If you have practiced yoga, or have read anything about it recently, you likely know and have some understanding of the benefits of a practice, to which people can both anecdotally attest to and increasingly is being backed by ‘science’. I am not here to convince anyone of the benefits that yoga can have for adults, but Yoga also has proven benefits for children in increasingly stressful classrooms. Our children are facing daily downloads of news on topics such as the impending climate crisis, they are dealing with issues we could never comprehend in an ever increasing tech saturated world, and have far more complex special needs in schools and now more than ever young people need ways to regulate emotions and even thrive in our modern landscape. According to Yoga 4 schools, an American based school programme, there is mounting evidence of the value of mindfulness and yoga practices in the classroom. “In summary, a growing number of scientific studies suggest that yoga may enhance students’ mind-body awareness, self-regulation, and physical fitness which may, in turn, promote improved behaviour, mental state, health, and performance, to dive further on the subject check out the links to these scientific studies- (Butzer et al., 2016; Ferreira-Vorkapic et al., 2015; Khalsa & Butzer, 2016; MLERN, 2012; Serwacki & Cook-Cottone, 2012).” And in Ireland it is now being recognised and called for to be added to school activities. The familiar Schooldays.ie shared this article about the benefits for our little ones, “Kids yoga helps to maintain your child’s natural flexibility, encourage good posture and digestion and develop the focus needed to perform well in school. Yoga improves self confidence, helps your child to develop a healthy body image and allows them to express their emotions in a physical way.” I don’t think anyone would refuse those benefits!
Conversely you may also have read the articles in various papers last year from The Journal, here, to the Irish times, here, and numerous other publications, about a particular Bishops’ opinion in the form of a letter to local schools, backed by comments from the pope, about the consequences of practicing non catholic origin, yoga and meditation in schools. The letter included this line “yoga is not of Christian origin and is not suitable for a parish school setting”. So what is it that really makes the Catholic church so afraid and so vocal on this subject?
Well let’s look at what the pope actually said on the subject in 2015, which the Waterford Bishop is referencing. The pope is actually quoted as saying “You can take a million catechetical courses, a million courses in spirituality, a million courses in yoga, Zen and all these things. But all of this will never be able to give you freedom” . It is a quote that also mentions catechism courses which is as described by wikipedia for those unfamiliar “a book that explains the beliefs of the Christian religion by using a list of questions and answers”, (although the bishops letter appears to have left out the reference to Catechism studies). I don’t believe the pope is saying not to study the catechism if you’re Catholic, but that these activities alone, will not give you freedom from suffering, that you must still live your beliefs and embody the teachings.
So why has the Irish church run with the yoga and meditation angle of this quote and run away with it to the point of saying it should be banned from schools? The Bishop himself suggests that it is due to yoga’s non Christian origins. Yes, it is a practice associated with the religion of Hinduism. While zen meditation is associated with Buddhist traditions. (There is a school of thought that yoga pre-dates hinduism, but that is for another days debate.) And there are other religions associated such as Jainism and Sufism. So then with the monumental rise in popularity of yoga and meditation, where are all the Hindu converts in Ireland and globally? I personally know no one, even in the yoga teaching community, that includes those who have spent many years studying yoga and the Vedic texts, who has been compelled to convert and I know of no rush to sign up to the religion of Hinduism. So does that argument therefore ring true, somehow the study of yoga will lead to so many lost lambs? According to the PEW research centre there is expected to be a growth in hinduism outside of India from now until 2050, but this is due to immigration and birth rates within those communities, growing inline and against a background of overall world population growth, but not from mass conversions. And interestingly, Buddhism is set to see a decline in numbers, from 2040 to 2050, with an ageing population. So again this fear of people being converted does not seem relevant given numbers have been unaffected by huge conversions despite decades of yoga in the west.
