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Veteran
Posts: 245
 
Location: phoenix | What is it really? how does it differ from other modalities. I believe John Friend is behind it? He is in Siddha yoga also because I have seen him in some intensives there. Very highly qualified guy. |
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Regular
Posts: 86
Location: New England | Several good articles describing the anusara philosophy are gathered on their website www.anusara.com .
And yes, it does appear that Siddha yoga was a turning point in John Friend's pursuit and study of yoga. Though he's beeing studying yoga and philosophy since he was 8 years old, so I'd imagine that covers alot of ground. |
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New User
Posts: 3
| I've studied a lot with John Friend and continue to deepen my understanding of the philosophy of Anusara yoga. Though the influence of Siddha yoga is apparent and honored, the philosophies are not the same and in fact there are many other influences.
What John does really well is to take many ancient and modern approaches, find the essence of them and make them relevant in today's world. The philosophy of Anusara yoga is a non-dualistic Tantric philosophy. Tantra basically takes everything that has been done, keeps what works and then says "How can we enhance this? How can we make it better?" To me it makes sense - honor what has come before and keep evolving. Innovation.
How the philosophy differs from Classical and Vedanta can be explained by the following, which is taken from an article I've written:
"To explain the distinctions we'll use a lotus flower as an example. A lotus flower grows in muddy water, and out of the muck blooms exquisite beauty.
The Classical Yoga perspective would be that the lotus must rise above the dark waters of the physical to realize the flower of enlightenment.
The Vedantic would look at it and say the mud and the flower are illusion and the only real is the spirit.
A Tantric view on the situation is that the muck, the root, and the flower are divine. The mud is sublime.
Tantric philosophy is a more inclusive path, while Classical and Vedanta use turning away from some aspects of life as the means to Source. In non-dualistic Tantra, everything is real and all is divine. Classical views both matter and spirit as real, though matter is inferior to spirit. In Vedanta, only spirit is real and matter is an illusion. The ultimate goal of all three approaches is union with Source."
The articles on www.anusara.com are a great place to find more info. I have also written on this topic on my blog. Here is the exact address: http://www.yogawithkatrina.com/tantra-art-living-fully/
Isn't philosophy fun? |
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Member
Posts: 7
| Wow!
Thank you KatrinaAriel!
was so clear and beautiful!
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anusara philosophy
