Is Yoga Sinful?

we have a stack of about 60 emails from listeners in Scotland in the United States and India who all want to know about yoga is yoga a mere physical exercise or is unavoidably a participation in Eastern spirituality one of our listeners named Todd writes and asked this pastor John is a health care professional I am interested in the benefits of Eastern practices like yoga and Tai Chi for the documented health benefits they offer can a Christian practice such things with roots and mysticism in good conscience what would you say pastor John one of the first things I would say is that there are two kinds of approaches to questionable practices in life one I would call a minimalist approach to holiness and godliness and the other maximal acai in other words in the first case your your typical question is well what's wrong with it you know and it would apply to movies and music and kids often ask their parents what's wrong with it and and the other approach is not to ask what's wrong with it mainly but will it make me more christ-like will will it make me more devoted to Jesus will I be more powerful and full of the Holy Spirit will I be more effective in prayer because of it will it make me more bold in witness or weaken me will it help me be spiritually discerning of the ways of Satan in the world and will it help me to lay up treasures in heaven will it help me find joy in God and all that he is for me and Jesus you can see that there's these two kinds of approaches to life I want to maximize my godliness and my holiness by drawing nearer nearer to God and and the other one is just trying to do as many things as you can do without being tripped up explicitly by sin so I don't mean to suggest by that that every time you face a questionable activity you will opt for renunciation because you have weighed things that way I just want people to up ouch questions with the greatest passions for godliness the greatest passions and not think minimalistic alee that's the first thing I'd want to say secondly I would want to say that yoga and Tai Chi the little I know and the little research I've done both have their roots in Eastern worldviews and are profoundly in those roots antithetical to Christian understanding of God and the way he works in the world so yoga is to the body this way I'd put it any way what mantra is to the mouth one explanation says that that the mantra quote one has to chant a word or a phrase until he or she transcends mind and emotions and in the process the superconscious is discovered and achieved close quote so the use of word in that mantra like way in order to move into the superconsciousness in other words Yoga exercises or spillover from that kind of verbal repetition and philosophy of how one moves physically and emotionally intellectually to this super consciousness so yoga focuses on harmony between mind and body Yoga derives its philosophy from an Indian metaphysical belief and the word yoga comes from the Sanskrit language and means merger or union and the ultimate aim of that philosophy then is is to strike a balance between mind and body and attain a kind of self enlightenment through the through the use of mantra through the use of certain kinds of physical exercises or meditative stances to achieve this yoga uses breath posture relaxation meditation in order to bring about healthy lively balanced approach to life that be more or less the way they'd say it on a lot of a lot of places on the on the web so if you go to the minneapolis YW a website and click on fitness classes yet 22 references to yoga including beginning yoga M SEO youngster yoga youth dance and yoga Yoga for everybody and it's the same it's the same thing with Tai Chi little less so type Tai Chi has Chinese religious or metaphysical roots and one definition says that Taiji is understood to be the highest conceivable principle from which existence flows the supreme ultimate is that's the what the word Tai Chi means the alt the supreme ultimate creates Yang and Yin movement generates Yang and when when its activity reaches its limit it becomes tranquil and through tranquility the supreme ultimate generates Yin and when the tranquility has reached its limit there is a return to movement and movement and tranquility and alteration become each the source of the other and the transformations of the yang and the union of the Yin produce everything and these in turn produce and reproduce and that makes the process never-ending that's more or less what I've learned in my little bit of research and Christians have a radically different worldview than either of these or the view shaped by yoga the view shaped by Tai Chi our approach towards history and towards God and towards well-being is radically different in in Christianity progress toward wholeness moves from a God who communicates intelligibly through language to be understood through a person Jesus Christ who becomes fully human and speaks to be understood by the mind not the cancelling of the mind through his death and resurrection objectively overcoming a real Satan and real guilt before God through a real gospel message for us once for all in history with historical events behind it through an understanding of that message in our minds consciously through faith in Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through the promises understood and believed through joyful meditation on those objective promises through the transformation of the Holy Spirit through objective word understood as we meditate in progressive likeness to Christ as we see his glory in the word and in the Gospel through practical deeds that lead to help other people and through a life of transformed godliness into eternal life where God is our joy forever that that's Christianity and it's totally different than the kind of worldview that lies behind the meditative physical and emotional and intellectual practices that flow out of out of yoga and and Tai Chi Christian's wholeness of the health and the body if you ask okay how does that relate to the body does that relate to exercise and stuff you do with your body I would say Christian wholeness of the health of the body is a chastened and realistic view marked by these facts number one we are fallen and physically under a curse and emotionally and intellectually under a curse on the whole creation and therefore we will all die second we will be raised from the dead if we have faith in Jesus and this is the health we are ultimately aiming at mainly we would be perfectly healthy body soul in mind in the new heavens and the new earth after the resurrection and that is our glory that is our our hope and third in the meantime our outer nature is wasting away but our inner nature is being renewed day by day and forth so bodily exercise is of a little value as Paul says but spiritual exercise is of value in every way in the way I described it a minute ago and and fifth we should not necessarily unnecessarily damage our bodies which are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we should seek their maximal usefulness in the goals that God has given us so physical health is wonderful but it's not the goal it is a means to much greater goals and a qualified means at that because they're more important means than having a body that is super fit we we may a cut this will be number six we may accomplish our greatest goals by dying by risking our lives in getting Ebola or malaria or river blindness in some missionary activity we don't we don't strive for maximal physical well-being that is a subordinate useful goal as a means to something greater and it may be compromised intentionally by risking our lives for the sake of somebody else and and the last thing would be so any physical regimen that begins to take the place of the pursuit of holiness and sacrificial service which we may lay down our lives is starting probably to become a religion for us and it seems to me that yoga and Tai Chi have already declared themselves by their very names on that score they have run up the flag they've run up the flag of the Eastern worldview by the very name yoga and Tai Chi so for from my money at this point as I assess maximizing rather than minimizing my pursuit of God's goals and the flourishing of my own soul I'd go another way and find another kind of exercise well there you have it John Piper on yoga and Tai Chi thank you Pastor John I no doubt there's going to be follow-up questions on this one you can send your follow-up questions to us on this episode or any episode send us an email at ass pastor John at desiring God org and we now get about 1,500 emails a month so we cannot respond individually but we do get them good questions that are specific and concise are essential to this podcast and we are grateful for those of you who send them in to us and we have a question coming in from Ireland on the table tomorrow what is love in fact it's the most often asked question at Google that's tomorrow on the ask pastor john podcast i'm your host tony ranky we'll see you then you

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 133,993

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Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Ask Pastor John

Id: MwLakR3kvK8

Length: 11min 30sec (690 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 25 2016