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Is Yoga a Religion? The short answer is no. But yoga is more than an athletic endeavor. Yoga practice is often distilled to a single limb of yoga – the asanas (or poses). The spiritual aspect of yoga is integral to the practice of yoga. Much richness and reward is lost with an exclusive focus on the physical disciplines. However, even more so than the physical practice, the spiritual practice is very personal. As such, no teacher, yogi, or guru will instruct your beliefs. But hopefully, yoga will encourage you to examine and reflect on your spiritual life. Donna Farhi describes this process well. She notes that yoga is not “a religion, although the practice of its central precepts inevitably draws each individual to the direct experience of those truths on which religion rests.” 1 What do the spiritual disciplines of yoga entail? Do they require conversion to Hinduism or Buddhism? No. Certainly, you will learn more about both of these religious practices as yoga originated and grew along side each of them. Many find that a full yoga practice enhances their spiritual life whatever their upbringing or religious beliefs. In Living Yoga: Creating a Life Practice Christy Turlington reveals how yoga renewed her commitment to her Catholic faith and drove her to learn more about her faith. For myself, I found that my yoga practice very much added much to my own faith. With exposure to these other religious rituals I re-examined in my own faith for comparable practices and tenants. I learned the difference between meditation and prayer. I reacquainted myself with Christian mystics such as St. Francis of Assis and Julian of Norwich. I compared the Ten Commandments and the Yamas and Niyamas and found they both respect the divinity in our selves and in each other. This investigation goes on with study and participation in my local high church Episcopalian parish in DC, St. Paul’s. These contrasting encounters very much echoed the religious education I enjoyed as a child. I learned much more about my faith because I was a Protestant in a Catholic school. At the age of nine, I was very scared and nervous about my new school. On my very first day, as we recited The Lord’s Prayer, I embarrassed myself as I continued beyond the end of the Catholic version of the prayer with the Protestant ending (the added doxology). Thereafter, I consistently queried why things were and why beliefs differed. And in this way, my religious values were fortified by the constant distinctions against another faith structure. At the same time, I grew to deeply respect and value many aspects of the Catholic faith. I’ve learned much about Buddhism with my yoga practice. The spiritual writings of Sharon Salzburg, Pema Chodron have provoked and inspired me. And just as before, I am often struck by the common precepts and practices. But just as when I was a child and young adult, this investigation inspires me to learn more about the spiritual life in my own tradition. With my replenished spiritual practice, my life is more fulfilled and complete and I consider this benefit amid the most rewarding of my yoga practice. One final note, I was fascinated to learn the term “religion” enjoys a similar etymology as yoga. Derived from the Latin word, “religare,” religion means “to bind back” or to reunify. Ms Bening's queried Mr. Iyengar and asked him directly, "Is yoga a religion?" Mr. Iyengar replied, "There are two kinds of religion. God made and man made. Man made has branches and demarcations. God made has none. And that is Yoga." Yoga is not a religion by itself. It is the science of religions, the study of which will enable a sadhaka [a seeker, an aspirant] the better to appreciate his own faith. - B.K.S. Iyengar Donna Farhi, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit (New York: Henry Holt, 2000), p. 5. Alistair Shearer, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (New York: Sacred Teachings, 1982), p. 24. B.K. S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga (New York: Schocken Books, 1966), p. 39. |
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