[Buddha-l] What's wrong with a little Dharma?

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Sun, 2005-09-04 at 12:58 +0000, Nathan Steele wrote:

> We have gone way off topic. Didn't this start out as what's wrong with a 
> little dharma is that it leads to lot of hell? Do many Christians really 
> worry about people doing a little bit of yoga and meditation? 

I don't know how many Christians worry about this. I do know that some
very conservative Christians do worry about yoga and meditation, and
that they do so vociferously. I also know that yoga and meditation are
quite welcome at quite a few liberal Christian churches, such as Quaker
meetings, United Church of Christ venues, and some Methodist churches.

> I don't know any who do, then again I don't know many hardline Christians. 

Same here. Of course, I only knew of two people in my circle of friends
who voted Republican in the 2004 elections, so I tend not to take the
people I hang out with as a guide to what the majority of Americans are
up to.

> Yoga seems to have been removed from its religious context in the west
> and is regarded by many as a destressing technique. I don't believe
> Christians could have a problem with that.

My wife and I just got back from attending the Southwest Conference of
Cardiologists. She was invited to give a workshop on meditation and
stress management. She led a room full of doctors and hospital
administrators through a foundations of mindfulness and abbreviated
metta-bhavana exercise. This group of cardiologists had a strong
Christian orientation and many of their papers mentioned the importance
of spirituality as part of healing. I was quite surprised at how much
these physicians were discussing spirituality. Anyway, those who
attended the session on mindfulness and cultivation of loving kindness
loved it. There were many favorable comments afterwards. Although the
meditation were very much in keeping with traditional Buddhist
meditative exercises, no one seemed to notice. 

This group of cardiologists also invited an Iyengar yoga teacher (who
happened to be a Sufi) and a Qi Gong teacher (who happened to be the
deputy sheriff of the most populated county in New Mexico). It was quite
inspiring to us to be among a bunch of doctors, nurses and hospital
administrators doing Qi gong at 7:15am, followed by a beautiful prayer
led by a Pueblo elder, who was also a Baptist preacher. The same folks
went to yoga or meditation after lunch. It was, in fact, one of the most
sane professional conferences I have ever attended. It almost made me
want to have a heart attack, just so I could spend some more time with
these fine people.

-- 
Richard Hayes