From the variouis web sites this seems a fairly benign organisation. However at a recent retreat a guy there was quite vociferous from personal experience about this being a cult to be avoided at all costs. What are` other people's opinions of this?

The website at:

[www.cityyoga.com]

states:

"City Yoga was created in 1999 as a refuge from the chaos of city life. No other time in history has presented us with more choices, more speed and more stress. We need a community, a kula in Sanskrit, to explore our potential and what it means to be fully human.

At City Yoga, you will be introduced to Anusara Yoga, a style of hatha yoga, founded by John Friend. It gracefully combines the beauty of the human spirit with precise principles of biomechanics. We believe that your body is an instrument and when that instrument is finely tuned, a beautiful sound emerges. Within structure, true freedom will blossom. The journey of life is one of endless possibility."

It gracefully combines the beauty of the human spirit with precise principles of biomechanics. We believe that your body is an instrument and when that instrument is finely tuned, a beautiful sound emerges.

gag gag

Having taken many classes with John Friend before he launched 'anusara' yoga, i would say its harmless. He is one of the most adept hatha yoga teachers i've ever encountered, and I have always found him very no nonsense and very compasisonate. He is a student of Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and through Siddha Yoga has, I believe, studied some of the ancient sanskrit texts on yoga and spirituality. His own personal story of triumph is amazing- he was a cripple as a child and was told he would never walk. His mother refused to accept the doctor's diagnosis and eventually found him a yoga teacher who helped him not only recover, but put him on the path to grow into a phenomenal yogi.

There is some comments on this thread which sugguest John Friend has developed a bit of a cult following and is quite charismatic.

[www.yoga.com]

He does not seem to be mentioned on this site, but there is some very negative reports about Siddha Yoga concerning child sexual abuse and the characteristics of a destructive cult.

www.leavingsiddhayoga.net

The fact that he made this yoga up himself should be a red flag. Apparently he is a Buddhist, but Yoga was never intended to be exercise, the physical forms are just intended to condition the body to manipulate the consciousness. The fact that he has had Yoga training with a spiritual guru means that he is not just one of the ignorant who really do think it is the best form of physical exercise.

If you have had the opportunity to hear from a former member, bearing in mind this anusara yoga was only established ten years ago and this person articulated some reasoning for this I would be inclined to accept it as the truth, even if I was going to check it out anyway I would definitely keep it in mind. Cults can and frequently do exist and flourish for decades before they are exposed.

Quote
WalkYourOwnPath
He is a student of Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and through Siddha Yoga has, I believe, studied some of the ancient sanskrit texts on yoga and spirituality. His own personal story of triumph is amazing- he was a cripple as a child and was told he would never walk. His mother refused to accept the doctor's diagnosis and eventually found him a yoga teacher who helped him not only recover, but put him on the path to grow into a phenomenal yogi.

I can assure you that Guru Mayi and Siddha yoga are cult leader, and cult.

you really have to worry when your yoga teachers dress like this - [k.b5z.net] or [k.b5z.net] or [www.justice-for-premananda.org] any other westerner who tries to act like this......the whole westerners wearing indian dress, spouting what seems to be spiritual drivvel, etc. should be a tip off. these people have booked a ticket out of reality.

One should google any yoga teacher's name and see if that person was ever, at any time associated with a cultic group.

There are some out there who once were in Muktananda's group and now omit to mention it.

I would respect them more if they said, "I used to study with Guru X. I learned valuable things. But Guru X went on to abuse his or her role and I absolutely repudiate this.

Today, I am dedicated to assisting my students to combine spirituality and discernment, for without discernment, and conscious awareness of power and its proper and improper uses, we cannot progress to full spiritual adulthood.'

We have many teachers throughout life, and we must know how to evaluate each one to see if that person is, or remains beneficial to study with.'

Quote
WalkYourOwnPath
...His own personal story of triumph is amazing- he was a cripple as a child and was told he would never walk. His mother refused to accept the doctor's diagnosis and eventually found him a yoga teacher who helped him not only recover, but put him on the path to grow into a phenomenal yogi.

That sounds like the typical bullshit story most of these guys put forward.
If that is what he is claiming, lets see the accredited medical records from his childhood.
Lets see the accredited documents that prove he was a "cripple".

You see, this is standard procedure. Make some "big fat claim" from the distant past that can't be verified or even disproven. (unless someone can find a photo of him from shool running around playing soccer...that could prove what he is saying is false).

