The last few months experimenting with yoga have been a great experience; However, I still am unsure whether I would classify yoga as a religion. It certainly has many of the characteristics of a religion: It's a group of organized individuals performing rituals, and a strong focus on spirituality. Just like any religion there are many different "sects" or types of practices.
I would still be reluctant to classify yoga as a religion, however, because I have not noticed two very characteristic things at any of my yoga practices that are normally associated with yoga: Tenets relating to morality, or any explanations of the origins of life or existence of an afterlife.
As we learned in class, yoga has changed a lot over the years; From the East, over to the west, yoga has lost many characteristics and gained many other ones. It has lost its focus on spirituality and gained more of an emphasis on the body. While all religions change over time and take on new applications, they usually remain somewhat intact because of some sort of scripture. Because a lack of this sort of dogma, yoga has been free to transform itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment