The Universality of Yoga
A Practice for All Bodies
Although Christianity has a rich history of embodiment through the Eastern Church, Celtic Christianity, the mystics, the saints, and embodied theologies, we do not have a well-known, well-developed discipline for cultivating a spiritual relationship with our bodies. My own practice of hatha yoga (breath to body posture) has led me into a deeper understanding of the Christian story, helping me experience Christ incarnate as I pair breath with posture. I learned how to pay attention to my body; how the breath regulates and connects the mind; and how to concentrate and achieve the fullness of a pose, or rather, complete awareness of my body. Practicing yoga has enabled me to experience divinity in a way I had not experienced in the Church or other forms of exercise. This new experience helped me understand the teachings of our Christian mystics, what it means to experience Christ incarnate and has given me a richer connection to our Christian practices, traditions and communities.
Yogananda writes that yoga is a wisdom meant to be shared.[1] It transcends borders, transforms lives, leads to liberation of the body, and changes the world. No one culture can own this practice, as it exists for all as a tool and methodology to experience union of body and spirit. In his book The Yoga of Jesus, he particularly welcomes Christians to use yoga practices as a way to cultivate direct access to Christ.[2] Even the Indian Prime Minister, Modi, agrees in his passion to share yoga internationally:
Yoga is an invaluable gift of our ancient tradition. Yoga embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; harmony between [humanity] and nature; a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nature…. Let us work towards adopting an International Yoga Day.[3]
Part of the insistence of this Capstone Project is due in part to my own journey of incarnation but also due to a curiosity of two general categories of young people: those who identify as spiritual but not religious (SBNR) and Christians whose worship experience often incorporates the body (lifting hands, singing emotive songs, speaking in tongues) despite a theology that often denies the body. This journey started with my own experience of patriarchy and homophobia in a church and evolved through a practice of yoga and finding home in the predominantly body-inclusive Uniting Church of Australia. It influenced my yearning to take a yoga Teacher Training Course in 2019 through the lineage of Tiramulu Krishnamacharya, an Indian yoga teacher, healer and scholar and one of the most influential yoga teachers of the 20th century.[4] It helped me understand what is happening anatomically, physiologically, psychologically and spiritually when the body is used and seen as the vessel where God lives and breathes. [5] I believe this journey is one where we are all consciously or subconsciously moving towards as well: a yearning for divine union amidst a world that continues to reinforce division of the self, sacred and society. Christianity needs to respond and repent of our hand in this division and contemplate what incarnation and atonement asks of us in our bodies, our societies and the Church.[6]
In this paper we will explore the theme of how Christianity can benefit from the philosophy and practice of yoga. We will first define what yoga is and then what it means to be in union through yoga and Christianity respectively. We will move into a theology of the body as reflected by the life of Jesus as well as understand what it means to be Christ incarnate. I will then share the results of the yoga practice with the Uniting Church of Australia and conclude with why the Church needs to come back to body-centred practices and wisdom.
Yoga
The History, Philosophy and Practice of Union
Yoga is often misunderstood as a religious physical practice, appropriated from the East by the West. BKS Iyengar, a revered yoga teacher who was one of the people to bring yoga to the West, defines yoga as a means to yoke or to unite.[7] It is a system of philosophy and practices designed to unite the physical to the spiritual self. The origin of yoga came out of the oral tradition of the Aryan culture in the fourth century BCE in India. Many other wisdom teachings came out of the written tradition of the Aryans (the Vedas), one of which was the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
The Yoga Sutras, written by the Indian Sage, Patanjali, is a collection of sayings, prescriptive in nature, on how to live in fullness, become our true selves and become enlightened. Patanjali understood yoga as eight limbs or stages of the soul and, through Iyengar’s translations, the West has been able to learn them as well. The stages are:
1. Yama: universal moral commandments on how to live with one another in non-violence.
2. Niyama: self-purification through self-discipline.
3. Asana: postures that cleanse thoughts, words and actions, making the body fit for the kingdom of God.
4. Pranayama: rhythmic control of life force through the breath.[8] This stage uses the spine, its muscles and nerves to draw energy from the breath in order to cleanse thoughts, words and actions.
