photo via The New York Times
Finally, we are handed the words from Head of Anusara Yoga, John Friend’s mouth (or computer) via Elephant Journal. We appreciate EJ’s approach in asking some of the tough, yet painfully and glaringly obvious questions we’ve been waiting to hear answers to, though this ends up being primarily about Mr. Friend’s sexual relations and lacking any real elucidation.
(In full disclosure, YD was contacted by Anusara PR, Saeger Media, Saturday afternoon, the day after we posted the accusations from the anonymous site. We were offered an interview with John Friend in exchange for removal of the post. If, and only if, we would remove the post and “start over” with an interview would we be granted communication. This offer was obviously not accepted.)
Since the original accusations were published, documents have surfaced to support the allegations over pension freezing and violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). A letter from John Friend to Anusara Yoga teachers has also been released and published.
In the interview posted this evening, while answering questions about the departure of high-level Anusara teachers, his sexual “mis-steps” with employees, students and teachers (including married ones) and the future of Anusara, John Friend apologizes and admits fault without actually directly addressing anything, nor most of the non-sex related accusations like the Wicca Coven, the Wicca-Anusara connection and employee-endangering marijuana habits.
Here are some excerpts:
JF: This has been such a painful time for me as I self-reflect on how my personal decisions within my private life have become a source of deep anguish for my friends and community.
I am so deeply sorry for any harm that my actions have caused anyone.
JF: …first off, I do not use the term “Guru” to describe myself, and work hard to stay away from being so designated. Above all, I am a student of life and yoga, and then a teacher, and the founder of Anusara Yoga.
Secondly, it’s true. Over the course of my private life I have had consenting sexual relationships with women, some of whom have been my students and also my employees, some of which included married women.
JF: For the community, my deepest hope is this brings us closer together, in a more intimate and honest conversation around life. Some students and teachers will inevitably decide to move on, others will become more involved and take an expanded leadership role within the Anusara organization.
So, I envision the future of Anusara as including greater cooperation from all of our community.
We must all remember that any mis-steps by me do not invalidate any of the greatness of the Anusara yoga method.
Read the full interview at Elephant Journal.
What is frustrating and saddening is not only the deception involved here over time, but the fact that any of this could have been going on for years (and it did from what we gather) and not a soul involved made a move, or felt empowered enough, to speak up about it. Until last Friday.
*There is no intention to disparage Wicca or alternative spiritualities (or any lack thereof). Please see comment below.
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Earlier…
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Did anyone mirror the JFExposed site before it got taken down? I’d like to see the original accusations.
I would also like to see a mirror of the site. So far, I’ve been unable to track one down. If you find one, please let me know.
Who cares?… this is so not what I want to read on yogadork, it’s not fun, informative or even yogic, it just comes across as judgemental and OK magazinish, yoga should never be Kardashian-esque type gossip. Why on Earth people expect perfection from teachers is beyond understanding – they are just humans with wonderful messages, If Jesus, Krsna, Mohammed, Arjuna or Buddha were around today they would be written about too – lucky for them 21st century media wasn’t around to do a full on literary slaughter of the charachters, Anusara was a message and a gift, John Friend is just a man – but a man that gave a good message and a wonderful gift. Please stop with all the crap writing yoga dork.
Actually Rachel, I think Yoga Dork’s coverage of what is happening within the Anusara community is very relevant. John Friend’s actions have effected an entire community. I, for one appreciate knowing why the Ansuara classes at my studio have been removed. This is not gossipy. YD is operating with transparency. No one is expecting John Friend to be perfect. But, he does run an massive yoga school selling his style of yoga which includes truth, integrity and transparency. What he does off the mat DOES matter to students. And it should. I feel this issue unfolding within the Anusara community is being treated with respect and clarity by both Yoga Dork and Elephant.
I was sucked into the drama, now I’ve wasted some energy.
