Mark Whitwell on Teaching the Heart of Yoga in Christian Communities — The Dirt
By Mark Whitwell | Yoga Teacher at Heart of Yoga
The Pope has said some things against Yoga, which means Catholics are sometimes a little cautious. Just let people know it’s all been a misunderstanding. After the 15th century, it became very confused what yoga was — invasions, the rise of orthodoxy, colonial times and western values all contributed to the belief yoga was either a male monastic transcendent practice of mostly cleansing and meditation, or else a very dirty suspicious sort of thing done by suspicious fakirs and ascetics, tapasyas, dreadlocked wanderers with one arm in the air or a cage around their neck, hanging out getting stoned at the cemetery, sitting in holes in the ground, that sort of crazy thing. That is not yoga. You can let them know that you won’t be teaching any of that stuff, that yoga has been confused with. Help them make peace with that.
Our teacher Krishnamacharya would say, “Christians need yoga!” He would teach all different religions, whoever came to him, despite his own Vaishnava religious orientation. He did not impose that. Yoga has always been practiced by all kinds of people across the ancient world. Jains, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Egyptians… and all the unnumberable cultures that these blanket terms lump in all together. It is simply a tool to embody your ideals.
So for example, to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself,’ we need to be able to love ourselves. We need to be capable of love. To actually release all the reactions and trauma that restrict the heart. Let people know that yoga will serve their relationship with God, with Mary, with Jesus.
In fact, Christians often bring a beautiful depth of understanding to Yoga, because they are not embarrassed to be very sincere and devotional, not embarrassed to pray, and not aggressively insisting on a materialistic universe. I find that aggressive atheists can be harder to connect with. Especially clever western atheists, just mind mind mind, and a scorn for all the millions of sincere religious people around the world, looking down on them. Sincere devotees just want to learn the practical means to connect with their chosen deities, and the Yoga will help them naturally come out of the social dynamic of disempowerment, where you assume someone to be superior than you, rather than continuous with you. Yoga helps people to realise that relationship of intimacy with their chosen ideal, to make it real.
And if you do encounter some suspicion or backlash, don’t be dismayed. There are deep patterns of suspicion for the body, for anything different, for anything that empowers the people to feel and think for themselves. The dark ages of Europe are not so long ago. The witch burning and the Crusades are not so long ago. Some still believe that dinosaur bones were planted on the earth recently by God, who made them look really old, to test people’s faith. We go slowly. My friend R. Sriram, he has been teaching for many decades now in southern Germany, and when he started there was great suspicion and hostility. Things are slowly changing.
If you do encounter suspicion or closed-mindedness, or even find yourself unable to teach, do not take it personally. It is not a rejection of you. You have something useful to share with whoever wants it, to help them feel better, and feel better. It is a long slow thing, to share the basic practices of moving and breathing, and every little bit helps. You are not expected to change the world overnight by yourself. Everyone has a heart, and everyone wants to feel that heart, no matter how thick their layers of mind are over that longing to feel. There are cracks everywhere. Keep looking for those who wish to receive what you have to offer. Keep doing your own practice of intimacy with life and speaking with your friends about what you are discovering. Adjust your expectations. Perhaps do not rely on teaching Yoga to make a living. All in good time.
Hallelujah, praise the Lord!
Originally published at https://www.thedirt.media on January 20, 2021.
