https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=odBMpax3yR4
Alright, I’ve been thinking a lot about the physical manifestations we may use in our attempt at participating in the sacred. While I can see a meaning behind many of the things done during a liturgy or even prayer, crossing oneself, frustrations, and bowing, etc., and even the meaning behind non-sacred practices such as waving, to say hi, shaking hands, or even flipping someone off, I struggle to understand whether there could be deeper implications on one’s soul if they are doing to other traditions. The most obvious example is yoga, which was a practice within many eastern religions and can still be found being practiced in the West, though arguably a watered down version. Do you think that there is a valid argument for staying away from such a physical practice when it isn’t a Christian tradition? On the flip of this, could non-theists begin to align themselves with Christ if they make the sign of the cross, even if done in a mocking manner? How does much ignorance or naivete play in our willing and wanting to align ourselves with the sacred? I hope that makes sense. I think it’s a great question and I think I don’t have a clear answer to you. And it’s hard because it’s like I think everybody kind of has a different answer or a different standard. For example, I don’t personally have a problem with people who do yoga. I know people who do yoga. I would never do yoga. Like I would just would never do that. Because it’s funny because one of the reasons why I wouldn’t do yoga is because it’s not the only reason. But one of the reasons is that I’m pretty sure that the people in here in my city who are doing hot yoga or doing some kind of yoga don’t understand what they’re doing. And it’s like they’re playing with fire and they don’t know what it is they’re playing with. They don’t understand that the purpose of yoga in India was to bring people towards enlightenment. It was to create spiritual experiences. And so, you know, it’s like I’m not I’m certainly not going to go to some class with some 25 year old lady who had you know who doesn’t know anything about this and is has learned to do yoga and is going to take you on these exercises. And she has no understanding of what those are supposed to really link to. To me that’s just dangerous. It’s just a dangerous thing. But anyway, like I’m not saying that if you go take a yoga class you’re going to you’re going to I don’t know you’re going to be possessed by a demon or something. I don’t think it’s that simple. I just I just myself have never have always felt like it’s not it’s too weird. Like I’ll give you an example though something that I have no problem with and maybe some people would disagree with me is that I have taken some martial arts classes and if there was an opportunity like a really good opportunity I probably would do that again. And because that because martial arts is also a fighting technique and because it is although it’s obvious like if you look at Kung Fu or if you look at some of the some of the practices that they do understand things analogically they understand it spiritually to a certain extent. There’s also the idea that you really do have to beat the guy in front of you. Like you actually have to win the match. You have to learn the move like you if you if you don’t if you don’t know how to block you don’t know how to block it. You know there’s no it’s there’s also a grounded aspect to it which seems to make it less dangerous in my opinion. But like I said that’s that’s just my standard. You know the idea that that doing like would someone who’s an atheist making the sign of the cross would it maybe align them with Christ. Look I don’t know. I don’t know. One of the things that I that I know is that my father my father does this this thing I think it was called EMD EMDR or something like that. It’s like a psychological technique to help people who are traumatized. He was telling me that in order to help people who is traumatized like they have they have to go back to their memories and and yet they move and he moves his fingers like this and and they have to follow his fingers. And I was like really. So interesting. It’s like there’s actually something in the brain which is activated when people follow a certain gesture of the fingers. And so it’s just interesting. Like I think that we don’t totally understand how these types of these types of gestures can have can have an effect on us and can realign us as you said. Now whether or not an atheist doing that would help them. I have no idea. Well I’d rather they do that than other things. Many Christians don’t think there is an issue if they do yoga. This is hard to square for me. I wonder if yoga could be made Christian. Any thoughts? Yeah I don’t know man. I’ve talked about yoga before. I think I find it shady. I wouldn’t I wouldn’t do yoga. Having said that I don’t think that if you do yoga you’re going to hell or that if you do yoga you’ll be automatically possessed by a demon. But I think that there’s something fragmentary about the way that moderns and kind of California Buddhists types do yoga. They’re not Buddhist but whatever California spiritual types do yoga. And I think that they misunderstand the original purpose of yoga. And so because they use something which seemed to be have more spiritual connotation to just get fit. There’s something about it. It’s just it just I find it just manifests that kind of confusion spiritual confusion that we see around us. You know and people confuse. There’s so much confusion like people confused confused that’s a spiritual practice and spiritual mysticism with the idea of feeling better and being relaxed and all this stuff. It’s like that’s not what it’s about. So I’m not a big fan. But you know whatever it’s if I meet a Christian who does yoga usually I’m not going to I’m not going to say anything. I mean there are worse things in the world for sure than that.