Of the many mailing lists I’m on, the Hindu American Foundation’s is one of the more interesting. An advocacy group, they send out regular emails with news stories relating to Hinduism.
One of the regular topics is yoga and they send out updates anytime it’s reported that the practice of yoga is spreading in the United States or other non-Hindu countries. As believers that yoga is one of the schools of Hinduism, HAF is also interested in discussions of whether yoga can be practiced apart from Hinduism. They’ve also been following a story about public school teachers in New York teaching yoga to students to relieve stress before exams.
The Associated Press picked up the story this week after a group of parents and religious leaders said the instruction violates boundaries between church and state:
“We are not opposed to the benefits. We can understand the benefits. We are opposed to the philosophy behind it and that has its ties in Hinduism and the way they were presenting it,” said the Rev. Colin Lucid of Calvary Baptist Church in Massena.
The program does not have ulterior motives, Julie Reagan, Massena Board of Education president, said Thursday.
The story attempts to put the New York practice in context and give the reader some background. Let’s look at how well they did that:
A hundred schools in 26 states use yoga in the classroom to relieve stress, Reagan said. Federal funds and grants are available to educators seeking yoga certification, [Reagan] said.
According to a statement on the Web site of the American Yoga Association, yoga is not a religion, although its practice has been adopted by Hinduism, as well as other world religions.
There are more than 100 different schools of yoga, which seeks to bring harmony to the mind and body. The most commonly practiced type in the United States is hatha yoga, which encompasses physical movements and postures, plus breathing techniques
That second paragraph is just clunky. It’s like saying, “praying with beads is not a religion, although its practice has been adopted by Catholics.” (Speaking of, one wonders whether there would be an outcry if teachers were encouraging kids to use rosary-type beads for prayer, meditation and relaxation.) Even people who oppose teaching yoga in government schools are not saying that yoga is a religion but, rather, a religious discipline. And whether or not yoga can be divorced from Hinduism, to the Hindu it certainly is a religious discipline. But to say that yoga has been “adopted” by Hinduism is really downplaying the association. The earliest Vedic Scripture mentions yoga. So that adoption, as it were, took place at least 3,000 years ago. And the “other religions” mentioned by the AP must be Buddhism, which is a descendant of Hinduism.
To the Hindu, yoga unites not just the mind and body, as this article says, but the soul as well. From a Time article last year about an increase in yoga injuries:
“Yoga means bringing together mind, body and spirit, but in Western yoga, we’ve distilled it down to body,” says Shana Meyerson, an instructor in Los Angeles. “That’s not even yoga anymore. If the goal is to look like Madonna, you’re better off running or spinning.”
The worst part about the AP article, though, is that it doesn’t speak with any Hindus. Considering how widespread the practice of yoga is in the United States, it’s somewhat surprising that its relationship with Hinduism isn’t explored more. Sam Hodges of the Dallas Morning News interviewed Swami Mukundananda, who lectured at the DFW Hindu Temple in August and led classes in yoga and they discussed the topic. Certainly there are many Hindus qualified to speak about the matter.
There is a debate about whether yoga can benefit people of different religions or no religion. (Here’s a Times (U.K.) article about a yoga instructor who stopped the practice after she converted to Christianity.) But that debate isn’t even treated in the AP story. It doesn’t really present an informed case for how yoga can be divorced from Hinduism either. It’s just a weak story all around.
 | Posted at 3:57 pm |  Print
| Permalink | Trackback |
Comments (15) |
October 5, 2008, at 11:05 pm
Defining yoga is even harder than defining evangelical. The word itself is associated with practices in the East and typically was associated with Hinduism.
Someone I know defined yoga as “you go”. In other words, the essence of yoga is the same essence as Brother Lawrence’s book “Practice the presence of God”, for example. To say a few more words:
http://www.bestmeditationtechniques.com/meditation/christian-meditation/ Saying “Hail Marys” is a form of mantra. It could be said that Saint Francis practiced “Bhakti yoga” - love of God. Anyone motivated by doing good deeds is practicing “karma yoga”.
On the other hand, “yoga” is often used as the story indicates - in the sense of specific hatha yoga postures and for the purpose of bodily improvement. Or a breathing technique might be taught simply as a way to relax without the original theological foundation.
So any story that covers yoga should ask everyone involved how they define the word and what that definition implies. Then we need to know the details about what is taught and practiced. If we know what is taught, why is it taught (including theological implications), how is it taught (it’s those silly words again: what, why, how) then the story we read will be a good one.
October 5, 2008, at 11:41 pm
Is breathing a religion? Counting breaths has been adopted by Buddhists as a religious technique.
By that token, an article about breathing would have to speak with Buddhists.
Counting with beads, or japa mala, has also been adopted by Hindus and Buddhists. And by Chinese as the abacus, and by Native Americans as wampum….
Hm, so apparently Jesus was a Hindu:
Yoga literally means yoke, and here Jesus promises some of the well-known benefits of yoga.
