Yoga Sanga



The results of family surveys reflect that lately people living in the US practice what is known as serial monogamy, a movement from marriage to divorce to marriage again and again. 
As for religious practices there has been some information on the subject from the beginning of the year and the latest is from last week.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that in general the US population changes their religious affiliation more than once in their life.

Not only a third of those who attend services usually go to a different church but nearly a quarter attend services held by another religion. Besides practicing an organized religion they also affirm beliefs that could have lifted eyebrows 100 years ago: 23% of those who consider themselves Christians believe in astrology, 22% in reincarnation, 26% find spiritual energy in physical things, and 21% believe yoga is a spiritual practice. 



Mr. Prothero wrote for The Wall Street Journal on Friday that "religious promiscuity is nothing new; many early Christians were also practicing Jews. And in China the "Three Teachings" of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism have co-existed for centuries, with many believers turning to Confucianism for etiquette, Taoism for freedom and Buddhism for enlightenment"
For Mr. Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University this might be a sign that people are loosing the sense of the sacred. 



There is not doubt that many times people change religion just because their favorite movie star is doing so, others get bored without even studying the basics of the religion they practice. 
Nevertheless, I don't see this trend as a problem; I like to think that there is something deeper happening, a search for meaning.

People might change their affiliation because they are looking for something more meaningful and less threatening; they want to have a personal experience that can bring them closer to the divine regardless of name or affiliation. 

Let me ad another interesting piece of data reported by the American Religious Identification Survey last March, "the percentage of people who call themselves Christians has dropped more than 11% in a generation, and so many people declined any religious label that the "nones", now 15% of the USA, are the third largest "religious group" after Catholics and Baptist” 

According to the Pew's 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape survey 92% or the population believe in a God 70% said many religions can lead to eternal life, and 68% said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of my religion. 



Could all these changes affect society or how our kids develop a sense of goodness and even morality? Is this tendency making them confused and have a cynic relation to God? Maybe.
The other side of the coin is that questioning the belief system we grew up with can become a search for truth and understanding, a way to trust our own experience and relation with the Divine without dogma. 



It seems to me that all this data represent a new take on religion. People are being more open and willing to understand the others point of view, recognizing that Truth does not belong to anyone though there are ways to approach it. 

This is the foundation of a mystical or spiritual way of understanding, and yoga has been one of those paths for more than 5000 years old. Sages of all times have said it: Yoga gives a series of techniques. If you want to have an experience, you should try them and see where they can take you. 



As for me as a yoga practitioner, I am glad the perception of Yoga has gone beyond the stretches and pretzel-like poses, little by little Yoga is taking its right place as a spiritual practice though not the only one. I truly believe that any search, devoting time and a desire to learn, will transform your life forever.