Are These Mystic Practices OK?

[desmalia]

I find your post kind of scary. Mantras are sanskrit prayers to false gods. How can this be good for a Christian?
Mantra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think is that using repetition in order to commit something to memory is not bad. But really that's not chanting, and there's nothing spiritual about it.

 

[gratefulgrace]

I think is that using repetition in order to commit something to memory is not bad. But really that's not chanting, and there's nothing spiritual about it.

It is also not a mantra.

 

[desmalia]

It is also not a mantra.

Right. And I think that's where RC was drawing the line.

 

[ReformedChapin]

Right. And I think that's where RC was drawing the line.

correctomundo

I was going on the second most common definition:

man·tra (mān'trə, mŭn'-)
n.

1. Hinduism A sacred verbal formula repeated in prayer, meditation, or incantation, such as an invocation of a god, a magic spell, or a syllable or portion of scripture containing mystical potentialities.
2. A commonly repeated word or phrase: "Today's edutainment software comes shrinkwrapped in the magic mantra: 'makes learning fun.'" (Clifford Stoll).

 

[gratefulgrace]

That seems to prove my previous point about how much eastern philosophy has influenced our culture

 

[desmalia]

That seems to prove my previous point about how much eastern philosophy has influenced our culture

That's for sure.

 

[Rhamiel]

i did not vote because i am not a Fundamentalist
i am not educated enough to give a judgment about yoga\
but about chanting a phrase, many people in the Eastern Orthodox Church say the Jesus Prayer over and over agian, it is "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" but the goal is not to empty the mind but to focus more on Christ

 

[pathseeker]

It all depends on the phrase, what if the words you utter while performing what amounts to a series of stretching exercises is "I Love You God" rather than "UMMMM" If it relives a little stress from our lives, I call that a blessing.

 

[gratefulgrace]

Here is a link to an article on "Christian Yoga" It presents both sides of the issue and seems pretty balanced. I tend to agree with the comment that Christian yoga is an oxymoron and I personally I think it is a form of subtle but insidious deception.

Yoga Stretches Traditional Christian Boundaries

 

[gratefulgrace]

BBC NEWS | World | Christian yoga sweeps the US

 

[gratefulgrace]

ANd this one is extremely intersting an article written by a hindu yogi.

There is no Christian Yoga : Baba Prem blogs on sulekha, Current Affairs blogs, Baba Prem blog from india

 

[ReformedChapin]

That seems to prove my previous point about how much eastern philosophy has influenced our culture

Or we could just take the good part of it and use it. Not everything that the heathen does is WRONG or unbiblical. Like the laws of logic.

 

[gratefulgrace]

Don't see the connection one is science and the other religion.

 

[ReformedChapin]

Don't see the connection one is science and the other religion.

You use it for its pratical application. Yoga has great stretches, use if it helps. Simple as that. Ignore the wacky mystical stuff.

 

[gratefulgrace]

That is fine but you do a stretch of a particular muscle group not the "dog" or the "cobra" or the "warrior" etc. It is the association with yoga philosophy and teminology that has me concerned. I go to my physio and have been given lots of stretches that help enormously and never once been steered into Yoga.

 

[mont974x4]

Hinduism has no strengths, in my opinion. It is the root of the New Age movement and it is spiritually deadly. “The dangers of TM should be well known by now. It is a mind-emptying procedure that leaves the person vulnerable to whatever spirits, principalities, and powers that may be at the behest of what the Bible calls ‘the prince of demons’ (Matt 12:24) and the ‘prince of the power of the air’ (Eph 2:2)”(Tracy/Ingersol, Here We Stand page 322).

I would add yoga, buddhism and any similar practices. Make no mistake the new age movement and the emergent church go hand in hand and they are spiritually deadly.

 

[gratefulgrace]

I had a chance to see the maharishi in 1966 in Canada. My friends and I were poor Bible School students and this was free lecture. No one had heard of him as this was pre Beatle involvement. I thank God that even though I was a pretty immature believer he kept me safe from getting sucked into this. It was amazing how clearly we could all see the deception and yet many were drawn in, my own brother for a time. It is not intolerance to advocate a total separation of Christianity from other religions. ONe of the biggest criticisms of OT kings was their tendancy to adopt the practises and customs of the people groups they were meant to conquer. Ahaz was not the only one. I believe this tendancy started with Aaron in the wilderness when he felt he had to build the children of Israel a Golden Calf something visible to worship.

2Ch 28:1Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD, as his father David had done.

2Ch 28:2For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made molded images for the Baals.

2Ch 28:3He burned incense in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

2Ch 28:4And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

 

[Hilt-dah-wee]

I voted no on both.

You want to stretch - stretch. Yoga's more than just stretching.
You want to clear your mind - take a walk, go fishing, nap. Chanting isn't clearing your mind, it's filling it.

 

[OLDGUY]

I have practiced yoga and the phrase I used was "The Lord is my shepherd".
Was I wrong?

 

[mont974x4]

It is not the words chosen, it is the mental state that is established.