In 2006 after teaching yoga full time for over 6 years and hanging out around yoga my whole life, I opened my first very own yoga studio. I knew I wanted to create a sacred space for people discover themselves in.
Growing up around different yoga studios I also know it is common practice for the owners to have statues of Krishna or Buddha in the front of the room or near the entrance of the studio. Most studios claim to be non-religious in spite of the statues and pictures of deities.
But their gods are still present within the studio space, blessing it. So I placed a nice scripture behind my desk and put up a beautiful quarts head of Christ in the front area.
I figured this would take care of 2 things: # 1 maybe I would stop being asked what I believe and 2 possibly Christians would feel more comfortable trying yoga out.
It did make some Christians feel more comfortable and it did stop people from asking me about my religious beliefs. But it prompted a new line of questioning. One that was even more condemning and I did not have the answers to answer for my students both Christian and “spiritual”. In my gut and I had a peace about teaching yoga and focusing on Christ. But I honestly could not back up with actual Biblical evidence, to confirm that I was not sinning or going against Christ by practicing a self-awareness philosophy from another culture who practices another religion. The question was so how does yoga and the Bible fit together? Sometimes it was asked nicely and other times people led with the sword, telling me I was mixing water and fire and how I have it all wrong and how I am leading people away from Christ. So I took care of both, I now only teach Christ focused yoga, meditation and in doing so Christ teaches my students all about themselves and He is always right:) that took the pressure off me. Plus, I began this study to make peace within myself and get the answers to some of the questions I could not answer about Christian beliefs and yogic practices that at the time I could not answer.
In 2007 after teaching my first 500-hour RYT program and having it crash down around me (a humbling blessing indeed) I leaned into God more than ever before. In early 2009 I closed my larger studio to open a more interment studio which I still enjoy today. I also began asking harder questions within myself and seeking answers from the Bible that I had not found from reading front to back or from the great Bible studies that I was participating in at my church.
God pressed on my heart and said that I had 10 years to write a book. At the time I could barely write a sen
tence, let alone imagine writing a book or books. This book would be comparing the wisdom within the book of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra’s to the Bible, a daunting task indeed. In Jan 2009 I began this study and over the years I have visited the first 2 books 2 times. This blog is a record of my latest discoveries.
When I began this study I was ready to give up teaching yoga and practicing it. So many respectable Christians had prayed for me, over me and with me about my relationship with yoga. However, God never lead me away from it. When reading the Sutra’s I kept looking for the Sutras themselves to teach me about a different religious God. But Patanjali seems to only write about one God, name
d God. I have read the sutras with the understanding that when Patanjali writes the word God, he is speaking about the one and only God and not a smaller god or any of his Hindi gods. Because he (Patanjali) does not say their names, really anyone could put the name of any god when reading the sutras. So I have read them each from my own understanding that God is Christ. I also visit each sutra word for word using Iyengar’s translation as well as the viewpoint of the broader conceptual understanding of the sutra itself.
Christ has to lead me to places in the Bible that continue to deepen my understanding of Him and of the science and mind-body wisdom known by the great Indian Sages 5000 years ago. So far Jesus, the Bible and the Yoga Sutras fit together much better than I could have ever imagined. Yoga is a way to know, train and control yourself in and out, Christianity/Catholicism are religious doctrines, God is bigger than them both.
I hope you enjoy this study that it draws you into a deeper understanding of yourself and how God has perfectly made you. I hope it helps you understand the word of God, our Holy Bible and how Christ is working within you and for you all the time. But more importantly I hope this study, helps you to control and manage the blocks, barriers, walls and false beliefs that the evil one has put between you and God, so you can surrender your life to Him completely. God is love, Christ is love, You are love.
Learn more about the Y.O.U. and Twist Yoga teacher training with Antiqua E-RYT 500 at www.Twistyoga.com
