| there is nothing wrong with yoga, but some people do not believe in bringing in practices that have their origins in other cultural or religious traditions.
but, the current, common catholic thought on the subject is that yoga is a spiritual discipline like prayer. you can pray to any number of gods, but catholics pray to a particular idea of God--the holy trinity. If you do your yoga with this notion of God in mind, then there is no problem with it as far as catholicism goes. If you use it to deepen your connection with God in this ideology, then it is beneficial for you and you should definately do it.
if it becomes a hinderance to your faith (assuming catholicism is your faith), then you should not do it. if you decide that catholicism is a hinderance to your faith, and therefore you must leave catholicism and follow other practices, then people who are catholic and in your family will probably have a big problem with that and make all sorts of emotional pleas and speak aobut how bad it is to leave catholicism.
These people may not understand yoga, why you practice it, and probably worry about whether or not it is hindering your catholic faith practice. thus, they're doing what they consider to be 'damage control.' they fear that you'll leave the catholic faith for yoga or because of yoga, so they want to disparage yoga to keep you from doing it and therefore keep this fear from coming true.
But, as long as you know why and how you're doing yoga, and as long as it doens't inhibit your catholic faith, the church as a whole has no problem with it's members practicing yoga. |
| you ask three difficult questions, but i'll do my best to answer. i'm changing the order of the questions, though.
or what about me explaining yoga to them (my elders think the no everthing i mean i no the no more than me but u should hear them talk )
First of all, remember that most of the time, elders do know more than those who are younger than them. they have more life experience, so they may have a sense of things that younger people do not have yet. Of course, for the most part, younger people have to experience things for themselves to gain this wisdom. This is why both elders and youngsters become frustrated with each other.
But, elders don't know everything. For many people, they make a decision at some point and then never engage alternatives from that point on. It can be about any number of topics. The decision that they make, or thing that they determine to be true, is likely so vast anyway, that it takes a lifetime to even begin to understand what that is and what it means. So, for example, if your grandmother chose catholicism at some point, she likely decided that it was best and because catholicism is so vast, there's no need to even consider other ideas or practices outside of catholicism. And, because she values catholicism so highly, she wants you to gain the benefit of her experience. So, there's nothing wrong with her doing this, but it often inhibits dialogue when a younger person seeks information from outside the elder's realm of experience and knowledge.
And many elders do not want to engage the younger person's thoughts, experiences, or even questions because they think of it as 'been there done that' and ultimately they want to be valued for their experience just as the younger person wants to be valued for their experience (different experiences, different amounts of experiences, and different ways of thinking about those experiences). So, this is why you're reaching some resistance from your elders.
As to explaining yoga to your elders, i think it largely depends upon how you explain it. If you consider it an aspect of your catholic faith, a way of deepinging your relationship with God, then i think that this is all that you need to say. You may also toss in that the catholic church, in general, doesn't take issue with it's practitioners also practicing yoga. If you do not consider yourself catholic, then this will cause more waves in the family, more strife.
So, the next question, then, is how many waves do you want to cause. I don't necessarily believe in 'keep the peace at any cost'--and the cost is denying yourself and where you feel God is leading you. Thta's a huge cost, and to me it's one of the three temptations of Christ in the desert. Ultimately, you cannot deny yourself and where God is leading you. But, i do believe that there are ways to honor yourself while still maintaining peaceful relationships with those around you. There will be difficulty--but these are not necessarily bad, they are often more like "growing pains" though emotional ones rather than physical ones.
If this is the case (that you don't necessarily believe in catholicism), then my recommendation is to use 'uncertain' words if this is the case such as "i'm thinking about hinduism/vedanta recently" and "i find buddhist interesting" and "i'm beginning to question my faith so that i can determine the best path for me to follow in knowing God." While this will cause some waves and perhaps even a great deal of worry--and even more questioning and more pleading with you to remain catholic--it also won't cause as much strife as "i'm buddhist!" or something more emphatic. And, if you assure them that you haven't yet made a decision, but that you are exploring, this often mitigates and fears that they may have.
