HerbEly

Time Magazine on Yoga and Catholicism

Time’s article on Stretching for Jesus explores the reluctance of many Christians to accept yoga as a spiritual discipline. When the author, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen/Mahtomedi, turns to Catholicism she writes:

Catholics face a more formidable skeptic. In 1989 the Vatican issued a document saying the practice of Eastern traditions like yoga "can degenerate into a cult of the body," warning Catholics against mistaking yoga's "pleasing sensations" for "spiritual well-being." It was signed by then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger--now Pope Benedict XVI. In a 2003 document the Vatican further distances itself from New Age practices, including yoga. Even so, Father Thomas Ryan, a Catholic leader of the Christian yoga movement, says he interprets the church's position not as a denunciation of yoga but as a reminder to "respect Christian logic" in its practice. "And that's what we're doing," he says.

A couple of comments:
• The operative word in this quote is "can degenerate". Any thing that is good and beneficial can also degenerate. This does not mean that it, it itself is bad. Otherwise, we would be consuming grape juice at Communion.
• Of all the religions in the world, Catholicism ought to be the best at finding disciplines to integrate mind, heart and strength. Our desire to do so should be based on the Great Commandment Dt. 6:4-5 We believe in the Incarnation and the Resurrection of the Body. Rather than resisting disciplines from the East, we ought to be working to integrate them, just as the Church Fathers integrated Greek into Hebrew thought in the early days of the Church.

I’m working on a review of Thomas Ryan’s book on spirituality of the body. Watch this space. For my previous postings on this topic go here and here.
Thanks to Amy Welborn. I don’t usually read Time

The Strategic Oil Reserve Won't Help Much

The immediate energy problem is lack of capacity in refieneries. It will take a long time to undo the economic damage from Katrina - longer to undo the human damage. For details see this post from Outiside the Beltway. If your'e planning an RV vacation take his adivice: dirive it to the end of your driveway and camp there.

Catholic Carnival XVI

Hello, Everyone

Catholic Carnival hosts usually look for a theme among the posts suggested for each week’s carnival. For Catholic Carnival 41, I found several around the question of discernment of my own and societal attitudes. For me this is a critical question. As we do our morning prayers and evening review (aka an examination of conscience) we look for the “next right thing” to do. (If we focus on that, we won’t waste time worrying over the thing after the next one.( Mt. 6:30 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.) I often look to the complete version of the Serenity Prayer for guidance.

This week’s Carnival submissions challenged me to look at my own and society’s attitudes in discerning the “next right thing”

"You can't Please Everyone so .." Part III

According to JIm Shore, the General Cousel of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, both the tribe and Florida State University (FSU) have benefited by having the school use the Seminole tribe. So, I repeat my quote from Ricky Nelson's Garden Party,

I went to a Garden Party
To reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories
and play our songs again.

When I got to the Garden Party
They all knew my name
But no one recognized me
I didn't look the same.

But it's all right now.
I learned my lesson well.
You see you can't please everyone
So you got to please yourself.

FSU can't please the NCAA with its use of a native American name and they are pleasing the Seminoles and themselves. Maybe the NCAA officials should just give up its concern with political correctness in mascots and team names. There must be other, more important work for them to do.

"You Can't Please Everyone so ..

You might as well please yourself" This April I quoted this Ricky Nelson lyric on the brew ha ha over whether team names were offensive to native Americans. The NCAA has decided that William and Mary's team name ( Tribe) offends native Americans. Most of the teams that have native American names have taken the trouble to please the groups involved and themselves. They can't please the NCAA and the public.

If I read Mary Katherine Ham correctly, the NCAA official involved has been at this offensive mascot business for a long time. As she points out, the names/mascot flap will keep the NCAA busy for a long time. I would rather see them working on questions such as academic standards, steroid use, unfair recruitment and exploitation of junior high school athletes, team prayer, etc.

I once had a friend who said that when they got to the bottom of Watergate, they would find a college basketball coach. The NCAA should be focusing on improving the integrity of college athletics to the point at which that remark is not funny. fighting over the political correctness of team names only wastes time and energy.

First Shoe-wearers were between 10K and 100K years ago

Our son, David, posted this fascinating link about how archeologists figured out when people started wearing shoes. It seems that going barefoot thickens the toes. By examining the foot bones of early modern humans and Neanderthals they were able to estimate the times when primitive peoples began to fashion shoes.

I am martial artist who does not wear shoes in class and the husband of a wife who is vulnerable to plantar fasciitis and must wear shoes all the time. An archeologist examining our feet might assume that she is more civilized than I.

Today's College Freshmen Don't remember that ....

The Beloit College Mindset list has just been published. It's fun - and a reminder to college teachers that they are working with young people whose political memories span less than a decade. there are many things that they don't remember. for example:

Spirituality of the Body: the Basis of Solomon’s Wisdom

Like most enneagram type 5’s, I’ve always adminred Solomon for his wisdom. This morning, as I read 1 Kings 4, I recognized that Solomon’s wisdom came from his heart, not his head. Solomon did not pray to be wiser than everyone else; be a great king; have a long life; or even for his kingdom. Instead he only asked to know God’s will and for the power to carry it out:

Newsweek on Centering Prayer

Jerry Adler starts Nesweek’s lead article on spirituality with this paragraph on centering prayer:

Aug. 29 - Sept. 5, 2005 issue - The 1960s did not penetrate very deeply into the small towns of the Quaboag Valley of central Massachusetts. Even so, Father Thomas Keating, the abbot of St. Joseph's Abbey, couldn't help noticing the attraction that the exotic religious practices of the East held for many young Roman Catholics. To him, as a Trappist monk, meditation was second nature. He invited the great Zen master Roshi Sasaki to lead retreats at the abbey. And surely, he thought, there must be a precedent within the church for making such simple but powerful spiritual techniques available to laypeople. His Trappist brother Father William Meninger found it in one day in 1974, in a dusty copy of a 14th-century guide to contemplative meditation, "The Cloud of Unknowing." Drawing on that work, as well as the writings of the contemplatives Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Avila, the two monks began teaching a form of Christian meditation that grew into the worldwide phenomenon known as centering prayer. Twice a day for 20 minutes, practitioners find a quiet place to sit with their eyes closed and surrender their minds to God. In more than a dozen books and in speeches and retreats that have attracted tens of thousands, Keating has spread the word to a world of "hungry people, looking for a deeper relationship with God."

If you are interested in centering prayer, check the Contemplative Outreach website. If you are interested and live in Virginia (aka God’s country) go here.

Gas Prices: More Perspective

John Tierney uses his NYT column to bet $5,000 that gas prices will be under $200/barrel (inflation adjusted) by 2010.