5. Pratyahara: withdrawal of the mind from the senses and exterior objects.
6. Dharana: where concentration and contemplation within and outside the body takes place. This is a necessary foundation for the next stage.
7. Dhyana, is possible: the meditative state.
8. Samadhi: the state of enlightenment, the meditator and the object of meditation become one.
Through these eight stages, the person will experience and live in oneness, in non-dualism with God, creation and the self.[9] The third and fourth stages are widely practiced in the West. They can be a helpful place to start in order to access the other six limbs, and are the focus of this project.
A United Body
The Science of Yoga and Embodied Theology
From the philosophy of yoga, religions like Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism were birthed but yoga itself remained and remains a philosophy to this day.[10] It wasn’t until sixth and seventh century that the tantric tradition rose into popularity. The chakra system came out of tantra and is understood as the weaving together of polarities: spirit to matter, mind to body, masculine to feminine, heaven to earth. Anodea Judith, a doctor in Psychology, Yoga Teacher and Therapist in somatic psychology, mythology, history, sociology and systems theory, defines chakras as energy systems or spiritual cerebrospinal centers that line up one on top of each other following the pathway of the spine. Each chakra is located near the seven major nerve ganglia and endocrine systems that stem from the spinal column. The chakras work with the nerve ganglia and the endocrine system as organizing centres for the reception, assimilation and transmission of energy. All our choices, beliefs, practices, perspectives and actions stem from these organizing centres. When we work with the chakras, applying Patanjali’s eight limbs of yoga, we can live in balance within ourselves. When we are in disunity in our bodies, this affects not only our physical, mental and spiritual well-being, but ultimately the well-being of our world and the Church. Judith describes body postures and conscious breathing as ways of bringing awareness to our chakras that help in their transformation. The breath, physiologically, burns toxins and changes our body structure through the influx of oxygen and its ability to carry out carbon dioxide. Mentally, it can release our stored emotions and change our consciousness altogether. Without breath we could not speak, metabolize our food, think or live. Breath is the life-giving, healing and purifying energy that helps us respond and listen to what our bodies are telling us as we move through space.[11]
The chakra system is not unique to the yoga tradition. There are similar understandings of energy systems within Christian, integral philosophy, and Jewish contexts. For example, the Seven Deadly Sins understands lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride as vices that harm ourselves and one another. The Developmental Stages of Consciousness by Ken Wilber reveals stages of growth from egocentric, ethnocentric, worldcentric to kosmocentric in order to live fulfilled lives.[12] John Philip Newell, a Scholar in Celtic Spirituality, draws upon the wisdom of Kabbalah that sees the body containing vessels of God’s light The Kabbalistic tradition uses the word sefirot as a play on the word sapphire in Ezekiel 1:26-28,as one interpretation that imagines the body containing spiritual energy centres. All these understandings echo the concept of chakras or cerebrospinal centres in need of constant reflection and balance with our bodies. .