Perhaps you are wondering, with no disrespect to anyones beliefs, what the relevance of one Bishops opinion is or why the fuss? I fear the impact of such statements, is still far reaching. Many people are hugely devotional in their beliefs to the church and will take such statements very much to heart. The bishop is after all a prominent representative of the faith and people live by their faith, earnestly and honestly and I fully recognise and honour that. There is also still a large influence on school boards of local clergy, who are in turn responsible to the Bishops, and any state school will have a priest as a chairperson on their board of management. I have spoken to children’s Yoga teachers who have come up against this very issue when hoping to share their abilities and teachings in school situations. In fact one teacher has been through the process of vetting and consideration on three separate occasions with different parish schools and hit the proverbial brick wall when it was brought for approval before school boards to then be dismissed outright. She confided that she was also asked to change the name of her class from “yoga’ to a more palatable name to appease the board. I have heard from yoga teachers who have been observed and eyed suspiciously in community halls, for any hint or whiff of a “dark” or alternative spirituality in their yoga classes so they can be refused any further use of the facilities. I have read flyers in my local area that were handed out to passers by and delivered to post boxes, presenting the argument that yoga opens participants up to demonic possession and wicked behaviours of the flesh, yes in this day and age! Rural Ireland probably suffers this even more than our larger cities. Further still, all this may plant seeds of suspicion in the mind of the regular person before they even attend a class or allow their children to join without them even being aware, just enough of a question to linger in the back of the mind, enough doubt to lean away. So it really does matter.
“In the quiet, God slips in.”
Heidi Schlumpf
Yoga and God.
Certainly being Catholic and practicing yoga are not mutually exclusive ideals. I know many devout people who find themselves closer to God and their faith with a daily yoga practice. People similar to this lovely lady, Heidi, who puts her experience so eloquently in an article in the National Catholic Reporter about how practicing yoga makes her a better Catholic. “For me, anything that slows down my hectic life is a good thing — and not just because it aids relaxation and de-stresses. Meditation is just another name for prayer.
In the quiet, God slips in. That’s why so many religions have some sort of quiet, meditative prayer practice. For some Catholics, it’s praying with the Blessed Sacrament. For others, it may be a centering prayer. Still others find it on their yoga mats.”
I can agree, my practice makes me a better human.
‘Structurally the architecture of the church is designed to maintain the invisibility and the powerlessness of women.’
Dr. Mary McAleese
I ask then, what is the fear?
My thoughts are much more in line with who is practicing yoga?
Roughly 80% of yoga participants are female, a fact you may have witnessed if you have attended any yoga classes, workshops or teacher trainings recently. It is a practice which sees a considerable amount of women, gathering together, meeting, sharing and inspiring each other, raising each others spirits and collectively healing. I would speculate this is probably quite a suspicious fact not gone unnoticed by a mainly male dominated, hierarchical system that still is the church. I do not wish to alienate men here, in fact, I welcome the male energy to join in the practice, as male energy receives the same benefits and love as does the feminine, our children can witness this balanced healing opportunity and everyone wins. However women have always been a worrisome force to be managed and maintained, especially regarding health and the healing arts being in women’s hands. After all we are fully aware of the trials and tribulations of female healers and anyone who seemed to have independent ideas, at the hands of the church in 15 & 1600s. As referenced here from the History channel. “Single women, widows and other women on the margins of society were especially targeted. Between the years 1500 and 1660, up to 80,000 suspected witches were put to death in Europe. Around 80 percent of them were women thought to be in cahoots with the Devil and filled with lust. ” Gendercide, theres that 80% again.
The most aggressive elements of the witch hunts were driven largely by the publication of a hand book, Malleous Maleficarium, ‘the hammer of the witches’, written by two monks. This handbook was not the first ever written on the supposed power of witch craft but it is believed to be the first to assign the role of malignant witch to the specific gender of women, women being more susceptible to Satan’s temptation apparently. The witch hunters guide published by Catholic inquisition authorities in 1485-86. “All wickedness,” state the authors, “is but little to the wickedness of a woman. … What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an unescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil nature, painted with fair colours. … Women are by nature instruments of Satan — they are by nature carnal, a structural defect rooted in the original creation.” Whoah, right? Strong words that were incredibly popular, as the book was only out sold by the bible during the period, placing a solid number two in the book charts and with 30 odd variant editions, for almost 300 years.
