Peace, love and misunderstanding - a billionaire's wife spreads her message of calm one yoga pose at a time

Sonia Tudor Jones, former Australian model, now yoga entrepreneur, at her newest yoga studio called Jois, in Greenich, CT., Wednesday, March 28, 2012. (Photo/Stuart Ramson) Picture: Ramson Stuart Source: The Sunday Telegraph

And Sonia Tudor Jones is doing a good job too - the practice of Ashtanga yoga has become the almost religious passion of celebrities from Gwyneth to Sting and Madonna.

Sonia Tudor Jones may not be a household name at home in Australia, but in the US the one-time Cleo covergirl is a figure of admiration - and controversy. She is the principal devotee and financial backer of Ashtanga, a super-intense form of yoga, and the legacy of its late proponent, a wiry Indian teacher and cult figure named Krishna Pattabhi Jois.

In her bid to spread the word, Tudor Jones has launched a chain of Jois Yoga studios and high-price yoga accessories boutiques, including one in Bondi, using her hedge-fund husband's wealth and her own passion for "inner peace".

Some yoga devotees - including fellow Ashtanga practitioners - criticise Tudor Jones for turning what they believe should be a pure practice into a "McYoga" commercial venture, for attempting to dictate the way Ashtanga should be practised, and for using her wealth to finance the activities of Jois' descendants.

At 44, Jones is fit, toned and beautiful; a living advertisement for the benefits of Ashtanga. She projects an air of mental calm, and it is that serenity she switches on when criticisms are raised. Tudor Jones just doesn't seem to hear the cacophony.

The latest edition of US magazine Vanity Fair ventilated much of the criticism against Tudor Jones, quoting the concerns of a range of Ashtanga teachers and other yogis about her activities. The story portrayed Tudor Jones at the centre of a "war" over teachings and purpose in the US.

Tudor Jones - who has a band of equally passionate fans, some of whom have even described her as the "Mother Teresa of yoga" - simply doesn't acknowledge the controversy.

"There is never a war unless people are fighting and there is no fight in Ashtanga yoga," she says from her home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

"Everybody who loves Guruji (the late Jois) and Ashtanga has the same desire to spread it in the traditional way in which they were taught.

"We are all stronger as a team than we are apart and we know that."

There is doubt about the exact origins of Ashtanga, but it spread to the world from India purely because of the charisma and star-pulling power of Jois, who died in 2009 at the age of 93.

Through the past three decades, Jois' brand of yoga exploded from his humble Mysore home to become a very American phenomenon: the ultimate expression of self-discipline in the hyper-competitive world of Hollywood hardbodies. New York became Ashtanga's new spiritual home, and its signature bodies - long, lean limbs and exquisite posture - were easy to spot on the catwalks and red carpets.

Ashtanga involves synchronising the breath with a progressive series of postures - a process producing intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat that detoxifies muscles and organs.

The result is improved circulation, a strong body and calm mind, according to believers like Tudor Jones.

Non-devotees may consider yoga simply sitting cross-legged in a packed gym humming "ommmmm" under heavy breath, but to people who practise Ashtanga, yoga is life.

Ashtanga means eight limbs of life, and the third limb - asana, or the practise of yoga postures - is the means by which devotees seek to understand the other limbs and is the most important one.

There are six gruelling series of postures ranging from basic postures common to fitness-club yoga classes to highly challenging manoeuvres like tucking ones ankles neatly behind the ears and holding, holding, holding in earnest meditation for long stretches of time.

It is extremely difficult to master, with even accomplished instructors struggling to reach series four.

Achieving series six would make you a nimble Indian boy who does nothing but Ashtanga for more than six hours a day, says David Roche, a travelling instructor who is now teaching at the Jois Yoga Bondi Beach shala.

He has reached series four. Tudor Jones is up to series two, and she practises religiously for two hours a day, six days a week. "Ashtanga Yoga has brought a sense a peace and calm to every aspect of my life," she says.

