CHRISTIANITY & YOGA - WHY THEY BELONG TOGETHER

[Guest guest]

CHRISTIANITY & YOGA - WHY THEY BELONG TOGETHER

 

Rasa Von Werder " GuruRasa " April 21, 2005

 

http://www.womanthouartgod.com

 

 

Christianity and Yoga - can they be One? Can they, in any way, be

united? What stands them apart, and what makes them the same? Are

they totally different or not? In what way are they different, in

what way similar? Is there anything they both agree on completely?

 

It all comes down to one word: suffering. The religion of Jesus

has a profound theology on suffering, yoga has not. (When I use the

word Christian and Jesus, I refer mostly to the theology of

Catholicism.) Contemplation belongs to both. Renunciation is the

same. But Suffering is not something yogis recommend, - they seem

to abhor it and teach us how to rise above it. Not that it stops

suffering! The world is full of it!

Life is full of it!

 

Contemplation is in both. This is the vision of God. Both

religions teach that to find God, we must pray. To yogis it's

Mantra or Japa and chanting. To Christians it's all kinds. There

are litanies, prayers of praise, petition, and thanksgiving,

personal and public prayers. Prayer, including silent prayer, along

with other practices, leads to contemplation, or the vision of

God. For yogis, meditation and mantra, along with other things,

leads to Nirvikalpa Samadhi, Nirvana, and Bliss. Here, Christian

and Yoga are the same.

 

Renunciation is also the same. You must not have ego. Christians

call it pride and selfishness; the opposite is humility and the

virtues of poverty, chastity and obedience. The East calls our ego

the big delusion, where we set apart a world that doesn't exist, a

framework or domain that we create in our minds. We have a fantasy

of who we are, but we are not that. Break that delusion of a

separate self, and ego dissapears. For Christians, it takes a lot

to break us of pride and selfishness. We must be humbled time and

time again before we are humble.

 

In the area of sin there is a slight difference. The East sees sin

more like darkness and delusion which cause one to stumble and make

mistakes, while Christianity sees sin as deliberate acts. (In fact,

a rule is that if you don't know it's sin, it is not. You have to

understand what you are doing, on some level at least.) The Eastern

way is that we must live again and again to evolve to a place where

our sinful nature dissapears, while the West is we have one chance

at it, and what we do in this lifetime is it. It's either Heaven,

Hell or Purgatory (Protestants don't believe in Purgatory,)

thereafter. At one time, Christians believed in reincarnation, then

they voted against it at one of the councils.

Christians say " we are all sinners. " But yogis don't think that

way. They do not have our heavy burden of " guilt trips. " We are

taught that we all come short of the glory of God, and even the

saintliest of souls had the " devil's advocate " accuse them before

they were declared fit for veneration. Yogis are supposed to

worship and imitate " living saints, " but to Catholics and

Protestants, that is a no-no. With Catholics, you only honor them

when they're dead, to Protestants, never. (Only Jesus, they say.)

They have no registry of saints, and they do not systematically

praise their dead saints.

 

East and West both believe in Paradise or Heaven, as well as Hell

and demons, and Purgatory. But Hell and Purgatory is different to

yogis, since they believe in reincarnation, and so, it seems to me,

punishment is a temporary place of various degrees, where they

reside until they are born in another body.

 

I personally believe that Jesus was teaching Yoga when He

ministered. He taught seeing the guru as God, identification with

the guru (guru-bhava) and becoming him, transference of the power

and identity of the guru (initiation and shaktipat) through Holy

Communion, and other types of transmission. He was not a higher

form of Judaism, it was another religion altogether - yoga. (With a

Matriarchal stamp.) He was probably in India during the " lost

years " (twelve to thirty) and there is evidence of that. (Check

Vedanta Press in Hollywood.) Of course, Jewish men had no idea what

He was talking about, and turned Jesus into the One and Only

Incarnation of God - and no one comes to salvation but by Jesus.

Jesus taught and said many things that so-called Christians

misunderstood. But the thing I want to emphasize most here is the

difference - the absolute difference - between yoga and the

understanding on Jesus and suffering as it developed after Our Lord

died.

 

In our theology of Jesus, suffering plays an important part.

Because of this " dispensation " , if you will, we have a sacred place

for suffering, and so, for us, suffering is a part of life that has

great utility and purpose. I like this point of view because I can

use my sufferings as ministry, and help others as well through it.

We suffer anyway - why not put it to good use? When I suffer, in

any way, be it physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, it all goes

first, to help souls in Purgatory. This is called " reparation for

sin. " I unite myself with my Spouse, Jesus Christ, and receive his

infinite merits, joined to my limited merits. Then the reparation

carries infinite power, and souls are delivered. My suffering

cleanses me and gives me spiritual medals (Lights) which can be seen

upon my soul. The Divine Stigmata is the biggest one. It is seen

as rose Light coming out of the Heart Chakra. The terrible

sufferings caused by love cause the Heart Chakra to dilate, and make

it a giant. The big heart then has something most people do not

have - compassion. Our heart has to be awakened and enlarged before

we can have sensitivity to the pain of others, and truly have

charity for them.

