I was told about Yoga by a Franciscan priest a few years ago. Personally, I think yoga has some very helpful moves. I was kind of bummed when he told me that. I’ve never taken a complete yoga class, but if I did, I’d offer it to God before I started and place myself in His Presence. I wish there was something like Christian yoga. A yoga place recently opened near us that is very devoutly Hindu, so the pagan connection is much more apparent there than it would be in the city-run recreational yoga class.
His other point on Eastern prayer was to never “clear your mind of everything”, because if it’s empty, God is not in it, and there’s nothing good in there. A space with nothing good in it seems like a great place for the Evil One to move into. So you may want to clear your mind of what is distracting you, but remember that you want God’s peace to replace what you took out.
I figure it may be frowned upon, but if it’s a sin, it’s a venial one, and not going to get me sent straight to hell. I ALWAYS dedicate my practice to the glory of God. There is some Christian yoga, but somehow I doubt if it’s very good. Muslims aren’t supposed to do it either because in it you adopt the muslim prayer position (butt in the air) without praying. I wouldn’t call it exactly “clearing my mind of everything”, but more like shutting off the infernal, incessant ego-driven inner dialogue for a little while and letting the machinery of my mind take a break. Again, my understanding is that hatha yoga is intended to train the body and train the mind to be the master of the body, which prepares the spirit for prayer and worship, of whatEVER variety one chooses. I’ve thought about this quite a lot, because I am a Catholic Christian, yet I have become a serious practitioner of hatha yoga over the past four and a half years.
And one more thing, the above doesn't make a bit of sense. Of course God is in my mind whether I'm yammering up there or not. The trick is shutting off the voice of "I" so you can HEAR Him. Those that smack and bash at Yoga remind me of the prots that smack and bash at Catholicism. They infer nefarious thoughts and actions in an ignorant way, because they do not understand, and do not WISH to understand.
There is a huge worldwide organization of Christian yoga. I don't have the time right now, but please use your favorite search engine to verify what I've said.
There is a huge worldwide organization of Christian yoga. I don't have the time right now, but please use your favorite search engine to verify what I've said.