Light on the yoga sutras

Here at the yoga retreat, we spend a fair amount of time standing on our heads and twisting into pretzels, but we also learn about yoga philosophy. This isn't new to me. I took a class that included a survey of Hinduism in seminary. I studied the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali when I trained to become a yoga teacher in 2007. The principles are very interesting and, while originally rooted in the Hindu faith, contain some greater truths.

I remember that it was a bit threatening to me, at first. I wondered if it was okay to dive so deeply into the pantheon of Hindu gods and participate in chanting that included names of their deities. As I've moved through my yoga "career," though, I've found more similarities (and understood the differences) in the two faiths and I'm at peace with being a yoga practitioner and a Lutheran Christian.

Many of my colleagues here at this yoga retreat have no such qualms; as mentioned in the last blog post, many are agnostic or atheist. It hadn't occurred to me that there might be some Christians.

I was sitting at lunch today when a woman about my age sat down next to me. We'd exchanged pleasant conversations earlier in the week but I didn't know her well.

After saying hi, she asked if she could ask a personal question. I said yes. She asked me: "As a Christian, do you ever have a problem with the yoga philosophy and chanting?" I was curious and said, "Why do you ask?" Turns out she's an adult convert to Christianity and has been attending a Four Square church, which I'm guessing is more "conservative" than the average Lutheran church. She had some qualms about yoga philosophy and Christianity.

So I told her my story and told her that over the years I've learned to use the lens of Jesus Christ (hermeneutic!) when I try to apply yoga philosophy to my own life. For example, yoga philosophy speaks of the Ishvara within, which means that something of the divine is inside us. I believe that is true but I call it the Holy Spirit. Other parts of the yoga philosophy don't directly relate to God but how to live. The first yoga sutra speaks about calming the fluctuations of the mind (can't argue with that) as a way to get in touch with the divine within (again, can't argue with that).

I told her that when I hear stories of Shiva and Vishnu and the other deities, I treat them as good stories, like myths, that I might glean a lesson from but don't have to treat literally.

She confessed that she was thinking about going back to school to study biology but was concerned about creation and evolution. Thankfully we just did a study on this at Central last year, so I was prepared!

I told her that I believe in God and evolution. I believe God gave us minds to study science but that all scientists bump up against mystery, which many identify as God.

I talked about the worldview of the people who wrote the Bible (they thought earth was flat on sitting on four posts above a primordial sea) and explained that Lutherans don't believe in a literal interpretation of Scripture.

Here is where we diverged, for she believes in 6 day creation. I didn't talk her out of it; I just listened, though I did offer to get the name of the book we used in Central's study on the topic.

In the end, the conversation turned back to the fact that, as far as we knew, there weren't many Christians here. I told her it was okay, because we can be a witness that Christians are "normal people" and that we can live our faith just by being who we are. Then she thanked me and said, "Your light shines bright." It's a lovely compliment, Christian or not.