There is nothing wrong with stretching,
exercising, or regulating one’s stress through breathing. But when the tenets
of yoga are included, it’s by definition a worship act to spirit beings other
than the God of the Bible. By way of analogy, there is nothing inherently wrong
with intimacy, sex, and pleasure. But when the tenets of adultery are included,
it’s a sinfully idolatrous worship act. A faithful Christian can no more say
they are practicing yoga for Jesus than they can say they are committing
adultery for Jesus. – Pastor Mark
Driscoll (http://pastormark.tv/2011/11/02/christian-yoga-its-a-stretch)
Jesus was a teacher of the ancient organization
called The Way. The Way goes back many thousands of years; some believe it goes
back to Mithra (the earlier date of c. 2000BC). We have archaeological evidence
of The Way from Mohenjo-daro and Harappa and in some of the older Great Flood
legends. Remnants of The Way’s understanding of Mother Nature and God the
Mother linger in some ancient religious ideas. We have parallel symbols in the
birth of Jesus, Gautama Buddha, Zoroaster and Mithra. To name a few . . .
- The Yoga of Jesus (http://churchoftheeast.ca/yoga_of_jesus_(1).htm)
These
are just some thoughts.
Suppose
that there is no “correct” religion and that in fact every possible religion is
an attempt to reunite us with the timeless primordial source of ourselves, our
world and our universe. In such case it
would be clear that all of our attachment to this or that religious symbol,
dogma, ritual, etc. is actually in itself an act of idolatry. The symbols are like language itself:
attempts at encoding actual experience.
The experience itself is what is truly and ultimately sacred. And because it is something that we experience
it is not at all separate from who we are.
It is our innermost and central identity.
The
historical Jesus Christ is said to have lived two thousand or so years ago in
the Middle East. As far as I can
determine the actual historical evidence of him is questionable. In fact some might argue that he was simply a
mythological figure himself. This is presented
in the popular internet video Zeitgeist produced in 2007 (http://vimeo.com/13726978).
On the other hand some scholars have focused on “the missing years” to
discover whether or not his teachings may have been influenced by a journey to
the East. It is clear that the religion
referred to as “Christianity” has been filtered, edited and used for political
power over the centuries since his time.
Most notable is the Council of Constantinople and the Nicene Creed of 325
AD. The Nicene Council effectively
edited all of the writings about Jesus (he never published himself) in order to
arrive at a dogma consistent with the first “Christian” Emperor’s rule. (Could this be the origin of the tale of “The
Emperor’s Clothes?) In any case it seems
that any direct references to reincarnation were expunged and the teachings
were directed to the worship of Jesus as God (consubstantial) and the idea that
the rest of us are definitely not.
Mystical
spirituality seems to be somewhat consistent between religions. For instance Meister Eckhart, a 13th
century Christian philosopher, mystic and theologian often made statements that
are fundamentally in sync with Vedantic and Buddhist teachings. For instance a favorite quote for me is, “The eye with which I
see God is the same eye with which God sees me.” It is recognition of oneness, non-duality which
is the basis of all of us. As Jesus also
said, “The lamp of the body is the eye:
if therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light.” (Matt 6:22) The Gospel of Thomas which was edited out of
the Nicene Canon but later rediscovered in 1945 gives this additional emphasis,
"If those who lead you say, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the
birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then
the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is
outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known,
and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But
if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are
that poverty."
Our
ego-self is that poverty. It is that
mistaken identity that lives in fear. In
Yogic terms this is called “avidya,” ignorance or delusion. It seems to me that Jesus tried to teach us a
universal truth, not something to be confined to one religious tradition. It is the truth of the divinity that appears
to be hidden within us. In fact it is
not really hidden, we have just been hypnotized into believing otherwise. Traditional religion is often implicit in
this cultural control system. Culture,
religion, education and politics all conspire to keep us from realizing our
true nature, and our true potential. As
Jesus said, "Has it not been written in your Law, 'I SAID, YOU ARE GODS?”
(John 10:34)
