Interview with John Friend: Wanderlust 2011

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John Friend at Wanderlust 2011

This year’s Wanderlust Festival was preceded by the Anusara-Inspired Teacher’s Gathering, which took place for 3 days before the 4-day, 3rd annual Wanderlust Festival at Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe, CA. Even though the Teacher’s Gathering was originally designed as a gathering for Anusara-Inspired teachers to take classes from a faculty of Certified teachers, it turned out that there was interest from other Certified teachers as well, and so, Certified teachers were included in the training event.

Anusara-Inspired and Certified Anusara are the two possible designations for Anusara teachers. To become certified in this method is a longer process than to become Anusara-Inspired. Becoming certified requires more hours of study and the completion of a 30 hour open book, take-home test as well as meeting additional criteria.

John teaching at Wanderlust 2011

This year, I met with the Founder of Anusara Yoga, John Friend to discuss the arc of what he was teaching this week: the 3 A’s of Anusara yoga. The 3 A’s come from the three letter A’s in the word Anusara, which means “stepping into the current of Grace”. The 3 A’s are Attitude, Alignment and Action. I also asked him how the 3 A’s relate to the The 5 Universal Principles of Alignment, which are 1) Open to Grace 2) Muscular Energy 3) Inner Spiral 4) Outer Spiral and 5) Organic Energy, among other questions below.

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Questions for John Friend

1. What are the 3A’s of Anusara yoga?
2. Does Alignment only refer to the physical body or can there be mental Alignment? If there is mental Alignment, would that be Attitude?
3. How do the 3 A’s relate to the Universal Principles of Alignment (UPA’s)? Do the 3 A’s help inform the UPA’s?
4. Does Inner Body Bright relate to Open to Grace or Attitude or both?
5. How do the 3 A’s relate to Dancing with the Divine, the theme of this year’s World tour?
6. How can the 3A’s help someone live a more optimal life?

Bonus Questions

1. You mentioned in a recent interview that mantras are becoming more important and more profound to you in your personal practice. Do you foresee a day when Anusara teachings will begin to include a bigger emphasis on mantras?
2. This week at Wanderlust, Ekabhumi’s yantras have been unveiled. What is a yantra and what is the significance both yantras and sacred geometry?

If you missed this year’s flagship Wanderlust Festival in Lake Tahoe, CA, you can catch John Friend at the first Wanderlust in Las Vegas September 10-11, 2011.

Related posts:

1. Interview with John Friend at Wanderlust
2. Interview with John Friend-Dancing with the Divine, 2011 World Tour
3. Part 2: Interview with John Friend-Dancing with the Divine, 2011 World Tour
4. Wanderlust Video Bonanza plus Announcing Wanderlust 2011
5. Interview with John Friend, Founder of Anusara Yoga, Part 4