Hidden flame: the Orthodox view of yoga

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what part has a believer with an infidel? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?
(2 Cor. 6: 14-16)

By birth I'm Catholic. I loved to pray. A walk in the woods, playing on the river, wandering in the vast expanses of the imagination. It was all a kind of prayer for me: quiet, calm, almost hesychia, so natural for a child. I had not been always in this prayer condition. But I recognized him. This experience got me a gift, just as the action in the heart.

We all – to varying degrees – feel like. This, given some of the naming – or not given, because all the words seem so inappropriate in order to Express the motion of the heart to God. When we are innocent of heart, especially in early adolescence, is the experience of the two in this experience. A loving and Beloved. Someone Else. I, as a child, could not clearly indicate that the Presence of Christ – in the same way I would never call parents by name. I just knew them.





When I was in high school my grandparents sent me to a Catholic school for boys – I wanted to become a monk-Trappist. I regularly attended services and often read the Bible. The Scripture, indeed, like a door. You can go through it, and the Holy Spirit will take you to different places, even without lifting your soles from the ground. But I knew it was something more. What is the difference between reading about the events and experiences of meeting Him.

Dr. Harry Boosalis says in the Holy Tradition: "We are called not just to follow Tradition or "to imitate" Tradition. We are called to live it out... as did the saints and continue to do now." We know something is missing in the world around us. A wealth, a depth, which we intuitively know and aspire to. This, of course, the richness of God's love, light and grace. But that period of my life I had no words to Express it. Like many, I linked this dissatisfaction, this restlessness with other things.

In high school psychology Professor introduced us to self-hypnosis. And soon began my affair with meditation. I relaxed. I threw caution to the winds for the sake of new experiences. I felt like the back of my soul is always open. I rejected God, "to be by myself." I felt very clear inside me the lights went out. The presence of Someone, a Friend respecting my decision. There was a feeling that He quietly left. He respects free will. He never imposes Himself. He knocks at the heart's door and waits.

I didn't know that Tibetan Buddhism comes from the shamanic Bon religion

I began to meditate regularly. I, a teenager, it was very hard to sit for hours with old Tibetan monks, perfectly still, turning all thoughts to the bare wall and bronze statue of Buddha in front of me. I delved into the doctrine of reincarnation, karma and samsara [1]. I didn't know that Tibetan Buddhism is derived from the shamanistic Bon religion and that it included astrology, witchcraft and other occult practices.

I wanted to know how to overcome anxiety and depression how to gather scattered thoughts. When visiting halls of Buddhist meditation and Hindu ashrams, I was intrigued by the "spiritual fireworks": ecstasy, trance, feelings and visions. All this is due to the different levels of meditation and yoga and is multiplied with the practice. These and other experiments are sometimes given siddhis or powers, accumulated through sadhana (meditation and yoga). The affair grew into a passion, passion has become a habit. And I didn't notice how my initial "harmless" interest in yoga and meditation established in the attachment. I'm more than a decade immersed in this spiritual abyss.

And all these years I asked different questions. For example, I know Catholic priests and monks about whether believed by the first Christians in the pre-existence of souls and reincarnation? They answered that they did not know anything about it. And in addition asked: what is it? Plunging more in sources and concepts of Eastern religions, eager to enter the Bardo – the intermediate dimension between the spiritual and material worlds – I began to study the "Tibetan book of the dead."

I had studied all the mystical and esoteric literature that fell into my hands, he always carried in his back pocket a volume of the Bhagavad Gita and read the works of Paramahansa Yogananda. I started to read Osho, RAM dass, and Ramana Maharshi, convinced that no creature more divine than I am. But my illusory self, I was destroyed itself. According to the many books that I have read and what I heard could not be of a personal relationship with the Divine, and this created conflicts in my soul. Peace and the world of childhood is gone. The deeper I immersed myself in meditation and yoga, the more came to a sudden, unexpected thought that brought me pain. My soul was amazed. It was a very dark and sad period of my life.

In search of peace I took the bodhisattva vow and entered into a contemplative and peaceful Buddhist monastic order, trying, somewhere, to gain a foothold. After an initial period of relative peace came the audacity, even recklessness, restless spiritual movement. It was some kind of spiritual alcoholism. But I had no idea about it.

The prodigal son ate the food of pigs in a distant country. But he returned home when I remembered the taste of bread in my Father's house. More than ten years I have lived in this distant country and eat its food.

I saw so many people – friends and strangers – to seek dissolution. They had an insatiable desire to lose yourself, but not in the life and light of God, and in the darkness of the void, separating himself from the love of everything Superior. This separation is hell. Many men, women and children looking for this hell rolling through messy relationships and jumping out of Windows of drugs that so many have fallen.

I have studied and practiced Kundalini yoga and shamanism recognize the presence of fear and cold.

