Sunday, July 15, 2007
Sunday In Pune
After a great practice this morning Anne and I ate lunch and set off on an adventure. I think she is covering the details on her blog. www.theyogaplacewaco.blogspot.com I am mostly drinking water to re-hydrate from the long sweaty walk that was involved. (Plus at one stop she enjoyed two different coffee beverages so she is probably a bit more chatty than me at the moment!)
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Christina,
Your latest posts stimulated me to thinking about various comparisions between your study of yoga under different disciplines (i.e., denominations) and my study of theology.
Some background comments, which you have already heard, in case other people read this response:
(1) Dave Vinjamuri and his then wife, Karen, were fellow congregants of ours at New Horizon United Methodist Church near Weston, FL. Additionally, they are friends. Dave's father, an Indian philosopher once stated: "God is like a giant body of water from which many rivers flow in and out."
(2) My particular river, of course, is Christianity - at least the version with which I most resonate. In that sense, because I am inside the Christian tent, Christianity becomes "the way" for me.
(3) While I will expound upon why Christianity is "the way" for me, I would never use laws or fear to convence anyone else. Reasoned discourse and a life lived by example in an attempt to be consonant with the Christian Gospel, OK; however, never coercion. (We will not get into a discussion of my forcing you and A-M to go to Sunday School and Church when you were children.)
(4) Once persons are thinking and reasoning adults, the rivers they chose flowing into and out of the body of water representing God becomes the persons' responsibility. Any other approach would violate the fundamental Judeo-Christian principle of free will to which I strongly adhere.
(5) As you know, I was born into and raised in the Christian faith. I have remained a "struggling" Christian throughout my life. To apply Socrates' principle (from A-M): The unexamined faith is not a mature faith.
A simple, uncomplicated faith may be sufficient for some people and may very well be satisfying and useful in organizing the person's view of the world, seen and unseen. Similarly, someone who enters into the practice of yoga may be completely satisfied and find the elementary poses, etc. useful.
Persons with more inquiring minds may choose to study theology and its application in more detail and with more vigor. Such students quite likely will find the study becomes highly valuable not only because of the answers and insights received but, more importantly, for the nature of the questions asked.
Again, I suspect that serious and dedicated students of yoga always find new insights the more the study of the discipline advances.
I truly need to find the source for this quote: A constant feature of human life is the persistence of certain questions and the absolutely transient nature of the answers.
Christianity and yoga share another feature: Salvation (however Christians define the term) and enlightenment (or whatever) for yogis and yoginis becomes the responsiblity of the seeker. I purposefully analogized St. Paul: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."
St. Paul address this dictum to a chruch, that is, a community. From that perspective, I see Christianity and yoga as primarily communal activities while, at the same time, individuals must exert personal energy toward "working out" salvation/englightment/whatever the term best fits the situation.
I will post a summary of our experiences with Grandmartha on A-M's blog, although I suspect Kelly filled you in on many details during your telephone conversation today.
Keep those posts coming.
Love and blessings,
The Frosolono Patriarch
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