Final Project: Hinduism Yoga

History

Much like Hinduism, the exact history of yoga are unknown, besides that it originated in the East. However, the first hints of it are shown in ancient Shamanism and the Rigveda, which means that yoga is at least 5,000 years old. Shamanism focused on being the religious mediators of the community whereas the Rigveda is a sacred collection of hymns. However, both of these focused on yoga as a method to understand the world and then to apply to yourself. This later shifted to understanding yourself better in order to reach a certain level of self-enlightenment. As time passed, the poses and meditation that is commonly associated with modern day yoga were implemented into the system, and some of these elements came from Buddhist teachings.

Scripture

Luke 11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks it will be opened

Romans 3:23 for fall have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord

Even though these verses are from the Christian Bible, I think they still hold some truth to Hinduism.

Luke 11:10 is about having dedication for religion. In Hinduism, a person must do good things and attain good karma in order to end the endless cycle of reincarnation, so the concepts of discipline and devotion definitely exists in Hinduism as well.

Romans 3:23 and 6:23 mention the price of sin and the prize for the good. Although it isn't the same as the heaven in Christianity, Hinduism also revolves around this as well. In class, we saw the class system of Hinduism, ranging from lowly animals to priests. In this case, the price of sin would be that you would go down the class system until you eventually become an undesirable animal such as a dung beetle. However, if you did many good deeds in your life, you would be able to end the reincarnation cycle and reach nirvana.

Yoga in Hinduism

There are four types of yoga in Hinduism, each distinct but with the uniform purpose of the yogi trying to reach nirvana. They are:

1) Jana Yoga (Knowledge)- Identify self with the Brahman by withdrawing yourself from your own body. That way, a person no longer feels the finite and sensible parts of life such as pain.

2) Bhakti Yoga (Love)- Direct love towards the Brahman. End result is to love Brahman as the protector, friend, father, and spouse.

3) Karma Yoga (Work)- Work becomes liberating since Hindus view it as the Brahman working through the person.

4) Raja Yoga (Psychological)- Peel away outer layers of our body so that nothing affects the person but the Brahman which absorbs the ones who succeed.

My Version of Yoga

1) Knowledge- I think an important part of religious maturation is to break out of our comfort zone of knowledge. What I mean is, everyone has a certain area of expertise that they earned from living in a certain environment. However, if we break these boundaries and allow ourselves to take in information that we are unfamiliar or comfortable with, it will allow us to reach a higher degree of intelligence. Although Hindus aim to reach nirvana, since we are all of different religions and beliefs, the common goal of becoming wiser is suitable for yoga, as well, since it is training the mind through knowledge.

2) Love- In Hinduism, love was mainly turned towards the Brahman. However, I believe that it is more important to give affection towards those we find it hard to do so to. It's "easy" to love our friends and family, but the moment that we realize that it is possible to love our enemies as well, a unique bond forms between these people so that enemies can become friends as well. It won't happen in the blink of an eye, nor will it be easy for anyone. However, just the realization that this is possible is enough to spark a change.

3) Work- When we think of work, our minds fill with dread. But really, work is a positive factor within our life that provides a role as a driving force as well as an anchor of stability. Without work, life would just be a constant repetitive cycle of doing the same things over and over again. Despite our constant grumblings about it, without work, we would not know the pleasure of taking a break. Every positive entity must be contrasted with a negative entity in order to distinguish each other as being different. Despite work being a struggling task for all of us, it is still one of the most important aspects of our lives as it prevents the human race from becoming ignorant of what we are blessed with when we receive it. If we didn't have it, our lives would just be heavenly and we would not even know it. Nothing is more boring than perfect.

4) Psychological- Hinduism teaches to train the physical body to enhance your mentality. Once you completed this training, you would lose your touch with the world and instead be united with the Brahman. However, I think that this is actually not very good since you become devoid of the most important of human qualities: emotions. So, my yoga for psychological training is very simple: try. No matter what kind of situation you are in, challenge yourself psychologically to always strive to be the very best you can be. After a certain point in our lives, we reach a stage where we are just content with whatever happens, as long as it is passable. This isn't exactly bad, but when you get too comfortable, it can become psychologically unhealthy. So, you have to get rid of this mindset of being used to something. Because when you get used to something, you eventually become content with whatever happens. Marriage could be an example. Oftentimes, couples become too comfortable with living with each other after so long and eventually forget why they married in the first place. They have replaced the concept of love with satisfaction in their minds, when it should not have changed at all.

