Christian pop music
played quietly in the
background as instructor
Bryan Brock led a recent
yoga class at the
nondenominational Church
at Rocky Peak in
Chatsworth.
Incorporating prayer and
readings from the Bible,
Brock urged his class of
about 20 students
to
find strength in their
connection to
their creator
through yoga's
deep, controlled
breathing. "The goal of
Christian yoga is to
open ourselves up to
God,"
he said. "It allows us
to
blur the line between
the physical and the
spiritual."
Such hybrid classes,
which
combine yoga
practice with elements
of Christianity or
Judaism,
appear to be
growing in popularity
across
Southern California and
elsewhere.
Some Christians call
their versions of the
discipline holy yoga or
Yahweh yoga and some
teachers urge
participants
to "breathe down Jesus."
Jewish yogis, in turn,
have developed -- and in
some cases, even
trademarked -- Torah
yoga, Kabbalah yoga and
aleph bet yoga,
applying Eastern
meditative movements to
Jewish prayer and study.
Meanwhile,
Californian Muslims who
practice yoga have yet
to
merge it with the
teachings of the Koran
or worship of Allah,
a local leader
says. And there are
skeptics within all
three Abrahamic
religions who
question
whether it is proper to
integrate the
Hindu-based spiritual
practice into Western
monotheistic traditions.
"Christ
is my guru.
Yoga is a spiritual
discipline much like
prayer,
meditation
and fasting,"
Boon said in a telephone
interview.
"No one religion can
claim ownership."
Some fundamentalist
Christians distance
themselves from yoga,
saying
it
is inseparable from
Hinduism or Buddhism and
therefore dangerous,
even blasphemous. Some
Orthodox Jewish
authorities warn that if
practiced with all its
Eastern components,
including Sanskrit
chanting and small
statues of deities, it
amounts to avodah
zarah, or the
worship of false gods.
"He said,
'God has been trying to
reach you all these
years and he is reaching
you through yoga,"
Erlick recalled. The
rabbi challenged her to
reconcile yoga with
Judaism, which
led to five years of
study to become a rabbi.
"For me,
yoga is prayer,"
Erlick said.
Unger
chants
shalom
(peace) instead of om,
and recites the daily
Jewish prayer for
awakening when she does
the sun
salutation.
