Is Yoga a Religion?

Religion of One

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.