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Anusara Yoga - Flowing with Grace
Written by Desiree Rumbaugh
DR: How did you get started in yoga at age 13?
JF: My interest in yoga actually started at age 8 when my mother read stories to me about yogis in the Himalayan mountains that had Supernatural powers. As a young boy these stories of yogis living hundreds of years, levitating, dematerializing and having psychic powers completely fascinated me and expanded my imagination. I intuitively felt that these amazing yoga masters knew the deepest secrets of the universe, and that if I practiced yoga I could also know the answers to life's mysteries. So, when I was 13, I began formal study of yoga philosophy with the Bhagavad Gita and the principal Upanishads. The first translation of the Bhagavad Gita that I read was by Juan Mascaro, and I found it so beautiful and uplifting that I knew then that I had found the philosophy that I could use as a basis for my life.
It was also at that time that I began to dabble with hatha yoga and I would try to perform the yoga poses that I saw in books, but generally it was a catastrophe. My mother still has photographs of me doing headstand in the living room when I was 13. She tells me that I would usually fall out of the poses and crash into her furniture.
For the next three years, I continued to study eastern philosophy and paranormal phenomenon. I didn't start practicing meditation and hatha yoga with any regularity and focus until I had a profound spiritual experience when I was 16.
DR: What happened during that spiritual experience?
JF: It was the summer of '75 and was I living in Youngstown, Ohio. I had been hanging out each week with a group of Sufis, and they were teaching me various meditation and chanting practices. One Saturday the leader of the group lead us in guided meditation, breathing practices, ecstatic dance movements and chanting. After a full day of this I was so high that I was seeing lights and colors with my eyes open or closed. In meditation I had a transcendental experience of expanding into the illuminated vastness of the cosmos. The experience was so profound that I stopped eating meat that day, and started doing regular practices of meditation, pranayama and asana. Just about everyone in my high school thought I was bizarre. When I graduated I received the award for "most likely to astral project in history class".
DR: When did you start teaching yoga?
JF: I moved to Houston, Texas, with my family in 1979 and immediately got involved with a yoga and meditation group there. In 1980 my yoga teacher become very ill and he asked me to substitute teach for him. Although in retrospect I did not know really what I was doing, the students liked my teaching. Many students commented that they felt better about themselves after one of my classes, so I thought I was providing a good service. That first taste of teaching was so positive for me that I decided to establish my own class. So, I taught one class a week off and on for the next 6 years while I attended college and started to work full-time as a financial manager and accountant. I started teaching full-time in 1986 when I realized that my 9 to 5 job wasn't fulfilling me.
DR: What hatha yoga teachers have made the biggest impressions on you?
JF: I have been privileged to study with many wonderful teachers over the years. Judith Lasater was my first Iyengar Yoga teacher and she inspired me to dive deep into the Iyengar method. I have been fortunate to study directly with B.K.S. Iyengar and his daughter Geeta and son Prashant on several occasions both here in the U.S. and in India. The Iyengar Yoga senior teachers Ramanand Patel, Manouso Manos, Mary Dunn, Patricia Walden, Aadil Pakhilvala, Gabriella Guibilaro and George Purvis have been very influential on my development.
Other master teachers that have impacted my practice include Dona Holleman, Victor van Kooten and Angela Farmer, K. Pattabhi Jois, T.K.V. Desikachar, and Richard Freeman.
DR: I understand that you recently resigned your Iyengar Yoga teaching certification? What lead you to resign?
JF: Yes, after a long period of contemplation I formally resigned my Iyengar Yoga teaching certificate last August. Basically, I feel that I have fundamental differences with Mr. Iyengar in attitude and philosophy about yoga practice and teaching. At the same time, I am very grateful to Mr. Iyengar and all his senior teachers for everything that they have given me. However, the essential elements of my practice and teaching have evolved in a different direction than Iyengar Yoga, and so to respect Mr. Iyengar and to act with integrity, I decided to discontinue using his name to promote myself. It was both dishonest and confusing to the students to call myself Iyengar-certified, and then teach alignment and philosophy in ways that Mr. Iyengar would not approve or agree with. Another important point here is that I am not abandoning everything or everyone in Iyengar Yoga. I am sure that I will continue to study, dialogue and learn from all my teachers and friends in the Iyengar system.
DR: I understand that in order to differentiate your teaching style from Iyengar Yoga, you now call your style Anusara Yoga. What does Anusara mean?
JF: Anusara, pronounced a-nu-sar-a, means, "to go with the flow", "to be in the flow", "flowing with Grace". I found the word in a 10th century Tantric scripture of Kashmir. In the large context Anusara is flowing with Grace by saying yes to the whole spectrum of the magic of life. It is a willingness to be aware of all parts of ourselves — the light and the dark, the full rainbow of sensation, perception, emotion and thought. To be in the flow is to look at whatever arises with freshness and freedom. It is to simply open our hearts with love to the present moment without clinging or pushing. Anusara is accepting the world as it is and then responding to it with love.
Anusara yoga is a hatha yoga style that honors the body and mind as sacred vessels through which the divine radiance of supreme Consciousness can shine and flow. It is through the limitations of the body/mind that we discover that our true nature is boundless goodness and vast luminous Consciousness. The body/mind is a divine gift from the Universe to help us discover our glory, our greatness, and our worthiness. Through the yoga practice we delightfully dance and play with the flow of supreme Consciousness with each breath and every posture. In each pose we lovingly and artistically offer our individual light and unique music to the flow of Life.
Anusara yoga incorporates the principles of the 3 A's—Attitude, Alignment and Action—into every asana. Attitude encompasses the yogi's quality of emotional, mental and spiritual expression through the body when performing an asana. In the highest sense Attitude is the balance between an openness to Grace and the aspiration to reawaken to our divine nature. When I watch a student performing a pose, I see what quality of their heart shines through. I see whether they are effortful or passive; contracted or celebratory; sad/angry/fearful or happy/loving/peaceful.
Alignment deals with the degree of dynamic symmetry or conscious interconnectedness between parts of the body. The inner knowledge of how each part is equally connected and expressive derives from both a steady, focussed awareness and an open witnessing. When a student performs a pose I look to see where in their body their awareness is bright and where it is dark. I then offer the student instructions to help evenly distribute the light of their consciousness throughout their body.
Action refers to the natural flow of energy in the body, which provides a balance of both stability and joyful freedom. Some students draw their muscles into their body too tightly creating joint compression and diminished circulation. Others tend to hyperextend the joints and are too unstable and loose. My postural instructions help students experience a balance of stabilizing energy drawing into the core of their bodies and freeing energy extending out from the core to the periphery of their bodies. In summary, a yogi uses Action to express his Attitude through the Alignment of the body.
In addition to the 3 A's, Anusara yoga uses universal principles of alignment to help the student more quickly and effectively learn classical asanas to both open and to heal the body/mind. There is much more to Anusara Yoga, so hopefully Arizona students will attend my May workshop in Tucson in order to learn more!
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