Wow! Anusara® yoga is expanding and evolving in such exciting ways! I received this newsletter from John Friend this week, and thought I’d post it here to share. Enjoy!
From Anusara Yoga’s Founder, John Friend:
Dear Anusara Community,
Enthusiastic greetings from my 2010 Melt Your Heart, Blow Your Mind world tour. We now enter the most technologically advanced, crowded, critical and tumultuous decade in history. It is a time to create the right mindset of positive, Shri-radiant, and creative Shakti in order to dance with the global stresses and difficulties ahead in this New Decade. We need to shift our yoga practice into an innovative paradigm. At the beginning of this radically transformative time I want to announce several steps that I am implementing to take Anusara yoga to a higher level of artistic expression.
Shiva-Shakti Tantra
Since its inception in 1997, Anusara yoga has been based on a life-affirming Tantric philosophy. In order to distinguish our school of Tantra among classical Tantra and neo-Tantra schools, we are now designating our philosophy as Shiva-Shakti Tantra. It is the integration of all the Tantric schools that see everything as a vibrating dance of Divine polarities full of freedom and the highest creative delight. We honor and glorify Supreme Consciousness (Shiva) and Its unlimited Creative Power (Shakti), spirit and matter, male and female one is not higher than the other and one cannot exist without the other. It is Shiva-Shakti Tantra.
We recently created a new visual piece that depicts some of the current energy of Anusara yoga. Our friend Waylon Lewis from Elephant Journal in Boulder posted our artistic video last week. It is wonderful to collaborate with like-minded enterprises like Elephant Journalthat are highly respected in the Green movement, in the world of Buddhism, and in consciousness expansion.
Please check out our video and leave a comment to let us know what you think:
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2010/02/shiva-shakti-tantra-video-w-john-friend-of-anusara-yoga/
Standardized Curriculum
The Curriculum Committee and I worked during 2009 to standardize our new 3-part Immersion for Anusara yoga throughout the world and in various languages. With this in-depth, refined organization, we have elevated our curriculum to the highest professional level of yoga training worldwide. This new 3-part standardized Immersion is now going into effect, and I just concluded the first part in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. I will be doingPart 2 in South Carolina in a few weeks and Part 3 in Park City in August.
2010 Melt Your Heart, Blow Your Mind World Tour
This tour is expanding the radiant embrace of Anusara yoga around the world, specifically in Asia and Europe. I am going to 11 countries and holding over 40 events. One of the highlights will be in Estes Park, where together with Yoga Journal, we are taking the Anusara Yoga Grand Gathering to a new level after our extraordinary sell out in 2008. This year’s theme is the celebration of art. The Gathering will include 12 of our top certified teachers, more panel discussions with the scholars, music with Shantala, a play lounge with hoop and dance lessons, slack-lines, and visits from our Acro Yogi friends all for delight and artistry. At the Wanderlust Festival this summer, the Merry Band is such an integral part of the festival that we will have an entire area in Squaw Valley dedicated to our community: Village Anusara. This village will be a play-scape with a large adult-sized playground, art installations, and bohemian artists crafts. It will include an exquisite tent with a large practice area and some of our top teachers.
Dancing with the Divine:
The Universal Principles of Anusara Yoga by John Friend
I am thrilled to announce that I am currently engaged with writing my book Dancing with the Divine, The Universal Principles of Anusara Yoga. It is the full articulation of all of our Principles of philosophy and asana alignment. Anusara Press is publishing the first edition in multiple languages – Spanish, Italian, French, German, Mandarin and Japanese to start. The release of my book in 2011 will coincide with a bright expansion of our vision all over the globe, including the Center Stage concept.
Center Stage Concept
We are launching Anusara yoga to a much broader, worldwide audience through the establishment of Center Stage in Southern California. With the creation of a physical center, we will set up video recording to stream live on the web and for media downloads including trainings, workshops, classes, artistic performances, and regular personal communication directly from me. This will help both to weave together our community and to expand our vision all over the world. It has been a long-time dream of mine to have a physical center space for Anusara yoga to offer our teachings to all levels, and that dream will come to fruition this year.
I look forward to dancing through this important threshold with you.
Blessings of Light,
(Posted here with permission from Anusara Inc.)