Stop feeding this and get back to your mat – and that’s not all yoga is, asana on a mat. It also includes not wasting energy in ways that are not helping anyone in the path of knowing the true self. Wasting energy in the form of gossip, that is what we are doing. stop it. nirodha.
The past week, I have glued myselft to the computer anxious to see all those comment and joined the discussion which has nothing to do with me or my practice . Talk about the bad Chi and wasting of energy……
Thanks for the reminder !
I’m sorry, but you’re way off in your assessment. THIS IS YOGA. This, what is happening right now, IS Yoga. All of these events, the reporting of them, your reading them, your reaction to them and more importantly, your contemplation of their meaning and significance in YOUR life, IS Yoga.
Your view to get back to your mat is one of transcendence. That is a perfectly valid path, but you must also balance that practice with one of present moment awareness. As a student of Yoga, you must not think that you can just go sit on a cushion and contemplate your navel in isolation and become all knowing.
A perfect example of this is the student written up in the New York Times article: How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body, who ignored the pain in his knees while sitting 2 hours for meditation. This doesn’t prove that Yoga is bad for you. It proves that taking a purely transcendent approach to enlightenment can really F-up your knees.
For many who would like to vilify John Friend, you may do so. His actions are despicable and reprehensible. I find it intolerable that he acted so foolishly and with such narrow vision to not comprehend the ripple of pain and suffering all these actions will cause.
However, others will see beyond the veil of action, and look at things on another level as well. For this too, is part of John Friends teaching to all of us about the path of Yoga. He has allowed himself to play this role so that we can learn something from it. Don’t just gossip, contemplate these events. Allow your mind to unravel the thousand and one questions, fears and doubts that arise from this man’s fall from grace.
If you do this, with sincerity and a desire to know more about yourself through these events, your own false assumptions, and mis-guided understandings will be revealed, and great knowledge about the true Yoga, not this commercial gimmick, may arise from the ashes of what was Anusara.
I speak these words from my own personal experience. May they be a blessing and serve all who read them.
indeed, and nicely stated Ralph.
Brings to mind Kali Ma and her sword – cutting off the heads of demons and with each drop of blood that falls to the ground, another demon sprouts up … and so on and so on. The slaying of one demon is the birth of another.
http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-kali.html
I practice yoga, but am not at all involved in this world. I happened upon your comment, Ralth, and I just wanted to say how interesting I found it to be, and well written. Thank you for giving me a lot to think about.
Anusara Yoga was “founded” upon shaky ground. It began with a “collaboration” between Richard Freeman and John Friend. Richard had intuited a new alignment concept of loops and spirals in the body. The first copy of loops and spirals was written on Richard’s
wife’s computer. Richard presented his ideas to John. John then famously turn it into Anusara Inc. Richard Freeman truly deserves the credit for these ideas underlying Anusara Yoga.
Richard Freeman also coined the phrase “universal principles of alignment” during his “collaboration” with John. Many years later, Richard confessed that “it was a good idea at the time, but sadly many alignments cannot be universalized due to human variation (different body types, bone structures, proportions and orientation of joints.)” John borrowed this phrase from Richard and made it a centerpiece of Anusara.
The story just gets shadier and shadier doesn’t it. There is nothing
genuine or authentically “real”.
Does anyone know why Doug Keller left and what the story behind that break up was?
He was the first to go …
My early Anusara training materials and handouts were all authored by him. I still have a sheet showing the loops which is copyright Doug Keller.
“Gossip”? “Negativity” and getting “caught up” in it? This is not something to be ignored by the all too common suggestion that it’s a waste of time to consider that someone has potentially been deceptive toward you/a large community of people, in the way of immoral behavior. Someone said it has nothing to do with being on the mat, and it absolutely does. If you ignore this issue as a waste of time, then I think it suggests you may also ignore the discomfort and levels of truth and deception on your mat and in your own life as well.
It’s what you do with it.
