Yoga Exhibition Spotlights The Continuing Church-State Debate

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Lee Lawrence

Bringing to life a constellation of yogas, from ascetic to esoteric to physical.

WASHINGTON, DC---It isn't every day that an art exhibition at the Smithsonian's museum of Asian art speaks (however unintentionally) to a continuing church-state debate in California. The issue is whether public schools should be teaching yoga: Do "downward dog" and "salutation to the sun" postures promote mental and physical well-being or do they constitute religious practice? Simply put, what is yoga? This is the question that "Yoga: The Art of Transformation" explores—or, rather, explodes. As curator Debra Diamond researched the topic, "it kept growing in depth and complexity," she says. Although meditation was always important, she found no single practice or belief that consistently defined yoga as it moved through India's religious and cultural communities for 2,000-plus years. [link]