Assignment:
Mindfulness and yoga
A central aspect of Buddhist teaching is the eight noble truths, of which conscious presence (in English mindfulness) is one of these noble truths.
It focuses on meditation and aims to lift the individual from thoughts about the future and the past to instead place the emphasis on the absolute present. For a Buddhist, meditation is very important to end suffering and get into nirvana.
In recent years, many religious practices from both Buddhism and Hinduism have become neutral practices in Western European culture. Most people, in addition to mindfulness or yoga, do not do so as religious practitioners of Buddhism or Hinduism, but as non-religious persons. At the same time, these practices retain their form and terminology (use of important concepts) from the religion of origin. Both mindfulness and yoga have become very popular forms of mental and physical training and are now often taught by non-religious people to other non-religious people.
Discuss:
1. Who owns a particular method - the one who invented it or the one who uses it?
2. If a religious person leads yoga exercises for non-religious people, will it be different, given that the practice is deeply religious for the leader but not for the others?
3. Can you come up with more examples of such phenomena that come from religious practices that have been taken over and become non-religious practices?