chuckles said:
Well, the problem might arise from much of the language and "science" used in relation to yoga. Where certain exercises are deemed beneficial because the assumed effects it's having on the body, in relation to a physiological theory directly derived from religious ideals and principles. Also, while you can find many forms of Yoga and yogo organizations that attempt to approach it from a secular perspective, many fall short due to this (travel a bit in india and you'll meet many educated, modern people who would want nothing to do with religion, but will tell you about their stay in mysore and couch the experience in pseudo-religious muck).

So while it is possible to teach yoga as simply a form of exercise, I would approuch it with the same skepticism I would approach classes on secular meditation and "prayer". Where extended focus needs to be placed on the organization promoting it, exact curriculum and the justifications behind it, and general philosophical approach.


take for instance the example mention above about pears. If the yoga class was teaching that students should eat pears based on some modern and scientific nutritional theory that would be fine. if they were doing so without a clearly stated purpose, I would look at it as a back door attempt to inject religion
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It's not my belief that the unwary can be tricked into religion where its intended purpose is communion with God. Where the origin of interest is born of deception, there was never any path to follow. There's probably some confusion where the proportion of spiritual practice to physical expression may vary. So far as I'm aware, Yoga needn't require adherence to any particular institution's code of practice. And meditation might easily be prayer.
 
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