Holy Yoga

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I have been practicing "Holy Yoga" for about one month now.  My sinus
headaches and blockage are gone!  No more drugs.  My posture is much
straighter and natural.  I am 56 years old and an Ordained Minister of
Christ Jesus.  I think that it is time that Christians leave this inwardly
legalistic approach to Christianity which makes us a closed society.  Since
we are free in Christ Jesus to love Him and others, lets live the life He
died to give us! Your instruction is one good way to do this.  To love
Christ with our bodies, mind and spirit.

Much Thanks and Blessings in Christ
Larry

I teach yoga four times a week at a Christian College with Christian professors and students. I teach yoga two times a week at the church I pastor. At the end of each class I always close with the traditional yoga greeting/closing and sign of respect Namaste. I say the following.

Jesus said, "You are the light of the world.” Namaste means the light that is in me recognizes the light in you.

From time to time someone will ask why do you say that? I will explain that Namaste has several meanings. Literally it means bow to you namas (bow) te (you). It is often used as a greeting in India, usually followed by a bow with hands in prayer position. In yoga it is traditionally spoken from teacher to participant/student at the end of a yoga practice. It that setting it is said to mean the light in me honors the light in you. The usual response is to say namaste in return.

Jesus calls us to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). Saying Namaste in yoga reinforces the call of God on our lives to not just be healthy with our bodies and honor God in that, but to take that off our mats and into the world. The connection we make with God through Holy Yoga is not meant to end there. We are mean to take that light of God out into the word so that others might see the light in us and find the light that is Jesus Christ in their lives as well.

Saying Namaste reminds me that God's light in me is not exclusive to me and is not meant to be covered. We should shine out so the whole world might see. It is an inspiration for those who practice Holy Yoga to do the same. So lets live and practice yoga on and off the mat as children of the light.

Namaste

I had to work out my "defense" for why it's okay to practice yoga and CALL IT YOGA as a Christian. Here's what I came up with:

Simply put, yoga is exercise for spiritual purposes. It is like a spiritual discipline such as fasting, or all night prayer, both popular in many Christian churches and both requiring physical sacrifice, yet used in many religions and faith walks. Yoga has similar spiritual influence if your intent is to get closer to and be open to the Lord Jesus and Yahweh.
Yoga is not owned by Hinduism. It's origins, historically and functionally are not generated from Hindu beliefs. The people of the Indus valley, like all people God created, had a spiritual hunger, and yoga was one of their attempts to connect to something spiritual. Historically, it predates hinduism. Hinduism simply saw the value of using ones whole body as a way of applying the spirit.  Since it was around before Hinduism, we cannot worry about hindu spiritual influences. Functionally, it's not hinduism, because the body and all it's movements are designed by God. 

The New Age influence that arrived with yoga in the 1960s is not something we should fear when practicing or naming yoga. The rise and popularity of yoga is a sign that people in our culture are hungry for a spiritual use of their bodies. The New Age movement handed them yoga, but yoga did not hand them the New Age movement.  

Yoga is a way of applying the spirit with one's whole body. When we are applying the spirit with our whole bodies, we honor God. Both the body and it's many movements were God's idea, and there is nothing wrong with using the body with spiritual motives. 

We are disingenuous, naive, ignorant, or plain afraid if we don't use the word yoga to practice yoga for the Lord. God knows the movements of our body, and he knows when we use it for him or not. The culture knows yoga as a form of exercise with murky spiritual connection (so far, only in association with hinduism and New Age). To not use "yoga" is to tell God and people that they can't handle the truth. To call it something else is to seem like we are hiding something as a group of believers. That just makes us look foolish, especially when we come to class and see that it is yoga, and are not allowed to call it yoga. Then we become a church that forces people away from accurate language, and that can have other damaging effects to our church culture.

Why not simply redeem yoga for truly godly purposes? If God is God, then our efforts to worship him, in all their forms, are his delight. Obviously, the Bible gives us clear guidelines of what is not honoring to him, and we need to follow those carefully. At one point in our church's history, rock music and bi-racial marriage were considered practices that would harm our faith, but now we see both as forms that can bring glory to the Lord. But, mostly we know that in Christ, there is freedom. Let us keep the integrity of yoga in the form that it is; and let God make yoga available to those who wish to use it for His glory.

"Namaste" a greeting in India that translates in Sanskrit, "I bow to you." I bow to the divine Truth Jesus Christ who has created each and every one of you!

Last week during class we breathed in the scripture Matthew 6, we are encouraged by Jesus not “TO WORRY!” We waste a lot of time worrying, have you heard of the saying, “worry looks around, regret looks back, and faith looks up?” In the message translation of the Bible, the Word speaks simply, “Has anyone fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?” Paraphrasing here, if God takes care of the birds of the air and flowers of fields, how much more will He take of us. “Don’t you think he’ll attend you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I am trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. Steep your life in God reality, God initiative, God provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.” It definitely takes effort to surrender and trust that all things will work for the good when it may appear at the present it is not what we desire or hope for. So not only is God holy, pure, love, peace, kind, and gentle, He is also funny! For we are created in His image, so therefore, humor surrounds us. Just read a sign that states, "God feeds the birds, but he doesn't throw it in the nest."

The GOD humor…Holy Yogini Penny shared with me that as she was driving her daily route she noticed something that she had never seen before. There was plant life growing out of the roof. She asked her friend,” Why are plants growing out of the roof, so strange?” He responded, “well, when birds eat seeds and dispose the seeds in their stool, (YES POOP) life sprouts out.” I thought, how like our God, that even through poop, He will make life spring forth. So in the crappy situations of life, know that life will be sprouted. We just need to take the time to notice where it is, maybe we need to look up at the roof instead of looking around at everyone else.