Christ Centred Yoga - Day 3

We continue this Christ centred yoga training program with the spiritual instruction, “Give No Thought.” For most Westerners who consider themselves Christians and for most humans this is an instruction from the Master Jesus that they have never really considered and certainly never embraced in any practical and meaningful way.

We began this Christian yoga training program with the invitation to the power of intention (Day 1) and stillness. (Day 2). We now begin the journey of learning to follow the key intention of seeking the Kingdom of Heaven (Day 1) through deepening the experience of the Still Small Voice within (Day 2)

To remind those who practice, teach, or intend to teach Christian Yoga or other paths of Yoga the key intention is not fitness of the body alone but more especially fitness for the flow of Divine Intention as it is intended to be expressed through you.

There are various Christian Yoga programs available on the internet.

If such Christian Yoga training programs do not have their focus on radically changing your relationship to your personal mind (renewing your mind) then they are Christian Yoga programs in name only.

You can adopt the Western practice of Yoga and add a few references to the teachings from the Bible, but this is not going to invite the radical revelation inherent in the teaching given by the Master Jesus Christ when he invites, “Give no thought.”

Christ Centred Yoga and the Beginning of Freedom

The question for the Christian yoga practitioner and teacher is, “Do you want to be free and to invite others to be free?”

Freedom means the ability to live from the experience of unity of the self with the Self or the personal with the Universal.

This freedom is lost by way of over identification with words or dogma that keep believers in the prison of the personal sense of separation (I am) since the time of the Age of Enlightenment.

This sense of separation intensified since that time when the collective Western mind adopted the mantra of the French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650) who declared, “I think therefore I am.”

Thus, the collective Western mind got locked into the limitation of the personal mind that has led to a deepening disconnect from the Universal Mind (I AM) leading to a disconnect from the natural world.

The result of this disconnect is the deep spiritual and environmental crises we see facing the world.

The Father of Yoga the Sage Patanjali defined Yoga in different ways. One of the key ways was, “Yoga is the modification of the mind.”

I wonder how many Yoga teaching sessions whatever path or style practiced really ever touch on the subject of the “modifications of the mind” which is at the core of the teachings of Yoga and also at the core of the teachings of Christianity.

The Master Jesus Christ touched on such modifications of the mind when he stated.

Therefore, I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? – Matthew 6:25

The Master asks, “Is not life more than meat and the body more than raiment?”

Most of the Yoga practices taught in the West whether Christian or not focus on the body and rarely addresses the key spiritual practice of, “Take no thought.”

How many students do you think you might have as a teacher of Christian Yoga if as part of your program you promised students they would learn how to stop thinking. I suspect not too many.

However, the Master Jesus Christ very definitely give these instructions, “Give no thought.”

As with many such instructions they are ignored by the established Church and so are never shared with those who attend such established Church.

In this way the Christian believer, yoga practitioner, teacher loses the experience of real freedom. This is the freedom that is experienced from the renewal of your mind beyond the limitation of personal thought.

Christ Centred Yoga – Renewal of Your Mind

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind – Romans 12:2

If your intention is to practice Christ centred Yoga in the real sense of that phrase you as a practitioner or teacher are being invited to experience the renewal of your mind.

To experience Christ centred Yoga, you have to decide whether you want to serve your personal mind or the Mind that was in Christ Jesus.

The mind that was in Christ Jesus is forever new. Your personal mind is forever old.

The Mind that was in Christ Jesus is the mind that is outside time (not confirmed to this world). The personal overthinking mind keeps you imprisoned in the limitation of time and space.

Christ centred Yoga requires that you put your faith in the Christ Mind rather than your personal mind. This is the real practice of “renewing your mind.”

The invitation from the Master Jesus Christ “Take no thought” begins the practice of the renewal of your mind and the entry into the awakening of faith.

This is more than faith in a teaching that arises from a declaration of the separate sense of the personal mind. This is belief as a concept rather than faith as a willingness to enter the unknown but the ever new.

This is the beginning of a radical relationship with Divine Intention that takes you into the unknown and where you are willing to be one who is thought through and KNOWN through. It is where the KNOWER and the KNOWN are one.

Such “being thought through” is living from the experience of Christ intelligence.

Christ Centred Yoga – Intelligence Beyond Thought

Imagine that you live in the most beautiful and glorious palace. You are the sovereign King or Queen of this Palace. However, you are tricked into living in the basement and never imagine that there can be more than basement living.

Imagine you are told that one day after you die that you can leave the basement and live in a beautiful place beyond some pearly gates provided you have adhered to the teachings of the basement life.

This invitation to basement living can only come from those who have never left the basement.

The basement represents your separate sense of the personal self that you refer to as “I am.” The Palace represents your TRUE SELF that is the vast intelligence flowing from the one “I AM” that you are a part of but never apart from.

The reason the Master Jesus invites you to “Give no thought” is because he KNOWS that it is your personal overthinking mind that keeps you in the prison of time and in the prison of the idea of death.

The personal mind is the mind of the known – ever old. The Christ mind is the mind of KNOWING – ever new.

How often are you ever invited to explore the vast intelligence available to you beyond the personal sense of the separate self. This is the intelligence of Love. This is the intelligence that transforms.

If you as a practitioner of Christian Yoga are not living in alignment with this Christ Intelligence, then you are a decorator of the basement offering hope in a mind that cannot give you or your students freedom.

