FAQ –
Yoga is
prevalent in the Novus Ordo/Vatican II Church. What’s wrong with it?
By
Bro. Peter Dimond, O.S.B.
Since
the practice of Yoga is rampant in Novus Ordo religious orders and also secular
institutions such as the YMCA, it’s important to quickly discuss
what’s wrong with it.
Isn’t it just stretching?
No. I will quote a Novus
Ordo “priest,” “Fr.” James Manjackal, who is very
knowledgeable about the subject:
“The
word Yoga means “union”, the goal of Yoga is to unite one’s
transitory (temporary) self, “JIVA” with the infinite
“BRAHMAN”, the Hindu concept of God. This
God is not a personal God, but it is an impersonal spiritual substance which is
one with nature and cosmos. Brahman
is an impersonal divine substance that “pervades, envelopes and underlies
everything”. Yoga has its roots in the Hindu Upanishads, which is as
old as 1.000 BC, and it tells about Yoga thus, “unite the light within
you with the light of Brahman”. “The absolute is within one
self” says the Chandogya Upanishads, “TAT TUAM ASI” or
“THOU ART THAT”. The Divine dwells within each one of us through
His microcosmic representative, the individual self called Jiva. In the
Bhagavad Gita, the lord Krishna describes the Jiva as “my own eternal
portion”, and “the joy of Yoga comes to yogi who is one with
Brahman”. In A.D. 150, the yogi Patanjali explained the eight ways that
leads the Yoga practices from ignorance to enlightenment – the eight ways
are like a staircase – They are self-control (yama), religious observance
(niyama), postures (asana), breathing exercises (pranayama), sense control
(pratyahara), concentration (dharana), deep contemplation (dhyana),
enlightenment (samadhi). It is
interesting to note, here, that postures and breathing- exercises, often
considered to be the whole of Yoga in the West, are steps 3 and 4 towards union
with Brahman! Yoga is not only an
elaborate system of physical exercises, it is a spiritual discipline,
purporting to lead the soul to samadhi, total union with the divine being.
Samadhi is the state in which the natural and the divine become one, man and
God become one without any difference (Brad Scott: Exercise or religious
practice? Yoga: What the teacher never taught you in that Hatha Yoga
class” in the Watchman Expositor Vol. 18, No. 2, 2001).”
(http://www.jmanjackal.net/eng/engyoga.htm)
To
summarize, Yoga is a spiritual
discipline which attempts to
unite one with the divine within oneself and united with all of creation
through breathing, physical exercises, concentration, etc. The idea that the divine is to be sought
for and found within oneself is, of course, occultic. The idea that the divine permeates all
of creation – the idea upon which the practice of Yoga is based and toward
which it is geared – is Pantheism and reprobated by Vatican I.
Pope Pius IX, First
Vatican Council, Session 3, Chap. 1, On God the Creator of all things:
"The holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church believes and confesses
that there is one, true, living God, Creator and Lord of heaven and
earth... who, although He is one, singular, altogether simple and
unchangeable spiritual substance, must be proclaimed distinct in reality and
essence from the world..." (Denzinger 1782.)
God is distinct in reality and essence from His
creation. Pantheism teaches that
God and the universe are one.
Pope Pius XI, Mit
Brennender Sorge (# 7), March 14, 1937:
"Whoever identifies, by
pantheistic confusion, God and the universe, by either lowering God to
the dimensions of the world, or raising the world to the dimensions of God, is not a believer in God." (The Papal Encyclicals, Vol. 3
(1903-1939), p. 526.)
As an aside, John Paul II himself taught this
condemned pantheistic notion in his encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem
(50.3), May 18, 1986. He stated:
"'The Word became
flesh.' The Incarnation of God the Son signifies the taking up into unity
not only of human nature, but in this human nature, in a sense, of everything
that is 'flesh': the whole of humanity, the entire visible and material
world. The Incarnation, then, also has a cosmic significance, a cosmic
dimension." (The Encyclicals of John Paul II, p. 316.)
Notice that as he was expounding (as usual) on his
heretical belief that Christ is united to each and every man, in this case John
Paul II decided to take it one step farther: not only has Christ united Himself
with every man, he says, but with the "entire visible and material
world." According to Antipope John Paul II, the grass, trees, rivers,
lakes, oceans, etc. were all united with Christ by virtue of the
Incarnation. He develops the
thought in the next sentence of this encyclical.
