Amy Ippoliti
A student of yoga since 1986, Amy’s study of hatha yoga, pranayama, yoga therapeutics and yoga philosophy led her to become a certified Anusara yoga teacher in the year 2000. She has traveled extensively with Anusara founder John Friend, apprenticing with him on his national tours and continues to be a leader in the Anusara community. Additionally, she has studied closely with Tantric philosopher and renowned scholar, Dr. Douglas Brooks since 1999. Amy leads Anusara retreats, Immersions, workshops, and teacher trainings internationally, and is part of the faculty at the Omega Institute and Kripalu. She is the chair of the Anusara yoga Curriculum Commi_ee and also serves on the Anusara certification committee, supporting and mentoring newer teachers who want to refine their teaching skills. Amy is known for her life-affirming and exuberant teaching style, offering her years of experience with the potent Universal Principles of Alignment, elegant Tantric yoga philosophy, and therapeutics that embody Anusara yoga.
Douglas Brooks
Dr. Douglas Brooks is among the world’s leading scholars of Hindu Tantrism and the esoteric traditions of the Goddess. After receiving a Masters degree from Harvard Divinity School, he continued his studies in the history of religions, Sanskrit, and Indian studies going on to receive a Masters and Doctorate from Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions.
Douglas has held academic positions both in India and the United States and has lectured around the world. Currently, he is Professor of Religion at the University of Rochester in New York.
In addition to his formal Western education, Douglas lived for many years in India in the house of his Teacher according to the traditions of Guru Kulam in which the student is initiated into all facets of the Indian classical Sanskrit education, including philosophy, yoga, ritual, and worship. Douglas' Teacher, Gopala Iyer Sundarmoorthy was not only an eminent scholar of Hinduism, but a Master of the Tantric Goddess tradition known as Auspicious Wisdom, or Shri Vidya.
Douglas is the author of a number of books and scholarly articles on Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion.
His most recent work includes a new commentary on the Bhagavad Gita from a Tantric point of view. This work is a direct collaboration with John Friend, world-renown yoga teacher and the founder of Anusara Yoga.
John Friend
John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga, is widely recognized as one of the most charismatic and highly respected hatha yoga teachers in the world. Blending a life-affirming Tantric yoga philosophy with Universal Principles of Alignment and a delightful sense of humor, John's teaching style guides each student to live every moment fully from the heart. Students often comment in amazement that they can perform their yoga poses under John's guidance with a level of creative freedom and inner power that they have never experienced before. Above all, John respects and honors his students with a great deal of loving-kindness and inspires them to see their own unique beauty and divine goodness.
Founded in 1997, Anusara yoga is one of the most highly respected schools of hatha yoga in the world with an expanding presence in North America, the UK, Europe, Asia, and Australia. With hundreds of thousands of students and thousands of teachers worldwide, Anusara yoga is now practiced on every continent throughout the world, excluding Antarctica. With its closely knitted community and industry-leading standards in teacher certification, Anusara yoga is highly respected throughout the greater yoga populace as a preeminent 21st century yoga school.
Krishna Das
Sharing his heart through music and chanting is the basis of Krishna Das' own spiritual work;his way of serving the Divine within himself and others.
In the winter of 1968, Krishna Das met Ram Dass, who had just returned from his first trip to India. After living and traveling with Ram Dass in the U.S., and hearing Ram Dass' many stories about Maharaj-ji, Krishna Das traveled to India, where he was blessed to meet and stay with this extraordinary guru.
While living in India for almost three years, Krishna Das' heart was especially drawn to the practice of Bhakti Yoga—the yoga of devotion. Fanning the flames of his inner longing, Maharaj-ji led him deeper and deeper into the practice of kirtan—chanting the Names of God. As an appointed pujari (priest) for the Durga temple in Maharaj-ji's ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas, Krishna Das immersed himself in the worship of the Divine Goddess.
Krishna Das spent as much time as possible with Maharaj-ji over the years in India, opening himself to the flow of Grace and purifying his heart. Early in 1973, he was asked by Maharaj-ji to return to America.
'At what would turn out to be my last darshan of Maharaj-ji's physical body, I was petrified with fear about returning to the U.S. after so many years. I hadn't worn a pair of jeans or shoes for such a long time that I couldn't imagine what it would be like. I didn't want to ask Maharaj-ji what I should do in America, but all of a sudden I blurted out in anguish, 'Maharaj-ji! How can I serve you in America?'
'He looked at me with mock disgust and said, 'What is this? If you ask how you should serve then it is no longer service. Do what you want.' I couldn't believe my ears. How could doing what I wanted to do be of service to him? I didn't have that kind of faith. I just sat there, stunned. Then after a minute or so he looked over at me, smiling sweetly, and asked, 'So, how will you serve me?'
'My mind was blank. It was time for me to leave for Delhi, to catch the plane back to the States. He was looking at me and laughing. I bent down and touched his feet for the last time and when I looked up he, he was beaming at me, 'So, how will you serve me in America?' I felt like I was moving in a dream. I floated across the courtyard and bowed to him one more time from a distance. As I did, the words came to me, 'I will sing to you in America.'
Soon afterwards, during the full moon in September, Neem Karoli Baba left his body. Now he had to be found within. The chanting, the meditation, the puja and all the wonderful time spent with Maharaj-ji turned out to be seeds that he himself had planted in my heart... seeds that would keep growing and blossom by his Grace.
Krishna Das has been chanting on a regular basis in yoga centers all over the world. He has taught with Ram Dass and sung for many saints and yogis here and in India.
Sianna Sherman
Sianna Sherman is an internationally recognized Anusara Yoga teacher who delights in sharing these teachings with poetry, stories and expressive insight. Sianna's parents and sister have been her life-long inspirations because they embody the generosity and graciousness of love that resides in a wide-open heart. In 1990, Sianna began traveling the world to study the art of yoga. Her travels spanned the continents as she delved with fervor into the richness of the traditions of yoga. In 1993, while traveling through India, she stumbled upon the beginnings of her Tantric yoga influence with an impromptu arrival at the Ganeshpuri ashram of Gurumayi Chidvilasananda. Just a few weeks earlier, she had celebrated her birthday by sitting on a boulder in the currents of the Ganges River while contemplating her life, listening to the water and hearing the promise within to follow the path of her heart. This promise has been the guiding light of her life and she feels a great rush of love for all her teachers who have helped her on this journey. In 1995, Sianna had the exquisite blessing of meeting her life-long teacher John Friend who would later found the system of yoga called Anusara Yoga. She apprenticed John for many years and continues to be near him as often as possible. From the first moment of being in the same room with John, Sianna knew she had found her teacher and that the currents of the Ganges had guided her to this momentous occasion. In 2001, she had the auspicious meeting with Dr. Douglas Brooks, a world renown scholar of Hindu Tantrism, and she began her more formal studies of Tantric philosophy with her heart and mind on fire! Today, Sianna is considered one of the most senior teachers within the Anusara Yoga tradition. In 2008, Yoga Journal chose Sianna as one of 21 Young Talented Young Teachers to Shape the Future of Yoga. She artfully weaves asana, philosophy, and love into a colorful tapestry offered from her heart. She celebrates the broad expanse of the many voices of yoga and spirituality as a feast of creative and soulful ways of being alive!
