The ivory tower’s role in rewriting the history of Yoga and Hindu phobic agenda
- In Religion
- 01:46 PM, Jan 05, 2017
- Kathleen Reynolds
"...To support YES! Yoga for Encinitas Students, we arranged the expert testimony of Chris Chapple, PhD and professor of Indic and comparative religion at Loyola Marymount University. He asserts that 'yoga may be practiced free from religious ideology," and describes the wide array of religions and cultures that have practiced and studied yoga"
[screenshots from the] "DECLARATION OF CHRISTOPHER K.CHAPPLE" |
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Author's note: Dr.Chapple's statements here reflect at least two very significant misunderstandings:
The challenge here is in understanding that Yoga is a practice-oriented tradition and not a belief-oriented system. Belief in its transcendent goal or any specific spiritual ideas within the tradition is not prerequisite for practice. So, yes, in this way, the tradition of Yoga cannot be equated to religion in the same way as the belief-oriented systems of religion, i.e., as of certain monotheistic traditions. Yet, just because Yoga does not a necessitate belief on the part of any individual practitioner does not negate the essential, transcendent goal of the tradition as a whole.
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Author's note: Dr.Chapple's statement that (by his "own experience," mind you) that yoga-imagery is employed to "invoke Christian ideals...For instance, an image of Jesus as Yogi" is the most disconcerting misunderstanding within his declaration. His statement here implies that because Yogic imagery is used by Christians that its essential teachings are the same as -- or at least transferable -- to that religion's. This erroneous assumption reflects a profound naiveté at best -- and at worst a striking ignorance of the reality that Hindus throughout India are aggressively targeted for conversion by Christian missionaries who deliberately appropriate Hindu symbols and customs and distort them in order to advance Christianity. And it should also be noted to further distinguish Hinduism from other religions that Hinduism is not conversionary in nature. If Dr. Chapple was not truly aware of this reality (and further that it is only based on his personal observation), this calls into question whether this statement should have been included as part of his "expert testimony." |
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Author's note: Dr.Chapple makes the case that because other programs have stripped away the cultural roots and spiritual essence from practices within the tradition of Yoga, then it follows that the program in question may also do the same. The reason issue here is less about whether a program such as the one operating within Encinitas USD according to the curriculum they established is secular (because even the Plaintiffs acknowledge that in the final form it was), but more about whether such a program -- devoid of any of Yoga's cultural context and spiritual essence -- should call itself "Yoga" at all. |
** italics,highlighted parts, including [parenthetical reference markers],and under-ling added by author |
Summarized excerpts from Dr.Mark Singleton's statements as an "expert witness" for the Defense from "DECLARATION OF MARK SINGLETON, Ph.D." |
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"Mark summarized the development of modern yoga and some of its most influential teachers. He states, 'Krishnamacharya presented a form of yoga that could be open and accessible to all, beyond religious sectarianism, gender, caste or nationality." |
Author's note:
Note that in this work of his, he in fact, notes that T. Krishnamacharya's work did develop "from on-going adaptation and innovation in the face of modernity" but also explicitly recognizes that Sri Krishnamacharya would not have viewed these changes as reflective of the "eternal' features of this teaching" -- and further [that the analysis of such developments and adaptations] would have been considered by Sri Krishnamacharya "even irrelevant when set beside yoga's perennial sameness." In other words, Dr.Singleton in his "Declaration" chooses to highlight the "openness" of Sri Krishnamacharya's teachings but yet fails to disclose the context that this openness does not translate to an understanding of Yoga beyond these temporal shifts in the material--or in other words: |
"Traditional Yoga is a pathway that leads to liberation or enlightenment. You could say it seeks to recover a person's highest potential. Underlying all forms of Yoga is the understanding that the human being is more than the physical body and that, through a course of discipline, it is possible to discover what this 'more' is." - Brenda Feuerstein, interviewee |
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"Mark refuted the claim that yoga is inherently religious, stating,'In my opinion, to claim that the practice of yoga techniques in secular, ecumenical, or religiously plural settings in the United States today is inherently religious is akin to claiming that college basketball is inherently religious because of its missionary Christian origins."[1] |
"Why is it so wrong to give a credit to where [this tradition] comes from? Just because these people are not violent enough,or these people are not forceful enough? Or because they are too loving and too compassionate? Is that a crime? Isn't that what we are trying to achieve with all of these practices?" - Rashmi Tantra, interviewee |
** italics, highlighted parts, including [parenthetical reference markers], and under-ling added by author |
References:
- https://www.yogaalliance.org/Learn/Articles/Yoga_Alliance_helps_defend_yoga_in_schools
- https://yogaencinitasstudents.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/declaration-of-dr-chapple.pdf
- Rajiv Malhotra in his essay "The Myth of Hindu Sameness," "examines the often repeated claim by Hindus and non-Hindus alike that Hinduism is the same as other religions." http://rajivmalhotra.com/library/articles/myth-hindu-sameness/
- http://indiafacts.org/christian-missionaries-target-every-single-component-hindu-society/
- "Western academics fail to see how much they are promoting a Eurocentric view and ignoring other perspectives. They portray themselves as the defenders of minorities or the oppressed all over the world, while at the same time they ignore the cultural achievements and spiritual values of these same peoples. They may be trying to help the oppressed economically or politically but they are often destroying their culture and spiritual traditions along the way." - Vamadev Shastri (David Frawley), "The New Masks of Colonialism": http://www.hinduhumanrights.info/the-new-masks-of-colonialism/
- MARK SINGLETON'S PROJECT & HIS ROLE AS HE RESEARCHED FOR MODERN YOGA
- https://yogaencinitasstudents.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/declaration-of-dr-singleton.pdf https://www.yogaalliance.org/Learn/Articles/Yoga_Alliance_helps_defend_yoga_in_schools
- https://www.academia.edu/17411279/Preface_to_the_2016_Serbian_edition_of_Yoga_Body_The_Origins_of_Modern_Posture_Practice_
- https://www.yogaalliance.org/Learn/Articles/Yoga_Alliance_helps_defend_yoga_in_schools
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