Newell explains how sefirot can be understood and used in the practice of Christianity by reading scripture and encountering Christ in Creation. Christians’ core practice revolves around reading the Bible, The Word. However, Newell wonders whether we read creation and our bodies just as often, sufficiently and with as much dedication. He insists that the two are not separate but are intertwined: The Word points us back to our bodies just as much as our bodies guide us to community gathered around The Word.[13] The two are not separate but are meant to flow seamlessly, inform and give fullness to one another. We see this in the book of Revelation when St. John reveals his vision of the opening of seven seals;[14] in John’s reading of Genesis 28:10-17 where Christ is described as the medium of heaven and earth, of spirit and matter in intercourse with one another;[15] in John 3:14 where we are reminded of Moses raising the serpent in the wilderness, and that the Son of Man (and we too) must raise our spines to receive the Christ.[16] When we read scripture in this light, we can start to explore our bodies and souls as intertwined, undivided and participate in the expansive mystery of being made in the image of God.[17] Matthew Fox, a spiritual theologian, Episcopal priest and the founder of the University of Creation Spirituality, reminds us that knowledge puffs up and so does a life controlled by gnosis and the ego but when we listen to our whole bodies (not just our minds), we will realize all the wisdom we have is already within us – we only need to listen.[18] Rohr resonates with the practice of bodily listening and invites us to do so simply with our breath.[19] He reminds us that God’s name, Yahweh, is a name unspeakable and unpronounceable not just because of God’s unknowability but because it imitates the sound of our breath. We can never know God or understand any of the mysteries of this world, but we can be present to God’s name flowing through us in every moment of every day.[20] God reminds us of this holy name as God breathes Adam into life;[21] as God breathes life to a valley of dried bones;[22] and all throughout scripture when breath is spoken as the source of all life and wisdom.[23]If we neglect to see our bodies as vessels of divine breath, we will live in a kind of forgetfulness of our deepest origins and become susceptible to oppression of ourselves and our world.[24]
As we will explore more thoroughly in the Capstone Presentation, understanding the energy systems through a practice of uniting body with spirit can awaken The Word of God not only through scripture and creation but through our very lungs.
Christ
A Practice of Incarnation
Jesus encompassed and embraced the presence of breath and divinity in perfect balance within himself and challenged the world around him to do the same. Rohr and Paramahansa Yogananda, an author and monk of India’s venerable monastic Swami Order, both understand the name for this divine union within and within all creation as Christ. Jesus as Christ is the heart of our incarnational faith but it often stays there, as an event, a divine union that occurred over 2000 years ago. However, Rohr stresses that Christ did not enter the world when Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb; rather, Jesus came into an already Christ-soaked world.[25] We have misinterpreted Jesus’ atonement or sacrifice as a singular event that washed away our sin and, in doing so, affirmed the body as sinful and the place of evil.[26] This has led the way for oppression and injustice not just of other bodies but of our own.
Bessel van der Kolk, a psychiatrist with research in post-traumatic stress, states the importance of listening to our bodies as the source of wisdom. If we do not, our Western cultural influence from Northern Europe will permeate: a culture that relied on drink, drugs (pharmaceutical and otherwise), a busy mind and a busy life as a way of numbing the wisdom of the body.[27] It is no wonder we wrestle with emptiness, hopelessness, and purpose in the West. It is no wonder when the Church monopolizes on this apathy, people leave. It is no wonder our society is built upon systems that numb and busy the body through colonization, capitalism, consumerism and patriarchy.[28] However, as Rohr says, the truth about an infinite Christ upends this thinking: Christ continued and continues to love things by becoming them, not by excluding them.[29] God births the invisible Christ in the visible so that we may see, feel, taste, touch and smell Christ in all things across time and space. [30] To be living in union with Christ is what it means to live in fullness through our bodies and our connection to the bodies around us.[31] Atonement, understood this way, becomes the continual act of creating relationship and oneness with God.[32]
James Hughs Reho, the author of Tantric Jesus and anordained Episcopal priest with a Ph.D. in Chemistry, reveals that yoga as a practice and philosophy can give us insight into what this Christ union entails. It is about the transformation as well as the divinization of our physical, emotional, intellectual, communal, sexual and spiritual selves.[33] This is not a new concept in Christianity; rather, it is a very ancient way of understanding incarnation. The Desert Fathers in 250 CE as the first ascetics in our Christian history, in their asceticism, also practiced purifying the body, deep meditation and worship. We also saw this in the Eastern Church through their understanding of theosis, the process of becoming one with God, through catharsis (the purification of the mind and body through kenosis and compassion) and theoria (the practice of gazing and meditating on God in order to be illumined and reconciled to God). Patanjali’s eight limbs of yoga are a combination of both these concepts, with the first four limbs paralleling catharsis and the last four limbs paralleling theoria. Celtic Christianity too has understood this divine incarnation through its core practices and theology of monasticism, panentheism and acsesis, living together in community and practicing a lifestyle that fosters union with God.[34] Perhaps the most influential in Christian history are the great saints and mystics who are still venerated and looked to today because of the way they lived in unity with Christ, unapologetically.