 

I treasure my sufferings as some of the most important things in my

life, as they unified me with my first guru, Jesus Christ. We say,

to love him, and him CRUCIFIED is the mark of perfection. To love

him crucified, means we, as individuals, are also crucified! How

else could we be ONE with him? There, on the cross of our

unbearable pain, we are helpless, and we absolutely know we are with

him - the one we love. The worship of Jesus' wounds has the most

bittersweet quality. We learn to identify with each and every

wound, from his Crown of Thorns, to his nailed hands and feet, the

secret wound on his shoulder where He carried the wood, the terrible

Stripes which could have killed him, the Agony in the Garden before

his Passion, and last of all, the crem-de-la-crem of all suffering,

Divine Stigmata, which is martyrdom. I have found no teaching like

this in yoga. No theology of suffering, and no praise of

martyrdom. Perhaps it is there, but I have not seen it.

 

What is there, and extremely powerful, is the thesis of abstraction,

that place where one goes to be alone with God. Here yoga is

profound, (when I say yoga I include Buddhism, because after all, it

came from yoga and India) having points in theology not found in the

same depth and detail for Christians. The Atman being worshipped

frees a person from all outer forms of religions. Here, Christians

admit God is within us fully and completely, yet no one is

encouraged to worship the God Within. The Witness Consciousness

also explains, to Eastern practitioners, that bonding with the

Spirit, not the flesh, lets one see things objectively and

truthfully and gives one a great vantage point on life. Equality of

Consciousness - where all things are equal in God's mind - I cannot

find in Christianity. Man is always on top to Christianity, with

animals and others far below, where we humans, as " stewards " have a

wide berth with them. That we are the Spirit, not the body is in

both disciplines. Both Yoga and Buddhism agree that earthly desires

cause suffering, and suffering can and should be stopped.

Christianity believes that desires not of God are suspect, and

pursuing the things of the world and flesh should be put aside for

the Highest: " Only one thing is necessary... " (Magdalene at the

feet of Jesus) and " Put first the Kingdom of God, and all things

shall be added unto you. " And then again, " What profit a man if he

gains the whole world, but loses his soul? For what shall he

exchange for his soul? " It is agreed in both that God is first, and

all other things second.

 

Now to the subject of suffering.

 

Why are yogis and Buddhist so against it, while Catholicism holds it

sacred, when united with Christ? How could these two great

religions disagree so strongly on a point that affects everyone? In

Catholicism, it is said that a mark of perfection is to be totally

one with the will of God, that whatever happens we must accept, good

or bad. The bad things - even attacks of the devil - God allows for

a reason. So all that happens, all calamities, accidents,

sicknesses, deaths and so on, must be accepted as the will of God.

This is called " uniformity with the will of God. "

 

Yoga deplores suffering so much, that some yogis laugh at social

work, saying basically, that let people meet their own karma, you

have better things to do. Is this callousness, or are they putting

first the Kingdom of God, who is above the human condition, and

pursuing it? There is an argument on both sides. On the side of

suffering and the Mother Theresa's of the world, there is this:

 

Without suffering, compassion is not developed. How can you

understand the pain of another if you have not experienced it

yourself? And if you bore distress with love (not with hate) then

it gave you strength and wisdom. There is nothing more terrible

than the person on a cushion, who cares only for his own pleasure.

The one in the gutter is more likely to save another soul.

 

Which is right? Should we accept suffering or should we strive to

end it and reach Nirvana at all costs? The answer is that both are

right. Here is what I have found:

 

We humans are composed of two things, humanity and Divinity. Our

humanity is felt, primarily, in the Heart Chakra, or feeling part.

Our Divinity is present mostly in the Sahasrara, the illuminated

mind. When we go off to pray, and abstract ourselves, and fully

receive the vision of God, we are not suffering. In order to have

this vision, in fact, we have to leave behind the things which make

us suffer - all attachments and distractions. It is EXTREMELY

difficult to receive Enlightenment unless one goes off from family,

friends, and all ties. One must be alone with the Alone, for some

time, even if it is, like St. Catherine of Sienna, staying in her

room at home (meals being brought to her) FOR TWO FULL YEARS BEFORE

ENLIGHTENMENT! After the first great experience of God, one

continues the pursuit, and growth never stops. At this time, you

are above it all. In various states of contemplation, Nirvana,

Samadhi, you are to some degree, abstracted from all the cares of

the world. The world spins around you and evryone is suffering to

various degrees, but you don't feel it. You are FAR AWAY. You are

intimate, cacooned and embraced by God and you want and need for

nothing else. (I've been there, more than once, for months at a

time.) This cannot go on indefinitely. Why? Because, what are we

living for? Only ourselves? Does not God want to save everyone?

After being with God, we must come down from the mountain, in order

to bring this Light and Truth to others.

 

Now there are two ways of bringing this Light to others. There is

the way some yogis prefer, and that is, to remain abstracted as much

as possible, keeping some sort of a shield around them, be it

physical or emotional, and not letting others get under their skin.

