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[quote=Anonymous][quote]
PP you were originally responding to here.  I think your question 2 is the heart of the issue.  If there is some practice of whatever sort that is shown to have positive benefits outside of its religious or cultural traditions, is it ok to appropriate?  The answer in my mind is unquestionably yes.  So if taking communion were shown to have positive health benefits, then I totally think a non-religious way to gain the health benefit would pop up and people of all sorts would partake in this type of communion.  And in my mind, that would be ok.

The world is interconnected.  It always has been. And that is a good thing.[/quote]

OP here. I think you've correctly zeroed in on the issue with the question, "If there is some practice of whatever sort that is shown to have positive benefits outside of its religious or cultural traditions, is it ok to appropriate?" And it's indeed a difficult question, or else we wouldn't have debated it! Obviously you have your opinion on the answer to this question, and while I think you do have good reasons for your opinion, in my mind the objection keeps coming up, "Then don't call it communion."

I've just realized, while writing this, how beautiful the Christian concept of communion is (and I am not going off-track from Hinduism and yoga...I'm getting there). It's not just the physical acting of eating bread, it's a mystic ritual in which your soul enters into a relationship with Christ. And isn't that beautiful? I personally think it's sacred, holy and treasured.

So let's say, for example, the original communion ritual consisted of, I don't know, peony extract. Peony extract has a lot of health benefits - but Christians believe the peony flower is sacred (this is just a hypothetical) and directly linked to Jesus. Let's say a new health routine is developed by medically qualified people or nutritionists who are influenced by the peony extract exchange that is communion, and start advocating ritual peony extract eating sessions because peony extract will give all these health benefits.

That's not communion, that's just good, healthy eating.

Yoga is the same thing. Personally I practice bhakti yoga (devotional worship of deities) [i]and[/i] asanas. When I do asanas (the physical, exterior yoga) I'm consciously meditating as I do it, feeling the prana move through my body, feeling my chakras open, and/or asking the Divine to enter through my crown chakra. I yearn for union with Shiva. I feel my Ego Self disconnect from my True Self. I get intuitive impressions of ingrained patterns of thinking that are holding me back, or other insights into my mind and my life that I know, personally, are coming from my Higher Self, which is God.

I don't do yoga to ease physical pain or "look hot". If you want to do yoga-like stretches or postures for those reasons, then go for it! But don't call it yoga. I don't think names are frivolous, because communion means something, yoga means something. To disconnect them from their original purpose is a shame IMO, and no matter how modified the practice becomes (because hatha yoga is quite different from bhakti yoga, as others have pointed out), the modified practice is still marketing itself based on the original practice, and in doing so it is not showing respect to the original purpose of that practice.

Mindful stretching is good. "Looking hot" stretching is good. (I used to do Pilates, and I freely admit that I did it for my figure and fitness.) Any kind of physical exercise that improves your posture, fitness, health and sense of well-being is good. You do not need religion to feel good about yourself or do exercises that help your emotional well-being - and that is GOOD.

But you're not doing yoga, and you're not a yogi. That distinction remains clear in my mind.[/quote]

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