Namaste

Recently a woman I was dating dragged me to torturous evening event in town. The scene was a hot dark room where someone ordered me to put my body into strange positions. With commanding words like “down word dog” and “sun salutation,” my joints cracked into directions they may have never gone before, my legs found muscles that I did not know existed. Yes, recently I was forced into the act of… YOGA !

In all honesty, yoga by itself is not too bad– stretching, reaching. Learning body movement to soft music after a hard day could be a very healthy way to build energy and relax one’s mind. The trouble I was initially having with yoga was the trouble most men have with athletic activities. With a roomful of flexible women, I wanted to show off! “If they can do that, I can do that!” What was supposed to be a personal journey of peace into compassion turned into a competition! I decided to reach too far, stretching too much. My mind was on the room and the level of the people around me rather than on my breath, body or spirit.

Once the first couple of classes broke me in, I realized that yoga was not a comparison of power or speed. Truthfully, my level of pain the next day made me admit that if yoga was a game, it was not a game I was going to win! Once I realized that most in the room did not even know I was there, I relaxed into the peace of the stretch, music and movement of the class.

I guess I share this funny little adventure because I see many of the same traps in the way people live out their religious life as the trap I fell into with yoga. When you look around your Synagogue, temple or church, how many people come to your mind that seem to be living their faith as a competition they are trying to win? The church ladies who know everyone’s business, the deacons who watch how much people put in the collection plate. People whose religious life seems to be more about keeping their level of Christianity on a score card. How many Sundays they attend, how many souls they have saved. People are not just keeping their own score but trying to tally your score as well!

It sounds silly when you first think about it. After all, how could people think that God would choose to love them more because of some kind of personal score? However, when I delve a little deeper into myself, I see the same sin that traps others also enters my own mind. How many flat tires have I fixed thinking to myself, “What did I do to deserve this?” I have to admit deep down there is a church voice which was ingrained in me long ago that says, “If you do what is right, God will watch over me extra close.”

I think this is the paradox that all religious people walk in; the paradox of faith is wrapped up in the first being last and the last being first. All major religions have this one truth in common; the poor, broken and innocent are always named as being closer to God. It is the paradox of the Beatitudes, it is the message Jesus shared with the disciples when he told them to enter the kingdom like a little child. The Buddha did not experience Zen until he became one with the broken community outside his father’s kingdom. Allah showed the light on his people only when they stood in the poorness of their spirit. I call this challenge of faith a paradox because study, academics, money, power are all gifts of love, objectives of man as they mature, stabilize and root themselves for the prosperity of their families.

I believe the answer to this puzzle is wrapped up in the same lesson I learned in my yoga class. The point is not to be in competition with the room around you. Peace and growth come from attempting to be one with your body, mind and spirit. Yoga, love, God and Christ observe no score card, their peace comes from opening yourself to where you are at the moment. You cannot be more of a Christian than your spirit is ready for any more than your arm can be more flexible then your body will allow. The arch in your neighbor’s “downward dog” will not cause you to lose balance any more than the amount your neighbor puts in a collection plate will cause you to sin.

I wish sometimes church would end the same way yoga class does with the word “Namaste”. This closing blessing at the end of every yoga class is accompanied with a bow that simply means “I greet the God in you”. Wouldn’t it be great if we ended our religious services by bowing to those around us with the word “Namaste” or “I greet the God I see working and living through you”?