I have spent thousands of dollars working toward an Anusara certification and am very disappointed, and feel the need to re-evaluate whether or not I want to be associated with Anusara. I no longer feel compelled to work under John Friend himself. I do not wish anything horrible upon the man, and feel empathic, but I have a choice to make about whether or not I continue under his name. This is nothing to be ignored, and for me, I will take A LOT of time contemplating it, reading about it, listening to other people -especially Anusara teachers who I’ve grown to respect.
I agree with KJL… for the people who have spent thousands and thousands of dollars, countless hours of devotion, made their life’s-circles surounded by kula-people…. this is destroying their world.
John Friend is personally responsible for flagrantly flushing the whole system down the toilet. He is the sole proprietorship of a corporation that has no accountability. No share holders, no one to keep his power in check (congress senate president).
It is not surprising that he used his Merry Minstrel Mogul Mischief for his own personal Pan Bachanal. Pagans are a lusty raucus bunch. Not surprising that he weaved a spell of mystery (shri!) around him and garnered power, money and fame.
I think everyone is shocked that the truth was so thoroughly revealed to render him powerless to the internet, which he used to create his empire. Live by the sword, die by the sword. You can’t have it both ways. When you write your own ethics, and hold other people accountable to them, you had better be behaving by them or you will be accountable to a much greater source (in this case, the world at large).
Anyone that represents Anusara is representing corrupt politics. Becaused of the two faced propaganda of the founder, Anusara is no longer a philosophy, instead it is a marketing tool designed to hook you in and make you feel part of a club. How can any student trust their teacher who labels themselves with a Scarlett A?
I feel bad for all of the teachers who are staying because they are loyal to the system. If the teachings are so powerful, they will survive a great fall and be communicated in a way that is understood by the teachers and students; not creating a catchy-all method that is designed to create followers who brand themselves as special because “it works”.
They are not being loyal to anyone but John Friend. Was he loyal to you when made you sign your license that limits your yoga and your teachings? Who did that serve? It created a house of cards that he personally has toppled with seemingly little or no remorse or accountability (as evidenced by him teaching his Tantra of relationships in Miami after his committee advised him not to, he still has to take the stage and see who his true followers really are).
There is no doubt that there are awesome teachers in the aforementioned and soon to be a dirty word method. My wish is for each one of them to look inside themselves and be Dorothy at the end of the Wizard of Oz who has been listening to the tricks and illusions from the Man Behind the Curtain who turns out to not have any of the answers.
The great teachers are still great teachers as evidenced by their integrity and willingness to walk away from a train wreck created by Chief Engineer John Friend. He did this to himself. This is not blame, this is fact.
Dorothy looks inside of herself and found out it was she who had the power. Please teachers, students, and followers of JF, tear down the wall, look behind the curtain, check your 3rd eye and realize that you already have it all, and you don’t need him or anyone else to label you fit enough to teach what you already know based upon your own exploration and passion for the beauty and wonderment of Yoga.
“… in a more intimate and honest conversation around life…”
Intimate? huh.. no thanks, John, I think I’ll pass on that conversation with you…
The interview of John Friend by Waylon Lewis was oddly consistant- both the questions and the answers lacked clarity. It felt like Waylon’s “preambles” were more like apologies in advance for asking questions any real journalist would just ask. John’s answers were a laundry list of platitudes that smacked not a whit of true humility. I was somewhat appalled that the interview contained any reference at all to the “life lesson” John might glean in this unfortunate situation. I am a former student and teacher of Anusara who found the practice confounding both physically and spiritually, and I am not at all surprised that this happened. Unfortunately, this is what happens when the cult of personality overshadows the teachings, and on many levels both teacher and students are complicit. This is one situation where John is not going to be able to shoe-horn love and shininess into the bright and empty truth of his actions.
EJ should just admit that they aren’t journalists and give up any pretense thereof. They are a PR flack shop and should simply accept that as their role in life.
