From: libwca@emory.edu (Bill Anderson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Why is Yoga considered an occult practise?
Date: 30 Dec 92 16:16:29 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.usa
Organization: Emory University, Atlanta, GA
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes) writes:
: 
: In article <1992Dec28.191825.13381@digi.lonestar.org> gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo) writes:
: >The problem with yoga is that it is much more difficult to draw the separating
: >line with yoga, between where it is simply a method of physical and psycho-
: >logical culture and where it becomes a real path of spiritual development.
: I've argued that this is something we are especially touchy about in the U.S.
: because of the constitutional separation of church and state.  (Others have
: argued against me, saying that in their countries there is a state church
: but no real expression of religious belief in governmental functions, and
: objecting to the practice of U.S. officials about expression their religious
: beliefs so openly, but I digress...)
: 
: It seems to me that yoga developed in the culture of India with the religious
: environment that is part of that culture; karate developed in Japan likewise,
: and other things in other countries.  In the U.S. we kinda want these things
: pulled apart so you can do yoga and still be a good Presbyterian or do
: karate and still be a good Baptist (or Catholic or atheist or anthroposophist
: or anything else).
: 
: I remember reading an advertisement for the opening of a karate school in a
: Bible Belt town, saying quite pointedly that they would teach it without
: the foreign religious aspects.  Now when we talk about Christian fundamentalists
: and yoga, I imagine that they imagine yoga to be inseperable from all the
: things that they imagine "India" to be: reincarnation and strange gods and
: sacred cows and everything that in their minds is part of the concept "heathen."
: Similarly they imagine karate to be part and parcel of buddhism and ancestor
: worship and emperor worship and everything they have ever been told about
: Japan.  And they are the kind of people who would prefer to live in a
: community where everybody believes exactly as they do, who have no desire
: to live among people who do not accept their version of Truth.
: India conjures up in their minds
: -- 
: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu
: haynes@cats.bitnet
: 
: "Ya can talk all ya wanna, but it's dif'rent than it was!"
: "No it aint!  But ya gotta know the territory!"
:         Meredith Willson: "The Music Man"

The idea that clearing one's mind "let's the devil in" is 
ludicrous beyond imagining, but Gerry is absolutely correct-
spiritual disciplines should not be taught as a lark, by 
people who have scant knowledge of what they are doing.  Add
to that the fact that's there's no NEED to teach these things
in the public schools- they are available at the local Y or    
youth club or whatever, for a nominal fee- and I see no reason
not to respect the views of the fundies on this issue.  There 
is an argument for the idea that both these things have a 
religious component, and those of us who favor separation of
church and state shouldn't open ourselves up to charges of
hypocrisy.
Now, when those same people come back the next week and start
telling us that Evil-lution is a religious belief...

Bill