Meeting Jesus in Interfaith Relationships

gemma-chua-tran-P_mprr4eka8-unsplash (1).jpg — *Meeting Jesus in Interreligious Relationships*

Drew Tucker

Day 1 of 7: Meeting Jesus in Your Breath with Hinduism

“The LORD God formed the human from the topsoil of the fertile land and blew life's breath into his nostrils. The human came to life.”

Genesis 2:7 (CEB)

What if I told you that my friends of other religious identities strengthened, rather than diluted, my faith in Jesus?

As a white, cisgendered, straight, temporarily abled, middle-class male who happens to serve as University Pastor at Capital University—a historically Lutheran institution—I carry a lot of privilege. Part of my role is to care for the spiritual wellness of all students, faculty, and staff — not just the Lutherans or other Christians, but all people of all faiths. This doesn’t mean I’m always the right person to meet those needs; in fact, it often means I need to connect them with other spiritual leaders (like rabbis, imams, gurus, priests, or counselors), as well as provide access to resources so they can fully practice their faith traditions.

Frequently, when I share this with other Christians, they wonder, “But, isn’t that a challenge to your own faith?” Of course, some use challenge to mean a difficulty to reconcile what I’ve come to believe, while others are much more concerned that this challenge is an assault on the authority of Jesus in my life. But the answer to both is: “Most often? No. This actually strengthens my Christian faith by showing me God’s presence in places I’ve never explored.”

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This devotional series shares some of these connections and how you might incorporate practices into your Christian faith in ways that acknowledge the wisdom of other traditions without compromising that religion’s integrity.

For instance, in my work, I’ve come to know a number of Hindu folx who’ve shared with me Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga. While there’s not space here to explore those in detail, The Chopra Center provides a very accessible description. In short, there are eight modalities of yoga — each seeking to promote enlightenment — called moksha, and, ultimately, union with Brahman (which is not a god, per se, but rather the ultimate reality that undergirds all things).

The yoga movements most common in the U.S.A. is actually only one limb of Patanjali’s teaching, called asana, which means posture. Another essential component of yoga, per Patanjali, is breath control, known as pranayama, which seeks to control and connect with the prana, or life force.

The first time I heard this, it perked up my Sunday school ears. I’d heard about breath of life before, way back in Genesis. I remembered that God breathed into the earth creature, making it come alive. Then I remembered that, as a religion major in undergrad, I learned that the Hebrew word for breath is the same word for spirit. So, in other words, God breathed God’s spirit into our lungs at creation, and our life force began with that ultimate reality as breath in our lungs.

Of course, we must remember that these are different traditions. Hindu practitioners use yoga, including pranayama, along with polytheistic worship — a different concept of the cosmos and a belief in reincarnation that is wholly different from Christianity’s monotheist, cosmic anticipations of a new heaven and earth, and expectation of the resurrection of the dead. Hinduism’s yoga breathing techniques should not be co-opted by Christians (or any others).

But they do, for me, point to the beauty of our breath in our own tradition. What we as Christians can learn from Patanjali is that the life force, given to us with our very first breath, deserves attention. It deserves focus. It deserves a practice. That God breathed life into our lungs means that focusing on our breath is to center ourselves on a divine gift — the presence of the Holy Spirit, present with each inhale and exhale.

One way you can begin to acknowledge this divine accompaniment in your lungs is to practice mindfulness with your breath.

Discover or create an environment with few distractions — preferably with a silenced phone — and find yourself in a comfortable, attentive seated position. First, simply bring attention to your breath, noticing what it feels like to breathe in and breathe out. After at least three (more are encouraged) cycles of breathing in and out, mentally add three words to your inhale — Thank you, God — and three more to your exhale — for this breath.

Each breath is a reflection of that first breath, a taste of God’s Spirit filling our lungs and igniting our life. Do this for as long as you can. Try setting a timer for five minutes at the beginning of the process to alert you when you’ve spent five minutes giving thanks for God’s life in your lungs.

Your further suggested reading for today is to dive deeper into the 8 Limbs of Yoga and research how different types of yoga foster meaning for practitioners.

Day 1 of 7: Meeting Jesus in Your Breath with Hinduism

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