Francis X. Clooney, S.J.

nbsp Cambridge MA As one might expect the news on religion and tolerance remains mixed On the one hand I think it fair to say that more and more people in every culture and religion are learning to live with differences and respect their neighbors rsquo faiths This need not translate into do

I am been thinking about Pope Francis rsquo canonization of the 800 martyrs of Otranto Italy on Sunday the 800 people killed when they refused to convert when confronted by an Ottoman Turkish invader I am not a historian of this material by any means so for the moment Wikipedia may be allowed

Cambridge MA This is the last of my Lenten reflections on the second Chapter of the Yoga Sutras the Yoga of Action yoga in action You can find the preceding entries here We have in the past several weeks been looking at the last part of the chapter the eight ldquo limbs rdquo mdash integ

Cambridge MA Last week and in the week before I introduced the first two segments of the ldquo eight limbs rdquo astanga of yoga such as emphasize respectively moral and bodily discipline Now I take up the sixth and seventh of these limbs those dealing most directly with meditation holdin

Cambridge MA Lent is rolling along but we are also nearing the end of the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras the chapter I am proposing for our Lenten reflection Right now we are half way through the ldquo eight limbs rdquo of yoga practice we introduced in our fifith Lenten blog on yoga last

nbsp Cambridge MA As Rachel Donadio wrote today in the New York Times Pope Francis made a small and sensitive gesture today that might bode well for a fresh relationship with people of other faiths and none In his conversation with journalists ndash see the whole of his remarks here ndash h

Cambridge MA The world around me is uneasy and in dire straits the Pope resigns Congress remains dysfunctional the environment is increasingly out of balance and so many people live in situations of terrible deprivation And still I persist in blogging through Lent not on these timely issues

Cambridge, MA. The next section of the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras is the famous account of the eight-limbs (asta anga) of yoga, a famed list that is most often used to structure any account of yoga. Contrasted with some of the more subtle points I had to deal with in my previous entries in this series (one, two, three) this is a list that seems rather more easily useful in Lent, particularly if we think of Lent as a time when we are to do things that inculcate focus and discipline.

Dutiful readers of In All Things will know that I am in the midst of a Lenten series of meditations on the Second Chapter of the Yoga Sutras, the “Yoga of Practice.” I am just up to the part where I will begin to discuss the “restraints” (yama: non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, celibacy, and non-grasping) and “observances” (niyama: purity, contentment, austerity, one’s own study, and dedication to the Lord). Celibacy will be discussed briefly in this context. Reading the Yoga Sutras on such matters is interesting, since it shows us how asceticism and celibacy have been thought of outside the West and in a different religion, many centuries ago.

nbsp Cambridge MA This Lenten series is dedicated to reflections on the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras a chapter dedicated to the ldquo yoga of action rdquo As I explained in the first and second entries however ldquo action rdquo here is more a spiritual and intellectual doing and und