Can a Christian practise yoga?
Our societies, in both West and East, are swept today by a culture of beating “stress” and staying fit. Through this door many practices have entered: some are healthy, and some hide behind the “healthy” label while slipping into the soul and doing it harm.
Yoga is the best known of these practices.
For many Christians who are unaware of its history, yoga is simply a way to exercise and improve muscle flexibility.
But the truth is that yoga is much more than a way of improving yourself physically… The philosophy behind this ancient practice from India sees it as the path to spiritual growth and enlightenment.
Roots, spirituality and worldview: difference and conflict
Yoga is a Sanskrit word meaning “union,” and its goal is the “joining and union” of the individual soul with the Hindu Absolute (Brahman), which is the Hindu concept of “God.” This god is not a person, but the spiritual essence united with nature and the universe. This view is called “pantheism,” in which God and nature become one and the same.
The material universe and man are then nothing but manifestations of the divine self… The rock becomes God, the animals are God, the sky is God, you are God… This view naturally conflicts with the Christian view of God, who is present everywhere, yet not everything is God. Yes, God is “present” in trees and in people, but that does not mean that trees or people are God.
Yoga also holds that this desired “union” frees and delivers a person from the consequences of choices and actions made in a supposed previous life. This again conflicts with the Christian view of salvation in the Lord Christ.
“But I’m not adopting another religion; I’m just doing some exercises”
Yes, you’re right! All you’re doing is exercises, but they are more than that.
Hatha yoga is the side of yoga that focuses on the body through special postures, breathing exercises, concentration or meditation… But all of these are means of preparing the body for “spiritual” exercises that reduce the “obstacles” standing in the way of enlightenment.
It is a bodily practice based on the belief that man and God are one. There is more here than exercise: it is a kind of focus on the self, even worship of the self; it is spirituality disguised as physical fitness.
Making the sign of the cross again and again might look to some like a mere shoulder exercise, but it is certainly much more than that.
– Can Christians separate yoga from the philosophy behind it and treat it simply as a way of exercising?
In reality, yoga is a methodical religious system, a technique and method that develops through stages and practices… There is no problem practising it if you believe in it; but if you belong to Christ, know that yoga arose from a philosophy that flagrantly contradicts the Christian faith! And that philosophy has not changed:
it teaches focus on the self instead of the one true God, and offers “salvation” and “rest” through techniques and training… “It is known that practising yoga produces physiological effects in the individual and poses risks to the soul, because it acts on certain bodily and mental functions”… It also encourages people to look for answers to life’s hard questions within themselves and their own consciences rather than in the Word of God.
Many testimonies from believers who used to practise yoga warn against the trap of seeing these practices as mere exercise! Laurette Willis explains that in yoga the “mudra,” a hand gesture, is a “gateway,” and that there are other postures such as savasana (“corpse pose”) and bhujangasana, the cobra pose.
There is a focus on so-called “energy centres” in the body, which in fact belong to beliefs foreign to the Christian faith, such as the “third eye” and others… And the relaxation at the end of yoga classes is skilfully designed to lead to “emptying the mind,” and every believer knows the danger of emptiness and the doors it opens to harmful spiritual influences.
As Christians, God’s Word urges us to “be transformed by the renewal of our minds” (Romans 12:2), not by emptying them! Emptiness is dangerous: it opens our inner self to God’s enemy… “Be sober-minded and watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Many will file this opinion under “extremism.” To our dear friends we answer with the apostle Paul: “What fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial?… What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, I will dwell among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord… I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me… Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1)
Father Gerard Abi Saab
Note: the Catholic Church has not issued a general ban on yoga practised as physical exercise. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s Letter on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation (Orationis Formas, 1989) instead calls for discernment regarding Eastern methods of meditation.
