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| Being a Christian I am somewhat skeptical about all this Indian Yoga. Esp. in our country, founded on Christian principles.
I look at yoga more like good stretching and found Bikram to be ideal for that. I'm not one of these wierd vegan hippie types. Pretty straight laced all American. But Bikram is pretty cool. I have been doing it for 3 weeks now. A couple of my ideas:
1. I'm wondering why we couldnt do this practise without all the Indian weird words. Why not americanize it? We have way to many foriegn concepts in this class and why not instead subsitute some biblical terms? Who can I talk to about this?
2. I feel like I'm pretty close to wanting to be an instructor. Where can I do it . And by being an instructor could I open my own studio and make it based on Christian principles.
3. I would like to see a requirement and conformity in regards to clothing. It is outright frightening what people wear in there. It borders on being lewd esp. the women. |
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| ben - 2009-06-05 9:20 AM
Being a Christian I am somewhat skeptical about all this Indian Yoga. Esp. in our country, founded on Christian principles.
I look at yoga more like good stretching and found Bikram to be ideal for that. I'm not one of these wierd vegan hippie types. Pretty straight laced all American. But Bikram is pretty cool. I have been doing it for 3 weeks now. A couple of my ideas:
1. I'm wondering why we couldnt do this practise without all the Indian weird words. Why not americanize it? We have way to many foriegn concepts in this class and why not instead subsitute some biblical terms? Who can I talk to about this?
===>Many yoga teachers use English names for the poses and many use the Sanskrit names. I personally use the English names because all the people in my classes speak English not Sanskrit. To use biblical terms is repeating the same problem as using Sanskrit terms. As a teacher, I make sure that my class is equally accessible and welcoming to Christians, Hindus, Moslems, Jews, agnostics and atheists as well as people of all genders, ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds. That is my choice and some teachers agree and some do not for a variety of reasons.
2. I feel like I'm pretty close to wanting to be an instructor. Where can I do it . And by being an instructor could I open my own studio and make it based on Christian principles.
===>That is great as long as you do not mind excluding non-Christians from your classes by making them feel uncomfortable. If there is a strong market segment in your area who want a "Christian" yoga class, you could be very successful.
3. I would like to see a requirement and conformity in regards to clothing. It is outright frightening what people wear in there. It borders on being lewd esp. the women.
===>Lewdness is in the eye of the beholder.
Do you want to teach yoga or do you want to push your own personal ideas on others? I strongly dislike it when I go to a yoga (or any other) class and the teacher spends all the time pushing their own personal stuff instead of focusing on what everyone is there for in the first place.
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| Welcome to the forum Ben. I think your ideas are all very good. You should immediately contract Bikram. He's very open to inputs from his customers and I think he'll agree with you about Americanizing the terms and adopting biblical passages to his practice. He's easy to reach at the Bikram website. There is information available there too about teacher training. You're a week shy though of the minimum requirement to enter training though--I think you have to have at least a month. The clothing thing though may be tough to overcome. Most women take Bikram classes in order to find a lover, and preferably a husband. The best way to find a good man in their minds is to show off the body. Bikram realizes this and that's why his patented 26 poses do not include the provocative yoga poses like Downward Facing Dog. Lightly clad, sweaty girls doing that is beyond good morals and in fact has resulted in some sexual assault cases at several studios. Best of luck and please let us know where you open your studio! |
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| Bruce, you just made my morning!!! That reply is a work of art. |
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| Bruce,
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!! |
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Veteran
Posts: 149
 
| ummmm I am ALREADY married and happy ...... i actually found that generalization very offensive |
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| When you open your new studio I have a suggestion. Have your students hold the bible in one hand while doing each pose. With each pose they must read one verse in the bible. And have the women wear potato sacks as to not offend the men. |
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| Amy darling, read Bruce's post again and see if you can find a SINGLE true statement in it... hehehehe... I think my favorite is, "[Bikram]'s very open to inputs from his customers," though "he's easy to reach" is a close second.