I gained a reputation as a fortuneteller in the Tarot cards. I taught yoga and was an instructor in groups of guided meditation and chanting in a meditative deserts. We experimented with astral projection is a controlled out-of-body experience through the Bardo described in Tibetan books. I was carried with him not only Bhagavad-Gita but also the Upanishads and the Buddhist sutras. All of these classes are further steered me away from the Holy mountain of Christ. Drop by drop wears away the stone. I'm with orange paste smeared forehead rang a bell, bringing fruits and igniting a fire for worship Krishna, he wandered barefoot through the streets of Eugene, Seattle, Portland, and then Rishikesh, Haridwar and Dharamsala in Northern India.





Archimandrite Zacharias "Separated from God, the source of life, writes Archimandrite Zacharias in his book "the Hidden man of the heart," people can go in myself... he Gradually empties and corrupted".

In Buddhism, God, the soul, the personality is an illusion that must be overcome, to reject, to destroy

Buddhism denies the individuality, the soul and the personality. Folds his hands in silence against God. Suffering is there not transformed. In Buddhism, there are crosses, but not the resurrection. We can say that Buddhism finds the empty tomb and declares his emptiness as a natural state of things, even about the purpose of life. In Buddhism, everything, heaven, hell, God, the individual soul, the personality is an illusion that must be overcome, to reject, to destroy. That's the goal. Complete destruction. In the statement of the IX century the essence of Buddhism is expressed as: "If you see Buddha – kill him".

Buddhism does not claim – and not able – for the healing of soul and body. Soul and body must be overcome and discarded. In the Orthodox Church, on the contrary, soul, and body be healed. Buddhism teaches that nothing has inherent value. The Church teaches that all God created has intrinsic value. Including the human body. We are complex beings. The actions of our body, mind and soul harmonized. These concerted actions are directly affected our communication with God and the spiritual realm.

For Orthodox Christians, everything – even suffering – is a secret door, passing through which we encounter Christ and through that embrace each other.

One fall I arrived to Rishikesh in India. This city is named in honor of the pagan God Vishnu – "God's sense". Rishikesh is "the world capital of yoga". It is generally accepted that this is where the yoga happens. 40 days I have studied and practiced the so-called "secret path" integral yoga in the foothills of the Himalayas. It included not only gymnastics, as in America, – each session began and ended with prayer to the "God of the roaring storm," Shiva.

Yoga is historically rooted in Hinduism

At that time, I taught English to Tibetan refugees and worked for the Tibetan Government in exile as editor. Yoga is historically rooted in Hinduism. Interestingly, talking to Rinpoche [2] in the monastery of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, I asked who or what are these Hindu gods in Buddhist cosmology. His answer was frightening: "They are a created being with ego... spirits held in the air."

What is yoga? What is Kundalini energy?

The literal meaning of the word "yoga" – "bond, communication". It means binding their will with the serpent Kundalini and the construction of it to Shiva



The awakening of Kundalini energy the Literal meaning of the word "yoga" – "bond, communication". It means binding their will with the serpent of Kundalini [3] and the construction of it to śiva, knowing your "true" self. All forms of yoga are interconnected, like the branches of a tree. Tree with roots descending in the same region of the spiritual world. This is reflected in the ancient Scriptures of the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga sutras of Patanjali. I learned that the ultimate goal of yoga is to awaken Kundalini energy, wound in the base of the spine in the form of a serpent, and this will result in a state that allows to know Tat tvam ASI [4].

Of course, yoga can trigger unusual States of mind and body. But the same can be achieved with the help of psychotropic drugs and tasteless, invisible poison. Through yoga gradually join Shakti, which yogis refer to as "divine mother", "dark goddess" associated with other main Hindu deities. This energy is not from the Holy spirit, and it's not just aerobics or gymnastics. To this whole system are included bhani and kirtans – pagan equivalents of Orthodox Christian hymns, and the Hindu gods are also mantras, which is "sacred" formulas, like phone cards or phone numbers of various pagan guru and gods.

How yoga is connected with Hinduism? Frankly, Hinduism is not one religion. It's a term that the British called the various cults, philosophical schools, and the shamanic religions of India. If you ask a Hindu whether he believes in God, he may say that you're a God. But ask another and he will show you a rock or a statue, or the burning of a fire. It is a Hindu polarity: either you are God himself, the God.

Yoga performs the function of the missionary arm of Hinduism outside India

Yoga is under the umbrella of Hinduism and for many reasons – the tip of the umbrella. It serves as a missionary arm of Hinduism and the era of new Age in India. Hinduism is like Russian dolls: open one's philosophy – and it is ten thousand others.

Unopened and fraught with risks. You can swim easy and carefree into the unknown waters. But, not knowing about the tides and characteristics of the area, you can get in trouble. You can carry out an undercurrent. You can get hurt on invisible rocks, or to pick up an unknown infection, or poison.

