Question: How do you harmonize it with Christian prayer? Rituals? Philosophy?

There is a misconception that yoga is an Eastern religion. It is not, although it has been closely associated with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Yoga is a practical spiritual discipline, a systematic program for peaceful living with fuller awareness, and a tremendous tool for spiritual growth offered as a gift to the world by India. When a person’s heart is open to the richness, beauty and power of another tradition, it not only brings respect and understanding of the other, but it produces a meaningful deepening of one’s own relationship with God.

Traditional yoga offers people the opportunity to deepen their own faith by allowing them to connect to their nature as open outwards toward a Transcendent. In yoga the spiritual is experienced by cultivating awareness and using awareness to explore the subtle dimensions of our being.

For example, students might be encouraged to develop their awareness by connecting with the sensations in their bodies, by connecting with their breath, and by noting any emotions or thoughts that arise as they practice asana. This is yoga. As they begin to connect with their bodies, they might be invited to enter into the deep stillness within the body-mind. It is in this inner stillness that we open ourselves to the presence of God and the movement of the Holy Spirit within the heart and mind.

As Christian teachers, we employ a variety of methods in praying through our whole being. Some use affirmations drawn from scripture while holding a pose. Others “embody” classic prayers like the Our Father in posture sequences, and still others develop posture flows to inspiring song prayers as a way of offering thanksgiving, making intercession, and glorifying God in and through our bodies. The methods vary, but the original and underlying inspiration remains the same: to work with yoga as a spiritual path for all and as a way of opening to God. For Christians, that path goes to God through Jesus Christ, guided by the indwelling Spirit. For others, the path will lead to their understanding of Divinity or Supreme Being or Absolute.

Bernadette Latin