Dear Banjo Paterson,

Thank you for looking at the 7th edition of the OED.
Though still a far cry from defining religion, it's one step closer and not as hostile as the current edition. It seems that the definition gets better as we go back in time.

«Parallel concepts are not found in many current and past cultures...»

There is one which Wikipedia overlooked and you probably heard of already: 'Yoga'.

Literally, 'Yoga' means "binding together" and at times was used for describing the binding of many unrelated things, but the most common use of 'Yoga' is to mean "binding together with God", similar to 'religion' coming from Latin 're-ligare', "re-bind [with God]".

Hindu scripture mentions many Yogas to describe the manifold paths and methods for binding with God: there is "Yoga of knowledge", "Yoga of everyday-action-with-the-correct-attitude", "Yoga of meditation", "Yoga of devotion", "Yoga of appreciating God's glories", "Yoga of renunciation" and many more, including what became most famous in the West - "Hatha Yoga" (very roughly, "Yoga of balancing will-power and surrender"), especially its physical-postures aspect.

It would be a natural extension to describe Christianity as the "Yoga of following the teachings of Jesus Christ", Judaism as the "Yoga of following the teachings of Moses" and Islam as the "Yoga of following the teachings of Muhammad (p.b.u.h.)".

Now valid discussions may arise: do these Hatha-Yoga postures, like standing on one's head, actually help leading us to God, or are they just nice stretching exercises or used for increasing blood-flow?
Similarly, does Islam actually lead to God, or rather to violence? Does Christianity actually lead to God or rather to a control-structure?

Suppose you take the view that no path whatsoever leads to God, whether that be because you believe that there is no God or for any other reason, then your position would not be correctly conveyed by saying "religion is bad" or "Yoga is harmful" - your accurate position in that case would be that "religion/Yoga does not exist" (others may or may not agree with this position and that may form a basis for further discussion).

[continued...]

[...continued]

What has belief to do with this? Why has it been so stressed in some dictionary definitions?

- Well if standing on one's head helps bringing one closer to God, then it happens anyway whether one believes it or not, but surely one who believes that to be the case is more likely to persist investing their time and effort standing on their head!

.

Dear Yuyutsu,

.

Nobody seems to know exactly who invented Yoga nor how, when, where, or why it developed. Researchers have traced its origins back 5 000 years but it seems that some think it could be as much as 10 000 years old.

Whatever the case, apparently it is older than both Hinduism and Buddhism with which it later interacted and exchanged influence. This tends to suggest that it too could, perhaps, have qualified as what we in the West call religion.

However, the German Indologist, Georg Feuerstein, pointed out that Yoga “proposes no gods or saviours; it moves forward on the grounds of experiential confirmation rather than religious faith”.

I see that as similar to Buddhism, the principal difference being that Buddhists have faith in the Buddha and his teachings, whereas the identity of the founding father of Yoga (presuming there was one) seems to have been lost in the sands of time.

According to Dr. James Mallinson, senior lecturer in Sanskrit and Classical and Indian studies at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London "the first text to teach physical yoga practices [known as hatha yoga] was written by Buddhists in the 11th century and called the Amtasiddhi and, certainly, through these practices they were aiming for some kind of salvation or liberation.”

He says that “modern-day yoga has echoes of these religious beliefs - natarajasana, or dance pose, for example, is a representation of Hindu god Shiva, and sun salutations may also reflect earlier beliefs. In the Vedas [ancient Indian texts], the sun is a god, so you could argue that sun salutations are religious to some extent.

"Today, however, many practitioners simply enjoy yoga as a physical practice that increases feelings of calm and gives them the opportunity to carve out some space for themselves in an otherwise busy week”.

I guess that means that modern yogis are more psychic-fitness fans than religious devotees.

.

Dear Banjo,

The distinction must be made that your last post only relates to Hatha Yoga rather than Yoga in general, more specifically even, only to the physical postures therein, which are traditionally considered the 3rd step of Yoga out of 8, and whose original main purpose is to ensure that the body's aches and pains do not disturb one's meditation.

To that extent I agree.

I know who invent Yogi, it was Yogi Bear and his sidekick Boo-Boo. Have I got that right, sorry wrong, it was Hanna The Barbarian.

http://www.google.com/search?q=yogi+bear+youtube+hey+boo+boo&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBAU997AU997&sxsrf=ALiCzsZ9TxsH1e4iDtQLLyczWPUm2phOYA%3A1667519121814&ei=kVJkY8WxMbnsjuMP95i1eA&oq=yogi+bear+youtube&gs_lcp=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&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:9f199c0f,vid:YtBFxU8L-j4