Read a source and write Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Read a source and write - Essay Example Yoga is originally from Hindu, India from early 5000-1000 B.C. The word of yoga, from the Sanskrit yui, has been interpreted as meaning to yoke or join with the divine. The early description of yoga describes it as a set of mental and physical exercises. There are appears to be a strong structural link between early forms of yoga and meditation as a means of achieving unity with a sort of transcendental consciousness. Still, some interpreters claim that yoga is a universal practice, and emphasize that yoga pre-dates Hinduism. Indeed, yoga has become important in many emerging and multifaceted religious traditions (75). Yoga arrived in America in 1805, and it developed fast. Yoga won over the American audience, and quickly became widely popular. With the advancing popularity of yoga in the United States it was not long before hybrid forms of the practice emerged. In a religious context one of the most significant hybrid forms of yoga was Christianity Yoga. Brooke Boon created Christi anity Yoga after attending traditional yoga classes and feeling alienated by what she believed was the subtle Hindu dialectic. For instance, Boon rejected phrases such as ‘achieving oneness with the universe’. Believing that such perspectives were antithetical to Christian doctrine, Boon innovated a form of yoga solely reliant on Christian themes and terminology. Indeed, Boon’s Yoga classes look a lot like traditional Yoga-using many of the same poses, breath control, and meditation practices-but replacing the more obvious Hindu references with Christian language and music, Bible meditation, and frequent references to Jesus (74). That is the difference between the traditional yoga and Christianity Yoga. Many people in the United States are Christian, so people use Christian Yoga as a religious practice. Christianity Yoga is more focused on knowledge than the real physical practice. Ultimately, it seems that the crucial differentiation between