Indeed the AP article could have been a bit more precise in its definitions.
So could the GR post.
October 6, 2008, at 12:00 am
Many Christians would understand the soul rest that Jesus promises as ontologically different then that provided by yoga. If Yoga does claim to provide soul-rest then it is a religion, pure and simple because it claims to provide soul benefit. If it claims to be a yoke that is not “my yoke”, the yoke of Christ then it is a religion that is in competition with Christianity. Yoga is a religious system and it is inconsistent for the courts to maintain church state-separation and promote yoga in tax payered supported environments.
October 6, 2008, at 3:30 am
On the Sept. 12 episode of Issues Etc. Elliott Miller spent nearly a half hour (http://www.issuesetc.org/podcast/Show55091208H2S3.mp3) discussing the ties between Yoga and the Hindu religion. He concluded that the motives and origins for Yoga are undeniably Hindu, even if some who try it aren’t aware of the link.
October 6, 2008, at 7:02 am
Greg DeVore remarked:
Many Hindus would understand Patanjali’s yoga as quite different from the yoga of the Upanashads.
Many Hindus and non-Hindus do claim that much of the physical-only hatha yoga practiced these days has lost all association with any religion.
I get soul rest from walking through a pine forest. Is that a religion?
Others claim to get it from sailing, or singing. Are those religions?
What is the “it” here? Treating “yoga” as a homogeneous entity is about as meaningful as treating “Christianity” as a homogeneous entity. As the AP article pointed out,
That would be the yoga practiced in schools, so arguments about yoga as mentioned in the Vedas thousands of years ago are rather beside the point.
Re: Jay’s citation of Elliott Miller’s podcast, the motives and origins of the Salvation Army are undeniably Christian, but is the soup they dispense Christian? Is all soup therefore Christian? They ring bells; are all bells thus Christian? (Some Muslims would argue that bells are Christian; does that make it so?)
We could argue any of these specific points at length. The point remains that the blog post was as superficial as the article it critiqued.
October 6, 2008, at 10:03 am
I suppose if there was a spiritual discipline or practice associated with an ancient religion - let’s call it pineda - that involves walking through pine forests to achieve soul rest, then yeah, if you are calling it pineda as opposed to just walking through pine forests, it would sound like you were practicing that religious discipline. And if you took a class of kids through the forest and said, “Hey kids, today we’re going to practice pineda,†it might sound more like a religious exercise that just taking them though the pine forest and letting the needles fall where they may. And if you call it yoga, instead of just saying, “Hey kids, we’re going to do some stress relieving exercises,†then it sounds a little more like endorsing a well known activity associated with some well known religious beliefs, than just a happy physical exercise meant to relieve stress.
After all, we’ve all learned that our schools can take an early winter break that happens to be at the time of a certain holiday near the Winter Solstice, call it a winter holiday or winter break, and most folks aren’t bothered since it isn’t actually calling it Christmas break. Heck, my kids are in Holiday Concerts, even though everyone knows the main holiday that is the driving force behind the concert (due to the musical selections), as long as they don’t call it a Christmas concert. Why not just say ‘stress relieving exercise’? Maybe that would make folks happy.
October 6, 2008, at 10:26 am
Mollie, just because the adoption of yoga by Hinduism would have to have happened more than 3,000 years ago, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen more than 3,000 years ago. Yogo could easily have been a Neolithic practice that was around for millennia before Hindus picked it up. We’ll probably never know unless we find clues in Neolithic art; yoga does not fossilize well.
The key point of the controversy is whether yoga in a public school constitutes state sponsorship of a religion. The article addressed this controversy even if it didn’t track down all the nuances or clarify all the analogies.
October 6, 2008, at 11:07 am
I find it amazing that the same people who are eager to trace influences in art — even things that don’t exist — are equally eager to pretend that martial arts, exercise styles, and bodily meditation practices aren’t shaped by their history.
The first thing a singer learns in voice class is that the way you think about singing and its mechanics has a direct influence on your voice and the rest of you. Logically, various kinds of yoga carry various kinds of views of life and the universe. The student may accept or fight these ideas and influences; but certainly it’s silly to pretend they aren’t there.
Learning a kata and being physically molded into it by a teacher, putting oneself into a fencing position, shaping a dance move — none of these are devoid of meaning and POV, even if that meaning is difficult to express in words. But like philosophies expressed in music, attitudes taught by bodily movements can actually become more engrained than the ones we write and talk about.
It’s wrong to make panicked assumptions, but it’s much saner than to ignore these things.
October 6, 2008, at 11:10 am
As a Christian who enjoys yoga, I certainly think it can be practiced in a non-Hindu way. But I also am humble enough to realize this perspective isn’t shared by many Hindus or other religious adherents.
I disagree with Dave about whether separation between church and state was adequately handled in this story. There was almost no religious perspective — even the Christian opponents were downplaying the religious angles — and it pooh-poohed the role of Hinduism in this discipline.