This works for some people. They bring what they have to others but

refuse to get down " into the dirt and dirty " . They might have a few

in the circle who protect them from the mob, they might work through

writing books. But then there are those who lower themselves to the

needy, in a way that by the nature of the job, requires suffering.

Jesus went to the people - with no curtain or shield - deliberately

seeking out sinners and outcasts - and Jesus LOVED. Is it right to

love? Not just in a supernatural way, but in a human way, so that

ones loves one's family and pets, and friends? And if they suffer,

you suffer? Of course it's right! Jesus loved his Holy Mother,

Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, all his friends and disciples, and every

sinner there ever was. He loved them enough to suffer for them.

Yes, he went to the wilderness to pray and touch base with " Father, "

but He always came back to love and suffer. Eventually, it cost him

his life, paving the way for all martyrs that went after him. You

do not have to be abstracted when you are saving souls. An

anointing works through whatever state you are in as an individual.

The anointing (shaktipat, power, gifts) is given not for your

pleasure, but for the sake of others, and it EVEN WORKS IF YOU FALL

FROM PERFECTION IN YOUR OWN PERSONAL SANCTITY!

 

In order to be fully developed, the human must taste both worlds.

When you enter samadhi, you must break attachments and be fully

absorbed in God. Later, you must descend into the lower world,

through compassion, and touch others. In my experience, both

disciplines, samadhi and bhakti, (abstraction and love) work one at

a time. If you are abstracted, your love is fully absorbed in God.

When you love others, that love flows horizontally to them, and

then, by the very nature of the act, your mind has to descend - as

mind follows action and focus. (Here again, there are variations.

Your mind does not descend when giving supernatural love, like

shaktipat or faith healing, but it does go lower to give natural

love, that which is given in compassion.) Now the vision of God

can be lost in pain, even the pain of saving souls. Indeed, the

greatest pain I know is fighting to lift souls out of darkness who

resist the love of God. If you want to be fully, absolutely and

perfectly developed, you must let God steer you to one state, then

another, from season to season. In Springtime, your heart grows,

and that means suffering. TO LOVE IS TO SUFFER. Then, in winter,

your mind grows, and that's by perfect contact with God. These work

in symbiosis. The vision of God dilates the heart. Then, charity

being given, opens up the mind. I have experienced time and again

that after forgiveness and charity, I have had revelation.

 

I might add one more thing. Nobody, not even Buddha or Ramakrishna,

could stay in a trance all the time. Reading Ramakrishna's life I

noted that he suffered agonies. Once he was going to kill himself

if God didn't reveal Herself to him. Another time, he was going mad

with desire to see the tarrying Vivekananda. Bhagwan Nityananda got

so angry at devotees, he used to beat them. If you look at all the

lives of the yogis, you have to read between the lines. Their

legends have made them seem above human life. I believe these

legends give a false impression, that their humanity was asleep.

These saints, Avatars and Incarnations of God, suffered. They had

people they loved. They grieved, they toiled, they cried. They

were not spirits or angels, they were flesh. Flesh feels, and

therefore, it suffers. For us to think that in order to imitate,

say, the Krishnas, the Chaitanyas, the Nityanandas that we must be

fully in samadhi all the time is a mistake. No, indeed, I tell you,

life is composed of two things. Yes, we try to stay on the upper

levels WHENEVER POSSIBLE. It is possible for short lengths of time -

for days, weeks or months. Years? I don't think so. You see, this

is not Heaven. In Heaven, all sufferings end, but not here. You

can reach Nirvana, but world comes back, feelings come back. Then

you must work with these feelings to grow a great soul's heart; at

the core, forgiveness, mercy and love. To live, to have association

with others, means suffering.

 

Here I have explained the two disciplines I practice, East and

West. I am closer to Jesus when I suffer, but when I must escape

pain, yoga is my best friend. That is why, to me, both religions

merge. I have incorporated into myself the principles of both.

 

 

Rasa Von Werder April 21, 2005 " GuruRasa "

[Guest guest]

, " Rasa Von Werder "

<rasa@w...> wrote:

>

> CHRISTIANITY & YOGA - WHY THEY BELONG TOGETHER

>

> Rasa Von Werder " GuruRasa " April 21, 2005

>

> http://www.womanthouartgod.com

>

>

> Christianity and Yoga - can they be One? Can they, in any way, be

> united? What stands them apart, and what makes them the same?

Are they totally different or not? In what way are they different,

in what way similar? Is there anything they both agree on

completely?

>

>

 

Dear Rasa Von Werder,

 

i have posted your article at the new forum so that members there

can reply. i believe Violet and others should be able to give you an

appropiate reply:

 

Category: ENLIGHTENED CULTURE

Forum: Holy Scriptures and Religions

Christianity and Yoga - Why they belong together

http://adishakti.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=192

 

 

Please click and register at top left corner of link below:

 

http://adishakti.org/forum/index.php

 

Members here must register at the above link to view/answer articles

because that is a separate forum.

 

regards,

 

 

jagbir