Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Meditation on the Cat/Cow/Child's Pose Yoga Flow, from a Christian/Messianic/Follower of the Way perspective

I recently learned the flow from child's pose to cow to cat Yoga stretch positions, and because we are called to take every thought captive for Christ I meditated on these three positions this morning--you can find them online if you're curious about them--and came up with this worship.

Is there a meaning behind the poses, for myself? 

The "Child's Pose" seems so Biblical, since it's a prostrate form almost of worship, and Yeshua (Jesus) said that people like little children inherit the kingdom of heaven. You could meditate for hours on becoming the child Yeshua wants, and whether it's trust, innocence, or freedom he's asking for, or you could just do the pose and ask God to make you like the child he wants.

For the cat, I found there is no cat except a lion in the Hebrew scriptures, since Judea was outside of its geographic range at the time, so to me I thought of the Cat as the roof of the Temple, or a young lion. "The lions roar and seek their food from God..." (Tehillim/Psalm 104) Even here, at the apex of power, there's a full reliance on Hashem. This domed pose could represent glory (Temple roof) and vitality and self-defense, since it is a position of cat protection, and cats are known for their survival and preservation.

The cow is such an easy one, such a useful animal, sustaining people, and it's one of the ceremonially clean animals Noah took on his ark in sevens instead of twos. 

With the correct order of the flowing child's pose/cat/cow, to me, my meditations come out to this order to life: 

worship (child's pose), 
service (cow), 
power (lion or cat or temple)

That seems to me to be a lovely order in which to live the heart. Since we know everything in life is somehow a little bit cyclical, it makes sense that these continue to cycle in to each other: when we are powerful, we thank God and worship, which inspires us to do service for others, which gives us power...this is really the root of the philosophy of Karma, isn't it? 

Of course with mercy, and grace, this formula becomes more complicated, just as Einstein's theories included Newton's but expanded them, just as the Brit Chadasha (NT) expands our understanding of the Torah (OT), but I think this is a beautiful place to start. You cannot have mercy without an understanding of justice, of the right and wrong flow...of what some call Karma.

Take every thought captive, God.

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