| Christine & Jeri, yall might find this of interest.
I have read about everything John has written so far (except his forthcoming book), and I kept running into PCA/Reformed terminology, and concepts borrowed from Reformed theology. So I wondered about this, because for instance, applying the concept of opening to Grace as the first step of any asana was both shocking and compelling to me, because I very often seek God's assistance during my practice (indeed, I seek to stay corum deo :-).
Anyway, I had the juicy priviledge to go to the weekend workshop that John held in Austin a couple of weekends ago (awesome awesome awesome - changed my practice in several foundational areas :-), and I caught him alone & between conversations (difficult to do - he has the energy of many men :-). I mentioned that I had noticed this adoption of Christian theological concepts, and asked him about his past in this regard.
Turns out he is no stranger to Reformed theology, and indeed, used to teach Sunday school in (I think) a PCA church (or similar). That is about as far as we got before something else came up, but I think that in developing Anusara, John used various Christian concepts as tools for explaining his religious beliefs to western minds.
(My apologies to John if I misunderstood any of this - feel free to correct me :-).
So. Interesting. From a theological perspective, it is fascinating. For example, the use of the concept of Grace is changed from a freely given, sovereign act of a personal God, into something else, such that by merging with grace, we align ourselves with the wish of the finite to reunite with the infinite. This tends to take the presonal God out of Grace, and so distract people from the Giver of grace. Of course, since I'm a Calvinist, I shouldn't let that worry me ... :-).
Anyway, from an innovation perspective, John has brilliantly westernised his teaching in a way that does not violence to the original eastern teaching. In the same way, his work on the universal principles of alignment appeal to the analytical western mind, while being faithful to the eastern yogic principles. There is more to the principles, fo course, and more to flowing with grace :-).
Anyway, just wandering aloud :-). |
Conversation with John Friend
