Graham
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| Scriptorium said: | | Graham said: | | Aren't the poses and breathing techniques supposed, by their very nature, to 'open' various so-called chakras? My understanding is that there is a certain ritual objectivity about it, such that the intention - however secular - of the practitioner would not fully circumscribe the act. |
I haven't practiced yoga. I know in Qi Gong and Tai Chi there is the idea of opening centers of energy (chi). But this type of thing can easily be secularized, or even Catholicized. One, it can be drawn back to the natural body and the nervous system, which it regularly is. In Catholicism, it can be (if one wanted) be the breath of God which He breathed into us at conception. I practice meditation/contemplation, and regularly practice the directing of breath energy through the body, which is really the nervous system interacting with our minds and wills. It certainly *could* have religious applications, but there is nothing Hindu about it in itself. |
"Breath energy" is called prana in the Hindu religion and is, as you say, believed to connect the physical with the spiritual.
If breath connects the physical faculties to the spiritual faculties, then breathing techniques taught in yoga classes obviously, by that fact alone, extend their effects beyond the physical, into the psychical and spiritual. If a certain technique is authentically Hindu - meaning not invented recently or merely for the consumption of Westerners - then it's only sensible to induce that it aims at spiritual objectives which are also authentically Hindu. Thus there can be no clean divide between Hindu techniques and Hindu religion.
I have read of an authentic technique in a book on yoga by Alain Danielou: inhale for 8 seconds; hold your breath for 16 seconds; exhale for 4 seconds; repeat indefinitely.
What is the point of such an odd technique? It is to introduce a specific rhythm into the breath energy, which is intended to open one to a specific influence. Is this influence Catholic? Can this type of thing be Catholicized easily?
It is the same with poses. Authentically Hindu poses are designed to raise so-called kundalini up through the spine, opening on its way various "chakras", which respond to obscure influences, and leading eventually to Hindu-style enlightenment. As I noted, such techniques must be considered as having an objective effect on the practitioner, regardless of his intention or understanding.
Perhaps some such techniques are capable of being Catholicized, I would be surprised if it were otherwise. But I think there is no good reason for Catholics to be toying with such things when, as you say, we have our own properly vetted tradition of meditation, including postures and breathing techniques.
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| Posted Aug 1, 2012, 6:48 am |
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