Reflection

This year, I came to the strange realization that I am actually a Hindu. I don't know exactly what I believe in, but I accept the large possibility of a greater being out there. And that's what I love about Hinduism. If all of the religions were to be drawn with a venn diagram, Hinduism would be the circle surrounding all of the others. It is the universally understandable and flexible religion, sort of like how the U.S. constitution was created to fit different times as a flexible document. It also shows how there can be many different methods of worship. There are the well-known ways such as prayer and fast, but Hinduism has showed me a lot more this year that was very unexpected to me. For example, in my mind, heavy metal and Christianity did not go hand in hand. Most of the music associated with Christianity that I knew were quiet songs. But the rock band Stryper has managed to change this pattern and create a new genre of their own: Christian rock. Still, the most shocking method of worship that I found out about was yoga. I thought it was just an exercise routine to become more fit, but that was only a quarter of what it really was. Yoga is a method of Hindu worship meant to train the body and mind to connect with the Brahman. Although I tried all of the ones that I have listed, the one that really made an impact on me was the Knowledge yoga. In my case, I broke my comfort zone through rock music, primarily heavy metal. Since I have a introspective personality, I thought that quiet music would be the only music that I would like. Instead, I realized that I love heavy metal music. Despite not bringing as much change in me as reaching nirvana would, I can truly understand the impact that yoga has on us through my own modern religious experience.

Heavy Metal

김경호 Kim Kyungho - Shout

Skid Row - Youth Gone Wild

Spirited Away

The first mention of Shintoism was when they were driving on the dirt road and found little houses on the side. They said that some people believed that little spirits lived inside of them. The river spirit who looked like an old man and Haku are also a part of the Shintoism in Japan since people believed that there were gods within the many things of our world, which meant that both of them had their respective rivers. Although the characters are the most obvious form in which this religion is presented to us, the setting that the story takes place in, the bathhouse, is also a part of Shintoism. One of the major beliefs of Shintoism is a ritual washing, where you purify yourself through water. In this way, the process of ridding yourself of the pollution of bad thoughts is also shown in the movie, especially through the large river spirit who looked like a stink spirit at first. The major reason why Chihiro went on her journey was to save her parents. However, the underlying message beneath it that she was unaware of was actually to save herself. During the exposition, we are shown a little of her character before embarking on her quest; Chihiro is stubborn, ignorant, and whiney. She gives no sign of wanting to rid herself of the frustration of having to move. However, as the story progresses, Chihiro changes dramatically into a mature and selfless person. In the same way that the river spirit went to the bathhouse to be cleaned, Chihiro also acheived this same goal by going to the bathhouse. But in her case, it was to rid herself of what had plagued her on the inside: her own personality. Chihiro mainly learned how to be a mature person who could act with initiative. She was forced into a situation that most of us only begin to go through as adults: the process of working. In contrast to her not wanting to do anything during the beginning of the movie, by the end, Chihiro has defeated a huge monster, saved two dragons, and managed to make fantastical beings that we can never meet love her. Any one of those would have been impossible to the old Chihiro had she not picked up certain traits along the way: selflessness, kindness, and, most important of all, courage. Nearly every scene with her, a ten year-old girl, involves bravery of some sort. Chihiro was unhesitant when walking along a pipe mid-air with no support, fed a huge, semi-conscious dragon with large teeth, and didn't blink an eye in front of a black monster that was wanted to eat her. Although this is the changes she goes through during the plot of the movie itself, we don't get an idea of what how Chihiro further develops afterwards. However, we get a bit of a hint with her changed attitude and speech. At first, she was grumbling about having to go to a new school. But when her parents introduce her to the idea again by the end, she casually replies with, "I think I'll be all right." And why wouldn't she be? She has done more things and gone through more struggles in a few days than most people do in their life.