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Post by Watchman on May 18, 2006 12:28:49 GMT -5
By Darryl E. Owens The Orlando Sentine
As Susan Bordenkircher sees it, Christians for too long have kept yoga on the mat.
In her new book, "Yoga for Christians," the certified group fitness instructor and a devout Methodist argues Christians should change their posture and stretch their concept of worship to embrace yoga.
Long controversial in some Christian circles, yoga is fast gaining adherents through the new wave of "Christian yoga" across the nation.
"What we are attempting to do with a Christ-centered practice is fill the heart and mind with God, becoming 'single- minded' as Scripture calls it," Bordenkircher says.
Critics contend that with yoga something else is at work. In 2003, the Roman Catholic Church reaffirmed its stance against Eastern practices such as yoga, which it had condemned in 1989, warning that yoga "can degenerate into a cult of the body."
As yoga has become more mainstream, Christian alternatives have emerged. Christian author Laurette Willis has received the most ink with her PraiseMoves philosophy. It keeps yogiclike postures but scraps mantras.
Bordenkircher, however, doesn't shrink from the yogic label, noting that "Christ-centered yoga is definitely not just a repackaging of ... yoga. "
The difference, she says, lies in the intention: shifting the focus from self to God with yogic postures ("breathing in" the Holy Spirit, for instance), integrating health as critical to effective godly service, and slowing down enough "from our fast-paced lives to actually hear God's voice."
Regardless of the spin, Sannyasin Arumugaswami, managing editor of Hinduism Today, says Hinduism is the soul of yoga "based as it is on Hindu Scripture and developed by Hindu sages. Yoga opens up new and more refined states of mind, and to understand them one needs to believe in and understand the Hindu way of looking at God. ... A Christian trying to adapt these practices will likely disrupt their own Christian beliefs."
All contents Copyright 2006 The Denver Post or other copyright holders.
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Post by Watchman on Feb 4, 2007 13:11:51 GMT -5
Former Instructor Warns Of Yoga's Spiritual Implications Jim Brown An ex-yoga teacher turned Christian evangelist says he is disturbed by the growing popularity of yoga programs in schools. He feels adding Hindu-influenced yoga regimens to public school curriculums is not only dangerous but also violates the Constitution’s Establishment Clause. More than 100 public and private schools across the U.S. are reportedly teaching yoga to young people using a secular curriculum developed by a California woman named Tara Guber. The program she developed for school kids uses terms like "bunny breathing" for yogic panting and "time-in" for meditation. But innocuous as the program may sound, one former yoga instructor says Guber’s curriculum and others like it are a bad idea. Mike Shreve was a teacher of yoga and meditation at four universities before he was "saved" out of Eastern religions and went on to found a Christian ministry called The True Light Project. He sees some definite dangers in introducing such programs to young people in U.S. schools. "First of all I believe it is a violation of the commitment this nation has made to the separation of church and state,” Shreve says. “And secondly,” he notes, “I'm surprised that so many schools have started using this in their curriculum -- apparently without it being challenged by those who understand the religious roots of yoga." Yoga has Hindu roots and retains that religious system’s influences, the former instructor contends. Even teachers of Hindu themselves have acknowledged that there is no way yoga can be separated from its religious base, he asserts. "Maybe it is being reduced to just an exercise regimen,” Shreve says. “But for those who are not taught the differences and those who are not exposed to the spiritual roots of yoga,” he warns, “that can be the first step – in a very wrong direction -- that will lead them into the meditative aspects of yoga and the false religious overtones that are involved in the practice of yoga." The head of the True Light Project was himself once a student of an Indian guru and also formerly operated a yoga ashram with a number of people who had dedicated themselves to full-time study of the practice. He says the whole purpose of practicing yoga in any of its aspects is to bring a person to an altered state of consciousness. Yoga programs do not belong in schools, Shreve insists, both for legal and spiritual reasons. He says he is disturbed by the prevalence of yoga programs in public and private schools, where they introduce children to Eastern religion under the guise of a secular curriculum. www.onenewsnow.com/2007/02/former_instructor_warns_of_yog.php
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Shengy
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Fruit = Thorns / Bread of malice
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Post by Shengy on Feb 17, 2007 22:05:41 GMT -5
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