A fierce wave of clarity and alignment correction has torn through the yoga world in the last two weeks, and particularly through my world. Two weeks ago, disturbing allegations about John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga came to light. I have zero interest in cataloging that information here, and I certainly have no interest in proclaiming John Friend innocent or guilty. It's not for me to say what he should or shouldn't do with his life. I will say that his actions tore my world apart in the most intense way, and that I have been in deep grief for the last few weeks. For me, there has been a death.
I always encourage my yoga students to stay open to every sensation, not to shut out the intense sensations, to breathe right into the heart of darkness, as it were. Courage in the midst of fire, even if it's just the fire of your quads in a standing pose. Basically, I am instructing and encouraging openness. First instruction for meeting fear (i.e, grief, judgment, anger, and all the other fear siblings): open to it. Walk around and look at it. Shake fear's hand. Ask fear in for tea. Second instruction: stay, and keep coming back again and again to staying, not escalating, staying. If you feel compelled to speak, ask yourself: are these words coming from wisdom mind or wounded mind? If you're not sure, stay. Wait. Pause. Meditate. Breathe. Third instruction for meeting fear: allow yourself to be vulnerable. Instead of lashing out, opinionating, pressing send, or inflaming, turn around and hold the tender bird of your vulnerability in your heart hand. That tender bird lives in every human being on this planet, even those you want to demonize.
These are all daring, paradigm shattering yogic practices. We should be good at these by now, we should be outstanding at these by now. (I'm not scolding you; I'm talking to myself here now as well as y'all.) When the proverbial shit hit the fan last week, it was such a big practice opportunity. Did we practice? Or just react? As Pema Chodron (my go-to girl for crisis) says, " When you speak what you’re afraid of from a natural intelligence free of hope and fear, you will know what to do; how to apply openness, trust, see something as the end of something and the seed of the next thing."
Our yoga practices are meant to lead us to such a sense of trust in ourselves, that we don't need our external circumstances to be any particular way, that we know how to catch ourselves with our practices, that when we're provoked, triggered, disappointed, we have a way to pull out of that.
We're kinda immature as a species, and my great hope is that yoga be one major crucible that can squeeze us through the chrysalis into more intelligence and compassion. We HAVE to do this, the planet depends on it. Otherwise, won't this precious incarnation into human form have been wasted on this go-round? Yogis, this is my call out to you to rise to your highest and to show the world that yoga is not some large corporation, some passing fancy, some opportunity to wear cute clothes, some marketing deal, some way to have a cute butt, some platform for self aggrandizement, but a fundamentally paradigm shifting heart mind guts sky traveler practice that changes a person radically from the heart up. May this be so.
For our students at Seattle Yoga Arts, I want to reassure you that we're not going anywhere, that we remain devoted to the Anusara method because it is a beautiful and efficacious system of hatha yoga. We will continue to offer you the same grounded, alignment based, heart uplifting yoga we always have. The Anusara method came through John Friend but has now transcended him, informed and embellished as it is by so many talented teachers and amazing souls. Many of you have reached out to us in the last weeks with statements of heart rending support and sympathy, and for your generosity of heart, I bow to you. May we all travel this great path of yoga with the biggest hearts imaginable, radically loving.