Our own Dr.Mary McAleese has been very vocal on the continued denigrated position of women in the church, as she said recently ‘structurally the architecture of the church is designed to maintain the invisibility and the powerlessness of women.’ This article from the Irish Times delves deeper on her opinion and it is a powerful one. In it she reveals and “quoted from a book of theology ‘Love and Responsibility’ by the late Pope St John Paul II which stated that in the act of sex in a marriage, the woman “is a comparatively passive partner whose function it is to accept and experience. For the purpose of the sexual act it is enough for her to be passive and unresisting, so much so that it can even take place without her volition while she is in a state in which she has no awareness at all of what is happening – for instance when she is asleep or unconscious.” She noted that the late Irish theologian Fr Seán Fagan, who was censured by the Vatican, had questioned Pope John Paul on this saying it sounded like rape.
“What happened? Pope John Paul becomes a saint. Seán Fagan becomes silenced. That’s our church,” said Professor McAleese.” Again, very recent history, his papacy ending in 2005.
“Is the issue of yoga and the church really a misogynistic one? “
You may now be questioning the link between a predominantly female compelled yoga movement and the stance of the church, and ask “is the issue of yoga and the church really a misogynistic one? “
I can only point to the fact that when community halls and centres around the country provide karate classes, for example, for children and adults alike, a martial art for which Religion was crucial to its development and is extricably linked. And yet there is seemingly no outcry from the church on the matter? A quote from this Website called “Blackbelt” describes karates’ Buddhist beginnings as follows, “It (Religion) was crucial in the historical development of many arts, and it continues to dictate the ways in which many students think and act during practice sessions. More than a few Western students have converted to an Eastern religion simply because their martial art grew from that spiritual tradition. But does the fact that a martial art germinated in religious soil mean all practitioners have to abide by those beliefs?”. Karate, while teachers of the art here, I am sure, welcome both sexes to participate, does have as a general rule more male teachers and students than female, it’s a general fact. There is no question of its intentions or value as an activity for children, its known to have far reaching positive effects on self confidence, discipline and physical health for children but it doesn’t seem to draw the same attention as to its religious origin and the spiritual ramifications for its participants, in the same way that yoga has attracted such scrutiny.
Yet it is yoga that seems to strike the fear of, well, God into the church.
Today, women are still struggling with their position within a modern and still very male dominated society outside of the church, even in Ireland. We may have stepped out of the ‘burning at the stake’ inquisition times and Mother and baby home era (although the homes were in operation until frightening recently in our history, Bessboro in Cork only closed in 1996, and there has been very little co-operation from the church regarding compensation and culpability on many abuse issues.) Scratch the surface and equality is still a far off utopian daydream. Equal pay is still an illusive wisp clutched at by hard working hands. Modern mothers are often expected to work like they don’t have children, and mother like they don’t have careers, exhaustingly juggling both. Equal numbers in powerful roles within the workplace and politics is an ongoing battle. But no where, other than the church is the division of the genders still as prominent and brazen as ever. So, yes, I do see a link to the church’s fear of yoga in school and who is the predominant practicer and provider of Yoga today.
The time has come.
In a time when we are without doubt or sensationalism, in the midst of a mental health crisis that effects so many and at more tender ages, when stress and anxiety has creeped in to every facet of life, when government mental health provisions or lack thereof is at the forefront of most peoples voting agenda in Ireland in election 2020, will we still allow the church to remove one more proven effective tool from a dwindling, understocked and under financed tool kit for providers because it didn’t originate in the Vatican walls?
Should we still be paying attention to the church on whether we should have yoga stretches and mindfulness in schools? Whether meditation and mindful breathing techniques for stressed children should be a taboo despite the many, many proven benefits? If community halls should open the doors to facilitate peoples desire to participate in an ancient healing art? Fundamentally I think the power to decide what we do within our schools or community halls should no longer be dictated by men who fear women gathering in groups or are disconnected from the task of caring for children in a modern world. Yoga can benefit all who are willing to participate, young, old and of every gender or religion and that is its charm and beauty.
It is time for deep healing.