As we will see in the Capstone Presentation, one important tool for coming into theosis, complete union with the divine in our bodies, is the practice of balancing our inward cerebrospinal centres. Being one with Christ is not just recognizing our state of union with Christ but, as Reho stresses, a daily practice of divine union that actively contributes to the reconciliation of all creation that St. Paul adamantly preached. [35]
Incarnation
A Practice of Reconciliation
A theology of unity can become esoteric and unrealistic if we deny or blind ourselves to the very real categories that do exist. We make thousands of decisions each day and all these choices are necessary if we are to cross a street without injury. But in living an undivided life, Parker Palmer, a renowned author, activist and Founder of the Centre for Courage and Renewal, states the choices we make, the categories we create are not the whole picture.[36] Like the Trinity, dividing the parts into Father, Son, Holy Spirit may help for a time, however, division does not take into account the whole picture and the point of the Trinity: the symbol of complete union. Cynthia Bourgeault, an Episcopal priest and core faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation, suggests that when we start to look past the surface of all things, all our choices, experiences, ideas and people we label as either good or bad is only part of the picture.[37] All are held together by the mercy of Christ. Anything that appears to be outside this union is simply not real, sin, or Satan itself.[38] Bourgeault clarifies that to live like Christ in unity is not to deny the harm, injustice and oppression we see in our world (evil is real). Instead, it is an invitation to live into the liberation that is bound up with everyone and everything, even our oppressors. We might not be ready for this type of reconciliation today or even in our lifetime, but we can always leave space for the mystery that is the healing power of Christ. When we live in this way, Bourgeault sees hope as the current that flows through us, that awakens our cerebrospinal centres and carries us into the divine wisdom always ready to pour from us.[39] Our body then becomes a tool to radiate light and become salt of the earth.[40] It is in this willingness to surrender, to enter into our true selves that we start to feel Christ enter us and fill us up with life that sustains.[41]
Yoga at Church
The Capstone Project
My project brought the practice of asana and pranayama to church, followed by a discussion before the Sunday morning service. I created two series of yoga sessions: one series ran the length of the Advent season and the second series ran the length of January. I created a different asana practice each time, with positions that prompted the theme (peace, hope, joy, love in Advent and new beginnings in January), accompanied by a playlist consisting of both meditative and Christian music. In the beginning, middle and end of practice I would read the weekly lectionary verse, inviting participants to experience the wisdom communicated to them from their own bodies. After the practice we discussed the experience of the class and how embodiment intersects with our faith tradition. Participants attended church service afterwards and were encouraged to pay attention to how yoga influenced their experience of the worship service. Through the tools of yoga, my hope was they would receive increased ability to (1) observe their minds with awareness and (2) pay attention to their bodies and breath as a source of divine inspiration. I struggled with the first few yoga practices as I was reluctant to abandon postures that were too advanced for some of the participants but, by the January series, I was able to create inclusive practices for all ability types, even using a chair for one of the older participants.
Criteria and Outcomes of the Capstone Project
At the end of each class I would ask participants to share their experience of the class and allowed the conversation to take shape in whatever direction it took. These conversations revealed how they felt more at peace and present, particularly during the period of the 2019/2020 Australian bushfires. At the end of the yoga series I provided feedback forms to the participants and received eight back.
