A new book published this week is forcing the wellness industry to confront an uncomfortable question: have we hollowed out yoga, meditation, and other contemplative traditions by stripping them of their religious and ethical roots?
Beyond Wellness: How Restoring the Religious Roots of Spiritual Practices Can Heal Us, by Northeastern University religious ethics professor Liz Bucar, hit shelves on April 28. The book argues that when ancient practices are repackaged as fitness routines and life hacks, modern seekers miss the deeper sacred wisdom — and the ethical scaffolding — those practices were originally designed to deliver.
What the Book Actually Says
Bucar, who is herself a certified Kripalu and intenSati yoga instructor, isn’t writing as a critic from outside the studio. She practices what she’s analyzing — which is exactly what gives the book its bite. Drawing from interviews, fieldwork, and her own training, she traces how detox diets, sound baths, ayahuasca ceremonies, and yoga classes have been peeled away from the Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, and indigenous traditions that birthed them.
Her core argument: spiritual practices without ethical frameworks and communal obligations end up failing the very people who turn to them seeking purpose. A 60-minute vinyasa class can leave you sweaty and calmer — but if it isn’t connected to anything larger than a personal mood lift, it’s a thin substitute for what the practice was historically meant to be.
Why This Lands in 2026
The timing isn’t accidental. The global yoga market is now a $68 billion industry, and “spiritual but not religious” is one of the fastest-growing identity categories in the United States. Wellness apps promise mindfulness in five-minute increments. Studios sell “ancient wisdom” alongside branded leggings. As a cultural moment, the gap between what yoga is sold as and what yoga historically meant has rarely been wider.
Bucar is hardly the first to raise the alarm — debates about whether yoga is a religion have been simmering in the West for decades. But her book lands at a moment when the industry has finally hit the scale where the question can no longer be brushed aside as niche academic chatter.
What This Means For Your Practice
Even if you have no interest in adopting a religious identity around your mat time, Bucar’s argument carries practical implications for the way you practice. Three concrete takeaways:
1. Learn the Ethical Limbs, Not Just the Postures
Asana — the postures — is one of eight limbs in Patanjali’s classical system. The first two limbs, the Yamas (ethical restraints) and Niyamas (personal observances), are arguably the most important and the most ignored in modern studios. They include principles like non-harming (ahimsa), truthfulness (satya), and contentment (santosha). Treating these as part of the practice, rather than philosophical garnish, is the most direct way to address the criticism Bucar raises.
2. Sit With Where Your Style Came From
Different yoga lineages emerged from different religious and cultural contexts. Knowing whether the style you practice traces to Hatha, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Bhakti, or Tantric traditions changes how you engage with it. You don’t need to convert to anything — you just need to know what you’re doing.
3. Find Community, Not Just a Class Card
Bucar argues that the communal obligations baked into religious practice are part of what made them work. Drop-in studio culture is convenient but transient. If your practice has plateaued or stopped feeling meaningful, the fix may not be a harder pose — it may be deeper relationships with the teachers and students you sit beside week after week.
The Counterargument Worth Hearing
Not everyone agrees with Bucar’s framing. Critics from within the yoga teaching community have argued that yoga’s universality — its capacity to be adapted across cultures and contexts — is a feature, not a bug. The practice has always evolved as it traveled. The version of Hatha you’d find in 14th-century India is not the version you’d find in 1950s Mysore, which is not the version you’d find in a Brooklyn studio in 2026.
Bucar’s response, threaded throughout the book, is that adaptation is fine — but selective amnesia is not. You can update a tradition without erasing its roots.
Key Takeaways
- The book: Beyond Wellness by Liz Bucar, published April 28, 2026 (Avery / Penguin Random House)
- The argument: Yoga, meditation, and other practices lose much of their power when severed from religious and ethical context
- The author: Northeastern professor of religion, certified yoga instructor, ten years of fieldwork on contemporary spirituality
- The takeaway for practitioners: Learn the ethical limbs, understand your lineage, build real community — your practice will feel more meaningful for it
Whether or not you agree with Bucar’s diagnosis, the conversation she’s reopening is one the yoga world needs. The size of the industry alone — and the cultural footprint that comes with it — means the question of what we’re actually doing on the mat each morning has become harder to dodge. Beyond Wellness is required reading for anyone who teaches, runs a studio, or simply wants to know more about what they’re actually practicing.
