In the debate concerning the current Anusara “scandal”, someone stated the following:

“How does one, specifically a male teacher, prevent such an event from happening to them? I mean, this is not the first time we have seen this sort of innappropriate behavior. It’s happened in India, Kripalu, Anusara, in your local town, virtually everywhere. Why is the emphasis on the obvious and not on a code of conduct to prevent this from happening to other teachers and students? A youth leader friend of mine has a “no child alone” policy that prevent him from being in a one on one situation with any teenager, male or female, to prevent false accusations or the ability to act on temptation. Just throwing that out there as an example of how other organizations have addressed similar issues with people in leadership positions.” 

My response, which I feel encompasses more than solely the Anusara community, but human beings as a whole, is the following:

These were adults.

They are old enough, and, one would believe, intelligent enough, to take responsibility for their own actions, and make their own decisions…….

Though, I feel I should say that there is one thing that has been not addressed, and that is that JF is not solely at fault. Those women, most specifically the married ones, the ones that took a vow to honor and elected to disregard it in “finding their truth”, are even more at fault than he is.

Yes, he may have slept with other men’s wives, but they knew they were beholden to their vows, and instead elected to practice the exact opposite of “Satya“ by having carnal relations with JF.

In the end, he took an opportunity when it was available to him, but they need to stop transferring blame and responsibility of their own self deception upon him.

I feel it is easy to make JF a pariah, to take the burden off themselves.

This is ANOTHER problem within the yoga community.

Therefore, the real issue, though it may never be known, may be that there is a shunning of personal responsibility, a self-delusion among the supposed “victims”, that they are not at fault for their own decisions.

There was a recent study that stated that women, by frequency, cheated more often than men, and with more partners than men, as well.

The real controversy, may it seem, is the shame these people are feeling for being “found out”?