October 6, 2008, at 11:59 am
Let’s move to another frame-of-reference: medicine. Acupuncture, for example, may said to carry with it Eastern religion such as the concepts of yin and yang. But western science can investigate acupuncture in a religion-free frame of reference and use standard scientific disciplines to determine if it works or not. Are we to conclude that acupuncture is necessarily carrying religion with it and make decisions about whether or not to use it based on how it originated? Or are we to use the tools of science and decide whether or not to use it based on the results of science. The same idea also applies to ayurvedic medicine from India. I maintain that hatha yoga can be thought of the same way.
That’s why I believe that the critical point for a story such as this about yoga is how it’s being taught and why it’s being taught that way.
October 6, 2008, at 1:51 pm
Dave G., pineda? Hey, I like it! I think I’ll adopt pineda as a religion and venerate you as the founder. Please send an autographed picture.
Somewhat more seriously, there are those for whom deep ecology is a religion and walking in forests is a sacrament. Yet people walked in forests long before the term “deep ecology” was invented.
Why not call hatha yoga “stress relieving exercises”? That wouldn’t distinguish it from modern dance, transcendental meditation, or video game playing.
Maureen, yes, let’s talk about singing. Large parts of R&B and rock and roll are derived directly from gospel music. Does that make Ray Charles a minister and the Rolling Stones a religious group? Is Arnel Pineda the bishop of Journey?
Kneeling is widely associated with Catholicism (and Anglicanism). Does that mean that ustrasana (camel pose) or vajrasana (thunderbolt pose), both of which involve kneeling, are Catholic?
I’m all for separation of church and state. And indeed it is possible to teach hatha yoga as one element of a religion, which if any school system is doing it shouldn’t be. But to assume that hatha yoga must be taught as part of a religion makes no more sense than to assume that Mick Jagger is a choir boy or anyone who does thunderbolt pose must be a Catholic.
October 6, 2008, at 9:35 pm
I think the writer critiquing this article did a good job. It’s amazing how the media seems to ignore the religious implications and origins of yoga. If they started doing the Lord’s Supper in schools (using juice instead of wine), would they try to argue that it’s a relaxing way to have a snack?
When I did yoga in the 70s and 80s, I was regarded as part of a flaky fringe. Now if one speaks against it as a Christian, one is regarded as part of a flaky fringe. That’s how well yoga has been marketed by the yoga industry and teachers and associated with health and peace, though hatha yoga was designed to prepare for the deeper meditative disciplines of more advanced yoga.
October 9, 2008, at 2:59 pm
Is yoga a religious discipline?
The problem with this question is that the word “religion” in the West is brimming with theistic overtones. A non-theistic religion is a strange bird in this neck of the woods, a recent arrival borne of gallic revolution or episcopal latitudinarianism, at best; or an ancient response to misery and pine, arising from Indic psycho-spiritual experimentation or Gangetic asceticism, at worst. The physical efforts associated with hatha yoga can be easily (though not without intention) shorn of oriental accoutrements: any son or daughter of Bharata who states otherwise is uninformed, disingenuous, or understandably protective of an ancient sadhana believed too precious to be sullied, corrupted, and diminished in the hands of a Western man forgetful of his own religious heritage.
October 13, 2008, at 10:17 am
The facts are that Real Yoga is Hinduism. “Yoga” is a Sanskirt/Hindu word. The (H)indus invented the language and the practices of Yoga. The one word “Yoga” describes the Hindu Dharma or religion. The goal of Hinduism is “to yoke Atmana (individual Soul) and Brahamana (Soul Source); i.e., Yoga.” The various Hindu/Yogas are the means to accomplish this goal: For example, Karma Yoga (ethics) Bhakti Yoga (devotion) Hatha Yoga (devotional postures), Raja Yoga (meditation/contemplation) and Jnana Yoga (enlightenment).
This modern “yoga stuff” is simply another historical example of theft, distortion and prejudice against Hindus and Hinduism: The Religion of Yoga.
October 14, 2008, at 11:35 am
I can see why people would associate Yoga with religion since it’s conception coupled (in some aspects) with the rise of Hinduism in the world. The practice itself may have religious significance, but inevitably when one starts to engage him/herself in the exercises, those ulterior motives are thrown out of the window. Every day people cope with stress one way or another. Some people turn to an activity such as bowling, baseball, or even having a fantastic meal. Others go to the gym to enhance their bodies while others go to the local boxing club and learn that craft. Who is to say that any of the aforementioned activities are all secular in nature? If a church softball team prays before having a 6-inning game, does that mean that softball should be eliminated from high school? If yoga is being used as an alternative to physical education, does that mean it should be banned too? They go hand-in-hand: A way to relieve stress and center the mind and body. It’s a beautiful art and should be embraced rather than denied existence in areas of education where it should be most prevalent.