A Historical Defense of Yoga for Catholics
That is, yoga postures *when executed for purely physiological purposes.*
Here, I presented a philosophical argument as to why it seems morally permissible for Catholics to execute yoga postures with the sole intention of physically exercising.
Here, theologian Dr. Brett Salkeld states: “Even if the physical postures of themselves are morally neutral (and physically beneficial), there are further considerations. Both the eating of food offered to idols and yoga happen within social contexts, and we must take care that we are not using our actions to communicate something to those around us that will scandalize them…For the Christian, yoga can function as prayer only in the sense of consecrating every act to God in our attempt to ‘pray without ceasing.’ In other words, if yoga is a spiritual act for a Catholic, it is so in just the same way that weightlifting or swimming is a spiritual act. This balance can be hard to strike because of the social factors mentioned earlier. While very few of our contemporaries are likely to see swimming laps as engaging in a spiritual exercise, many will see yoga in that way. And this is to be expected, given that the original practitioners of yoga understand it to be a spiritual practice…we cannot afford to overlook the possibility that the social and historical context of yoga may be a stumbling block to using these exercises as mere exercises or to our brothers and sisters in Christ.”
Dr. Salkeld’s point about the possibility of causing scandal is well-taken. For this reason, I think it may be often preferable to execute these physical postures in the privacy of one’s own home, as opposed to in a yoga class.
A BASIC HISTORICAL ARGUMENT
Most yoga classes in the West are purely, or mostly purely, physical exercise classes, with no or almost no spiritual element involved.
As this 1989 Vatican document describes, traditional “yoga” as it manifested itself across a wide variety of Buddhist, Hindu and other Eastern practices, starting in about 1000 BC, involved physical movements that were related to spiritual practices relating to meditation, release from worldly attachments, witness-consciousness, and other problematic elements that are incompatible with Catholic spiritual practice.
However, the term “yoga” as we use it in the West today does not refer to the ancient, problematic-for-a-Catholic practice of “yoga.” (This is a case of the word “yoga” being used analogously, but not univocally.) The term “yoga” in the Western world today refers to a very different practice - the one that I have been defending. This contemporary “yoga” practice is essentially a modern, new, physical fitness technique, consisting entirely of asanas (physical poses) that are executed solely for the purpose of physiological health.
What I am arguing is that in the West, what I described here as being possible in Aristotelian terms - the separation of the matter of “yoga” (the physical movements) from its original form (the Eastern, spiritual element) - has already happened, and on a massive scale. What we do on the West is most of the time not actually the traditional, spiritual practice of yoga that the Vatican was discussing in their 1989 document.
Indeed, here, an exorcist states: “With regard to yoga, once again, I cannot demonize it, since the Church itself has not done so. If, as the then-Cardinal Ratzinger once said in an interview, yoga is simply practiced as an exercise aimed at psychophysical well-being, there is nothing to object to it. But in this case, it is no longer yoga as it is known in India, the one that Hinduism has created."
A MORE DETAILED HISTORICAL ARGUMENT
One of the most authoritative texts on what yoga actually is is a text known as Yoga Sutras, a collection of Sanskrit texts dating to the early centuries AD. It was compiled by an Indian sage known as Patanjali, who synthesized, codified and described yoga practices from much older traditions. In the text, Patanjali explained the 8 “limbs” of classical yoga:
Yama (“abstinences” - ethical rules)
Niyama (“observances” - lifestyle habits)
Asanas (physical postures)
Pranayama (breathing exercises)
Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses)
Dharana (concentration of the mind)
Dhyana (meditation)
Samadhi (absorption)
Of these 8 “limbs”, the only 2 that are objectively purely physiological in and of themselves (regardless of any spiritual elements that have been tacked on to them) are:
asanas (the physical body movements I have been defending throughout these 2 articles), and
pranayama (breathing patterns).
In my 1st article, I argued that these 2 physiological practices can (and must, for a Catholic) be executed apart from any Eastern spirituality that has been attached to them. While there are numerous elements of yama (moral beliefs) and niyama (living habits) that are compatible with Catholicism, the last 4 “limbs” of yoga that I listed above essentially need to be altogether avoided by Catholics (as enumerated in the 1989 Vatican document).
Asanas and pranayamas were not central in traditional, ancient yoga (the type essentially condemned in the Vatican document) the way that they are in contemporary Western yoga. These 2 “limbs” of yoga, especially asanas, only became heavily popularized in the early 20th century, largely due to Western athletic influence. Before the 11th century, asanas exclusively referred to seated postures. After the 1st milennium, asanas came to include many different types of positions in Hatha yoga, which later developed into the 19th-20th century “yoga as exercise” fitness technique.
In the 1920s, famous yoga gurus Yogendra and Kuvalayananda emphasized the health benefits associated with different asanas. In 1934, a yogi named Tirumala, known as another influential pioneer of yoga as exercise (not as spirituality), published a book called Essence of Yoga. The book consisted entirely of descriptions of 42 asanas and photographs of Tirumala and his students executing these postures. The book briefly described the other 7 “limbs” of yoga but only instructed students to practice the 1 limb of asanas. In the mid 20th century, Western gymnastics poses even became incorporated into asana routines, further reflecting a fascinating East-West interplay.
SOURCES
Georg Feuerstein’s Handboek voor Yoga