Christian Yoga – The Thinking Man’s Choice

The beginning of freedom is the realisation that you are not “the thinker.” -Eckhart Tolle

The REAL Challenge for the practitioner of Christ centred Yoga is the choice to move beyond the known into the unknown.

To say it another way the choice is whether you are willing to move beyond belief into that which is beyond belief.

To say it yet another way the choice is to move beyond blind faith into faith in not knowing.

This is the choice invited by the spiritual instruction, “No one can serve two masters.” The practice and journey of Christ cented Yoga is the choice to serve the Christ Mind rather than the idea of the separate sense of the personal self.

In the words of the mystic Joseph Brenner, you choose to live The Impersonal Life.

Christ centred Yoga begins in earnest when you begin to awaken from the prison of personal belief and the known which is forever old and non-creative and which cannot solve the very problems it creates.

You give up reliance on your overthinking mind (give no thought) and you enter a different dimension. It doesn’t mean you never think again but it does mean you use your personal mind rather than have it use you.

This is likely to exclude most practitioners and teachers of Christ centred Yoga because their personal identity is tied up with their belief in the teachings of Christ Jesus rather than the revelation of the teaching of Christ Jesus manifesting through them from the flow of the Christ Mind.

I recognise that at this stage I may well lose the vast majority of people who have been interested in this Christian Yoga training program.

The reality is that many are called but few are chosen. This is because those who are chosen choose to move beyond what they already “think they know.”

Christian Yoga – Being Thought Through

To practice the key spiritual instruction “Give no thought” opens you to the creative and ever new experience of being thought through by Divine Intention.

To practice this key spiritual instruction “Give no thought” is to begin the process referenced by the statement from the Master Jesus.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. – Matthew 16:25

When the Master uses the phrase “save his life” he is referring to the primary focus of most peoples’ lives within time and space. This is the identification with the separate sense of the personal self referred to as “I am.”

The way in which this separate sense of self is created is through the identification with thought. The way in which problems are solved is to spend time “thinking about” the issue. In this way you practice saving the life that is your identification with the separate sense of the personal.

When you practice the key spiritual instruction “Give no thought for your life” you begin to “lose his life for my sake.”

Anyone who has taken this journey into the losing of the separate sense of personal self will absolutely assure you that there is no loss but the finding of fulfilment. Rather than live in the basement you awaken to the realisation of Palace living.

From a scientific point of view the identification with the separate sense of the personal self (the false self) uses 10% of the brain. When you practice the art of “Giving no thought” you open to the renewal of the mind which activates the other 90%.

To the way of the average Western mind this, “Give no thought” makes no logical sense. The Master is not inviting logic but transformation.

I tell you the truth, any object you have in your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost Truth.”
― Meister Eckhart – Christian theologian and mystic – 1260-1328

It sounds not at all inviting. However, how is your life working for you? Maybe if you actually follow the instructions of the Master you might begin to realise the promises that he promised would be yours.

This is the promise of KNOWING eternal life in the here and NOW that is always beyond your ability to realise through thinking but can be KNOWN by way of your willingness to be thought through.

Christ Centred Yoga Challenge

This Christ centred Yoga training program continues as from December 2021. For those interested in including some yoga postures or asanas be aware that I will include such Christian Yoga postures later in the program.

This program is being written as from the beginning of November 2021. Here are the links to those pages that have already been written.

As of today, the outline for this Christian Yoga training program may unfold and explore the following.

I have listed below how I think the days may unfold but the reality is that the writing comes through me rather than my deciding that I will write on a specific topic.

Day 5 – I AM the Way.
Day 6 – Christian Yoga Practice 1
Day 7– If Thy Eye Be Single.
Day 8 – Resist not Evil.
Day 9 – Pray in Secret.
Day 10 – Christian Yoga Practice 2
Day 11 – Become as a Little Child.
Day 12 – I AM the Way – Part II
Day 13 – Sin No More.
Day 14 – Renewing Your Mind.
Day 15 – You Must be Born Again.
Day 16 – Take Up Your Cross
Day 17 – Christian Yoga Practice 2
Day 18 – Judge Not.
Day 19 – Abide in Me
Day 21 – Christian Yoga Practice 3

The plan is to make this a 30-day program which I will then introduce each Christmas and share some real Christmas Presence.

Who AM I to Teach Christian Yoga?

One can become certified in the path that is Christian Yoga. Does this mean that you have the real authority to do so?

It is my view that the real Christ Centred Yoga teacher is only ever authorised by the experience of Grace. They are authorised through a direct encounter with God or what I refer to as Divine Intention.

When that happens you KNOW it.

However, you might not feel confident in teaching Christ centred yoga because with such KNOWING you realise the experience of the Christ (The Father and I are one) and the experience of Yoga (self and Self as one) can only ever be pointed to.

It can be pointed to in words, but you need to be able to feel it. (My peace I give unto you – John 14:27. This is the meaning of the Bible passage that states, “Abide in me and I in you.” John 15:4

I teach Christ Centred Yoga from the experience of Grace. This is the grace of KNOWING. It isn’t for me to make you a Christ Centred Yogini. I can only point the way.

The journey is always yours to take. You are the one who is to seek the Kingdom of God (Day 1) and allow its glory to manifest on earth though you.

This program of Christ Centred Yoga is my invitation that shows you the map of the territory of you own magnificence.

Christ Centred Yoga – Day 3 – Give No Thought