Yoga, the Martial Arts, Meditation and Religion. Yoga is a therapeutic health and wellbeing system that has long been divorced from the religions of the culture it developed within. The object of Yoga, and the Martial Arts, is to create a healthy body and stable mind, through the mediums of exercise, breath control and meditation. Good Martial Arts also add in an ability to defend our selves and others against violent assault. As a teacher I have frequently met with a Christian argument against practicing Yoga or the Martial Arts because of a fear that the meditative processes involved - the ‘emptying of the mind’, must include of God (and if one does that, what might one allow in ‘by mistake?). This is frequently held misconception and nothing could be further from the truth, as I will explain in the next paragraph. If we were to use the word ‘calm’ instead of ‘empty’ it might be more accurate, and less worrying. All that is really meant by ‘emptying the mind’ is to calm down the everyday parade of incessant anxieties that plague all of us all of the time. When we calm the conscious mind and find the inner peace which it brings, we can actually feel a greater sense of love, compassion and connectedness with all people and things, which is normally swamped by our conscious though processes. Different spiritual practices and religions all aim to achieve this in different ways, and each translates the resultant sensations in different ways; to an atheist it can be a goal in it’s own right, which allows them to connect with their inner self - their conscience and social conscience; where-as to a religious person it allows one to ’hear’ the voice (or will) of God, and helps to clarify that connection. In reality all people benefit from deepening this spiritual process, it allows us to heal, physically and mentally, from within, and promotes clear thinking and emotional control, and enhancing the ability to cope better with whatever life throws at us. So, back to the phrase ‘emptying the mind’ - a Martial Artist who trains with me (and who is a staunch Christian), came up with a lovely analogy;- “There is a difference between an empty pond, and a calm pond.” To continue the analogy; an empty pond could in indeed be refilled with all sorts of toxic waste, and if we own any sort of pond we must indeed take care about who we allow to fill it, but a calm, vibrant and healthy pond is home to all sorts of natural wildlife, and is profoundly connected to our ecology. Back to the question of Yoga and religion. How could ego-free self-development, possibly be against the will of any loving God? We would be nurturing the life that God gave to us, treating it as a precious gift. If God created this world for us, why would he want us to become disconnected from it, to be unable to hear his voice because of the stew of our own thoughts. This is the spiritual disconnect that modern capitalism and the media actively encourages through manipulating our desires and filling our heads with dumb-ed down innocuous hogwash for entertainment. As an Atheist, a therapist and a Life Arts teacher, I fully acknowledge the spiritual side of Humanity which is expressed in so many different forms, but we all need the same basic things whatever our spiritual views are; Health; Food; Security; and Love and Compassion. The meditative Arts go a long way to ensuring good health, a mind capable of coping with life’s problems and providing security, and developing an all embracing compassion for the people and creatures around us. If we develop ourselves by actively getting rid of stress through the meditative Arts, then we can better manage our relationships, our lives, and the ecology of our planet (for their own sakes, or to be better able to pay tribute to our God). We all win, GREAT! “We share the same biology, regardless of ideology” Sting
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 17:16:37 +0000
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