The results revealed feelings of relaxation, centeredness, love, presence, and connection. Some were able to identify where stress or shallow breathing came up in their bodies and were better able to regulate their emotions. Doing a physical practice together and having conversations after was an important aspect to the practice: it created intimacy and knowledge of one another among the group that some had not experienced in church before. It also took away the stress of coming to church on time and provided a smooth transition into worship. Along with the physical practice and breathing exercises, the incense burning, music, and head massage fostered feelings of incarnation they had not experienced before. Because of this, some were able to feel more connected to their identity as members of our church. The practice acted like a primer before service and allowed for inter and intra personal relationships. Consequently, it changed the way the participants engaged with church as they were more aware of the interaction of their body in service; singing with the congregation, for instance, felt more alive and spirited. Some participants received new tools in which to process both the season and service with. It resonated deeply as something that was missing from their experience of church as well as attending a yoga class or other forms of exercise. Some felt there were few practices in Christianity that connected them to body and so few body-based activities that connected them to Christianity. Ultimately it produced a desire to take the practices of breath and body awareness into quiet moments of the day as a form of devotion within a stressful secular world in order to unite the spiritual life, work life and secular life together.
Leadership Challenge as a Result from the Capstone Project
The leadership challenge I have faced as a result of exploring yoga as an incarnational practice, is bringing this intersection together. To bring yoga into the Church, even though accepted by many in the Uniting Church, has raised a few eyebrows. Progressive Christians I have had conversations with see this intersection as appropriation and the continuation of Christianity colonizing minority cultures. More conservative people I have talked with believe that yoga practice is Hindu and bringing the two together is both religious syncretism and blasphemous. I have learned to be patient and respectful when it comes to varying beliefs about yoga; acknowledge and have gratitude for my privilege in experiencing and being educated in the philosophy and practice of yoga as well as theology; leave non-judgmental space for people to discover what tensions or discomforts arise for them and why; and listen deeply with a posture of curiosity. Because of this, I have been able to listen to myself better when I do my own practice of yoga and pay attention to what arises within. Ultimately, I see this intersection creating conversation and space for both Christians and non-Christians alike on how yoga philosophy and practice can deepen our experience of God. This may require shifting our worship spaces into places that incorporate movement and breath to deepen our understanding of incarnation as experienced in the body and not just theologically in the mind. It will also be about inviting people who identify as SBNR into community by practicing a theology of honoring God in their bodies, particularly those who want to heal from the wounds of Christian theologies and practices that have traditionally oppressed the body.
Theological Reflection
Emerging Spirituality and the Church
The world has been divided since the earliest forms of power structures. We have seen this through a separation of weak from strong, poor from wealthy, men from women, black from white, colonizers from First Peoples, science from religion, matter from spirit, and Land from consumers. In Christianity, division particularly began when the West separated from the Eastern Church in the Great Schism of 1054 and, again, when mind was conceptually separated from matter during the Enlightenment.[42] As a result, Western civilization and Church have become lost, blind and numb from our ancient roots of theosis (union with God) and panentheism (a God who is within all things).[43]
Jesus’ life upended the systems that separated those with power and those without, inviting both into a different narrative, or rather, a very ancient Judean narrative of power-reversal. Saint Paul even invited a way of being that included the different religious systems and cultures of his time and place in order to erase any concept of superiority or exclusivity: all were welcome, Gentiles and Jews.[44] Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest, author and founder of the Centre for Action and Contemplation, says the only thing Christ excludes is exclusion itself.[45] If Christianity is not tearing down the dualities in the twenty-first century, if it is not using its traditions, practices and holy meeting places as a place where all of our bodies are welcome, it simply is not Christian.