It happens in the spiritual life.

When we dive in the ocean, we can attract a bright, colorful or interesting fish, but the most colorful and exotic – the most venomous and deadly.

First came to India, I, taking off shoes and socks, walked through the spilled water, coconut, chocolates are scattered and the twinkling lights of the kalkaji temple. This is one of the most famous temples dedicated to Kali – the "goddess of death". I didn't know that was in the middle of the crowd, celebrating the most important holiday. The temple was in chaos, and the tension reached a dark climax.

The woman next to me rolled his eyes, hands moving back and forth, tongue hanging from his mouth, legs jerking up and down like a marionette

Thousands of men, women and children gathered in the temple Rishikesh to worship this demon. The woman next to me rolled his eyes, hands moving back and forth, tongue hanging from his mouth, legs jerking up and down like a marionette's. It was an obvious demon possession.

One day I was applied to Satkinskii the icon of the Mother of God and experienced the indescribable heat, tears of humility and love, clarity of mind and peace. Like I walked past Windows full of warm, balmy sunshine. The kalkaji temple, I experienced the opposite.



Kali is often portrayed as a scary multi-armed goddess with blue skin, standing on top of human heads, with a bloody tongue, dangling from his mouth. Wearing a necklace of human heads and a girdle of hands.

Yoga poses are not neutral. All the classic asanas have spiritual meaning

I was having coffee with people, actively participated in the movement of yoga, Hinduism and new Age music in America, which to be initiated into the cult of this goddess ate the flesh of corpses from cemeteries of the Nepalese. Not so long ago a popular British newspaper "the guardian" wrote that in honor of the demon Kali, the sacrifice was made child. All this is typical of Hinduism. And it's all connected with yoga, because yoga postures are not neutral. All the classic asanas have a spiritual meaning. For example, according to one journalist, "Greeting the sun" – and this is probably the most famous sequence of asanas, or postures, of Hatha yoga, are particularly popular and prevalent in America, is actually a Hindu ritual.

""Greeting the sun" has never been a tradition of Hatha yoga, writes Rampersaud Subhas Tiwari, Professor of yoga philosophy and meditation by the American Hindu University in Orlando (Florida). Is a full – round ritual of honoring the sun, gratitude for the source of energy."

To think about yoga is that it is just physical movement is equivalent to saying that "to say that baptism is just an underwater exercise," writes Swami Pairs, a representative of the Ashram Academy of classical Hindu yoga and Dharma yoga in Manahawkin (new Jersey).

The goddess Kali seeks to unite the practitioner through Shakti with Shiva through yoga. In her temple, close to new Delhi, I saw a disgusting speaks for itself the idol of stone with a strange bead eyes and beak, covered with yellowish nasty and lumpy edible substance.

In Hinduism idols are "woken up". They are dressed. They are fed. They sing. And then they are put to sleep. I participated in these ceremonies hundreds of times.

The publication of "Yoga Journal" has over 5 million subscribers and is the best selling yoga magazine in the world. It is significant that he wrote "Yoga Journal" when, proving the superiority of yoga as psychotherapy, says Hindu philosophy, hidden behind yoga practices:

"In the future of yoga all human beings are "born divine" and each person at its heart, has a soul (Atman) that dwells eternally in the changeless, infinite, all pervading reality (Brahman). In the classical formulation of this view of Patanjali... we already have something to aspire to. We are the divinity in a latent form. We have, in fact, is perfect, and our capacity is ready at any moment to Wake up to this truth with an awakened mind and enlightened nature" [5].

Teachers and students of yoga usually greet each other with the Sanskrit word "Namaste" which means: "I honor the divine in you." This statement of pantheism and betrayal of the true God, as revealed in the Bible. "Sun salutations" or "Surya Namaskara", is derived from the worship of the Hindu solar deity Surya.

In the Church's hagiography and iconography we honor the saints – real people who lived righteously before God, joined and continues to join His light and love – and ask for their intercession. Idols, – writes father Michael Pomazansky is "images of false gods, and worship them there is worship of demons or imaginary beings, having no existence; and thus, in essence, is the worship of lifeless objects."

I saw Swami in America – those who pass this demonic Kundalini energy simply by looking someone in the eye. And if he's open to it, his body may shake and vibrate like iron wind-up toy.

And when it's time for me to take the damn energy through Shaktipat [6], an incredible fear gripped me like an icy, electrified water, and I lifted my sword and shield: I started to say the Jesus prayer. Thank God! It was a creepy presence was reflected in the name of Jesus. We must remember that, as the Apostle Paul writes, "for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6: 12).

With this prayer as with a shield and sword, I came back to Christ. I came from a distant country. I took a step to my Father's House.