Although on a second reading... "contract" Bikram? Is he contagious?? That would explain so much... |
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| Yeah Amy, I was kidding the original troll poster. Thanks for the top cover dj. Although today a caveman I work with asked me what the hell I saw in yoga. I told him bendy, sweaty girls. Hey, gotta know your audience...first law of comedy. |
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Veteran
Posts: 149
| sweet... understood and forgiven LUV |
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Veteran
Posts: 243
| My favorite is being a week shy of having enough practice to go to teacher training- nice, Bruce, nice... ;-) |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | Bruce - 2009-06-05 1:23 PM
Welcome to the forum Ben. I think your ideas are all very good. You should immediately contract Bikram. He's very open to inputs from his customers and I think he'll agree with you about Americanizing the terms and adopting biblical passages to his practice. He's easy to reach at the Bikram website. There is information available there too about teacher training. You're a week shy though of the minimum requirement to enter training though--I think you have to have at least a month. The clothing thing though may be tough to overcome. Most women take Bikram classes in order to find a lover, and preferably a husband. The best way to find a good man in their minds is to show off the body. Bikram realizes this and that's why his patented 26 poses do not include the provocative yoga poses like Downward Facing Dog. Lightly clad, sweaty girls doing that is beyond good morals and in fact has resulted in some sexual assault cases at several studios. Best of luck and please let us know where you open your studio!
The Christian version of Bikram Yoga should do very well, I think. Chastity belts for the girls. Lashes on the back for the boys. The teacher would wear a cassock and look a little like Cyrus from "The DaVinci Code".
The pose names -- well, it would give a firmer sense of having one's hand in Prayer Position. A twist could be called "Turning Away from Temptation Pose".
Bending forward to grab the ankles would be called "Meeting the Priest Pose". Utkanasa would be called "Trying to sit comfortably after meeting the priest post". These last two poses would only be done by the guys in the class, of course.
... bg
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| BWAHAHAHAH--Meeting the priest! That's great Brother Bay Guy! |
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| Ben--Thanks for making our day(s)! If the original post was from somebody shining us, thanks! |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | Bruce - 2009-06-06 6:32 PM
BWAHAHAHAH--Meeting the priest! That's great Brother Bay Guy!
Cheers, Brother Bruce!
... bg |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | You guys are tooo much.  You know what's scary??? This is not too far from reality, OMG  |
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| ben - 2009-06-05 12:20 PM
Being a Christian I am somewhat skeptical about all this Indian Yoga. Esp. in our country, founded on Christian principles.
I look at yoga more like good stretching and found Bikram to be ideal for that. I'm not one of these wierd vegan hippie types. Pretty straight laced all American. But Bikram is pretty cool. I have been doing it for 3 weeks now. A couple of my ideas:
1. I'm wondering why we couldnt do this practise without all the Indian weird words. Why not americanize it? We have way to many foriegn concepts in this class and why not instead subsitute some biblical terms? Who can I talk to about this?
2. I feel like I'm pretty close to wanting to be an instructor. Where can I do it . And by being an instructor could I open my own studio and make it based on Christian principles.
3. I would like to see a requirement and conformity in regards to clothing. It is outright frightening what people wear in there. It borders on being lewd esp. the women.
Ben,
Assuming this is not a rib, please see my responses:
1)Yoga is thousands of years old and originated in India as a means for yogins to prepare to remain still in long hours of meditation. Westernize it and take away the Indian nomenclature, and it is just stretching. It sounds like basically that's all you want to do is stretch in a hot room, and there are many means other than Bikram by which to accomplish that.
2)Maybe you should rethink your desire to be an instructor. The lack of regard you seem to hold for yogic traditions will show in your teaching style, and those traditions would seem to run pretty counter to Christian traditions. You don't have to embrace yogic traditions, but they should at least be acknowledged and respected.
3)The Bikram practice is about you, not about what everyone else is doing or wearing. The instructor reinforces that we should be focusing on ourselves in the mirror and not scanning the room. By mere fact that you are noticing the borderline lewd outfits (which Bikram actually encourages for comfort and inspiration), tells me that you are actually being tittilated.
Just my $0.02.
Namasté |
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| is this guy a joke or what, sweettttt, LOL, 3 weeks on doing Yoga and already wanted to change the "whole" Yoga, swt LOL. |
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I tried Bikram
