Yoga: A cautionary tale

parousia70

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So you feel your opinion matters more than the truth?

Just because it's my opinion doesn't mean it's not true.

I find that Spin classes such as "soul cycle" Are just as un-Christian, tantric and trance inducing as yoga.

I mean, just look at the name "soul cycle"...the name itself evokes images of reincarnation...clearly it's as much of a gateway as a ouji board or yoga.

If you find that to be untruthful, please demonstrate how with some other fact that you can enlighten with.
 
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eastcoast_bsc

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Just because it's my opinion doesn't mean it's not true.

I find that Spin classes such as "soul cycle" Are just as un-Christian, tantric and trance inducing as yoga.

I mean, just look at the name "soul cycle"...

If you find that to be untruthful, please demonstrate how with some other fact that you can enlighten with.



The fact is the church has issues with the Hindu belief in polytheism. This belief is imbued in the practice of yoga.

Soul cycle as far as I know has no religious core to it.

But you should have known this.
 
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Sword of the Lord

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As the article stated, it is weird it has a strong reaction in people when someone has not had a good experience with it. I mean, it's yoga... or the devil's stretches. :p
This forum is literally the first and only place I've seen yoga demonized. People are weird here.
 
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Davidnic

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The big question is can it be adopted in a way that leaves the spiritual aspects and leaves behind only the physical exercises?

Yep, I do DDP Yoga that was adapted by a former wrestler and it is fine. Aside from feeling nostalgic about seeing old Wrestling shows at Hershey and the Philly spectrum there have been no side effects.
 
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Davidnic

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It is going to depend on how it is done. If you are at a health annex class where the instructor is parroting spiritual ideology...then don't do it. If you are using it in a more fitness designed method then, I have seen no problems. It is a matter of prudential judgment not dogma.
 
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Michie

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I thought the article was fair. It also said it could be done. I think it is a matter of not walking in blindly to something when there is something amiss.
It is going to depend on how it is done. If you are at a health annex class where the instructor is parroting spiritual ideology...then don't do it. If you are using it in a more fitness designed method then, I have seen no problems. It is a matter of prudential judgment not dogma.
 
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Phil 1:21

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That was an interesting article, albeit a bit heavy on the apology and light on the substance. That notwithstanding, I think 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 applies here.

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God.

4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

7 But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
 
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eastcoast_bsc

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You've clearly never been to soul cycle.


I know what soul cycle is. They have multiple studios around the city.
Usually made up of insufferable millennials and goof ball hipsters cycling to lousy music.

Mmmmm maybe they are evil. Lol
 
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parousia70

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I know what soul cycle is. They have multiple studios around the city.
Usually made up of insufferable millennials and goof ball hipsters cycling to lousy music.

Mmmmm maybe they are evil. Lol

You joke about it, but is it really any less dangerous?

Will those insufferable, Christ rejecting Hipsters who think they have found peace, balance and connection to the divine through Soulcycle somehow have a different eternal fate than their Yogi Counterparts?
 
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parousia70

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The Stationary Bike of the Soul

From the Article...

"Spiritual-ish language like "the deep intangible" shows up throughout SoulCycle's marketing. To take the class, I had to sign a waiver agreeing to respect SoulCycle's "etiquette" so as to "preserve the SoulCycle sanctuary." The rules of the ride were painted on the wall of the locker room; among other things, they stated that "Talking during class is a major distraction for the spiritual folks around you" and "We ride close together so that we can feel each other's energy."

"But to me, the most interesting aspect of the program isn't the "Cycle"—it's the "Soul." This is both a totally obvious and kind of curious choice for a brand name: Obvious in the sense that "soul" has become a fairly generic placeholder for ideas like "self," "spirituality," and "personhood"; and curious in the sense that "the soul" is actually a highly contested metaphysical concept, written about by figures from Aristotle to Aquinas to Descartes. In a bizarre way, "SoulCycle" is a roughly good representation of Cartesian dualism, which is the idea that existence is made up of two kinds of stuff: the mind, which is the basis of the cognition (the "Soul"), and the material body (the "Cycle"). "

So Again, please explain to me how my opinion that Soul Cycle and Yoga pose the same spiritual threat to their adherents is, as you claimed, Untruthful?