And, i'll be honest, even within the catholic context, using terms such as "i'm exploring" or "i'm reflecting on my catholicism in light of these buddhist ideas to see if i find wisdom there" will also help mitigate a lot of fears because it points to the real situation--that you are just exploring and that it doesn't hold any inherent, definitive meaning either way.
about the changing faith thing what if i do wanna change my faith ??? to buddisum (buddhist i think i spelled the other one wrong)or some other religion is that wrong ??? (just wonder)
Ultimately, this is a question that you can only answer yourself. But, the question also has many answers depending upon whom you ask. Many catholics and christians would say that any religion without christ is not a 'whole' religion or doesn't help one achieve union with God. Other catholics and christians believe in the concept of "one God, many paths" in which they state that religions are generally equally good and all heading in the same direction--so it doesn't matter what you practice, as long as it works for you. And of course, you can substitute terms like "buddhist and hindu" for "catholics and christians" or any other number or combinations of religions therein. There are those who believe that their religion is the best and only way; and there are those who believe that many ways are equally good.
Ultimately, though, catholicism has no qualms with buddhism, and there is even a movement within the catholic church accepted by the vatican called the 'zen catholic' movement. this movement is catholic, but it includes many zen buddhist practices such as zazan meditation. So, for some people, blending religions or bringing in practices and ideas from other religions is not a problem even in catholicism--which is often considered a rather rigid or strict church.
why do people think it is evil (i no u kinda explained to me but i'm still curious)
largely, due to ignorance about both yoga (or any other religion or religious or cultural practice). Yoga is not the only thing to suffer from this.
For example, a friend of mine is Finnish (from Finland in northern Europe). IN his country, there is an interesting christmas/winter tradition. On the winter solstace (yesterday Dec 21), the man of the house carries around a pot of incense and the woman of the house carries around holy water and a pine branch. The couple goes from room to room (with the family in tow), waving the incense and sprinkling the house with the holy water (which is traditionally melted snow over which the woman says a prayer while she is melting it) by shaking it off the fresh-cut pine branch. As my friend is single, but living alone, his mother comes to his house and preforms the 'duties' of the 'woman of the house' for him when he does this christmas ritual. Also, his house is last because first it's his parent's house, then his brother's house (married with two children), and last his house is blessed. They chose this timing because of the children's bed times. So, there's nothing inherent in the timing.
But, he recommended that we try this unique expression of Northern Europe as a way of blessing the house. THe origins of this practice are mirrored in catholic practices (you may recognize it in church services!), but come from more ancient practices of northern europe--"pagan" practices. in my area here in Pennsylvania, many people do not believe in adding 'pagan' practices to their lives--and yet they celebrate christmas as we do here, and that includes a lot of 'pagan' origin practices. In any case, we invited frients over to bless the house using the finnish prayers and practices, and we invited a few neighbors as well (who are of this particular mindset against 'pagan' traditions).
The neighbors, with whom i have rarely gotten along, were happy to attend our solstice celebration (i called it a christmas party), and we did the blessing of the house in english instead of finnish (as we don't speak finnish). We asked our friends to join us. The neighbors were respectful, but uncomfortable, and later confronted us about this practice and were afriad that it was somehow evil.
I told them that i could not determine that for them, but they could consider that way if they wanted. For me, it was an interesting tradition--shared by a friend--that we can put in our own lives. It was very meaningful and a beautiful practice. My mother wants to do it on christmas eve at her house with all of us. She doesn't consider it evil, because the prayers can be christian/catholic as much as they can belong to anything else.
So, the reason why many people may think something is evil is because it is different, they don't know about it or understand it, or because they generally believe that anything that doesn't come through a specific religious or cultural tradition is evil. In the first two cases, simple exposure to the practice and an explaination of the ideas and backgrounds can dispell any fears that the practice is "evil." In the second case, very little will dispell the idea that the practice is 'evil.'
Does this help at all? |
my abuelos against yoga ??
still speaking with this post . 
How about giving us a little intro on you - what you practice, why you like yoga etc.?