This Capstone Project seeks to respond to our divisiveness and critique the ways the Church needs to return to incarnation, to at-one-ment (oneness in Christ) and to understand how a theology of disunity prompts colonization, capitalism, consumerism and patriarchy (which will be explored more thoroughly in the Capstone Presentation). Eve Ensler, a feminist activist best known for her play The Vagina Monologues, states that these systems of domination and hierarchy are built on the ideas of separation. Ensler says those who exploit others must separate themselves from the exploited, if not, they might know their interconnectedness to all things and experience the consequence of their exploitation as well.[46] Despite the systems of oppression that control Western civilization and influence the Church, Spirit is awakening. We see this from those who identify as SBNR which, I believe, is a response to oppressive systems and exclusive doctrines of belief and a turning towards yoga, a non-discriminatory and non-dualistic practices when practiced in its truest sense. However, there are enough corrupt yoga teachers to reveal that oppression can also take place in the studio. Herein lies the temptation for teachers, religious leaders, students and congregants alike who hover at the surface level of any religion or spiritual practice like yoga: they can remain stuck in egoism, tribalism (leading to oppression) or lost in the enormity of the world’s needs. Ken Wilber, the developer of the “theory of everything”, philosopher and author, cautions against a spirituality that is stuck in any of these categories, as it can become an isolated exploration towards one’s own self-enlightenment or a loss of identity through the diffusion of the whole. Those who are only after self-enlightenment can start to separate themselves from society, ironically denying their true sacredness, as united with creation. Similarly, those in a church community who deny and oppress the body while claiming a love for Jesus reject the very core of our non-dual faith. In contrast, an incarnational community can transcend isolated stages of egoism, tribalism or the enormity of the world by uniting them through kenosis, compassion and reconciliation of the self and the whole.[47]
Conclusion
The Practice of an Incarnational Church
The SBNR movement is a sign in the West of our younger population yearning for spiritual transformation that the Church is not offering in its present context. The younger population who do attend church tend to find themselves in body-based worship experiences that, ironically, often have a theology of body-denial. This gives way to a compartmentalized acceptance of the body, where it can only be free to express itself within the confines of the religiously-constructed norms. Through the practice of yoga in community, people can become liberated from both body-denying churches and disconnected spiritual communities. When we bring our whole selves to a community, we experience each other differently, we see each other as intimately connected and we experience a sense of incarnation not just of the self but of the whole.
The Church needs to come back to this ancient practice and theology of union: of Jesus as human; made of matter; whose way of seeing, living and acting can save us more than his death; and a Jesus who shows us how to be fully in our bodies so we may be fully in Christ.[48] Yogananda stresses that Christ’s second coming is less about an event in the future, but rather, a reality that exists in us today.[49] Washing feet, praying with rosaries, laying hands, singing, chanting, pilgrimaging, walking labyrinths, baptizing bodies and sharing in Eucharist practiced in parallel with yoga can bring richness, enlightenment and an incarnation that the Church is in desperate need of. These practices of incarnation through kenosis, compassion and reconciliation in the context of a committed church community need to be the forefront of our faith if we are truly to become the hands and feet of Christ. St. Teresa of Avila, the Spanish mystic, religious reformer and theologian, reminds us:
Christ has no body but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which [Christ] looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which [Christ] walks to do good. Yours are the hands, with which [Christ] blesses all the world.[50]
Theology is a part of an incarnational faith, however, right thinking can only take us so far; our faith must take shape in matter if we are to be reconciled in Christ. How do we know how to become Christ’s body if we are not using it within the very Church that preaches incarnation? Church needs to be the place that intimately connects us back into our bodies if we are to be a community that listens to the spirit moving among our younger generation. Only then will we be able to hear and participate in the wisdom of Christ who breaks down dualities and manifests in the matter of everything.
Bibliography
Bourgeault, Cynthia. Mystical Hope: Trusting in the Mercy of God. Lanham: Cowley Publications. 2001.
Brown, Barrett C. “An Overview of Developmental Stages of Consciousness.” Integral Without Borders (April 3, 2006): https://integralwithoutborders.net/sites/default/files/resources/Overview%20of%20Developmental%20Levels.pdf.
Driskill, Joseph D. Protestant Spiritual Exercises: Theology, History and Practice. New York: Morehouse Publishing. 1999.
Eberhart, Christian A. The Sacrifice of Jesus: Understanding Atonement Biblically. Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers. 2011.
Fox, Matthew. Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. 2016.
Hart, David Bentley. The Story of Christianity. London: Quercus. 2007.
