Well, I'm honestly not at all surprised... just par for the course. And before you get on me for 'celebrating' someone's downfall, consider that he created and perpetuates this sham and mockery on those who he purports to serve. And, he can't let it die...
Believe you me, we each ourselves can be our own greatest enemy - myself included. When we simply shrink inward to 'protect' ourselves. Trials and tribulations test us - but rather than as in school, where first we get the lesson, then we take the test, as adults and conscious beings, our lives give us tests, and then we learn the lesson.
Just wish John would learn, but he has the wrong 'teachers'.... If you haven't followed the debacle, it's too late for me to bring you up to speed, but you can catch some history here at a blog by a passionate former-Anusara teacher; I really like how she just shoots straight and wants some accountability. I basically use Bernadette as my 'weathervane' to see which way those internal winds are blowing, since I've got nothing to do with the Anusara community.
Then, you might ask, why do I care? I care because one of the many things that JF did was create an atmosphere of hyper-sexualized arcana in an already 'suspect' culture - yoga. How many of you have had to struggle to explain that it's not a religion - that it's not a sex cult - that it's not a pickup mat-market? JF screwed the pooch when he started 'healing' people with his prick. Oh, Krishna, sorry for that visual, but if you're not contextualizing that this man thought the he could cure migraines through manipulation of a woman's cervix, then we're not talking about the same debacle.
What moves me today to write about it is that John has released a letter with his intentions and they are clear - read it here if you want to feel incredulous. Basically, he still doesn't believe he's abused his power, nor that he's potentially criminally sexually harassed folks, nor that he's broken any laws or ethic boundaries. Sure, he's sorry; by his own words, he's "sorry" that someone outed his shitty behavior.
So, John had a lot of caring folks in the community who were willing to step up and create a structure to protect the BRAND - after all, that's what it is - and their sizable investment in that brand. However, a group of folks closer to John seems to have prevented them from being able to provide guidance to a leader who was clearly lost - I repeat - LOST!
But, in typical "I lied for the liar" fashion, how hard do you think it was for John to find a group sensitive to his 'side' and his 'position' and have them create a new structure that protects his standing and will most certainly enable him to rise right back to his abusive position as if nothing has occurred.
It's just a game - we see it in business, in Wall Street, in Congress and in abusive relationships... and John has learned nothing, and it appears that many in the community would like to entitle that ignorance. Yes, ignorance, as in keep ignoring the issues and just hope they go away with a few 'elegant' back bends and heart-openers.
I'm ready for some consciousness-openers. Really.
Believe you me, we each ourselves can be our own greatest enemy - myself included. When we simply shrink inward to 'protect' ourselves. Trials and tribulations test us - but rather than as in school, where first we get the lesson, then we take the test, as adults and conscious beings, our lives give us tests, and then we learn the lesson.
Just wish John would learn, but he has the wrong 'teachers'.... If you haven't followed the debacle, it's too late for me to bring you up to speed, but you can catch some history here at a blog by a passionate former-Anusara teacher; I really like how she just shoots straight and wants some accountability. I basically use Bernadette as my 'weathervane' to see which way those internal winds are blowing, since I've got nothing to do with the Anusara community.
Then, you might ask, why do I care? I care because one of the many things that JF did was create an atmosphere of hyper-sexualized arcana in an already 'suspect' culture - yoga. How many of you have had to struggle to explain that it's not a religion - that it's not a sex cult - that it's not a pickup mat-market? JF screwed the pooch when he started 'healing' people with his prick. Oh, Krishna, sorry for that visual, but if you're not contextualizing that this man thought the he could cure migraines through manipulation of a woman's cervix, then we're not talking about the same debacle.
What moves me today to write about it is that John has released a letter with his intentions and they are clear - read it here if you want to feel incredulous. Basically, he still doesn't believe he's abused his power, nor that he's potentially criminally sexually harassed folks, nor that he's broken any laws or ethic boundaries. Sure, he's sorry; by his own words, he's "sorry" that someone outed his shitty behavior.
So, John had a lot of caring folks in the community who were willing to step up and create a structure to protect the BRAND - after all, that's what it is - and their sizable investment in that brand. However, a group of folks closer to John seems to have prevented them from being able to provide guidance to a leader who was clearly lost - I repeat - LOST!
But, in typical "I lied for the liar" fashion, how hard do you think it was for John to find a group sensitive to his 'side' and his 'position' and have them create a new structure that protects his standing and will most certainly enable him to rise right back to his abusive position as if nothing has occurred.
It's just a game - we see it in business, in Wall Street, in Congress and in abusive relationships... and John has learned nothing, and it appears that many in the community would like to entitle that ignorance. Yes, ignorance, as in keep ignoring the issues and just hope they go away with a few 'elegant' back bends and heart-openers.
I'm ready for some consciousness-openers. Really.
Anusara Teachers - is it not possible to teach what you've learned in your words?? Do you really need the word 'elegant' and the "UPA" and the word "loop" to do your job, or can you take what you learned and integrate it and just teach your yoga - not John's which is essentially Iyengar-plus; your yoga.
If you learned anything from your 'teacher', learn that he moved on from Iyengar and away from his language. Do the same, step into the greatness you can be, not someone else's template for excellence, but yours.
This was an incredible opportunity in the community for a real dialog on ethics, morals, practices, leaders, 'the guru complex', the intoxication of power, enabling and co-dependency. Instead, John just couldn't do the real work of his yoga and encounter the shade... just keep running to the light, but the shadow will always be there and it will bring you back to that place, again and again, until you learn.
Really sorry of all of the nice folks who thought 'this practice is great, I feel really good' and dedicated their life to it - however, he didn't invent yoga, and you can still practice it. Just drop the canned themes and stop calling shit elegant that is simple anatomy. And truth-affirming is much more important than life-affirming. You're already alive, but chances are, you're being lied to continuously and unfortunately, to you by you for the most part.
Yoga, it's free, it's everyone's, and it leads to truth and discernment, if you're willing to be better than your impulse and not surround yourself with folks who enable your fantasies... for that, give thanks and praise.
If you learned anything from your 'teacher', learn that he moved on from Iyengar and away from his language. Do the same, step into the greatness you can be, not someone else's template for excellence, but yours.
This was an incredible opportunity in the community for a real dialog on ethics, morals, practices, leaders, 'the guru complex', the intoxication of power, enabling and co-dependency. Instead, John just couldn't do the real work of his yoga and encounter the shade... just keep running to the light, but the shadow will always be there and it will bring you back to that place, again and again, until you learn.
Really sorry of all of the nice folks who thought 'this practice is great, I feel really good' and dedicated their life to it - however, he didn't invent yoga, and you can still practice it. Just drop the canned themes and stop calling shit elegant that is simple anatomy. And truth-affirming is much more important than life-affirming. You're already alive, but chances are, you're being lied to continuously and unfortunately, to you by you for the most part.
Yoga, it's free, it's everyone's, and it leads to truth and discernment, if you're willing to be better than your impulse and not surround yourself with folks who enable your fantasies... for that, give thanks and praise.
