I told myself I wasn't going to comment on the whole John Friend,founder of Anusara yoga, thing...and I am not...sort of. This has to do with all public figures. We have got to stop putting people on pedestals and allowing celebrity status to take away all of our good common sense. All the people below eat, go to the bathroom(and do number 2), fart, put their pants on one leg at a time, make mistakes and just straight mess up sometimes...just like you:
Obama
Oprah Winfrey
The Pope
Barbara Walters
Johnny Depp
Beyonce'
Martin Luther King
Any anybody else you are star struck by...including your yoga teacher.
If Obama was really an alien from the planet Voltron who has a diabolical plan to blow up the United States...that would be a problem. If Obama cheated on Michelle but he was doing an outstanding job running the government, that makes him human & has nothing to do with the job we need him for.
So John Friend had sex with his students and married women? I am not going to have sex with him so what does that have to do with me? Even if I did want to sleep with him, what does that have to do with my yoga practice? I don't look to my yoga teachers as moral compasses for my life. That is my job. Sex does not negate the principals of Anusara yoga. I admit, I don't understand half the stuff my Anusara teachers tell me (Open to Grace...Inner Body Bright or is it Outer Body Bright...WTF?) but never once have I heard someone say that one of the principals was, "don't have sex with married women or your students". What does that have to do with my alignment in Down Dog or Triangle?
Yes it is yoga and there are moral principals outlined in the Yoga Sutras but again, he is human and everyone falls short sometimes. If someone doesn't want to practice with him after this, that is their prerogative. I mean I get it. That makes him a major douche in many people's books and why would you want to study with a douche? However, if he still teaches a damn good yoga class and he comes to Charlotte for a workshop, I will attend because It would interesting to learn about Anusara Yoga from the source. Maybe he can actually explain to me what "opening to grace" or "inner body bright" actually means. However, I will not be asking him for marriage advice .
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