Soulcycle is a Classic Cult. Especially since the ownership/Leaders are getting rich off their followers by requiring them to be beholden financially if they want to participate.

In Contrast, nobody owns Yoga, there is no "Pope" of Yoga...Just about every city I have visited has Free yoga classes somewhere.
Not anywhere near a cult like the dangerous "Soul Cycle" phenom.
 
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Cosmic Charlie

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I sorry but I 'm having an extraordinarily difficult time believing two things implicit in the conversation about yoga as a gateway to evil:

1) It presupposes that 25% of the world's population (that's one quarter) who use yoga and yoga like mediation in good faith believing that doing so makes them better people are, in fact, participating in an evil act so dangerous it leads to demonic position.

and, more to the point:

2) I have an even harder time believing a merciful God would allow so many of His children to be deluded for so long a period of time. (Buddhism and Hindu after all pre-date even Judaism)

You (and by that I mean the plural you) can have any opinion you want as to the total ethical and theological correctness or completeness of Hindu and Buddhism but to claim it's fundamentally evil stretches the definition of evil to the point of meaninglessness.
 
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Open Heart

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I remember doing ouiji as a kid. It left me with a bad feeling.
Doing ouija is consulting spirits, which is necromancy. It is specifically a sin given the death penalty in the Sacred Scriptures.

The scriptures say nothing about stretching, doing deep breathing, or relaxing your thoughts, all of which are simply healthy things to do.

All you have to do is not engage in any of the Hindu practices associated with Yoga, like don't bow to any idols. You get the point.

I did Tai Chi for seven years. (I still do it from time to time.) It strengthened my back so that it supported my spine (I have a desiccated disk) and got rid of the pain. It also help moderate my moods (I'm bipolar). I learned that Chi really does exist, but is simply the natural electro-magnetic field that the chemical reactions of your body cells generate. I didn't become a Buddhist priest or a Taoist monk.
 
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parousia70

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I did Tai Chi for seven years. (I still do it from time to time.) It strengthened my back so that it supported my spine (I have a desiccated disk) and got rid of the pain. It also help moderate my moods (I'm bipolar). I learned that Chi really does exist, but is simply the natural electro-magnetic field that the chemical reactions of your body cells generate. I didn't become a Buddhist priest or a Taoist monk.

Heathen!
Clearly you are on a slippery slope in danger of losing your salvation by dabbling in the occult practice of "understanding Chi."

Be careful or you may slide into the horrific practice of Feng Shui, and start arranging your Secular, Godless Ikea furniture into satanic pentagrams....
 
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Open Heart

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Exorcist Father Ripperger says this about yoga.

There are ALWAYS paranoid people. There are still people around who think that hypnosis is dangerous, even though we all enter into hypnotic states naturally without assistance. There are people who think that deep breathing is pagan, even though breathing is perfectly natural. I think Satan laughs when we see him behind every rock -- he doesn't have to work so hard to scare us and control us.
 
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Cosmic Charlie

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There are ALWAYS paranoid people. There are still people around who think that hypnosis is dangerous, even though we all enter into hypnotic states naturally without assistance. There are people who think that deep breathing is pagan, even though breathing is perfectly natural. I think Satan laughs when we see him behind every rock -- he doesn't have to work so hard to scare us and control us.

 
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Tallguy88

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Exercise poses that are called Yoga is not harmful. Many of those poses also developed independently in other contexts as well. Getting in funny poses to build muscle strength won't lead to demonic possession. Yoga as Hindu spirituality isn't OK for a Christian because it's syncretism at best.

So it depends on what is meant by yoga.
 
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