Helps us find the meaning...

Reading from Tuesday and Wednesday August 5 & 6, 2014 yoga class

From an article by Linda Johnson, found on the Yoga International website entitled "Similarities between Yoga and Christianity"

"Recently a yoga student told me her family was strongly opposed to her mediating and doing hatha yoga postures.  "How can you do yoga and still be Christian?" they wanted to know.  I was astonished.  Yoga is totally non-denominational; it's a universal form of spiritual practice that can be adopted with equal benefit by people of all religions and no religion at all.  Saying you can't be a Christian and practice yoga is like claiming that good Catholics can't sing spirituals.

Still, it's true that yoga developed in the deeply religious cultural matrix of India, and perhaps it's that aspect of its history which some Christians react against.  That's unfortunate because, as anyone who has studied both the Bible and the scriptures of India know, the two traditions have a great deal in common...When we read the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah and his ark, and Abraham and Isaac, the similarities to India's earliest texts become even more striking.  For example, the legend of Manu stories... Both Manu and Abraham were made fathers of great nations.

When we trace our spiritual lineages back far enough, whatever our religion, we find they converge in a great ancient tradition that is shared by cultures throughout the world.  The inner meaning of the ancient myths, however, and the spiritual practices that help us directly experience their truths have been painstakingly preserved in India for thousands of years.  For this reason, even though I was raised a Christian, I don't see yoga as an "alien" tradition.  Instead, it seems to me an older sister of Christianity who has much to teach us if we can put aside our prejudice, sit quietly, and listen."

SO.... Yoga helps us find the meaning of our lives!!  It helps us pay attention to the way we think.!!