Yoga a stretch too far for Catholicism

The decision by a priest not to allow yoga classes to take place at his parish hall in Britain made headlines in the past week.

The story quickly turned global, sparking a worldwide debate on whether yoga is compatible with Catholicism.

Instructor Cori Withell, 37, sought to teach her six-week class at St Edmund’s Church hall in Southampton. In her poster, she billed the one-hour session as a “completely new concept” bringing yoga and pilates together.

The concept is nothing new, however. Yogilates was created in 1996 by New York yoga and pilates instructor Jonathan Urla.

On realising the classes incorporated yoga, Fr John Chandler informed Withell the church hall was reserved for Catholic activities, prompting public anger that he should exercise his powers in this way.

In fact, Fr Chandler was completely within his rights to ban the class. And rightly so, since Withell mislead him, as she mislead potential clients. She also claimed she “never heard about any religious issue with yoga before”.

Having “looked into it since”, she found that certain religions are of the belief that meditating “could let the devil inside”, but qualified this danger by pointing out there was no meditation in her class, just exercise.

Withell was ignorant of basic yogic principles, yet she is quoted as saying how “terribly petty” it was of Fr Chandler to cancel her class.

Unsurprisingly, Fr Chandler and the Catholic Church are the target of much criticism for the ban, which is being received as the latest in a litany of PR blunders.

When I contacted her, Withell explained she trained in Freestyle Fitness Yoya, a style of class developed by Jayne Nicholls.

Nicholls offers a two-day training course to qualified gym instructors at a cost of £220 (€275) that covers yoga basics such as sun salutations (the morning expression of a yogi’s reverence to the rising sun), standing postures, and floor work.

For £990, Nicholls offers a five-day yoga instructor course that allows instructors join to the UK Register of Exercise Professionals and is “perfect for access into all areas of yoga teaching”.

“Yoga reaches back decades and crosses over many continents, it is hard to pinpoint and package it as a product which is why we allow you to focus your study on the specific areas that interest you,” her website states, while Nicholls herself welcomes instructors to join her for a future of “health and wealth”.

This bastardised version of yoga, which claims to be able to separate the true aims of yogic practice into basic exercise movements, offers instructors little understanding of yoga, as Withell’s ignorance illustrates.

But why bother calling it yoga if it is just exercise? Could it be a marketing ploy? The FFY website advertising for instructors sells itself on the following points:

* Only qualified instructors can teach FFY;

* No one else offers this qualification;

* We completely understand the UK fitness market.

This fast-track training allows instructors to tap into the massive yoga market without ever having considered yoga’s real meaning, or its ancient roots.

On her Facebook page, Withell revelled in the media coverage her clash at the Catholic Church was attracting.

“Check out the Daily Echo for yours truly on front page today and on BBC South and Meridian tonight,” read one post.

“And all the nationals online and radio — this is nuts!!! I need the night off lol!”

In turn, she is lauded for the “brilliant advertising and publicity” the stunt has achieved for her business.

Had she ever studied yoga, Withell would know that, far from her claims that it is “just exercises”, the practise is considered a scientific philosophy that has become saturated with Hindu iconography through its absorption into Indian culture over thousands of years.

Had Withell any awareness of the belief systems of the Catholic Church, on whose propertyshe sought to teach, she would know the two philosophies espouse deeply divided aims. Yoga is believed to predate Hinduism and is based on unifying the individual consciousness to a universal consciousness, a concept described by many teachers as “oneness”.

In a basic Hatha Yoga instruction manual used by yoga teacher training institutions worldwide, Swami Niranjananda Saraswati confirms that “yoga is far from simply being physical exercise”.

“It is an aid to establishing a new perception of what is real, what is necessary, and how to become established in a way of life that embraces both inner and outer realities,” says Saraswati.

In the wake of the controversy, the Portsmouth Catholic Diocese which incorporates St Edmund’s, said yoga represents a dilemma for the Catholic Church because of its association to Hinduism.

“There is no national policy on this and the decision is for each priest,” the diocese said.

In practise, priests’ opinions on yoga vary widely, due to the absence of any factual accounts of its origins and the lack of theological guidance on its aims. Diverging opinion is compounded by the diversity of forms of yoga taught in unregulated teacher training schools and ashrams that churn out hundreds of yoga instructors every year as part of one of the fastest growing industries in the world.

Fr Chandler, who felt he acted in the interests of his parishioners to ban the practice of yoga due to its incompatibility with orthodox Catholic teaching, might take comfort from the irony of Withell’s own words, taken from a note on her public Facebook page.

“If others try to push you down it is only because they are afraid of how wonderful you truly are and [it] highlights their weaknesses.”

Hardly the words of a yogi, nor a Catholic for that matter. Sounds more like nonsense to me.