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Latest Yoga style inspires, provides new understanding
Published:
Monday, February 3, 2003
Karen Garloch
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
New yoga classes seem to be popping up everywhere in every type. Power yoga. Hot yoga. Yoga for kids.
But I hadn't heard of "Christian yoga" until I got an e-mail from Emily Cobb, a minister's wife, who is starting a class in Matthews, N.C., in February.
The idea struck me as paradoxical. I'm a Christian, and I've done yoga, but I never thought about mixing the two.
"We wanted to open the doors to people who were afraid," Cobb said. "We care about calling it Christian yoga because we wanted Christians to feel OK."
Yoga was born in India, a country of many religions, including Hinduism. It is a spiritual practice but not a religion, according to Richard Faulds, chairman of the board of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts.
"Yoga is a set of spiritual practices that are about the body, the breath and the awareness," Faulds said. "Those practices can be used to fan the flame of any religious faith. They bring you in touch with the in-dwelling spirit in the body."
The word yoga means "a state of union of body, mind and spirit," Faulds said. "Can Christian people practice yoga and can it benefit their faith? Absolutely. ... Eighteen million people practice yoga every week in America, and many of them are faithful Christians."
Faulds said he would prefer the name "yoga for Christians" rather than "Christian yoga" because it suggests an "invitation for people to share Christian fellowship and explore the practice of yoga" rather than "making it Christian." It's not Christian or un-Christian, he said.
"The true teachings are beyond name and form. Beyond Christ, beyond Buddha or Krishna." Cobb began practicing yoga several years ago to relieve back and knee pain. She was so pleased, she decided to become an instructor and bring yoga to fellow Christians who might not otherwise try it.
"It is a wonderful fit for us within the Christian faith, and one of the main reasons is that we live in just such a hectic society," she said. "... It helps us slow down and really focus on what's more important in life."
Cobb was inspired by an Alabama instructor who bases her Christian yoga classes on Psalms 46:10: "Be still and know that I am God."
"Yoga is about stillness," Cobb said. "It helps us find that focus and that stillness in God. Cobb's classes include prayer and devotions.
"Yoga is accepting," she said. "Any religion can practice yoga. ... We're going to draw a certain audience. It's impossible for every class to be everything for everybody. We're just offering this one path."