Yoga and Christianity Yoga is a psychosomatic practice, the interaction between the mind, body, and spirit (spirits). We must remember that the word "yoga" means "yoke" is a wooden cross lay on the neck of the animal and attached to the plow. Remember, stapostol Paul warns us: "do Not be unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What fellowship can light have with darkness?"

Yoga is not from the Scripture and is not part of the Holy Tradition of our Church. Everything we need comes through the Orthodox Church. So what we want from yoga?

It is important to know that in yoga, as well as in many mystic schools, practitioners may be strange lights, but most likely they are from demons or are the lights in the consciousness, because "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11: 14). Many faced and followed the "spiritual fireworks" so-called "new" century. Of course, this is not the Uncreated Light which Moses saw, and the disciples on mount Tabor. It is not the Divine Light, which was defended by Saint Gregory Palama in the XIV century from the Western scholastikos. Direct knowledge of God is possible, as direct experience, His knowledge, but the knowledge and experience of evil is of course also available. We have the free will to choose who and what we are looking for. This, of course, requires discernment, and testing, where the presentation of the tested to an experienced Confessor is a necessary condition. Undoubtedly you must heart the Sacraments of the Church. We better look at ordinances in our hearts, than to entertain the imagination of the mind.

Popular forms of gymnastics yoga is dangerous and can harm the practitioner

You also need to say a few words about the assertion that popular forms of gymnastics yoga do not bear the harm and danger of the practitioner. Those who hold this opinion, or not aware, or deliberately ignored the numerous warnings found in the manuals on yoga East, speaking about Hatha yoga for practitioners. If the instructor is notified about these warnings and can ensure that the student will not get hurt?

In his book "the Seven schools of yoga" by Ernest wood precedes the description of Hatha yoga in these words: "I must appeal to some practitioners of Hatha-yoga with a strict warning. Many people have gotten an incurable disease, and even mad because I was doing the yoga exercises without a cast soul and body into proper condition. Yoga books are full of such warnings... for Example, Guérande Samhita declares that if someone start to exercise in hot, cold or rainy weather, it will lead to disease; also if there is no moderation in food and the stomach is more than half filled with heavy food... “Hatha yoga Pradipika” says that to control the breathing gradually “how to tame lions, elephants and tigers,” otherwise “the experimenter will be killed”; and if any errors occur cough, asthma, headaches, pain in the eyes and ears and many other diseases". Wood concludes his warnings about the poses and breath with the words: "I've got to say that I do not recommend these exercises because I believe that Hatha-yoga is very dangerous."

You can not try to improve the life of the body damages the soul

If an Orthodox Christian wants to practice physically, you can swim, run, walk, or do gymnastics, aerobics, fitness. It is a safe alternative to yoga. We can also do prostrations before God. The Church does not want to make us unhealthy or unhappy. We have to trust the regulations of the Mother Church and follow them to the extent that as they can and give as the grace of God. You can not try to improve the life of the body damages the soul.

Also should not trust my own opinion. Should be a guide.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding" (Prov. 3: 5).

As Orthodox Christians, we know that the actions of our body, such as bowing, prostrations and the sign of the cross, have an impact on the state of our soul before the True God. Why do we try to copy bodily actions, which for many centuries was directly connected with the service of the demons? Such actions have serious consequences for the soul and body belonging to Christ.

"Let's be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matt. 10: 16).

Author: Joseph Magnus, Frangipani Translated into English by Basil Tomachinsky

[1] Reincarnation in Eastern religions the doctrine of re-incarnation of the soul after death into another being; transmigration of souls. Karma – in Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions of the East the totality of the perfect human acts and their consequences, which determines the fate and character of his new birth, rebirth. Sansara (or samsara), "wandering, wandering" – the cycle of birth, life and death.

[2] Rinpoche is a recognized reincarnated and advanced teacher in Buddhism.

[3] Kundalini means "rolled ring, rolled in the form of a snake". In yoga, the esoteric, the idea of the energy concentrated in the base of the spine; there are various methods and practices whose purpose is to "awaken the serpent" by rise of energy along the spine. The presence of "the awakened" Kundalini energy, also called Shakti, should lead to Union with Siva, the founder and God of yoga.

[4] "You Am" is one of the "great sayings" of the Upanishads. It said, teaching his son Svetaketu, the teacher of Uddalaka Aruni. They hinted at the identity of the innermost essence of the person with the "last base of an external world," Atman and Brahman.

[5] Stephen Cote. Standing Psychotherapy on Its Head // Yoga Journa. 2001. May/June. P. 104 // michaeltalbotkelly.com/standing-psychotherapy-on-its-head/

[6] Shaktipat (Sanskrit) – the transfer of power, the spiritual energy of Kundalini from a teacher, in which it is already active, student. The element of initiation in Tantrism. Transmission can occur through sight, touch, mental message, saying the mantra, through things (fruit, flower, letter), phone, or TV.

published

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