Take My Yoga – The Wisdom of Yoga for Christians and seekers

By Ian John Spencer

“Take My Yoga and learn of me, for I am humble and lowly of  heart, and you shall find the deepest of rest”

In all my time as a Christian minister, both lay and ordained (a period of around thirty years) what I’ve discovered about most folks’ deepest yearnings, is that they want peace.

What is meant by peace isn’t some kind of inactive or placid life – on the contrary most folk want at least a little excitement, they have things they want to get done, adventures to have, work that’s fulfilling, and so on.

The peace we yearn for is to know that whatever becomes of us, however our lives are going – whether we’re in the centre of good times or more difficult, we’re going to be okay. That any suffering we encounter (including illness and ultimatley death) we’ll be able to get through and on the other side of that, there will be happiness once again. The peace we yearn for is a sort of guarantee that we and those we care about, human or otherwise, are going to be fine.

Sadly, for most humans we never achieve it.

That is why I changed the word ‘yoke’ for ‘yoga’ in Jesus’ statement.

I changed the word because both words arise from a mother word – “Yuj” – which means “to link”. This linking is about realising (experiencing for ourselves) a deep relationship where, although there may be two or more parties involved, the link unites them so they become “as-one”, even as they retain their own individuality.

Most people have never even seen a yoke let alone used one! 

However, everyone has heard of yoga, and millions of people around the world enjoy yoga of some kind.

To link our life to the life of Jesus of Nazareth in this way, that is, to see how he went about his life as recorded in the gospels and then doing likewise (as he suggests we do, Luke 10.37), is yoga.

No beliefs are required, just follow his example through the science of yoga as expressed in its eight major teachings. 

Jesus was completely and consciously linked to his life, that is, what was going on in his heart, mind and body was not separate from what was going on in the world around him. In Take My Yoga we begin with a short exploration into the four major strands of yogic practice, and see just how brilliantly Jesus fulfils each one. 

I’m not suggesting that Jesus had a yoga teacher who taught him the four major strands, but he fulfils them all very naturally. He was, from the outset, wholly himself because he was at-one with Life, but we can’t be wholly ourselves until we’re at-one with our Life too – our entire life as we’re living it right here right now. We can learn how to do that through Take My Yoga because Jesus invites us to “learn of him”.

Yoga teaches us that we are responsible for our own life experience. How we are with it (the good stuff and the terrible stuff) is down to us. No-one can live our lives for us, but we have all that we need, the capacity, to make the very best of it (“have it to the full”, as Jesus said).

For many Christians, happiness and ultimate safety is dependent on their beliefs, but if we’re really honest, many don’t like or believe some of what we’re told. It often makes no sense compared to our lived experience.

We then end up living dualistic lives, trying to ignore what makes no sense or no longer believe, while clinging to what is familiar and comfortable.  

It’s therefore a great relief to be able to follow Jesus without all the baggage of ideas about him, no matter who made them up (they’re all made up of course, mostly by men in ancient meeting rooms –  which is fine as long as we accept that as their limitation).

We can always return to our doctrines and dogmas later if they’re helpful, sometimes they are when seen in a new light.

That has certainly been my experience – as previously said I’m thirty years a Church-going Christian, but what became most important was the quality of my love for others, for myself, and the wonder of simply being alive, rather than acceding to doctrinal statements. When I read the gospel accounts of Jesus, the way he prioritised his actions and words, breaking taboos and indeed some Jewish laws, I think he was modelling that way of being.

I’ve no doubt that some in the Church might find what I’m offering through Take My Yoga a little controversial. My experience of criticism regarding working with Yoga to inform Christian faith, is that there are high levels of misunderstanding, indeed ignorance, about yoga.

Most people (even some yoga practitioners! ) don’t know the Yoga Sutra exists, let alone what it says.

I hope Take My Yoga will provide some insight into the wisdom of Yoga both for Christians, Yogi’s who’d like more from their practice than stretching and breathing exercises, and seekers looking for a practical way to engage with their spiritual seeking.

My experience of running retreats and events on this topic, giving talks and in one-to-one work, is that people are usually very interested, and many delighted with such a fresh approach. Indeed they are a significant reason for writing Take My Yoga, because there’s little resource for them to draw on once they go home.

My experience of ordained ministry while being a yoga teacher is that it’s deepened my faith in ways in which Bible reading, church worship and traditional prayer have not. Christianity is above all, an incarnated faith. It says from the outset that “God is with us”, which looks like Jesus of Nazarath.

The problem is that our faith has become very cerebral – brain based! 

We read and read – there are currently over 80,000 different versions of the Bible in print, along with commentaries, Bible Notes, Prayer Guides, and millions of books on theology.

It seems there’s always someone telling us what to think and believe.

Yet Jesus’ life was very practical, he wanted to see the hungry fed, the sick cured, outcasts welcomed, justice for the poor. 

Yoga is absolutely incarnational, as I write in Take My Yoga, “if you’re not practising, it’s not yoga, and if you can count the hours you practice, that’s not yoga either.”

Yoga is practical, but before we act, we think. Whether we consciously use our minds, or whether we’re caught up in habitual patterns – the mind is where the power is. Yoga understands from the outset that mental health is key to ALL health, both our own, and others. The second verse of the Yoga sutra sets out that stall immediately, and the other 193 verses build on it. Yoga is the supreme revealer of how our minds work – not using psychology, but using our innate ability to look into our own motivations, desires, fears, causes of happiness, frustration or sadness. It does this with compassion, subtlety and clarity. No “Gods” are involved, this is human-to-human compassionate wisdom born of the deepest of enquiry into what it is to be human.

I can find very little in the Bible that helps us with the workings of our minds in this way, let alone how mind and body are linked, and hence our actions. 

Yoga does that beautifully.

Take My Yoga offers a fresh way of being a Christian if you’re already a Christian, an exciting pathway if you’re a seeker of spiritual truth, and a deeper experience of yoga if you already have a yoga practice. As someone who’s read the book wrote, Take My Yoga could transform the lives of anyone into whose hands it falls – what a gift!  

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