Embracing Religious Richness
I am a rabbi, a teacher of Jewish wisdom, I love my tradition, but I do not believe it is better than any other religious path. Therefore, I believe it is a mistake to have a triumphalist view of any religion or to fit it neatly in a box. Religions are internally tremendously diverse and what one may claim to be true about their tradition could be contradicted within this religion by another source. This insight allows me to sincerely honor other religions and cultures for ALL that they are. I freed myself from the fear of being sacrilegious or the fear of the appearance of idol worshiping (which is prohibited in Judaism). As a result, my life is rich with wisdom and the joy of peace in my humanity. In every shedding of misconception and fear I let go of barriers to others while recognizing the wisdom and beauty in all humans and their religions.
There is much personal and national strain around religion. By acknowledging that Yoga is a religion, too, we can perhaps begin to walk the path of healing rifts in our society arising, at least in part, from separatist views of religion that is born out of misconceptions that some traditions are deserving of the title religion and others are not. Conversely, reducing Yoga to solely a tool, without acknowledging and respecting its history, wealth of knowledge, and potency for transformation, is not just myopic, but, ultimately, self-limiting. Religions imbue and reflect the cultures and civilizations of our world – and they change and grow and diverge and converge constantly. Would we dare to be citizens of the world who live – if we so desire – in two or more civilizations at the same time, embracing the gifts and benefits of rich religious traditions of the worlds without fear?
Peace—Shalom—Salam—Om Shanti!
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In various other discussions, I've believed and mentioned that each of us is necessarily a religion of one - regardless of the specific religion or religions to which we claim membership. It is quite true that no two christians or muslims, jews, buddhists, hindus, wiccans, pagans, etc. hold to quite the same set of beliefs, hold quite the same set of values or practice those beliefs and values in quite the same ways. Yes, of course, there will be similarities, however, no two are identical and, in my opinion, there is so much variety of belief, value and practice that it is perhaps dubious to claim the existence of "organized religion" at all. One need only look at the founding, formation and evolution of Christianity alone to see that there has been no ubiquitous agreement on belief, value and practice within that religion ever in its history in spite of claims to such. Every "organized religion" is an edited work with unending disagreement over its content and direction.
Branded an "atheist" by members of so-called "traditional religions", I've been accused many times of having no religion at all. As I've also explained many times, I indeed have my own religion as I define it - putting to practice my beliefs and values which happen to be many and supportable by fact and reason and deeply held. All that is true is I am not a member of the religion or religions of those critics. I happen to believe their ideas of human life, spirituality, philosophy and religion to be as the understanding of children. That they cannot or are unwilling to expand their understanding of human psychology, of human life and of the need of each individual to discover and walk their own positive path is of little to no consequence to those who can and ARE willing. Their dysfunctions are regrettable but, in any event, temporary if enough human beings are genuinely dedicated to the positive progress of the human experience rather than perpetuating its tired traditional mental chains.
If one sees one's practice of yoga as a "religion", then it is. The opinions of others has little or nothing to do with it. We each define for ourselves what is necessary to our health, happiness and prosperity and, assuming it does not prevent others from doing the same in their own private lives - we should have it.
Define religion for yourself. You cannot define it for another.