Is Yoga a Religion?

What I have always liked most about western yoga is its blasphemy.

I walked into my first yoga class and double-checked that my instructor and I were on the same page.

“My body ‘s been sore and I’m looking forward to the stretches, I just want to make sure that there isn’t going to be any spirituality involved in this class right?” It’s more of a demand than a question.

She is not intimidated. “Of course , this is your time. There are many physical benefits to the practice of yoga which is what we’re going to focus on. No mantras, just the poses.” She smiles.

I was taking a private class because I wanted to make sure that I was just stretching. There’s not going to be anything spiritual about this practice. I had sent her an email before I booked to make sure this would be the case.

I knew how to be spiritual, you know. Chanting to gods I knew were false was not how you did it. I knew a lot of stuff.

So I was guided to assume these postures, with no intention of experiencing or creating anything beyond my five senses. Blasphemy. I have spoken to some, and read of many others, that this is NOT yoga.

The word yoga is literally translated as “to join, to yolk, or “to unite”.I don’t know who said this first (and does anybody really know who said anything first), one of my favorite yogic sayings is yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.

When I first heard this in a yoga class I left. “What a ridiculous word salad”, I thought.

Now I experientially know that this saying ( along with many others), is the living translation of the word yoga.

When I was talking to a friend about how yoga has become a deep spiritual practice for me despite my best efforts. They asked “You know it’s just a religion though right?”

“Yes”, I said excitedly.

I love western yoga because we all walk into the room together (or some space online these days), we practice heresy* according to many people for many different reasons. But it’s our religion. We make the rules for that hour. Then when it’s over we all walk outside the door, take a deep breath, and tell each other to fuck off with calm hearts coherent brains.

When I asked my friend if he practices yoga he said he does not do the asanas that often. He practises yoga in life and as life.

His answer to my question obviously leads to more questions on both sides which I’ll leave for another day. What we discovered was his method is different from mine.

We had what I would call a curious conversation. We were listening. We were not asking questions to have just enough information to make our counterpoint. We asked, listened, because we truly desired to understand. Trying to feel, think and experience truth, as it is through another human‘s eyes. When achieved we can often see ourselves in, maybe even as the other person, and vice versa. Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.

I grew up in a small fundamentalist high control christian community. There the idea was instilled in me that there is an absolute truth, ONE true religion. Even if you did not spend your formative years in what many today would label a cult. I think we can all relate to the feelings that arise when a few people in our lives try to impress upon us that there is a right or wrong way to be. I had all those feelings when I started dealing with the subsequent fallout from trying to squeeze into the acceptable moulds that particular truth aloud. This has left me weary of definitions and sometimes even words. That is why I like dictionaries, and try to speak only of my own experiences.

“You know that’s just a religion right?”

Religion. A word used originally in the context of a life lived under monastic vows of any kind. It’s roots are from the Latin reliare, meaning “to bind ‘’. To bind? Sounds like “to join”, “to yoke”, “to unite”.

In modern English we have agreed to use the word religion to describe a particular system of faith or worship. A system.

One true religion? Can a system or method be true or false? I don’t think so. It either works for its intended purpose or it doesn’t.

What I know is when I sit, stand, or move by myself, sometimes with others in the practice of what some people call yoga. I am working the system, my method, my religion. It yields my desired result.

Experiencing the truth of the interconnectedness of all living and dead things.

I feel whole. I see the idea that we are separate from one another as an illusion, a smokescreen from the reality I am sitting in. Grateful for what we have deemed good, as well as what we have deemed bad.

Free. From the thing we call Tiff, and all its perceived limitations.

I am everything. I am a piece of infinity.

I, just, am.

Make your own religion.

…footnotes…

• “the Latin root haeresis, “school of thought or sect,” was used by Christian writers to mean “unorthodox sect or belief.” This comes from the Greek hairesis, “a taking or choosing,” from hairein, “to choose.” A person who chooses to believe in heresies is called a heretic.”
• In other words, a person who chooses to believe in heresies, which is literally choosing. Is a heretic. It simply meant they were people who choose for themselves what to believe. Call me a heretic please.