Iyengar, B.K.S. Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. London: Thorsons. 2002.
Judith, Anodea. Wheels of Life: The Classic Guide to the Chakra System. Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications. 2018.
Modi, H.E. Narendra. Statement by H.E. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India: General Debate of the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. United Nations, (September 27th, 014):https://www.un.org/en/ga/69/meetings/gadebate/pdf/IN_en.pdf.
Newell, Philip J. Echo of the Soul: The Sacredness of the Human Body. Harrisburg: Morehouse Publishing. 2000.
Palmer, Parker J. A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward An Undivided Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2004.
Reho, James Hughes, Ph.D. Tantric Jesus: The Erotic Heart of Early Christianity. Rochester: Destiny Books. 2017.
Rohr, Richard. The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation. New Kensington: Whitaker House. 2016.
Rohr, Richard. The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, And Believe. New York: Convergent Books. 2019.
Starr, Mirabai. Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics. Boulder: Sounds True. 2019.
Tippett, Krista. Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living. New York: Penguin Books. 2017.
Yogananda, Paramahansa. The Yoga of Jesus: Understanding the Hidden Teachings of the Gospels. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship. 2016.
Footnotes
[1] Yogananda, The Yoga of Jesus.
[2] Ibid.
[3] “Statement by H.E. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India: General Debate of the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.” United Nations, https://www.un.org/en/ga/69/meetings/gadebate/pdf/IN_en.pdf.
[4] Yogananda, The Yoga of Jesus.
[5] 2 Timothy 2:21
[6] Newell, Echo of the Soul.
[7] Iyengar, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Iyengar, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
[10] Reho, Tantric Jesus.
[11]Judith, Wheels of Life..
[12] “An Overview of Developmental Stages of Consciousness.” Integral Without Borders, http://integralwithoutborders.net/sites/default/files/resources/Overview%20of%20Developmental%20Levels.pdf; Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh.
[13] Newell, Echo of the Soul.
[14] Revelation 5:1-5
[15] John 1:51
[16] Yogananda, The Yoga of Jesus; Numbers 21:8-9
[17] Solomon 2:23; Genesis 1:27; Matthew 5:48
[18] 1 Corinthians 8:1; Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh.
[19] Rohr, The Universal Christ.
[20] Rohr, The Divine Dance.
[21] Genesis 2:7
[22] Ezekiel 37:1-14
[23] Job 32:8; Job 33:4; John 16:13-15; Isaiah 11:2
[24] Newell, Echo of the Soul.
[25] Rohr, The Universal Christ.
[26] 1 Corinthians 6:11; Hebrews 10:22; 1 John 1:9
[27] Tippet, Becoming Wise.
[28] Rohr, The Universal Christ.
[29] Ibid.; Colossians 3:11.
[30] Rohr, The Universal Christ.
[31] Ibid.; Hebrews 4:15; Ephesians 4:12-16.
[32] Eberhart, The Sacrifice of Jesus.
[33] Reho, Tantric Jesus.
[34] Newell, Echo of the Soul.
[35] Reho, Tantric Jesus; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:14-18; Colossians 1:19-21
[36] Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness.
[37] Bourgeault, Mystical Hope.
[38] Reho, Tantric Jesus.
[39] Bourgeault Mystical Hope.
[40] Matthew 5:13-16
[41] Bourgeault, Mystical Hope.
[42] Hart, The Story of Christianity.
[43] Rohr, The Universal Christ.
[44] 1 Corinthians 12:13
[45] Rohr, The Universal Christ.
[46] Tippet, Becoming Wise.
[47] “An Overview of Developmental Stages of Consciousness.” Integral Without Borders, http://integralwithout borders.net/sites/default/files/resources/Overview%20of%20Developmental%20Levels.pdf.
[48] Rohr, The Universal Christ.
[49] Yogananda, The Yoga of Jesus.
[50] Reho, Tantric Jesus, 246.
by Rev Alisha 