Meditation is a way to get in touch with our inner feelings, and Christian meditation is no exception in this regard. Many have discovered the physical techniques of hatha yoga to be beneficial – thus the invention of something called Christian Yoga.
The religious beliefs and practices of yoga go as far back in history as the Upanishads. The word yoga originated from Hindus, it was a religious custom of Hinduism that through the custom of certain disciplines one may achieve liberation from the limitations of the flesh, the deceiving of the senses, and the pitfalls of thought and on that account accomplish fusion with the objective of awareness.
Though developed in the ancient Hindu doctrine, the movements of Christian yoga are so boundless that they can adapt to or be adopted by any culture pattern or esoteric direction.
Countless classes in the U.S. direct the habit of yoga, as a purely physical course of study that home in on poses or asana, and conduct no religious teaching of any kind.
Proponents say that Christian yoga fills a call for good Christians who need the positive health effects of yoga but are put off by the habit’s ancient Hindu roots. With this approach to Christian meditation on can combine the wonderful tangible benefits of yoga within the own spiritual beliefs.
The yoga has been known for many years, and was practiced by a selection of the Early Christians during the persecution. The love and spirit that humbled the Early Christians has been passed on to the men and women of today. Christian yoga is about unfolding some of these wonderful possibilities each one includes. It is about possibilities so remarkable that countless early Christians proved to be prepared to die in aid of holding a door open for other people to embrace them. Accept it and be renewed by following the Christian pathway, the Christian yoga.
In the Eastern system of belief though, Christian yoga is not barely an Eastern compilation of positions or breathing techniques. Rather the aspiration is to be ready for an influence that can change and revitalize. Eastern yoga attempts to forget the ego, the Christian direction aims at transforming the person. Christian yoga is pictured clearly in the New Testament in the description of Jesus’ life as an allegory. It is a step-by-step way of change and the unravelling of a new life. As Jesus promised, this “heaven”, this new consciousness of your essence, is not far away. It is already yours if you have come to know how to find it.
In Western, Christian yoga women have held an noteworthy role in its practice and teachings from it’s early days. It’s about global cycles of life, of mind and heart.
The critique against it
In spite of its acceptance, Christian yoga has also garnered disapproval.
Several Christians say that Christian yoga is just in disagreement with Christianity, while still articulating that it is not a religion in its own right. Others claim that there does not exist something called Christian yoga because it mixes up two different belief structures. Catholic priests in Mexico City, as an example, instructed their parishioners not to attend Yoga schools seeing as how this activity would come to “other gods and Eastern religion beliefs”.
Albeit antagonists have accused that yoga’s age-old Hindu traditions are incompatible with Christian faith, adepts mean that the training is a perfect channel for spiritual reflection. As Yoga can help you find positions in which one can meditate comfortably for long periods of time, it should be of interest to any kind of meditative practise.
If one is open enough to embrace the non-religious aspects of Yoga, it should certainly lend itself well to enhance Christian meditation as well.
Michael Hawkins is an active Yoga practitioner. He has written a “book for westerners” about Yoga, where Yoga’s relationship to Christian meditation [http://www.yoga-central.net/guide/] and other religious views is discussed. By reading it you gain valuable insight in what Yoga is, as well as what it isn’t.