If he is making that claim, he has to show the objective evidence for his claims.
Otherwise its just storytelling and salesmanship.
Its just a "Story" they tell, to hook the public in their advertising.

People just have to research into this guys past, his name changes, affiliations, etc.
Since he started City Yoga in 1999, its pretty clear this is the old method, of putting the old wine in a new bottle, and charging 10x as much for it, and disguising what kind of wine it is with a new Yuppie label. Cash-in on the urban Yoga yuppies.
It could even be a front-operation for his other affiliations, and they refer people to them, if he is not running his own show now.

I hear you. Thanks to this website I have learned about some of the cults associated with Yoga. Not to mention the amazing tend yoga has become in the last i'll say five years. On other not, if anyone is interested in the ftiness trend. I wish we could see what hte trends were in fintness in 1993 compared to 1998. I think we'd be amazed. That being said I noticed where I live right now, that one of the cult followin yoga philosophies or cults has opemed up a new yoga school where I live. The name escapes me ithink it might be something like sidhartma could be very wrong, but I am on the look out for it and any bad practices and relaly just being aware of it makes me feel better and somewhat releived.

To supplement what GEB said, about yoga becoming a big trend in just the past 5 years--GEB is correct. Ive seen it happen.

I've been a jock for awhile and can remember how the trends have changed.

Spinning/Power biking used to be The Big Thing. Now its yoga.

(But I bet in a few years, stuff like Spinning will come back. I will tell you why. Aerobic exercise directly boosts the level of HDL--heart protective cholesterol. My HDL went up 30 to 40 points after I became a serious athlete. By contrast, most forms of yoga dont deliver a tough enough aerobic payload to shift blood lipid chemistry in that direction.
I suspect that as more people are informed they are at risk for diabetes and heart disease, tough aerobic forms of exercise, aided by heart monitors will return.)

This said, here is what I recall:

In the mid-1990s, quite a few gyms offered yoga but from what I recall, the trendy classes at my very trendy gym were, boxing, Pilates, and Spinning. We had some yoga classes, but boxing, Pilates and Spinning were the Big Three in the mid to late 1990s.

(This joint was the first one in our town to offer Spinning classes. And it was also the first one to offer boxing classes to yuppies. Prior to that, the only boxing classes were available in scary ass parts of town.
The Pilates classes were always packed and with waiting lists. Ditto for the Spinning classes. That was how hyper trendy those were.)

It was in the early 2000s that yoga began to ignite. Perhaps lots of people were stressed out following the dot com crash and 9-11. But it a paralleled a clothing trend--one began seeing indian brocade motives. Around the same time there was an explosion in the number of Indian restaurants.

Yoga became more salient at the gym after 2000, and it took over as a major trend around 2003/4

For me, the real tip off was in 2006 when our gym de throned the Spinning class and following this coup d'etat, yoga came out on top.

The Spinning class was moved from the large downstairs room, jammed into a cruddy little upstairs room and the large downstairs room became the yoga studio.

Evidently, more people wanted yoga and fewer wanted Spinning.

Fewer people were taking Spinning and yoga was getting popular.

And I bet economics factored in.

The gym could make more money off yoga classes because now that yoga was a consumer infected TREND, the gym could sell all the cute
yoga clothes and sticky mats. Yoga students want to look cute at all times and that means they can be persuaded to buy new stuff and that translates into moola for the gym.

By contrast, the Spinning class people bought their stuff at bike shops, not at the gym. Each person has specific requirements for the right type of bike shorts, cleated shoes, heart rate monitors, and once you buy those, you use them until they wear out.

So...Spinning didnt generate merchandise revenue the way the yoga classes do.

Plus with few exceptions, lots of the people taking yoga are women and females are easily persuaded to buy new clothes. Men buy just a few things and use them till they wear out.

So, this seemingly spiritual yoga trend is very consumerist and a vehicle for selling shit, whether its new clothes to show off your cute
tushie, sell some guru, or sell magazines (which are full of ad space for cults. Just do a Google search, you will be entertained for hours.)

And you rarely see men on the covers of yoga magazines, and even if you do, they're beefcake--they dont look like normal people with normal bodies. They look like they're taking time off between the Olympics.

I'd have more respect for yoga if the damn magazines showed cover picks of normal people in T-shirts, no name shorts, with varicose veins and hairy armpits, not perfect looking people in high fashion togs.

(Even when elderly persons are shown doing yoga, they look so fricking gorgeous they're like 20 year olds with grey hair.)

End of Corboy rant. Call me biased. I cant do yoga without either wanting to throw up, or fearing I will rip a fart.