The “interview” with JF was nonsense and EJ was just providing a forum for him to spew forth his bullshit.
EJ spent more time defending its own lack of journalistic backbone than calling JF into account.
My question is how could JF get caught up in this type of behavior, as a charismatic, charming, smart dude that he is? Oh, wait, that answer that question. All ego.
The cult of personality in yoga is prevalent, we all know that. People get behind the charismatic, larger-than-life yogi, brainlessly following the occultation of the mask of Light which hides a dark shadow, unfaced and unperturbed by the philosophy that is propounded from the charismatic’s deceptive lips. They decieve even themselves, for they have told a lie for so long that it became the truth.
All over the yoga world lip-service is payed to facing the shadow, to allowing the light into the darkest parts. How often is it actually undergone. Not very. New Age ides prevail in the ethereal twilight of the yoga studio. Are these the kinds of places that the likes of Patanjali and the satgurus of the Shaivism/Shaktism intended their philosophies to be propagated through? Nay. One will not find the healing preserves of the illumined shadow in the yoga world (very rarely), or the awakened Kundalini masters who have faced their reprobate tendencies. The true illuminated beings are found in more private places. Occassionaly you will find them in guys and gals like JF who have gone thorugh their own scandals, perhaps less loudly promoted than this particular one. This is a moment of ego-death for John Friend, if he can face up to everything he did and connect to it emotionaly. So, the real soul in trouble, creating some pretty nasty karma for himself, is JF. For the rest of us, it’s just Entertainment Tonight.
The real awakening is undescribably scary, but it is available to anyone who will look. The one with the true teaching, the Angel inside, does not reveal It-self by charging money or starting an organization that would steal money from it’s initiates; the Theophany of the true Christ, Buddha, or the Green Angel will never be found in the halls of counter-initiation that is today’s yoga world. The yoga world is, at most, a nice place to do some glorified exercises by twisting the body into weird shape.
Let us not pass judgement unto JF. Let us take him into our heart and dissolve him therein. Let us do this not in some sentimental abstract manner, but by orienting ourselves to the mature path of spiritual attainment. Let us orient ourself toward the divine by embarking on our own path of initiation, the long-road of rigourour moral examination, mercilessly so. Let us see JF as our own deepest yoga-shadows, the stuff that is always dark, looming darkly, which we are not willing to admit under normal circumstances.
Om Shanti, Ya NUR
The Green Man
word!
pranams and thank you. this, along with carol hortons stuff, is among the very best shared (in my opinion) … everyone of us is simply a facet of the divine having an experience; the divine is living this experience via JF “because it can”, and the potential to evolve and awaken through this dark night of the soul and the death of the ego is limitless. jf can do his best work if he stops “resisting” and accepts the cards that fate has dealt. and each of us moving through this experience in our own ways, with our own standpoint, and our own history, likewise has the opportunity to notice what we notice as we experience this experience because – this jfexposed scandal has woken up alot of demons .. alot of denial .. alot of resistance .. and alot of hope. there is a very rich sadhana at hand and as seekers on the path our work is to move through and peel away the the layers and, as Pema Chodren says, notice when our shenpa arises and when we are hooked, and our egos activated, and to just stay with that. to just stay with it. OM TAT SAT.
blessed be. reposting.
one thing I’m certain of, Patanjali would never have copyrighted anything. That’s a deal with the devil.
I like your style Waylon…
JF is a quack. Goodriddence.
COULD WE PLEASE TAKE DOWN THE FAKE WAYLON?
so not waylon.
I agree. It’s ridiculous that Yoga Dork is letting someone impersonate Waylon Lewis in order to mock him. It smacks of petty rivalry.
Sad that this situation w/ Anusara has so infected the whole yoga community that there’s now all this bad blood. Yoga Dork & Elephant Yoga now at odds? And everyone taking sides!
Just show a bit of grace YD and take down the fake Waylon posts.
No bad blood here.
Thank you!
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