John
Paul II, Dominum et Vivificantem (50.3), May 18, 1986:
The 'first-born of all creation,' becoming incarnate in the individual humanity
of Christ, unites himself in some way with the entire reality of man,
which is also 'flesh' - and in this reality with all 'flesh,' with the whole
of creation." (The Encyclicals of John Paul II, p. 316.)
What we had in Antipope John Paul II was a
Pantheist. In Pantheism, the world and God make a single thing.
A Catholic Dictionary,
by Attwater:
"Pantheism - A false philosophy which consists in confounding God
with the world. According to some the
world is absorbed by God (Indian pantheists, Spinoza); others teach
that God is absorbed by the world of which he is the force and the life... But all [Pantheists] seek to establish an
identity of substance between God and the world." (A Catholic
Dictionary, by Donald Attwater, p. 366.)
The Catholic
Encyclopedia:
"Pantheism, the view according to which God and the world are one." (The
Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 11, New York: Robert Appleton Co., 1911, p.
447.)
Since,
as we saw above, the practice of Yoga is based on the idea of union with the
divine within oneself and within all of creation, the practice of Yoga is
therefore an expression of belief in the condemned pantheistic heresy that God
and His creation are a single thing.
Practicing Yoga, therefore, is practicing a false religion and
expressing belief in a false god.
The conservative Novus Ordo priest I quoted above, who is outraged by
the rampant practice of Yoga in “Christian” and “Catholic”
circles, summed the situation up quite well:
“The
practice of Yoga is pagan at best, and occult at worst. This is the religion of
antichrist and for the first time in history it is being widely practiced
throughout the Western world and America. It is ridiculous that even
yogi masters wearing a Cross or a Christian symbol deceive people saying that
Yoga has nothing to do with Hinduism and say that it is only accepting the
other cultures. Some have masked Yoga with Christian gestures and call it
“Christian Yoga”. Here it
is not a question of accepting the culture of other people, it is a question of
accepting another religion...”
(http://www.jmanjackal.net/eng/engyoga.htm)
Yet, the Monastery of the
Holy Spirit
offers a special “Fundamentals of Yoga and Christianity” Retreat.
(http://www.trappist.net/newweb/enews_03_18_05.html)
The Carmelite Spiritual
Center in
Darien, Illinois offered a
“Living Your Light” Yoga Retreat.
(http://www.carmelitespiritualcenter.org/living-light.asp?a=retreats)
The “Catholic”
Ecclesia Center
in Girard, Pennsylvania – which is approved by the Diocese in which it
resides, as I personally confirmed – includes on its staff a Yoga
instructor!
“Michael Plasha is a credentialed Yoga
Therapist and a Yoga Alliance registered teacher… He has also trained in
Zen and Vipassana meditation. Since 1980 Michael has taught over 3,000 classes
in yoga and meditation… Yoga … is a non-dogmatic approach to union
with the Divine presence within everyone.”
(http://www.ecclesiacenter.org/staff.htm)
Notice
that the Ecclesia Center admits that
Yoga is an approach to the Divine presence “within everyone,” thus
proving that it’s rooted in and directed toward Pantheism and the
occult. The website also states
that Ecclesia Center “provides spiritual renewal to persons of all
faiths.” (http://www.ecclesiacenter.org/index.htm) This is total apostasy, fully approved
by the Diocese.
Other
examples could be given, but the evil practice of Yoga is so rampant at
“Catholic” monasteries that Budget Travel Online actually
advertises for it!
“More than 2,000 monasteries, abbeys, and
spiritual retreat centers are scattered throughout the United States and
Canada. About 80 percent are linked to a
religious order. But most take a
more ecumenical, interfaith approach to accommodate this increased interest.
"In the old days if you were a Catholic retreat center, you advertised
yourself that way. Now most of them want everybody to come," Stone says. Many places offer yoga, Buddhist
thought, prayers of all sorts.”
(http://www.budgettravelonline.com/bt-dyn/content/article/2005/06/04/AR2005060400391.html)
All
of this is more proof of the Great Apostasy. As even the Novus Ordo
“priest” said: “this is the religion of
antichrist…”
www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com