Speaking of life, Tudor Jones claims hers isn't too far off what she would be experiencing if she'd remained in Sydney, where her modelling career began. In 1986, she went to New York seeking new opportunities, and before long met Paul Tudor Jones II, who was just coming to prominence after making millions during the 1987 stock-market crash. They married the following year and have four children.

"I have a very simple life in the United States and it is exactly what I aspired to growing up in Australia," she said. "My aspirations have never changed. They have also been to marry a wonderful man and have a beautiful family, which has been my biggest achievement."

Tudor Jones II runs the multi-billion-dollar hedge-fund empire Tudor Investment Corp, one of the oldest and most respected hedge funds in the country. The whole family - estimated net wealth $3.2 billion - practises Jois yoga together.

It began when Tudor Jones was recovering from the birth of son Jack in 1999. She had a blown disc in her back and was numb from the waist down.

Through a connection with friend and self-help master Tony Robbins, she met Jois and discovered Ashtanga cured her back pain, and much more.

"It was a huge turning point in my life," Tudor Jones says. "Ashtanga yoga gives you a sense of calmness and strength. You become one with yourself and gain an inner peace.

"I was not always a spiritual soul but I believe I awakened my spiritual side the moment I started practising Ashtanga on a regular basis.

"I have raised four children and have been very busy with them for the past 20 years but as my children grow up, I have more time to spend on my passions. My number-one passion, after my family of course, is Ashtanga yoga.

I love to spread the amazing benefits of Ashtanga to as many people as I can."

Tudor Jones speaks in an Australian accent that seems undiminished, 26 years after she left Coogee.

She thinks the Vanity Fair story was "fair and accurate", seemingly impervious to the implied and express criticisms it raised, including quotes from teachers saying Tudor Jones's new multi-million-dollar facilities were a far cry from the run-down spaces people practised in India and other parts of the world. The piece was headlined "Yoga-for-Trophy-Wives fitness fad that's alienating discipline devotees". It quoted renowned Ashtanga teachers criticising Tudor Jones's alliance with the daughter and grandson of Jois, which aims to fund philanthropic and commercial ventures to bring Ashtanga to schools and communities around the world.

Tudor Jones claims she is acting out Jois' dying instructions to spread Ashtanga to the globe, but other Ashtanga practitioners say she has gone about it in a distinctly un-Zen way, including by opening studios in very close proximity to those run by established teachers such as Tim Miller. They also say she is seeking to "codify" Ashtanga into her trademarked "Jois Yoga" mould, and dictate which teachers can and cannot be accredited.

"I believe it's about power, and I don't want to be part of it," Vanity Fair quotes Lino Miele, described as a senior teacher.

It doesn't bother Tudor Jones, apparently. "Not everyone is going to like what we're doing, and we know that," she says. "Our goal is to start a meaningful conversation about Ashtanga yoga and invite discussions about how it can help people achieve a fit mind and body. There is no controversy - everybody in the Ashtanga community feels a special kinship, closeness and love for the Jois family. My support is from love and love alone for Guruji and his family."

This month will see Tudor Jones open her third Jois Yoga "shala" in the US and it looks like Hawaii and Hong Kong are next.

She is also planning charitable teaching programs for children from Africa to Sydney's eastern suburbs.

"I do miss Australia every day, especially the warmth of the people, the sunshine and of course Vegemite on toast," she told The Sunday Telegraph from her Greenwich home.

"But I am always proud to spread the message of Ashtanga yoga, especially with my sister in my home town. Australians have always had an adventurous spirit which I feel melds well with Ashtanga yoga. They take to the practice with a passion that is refreshing."

Ashtanga is fast becoming the discipline of choice for hundreds of Australians, many of whom didn't even know it existed a few years ago.

"Word about Ashtanga is definitely spreading. And quickly. It doesn't take long for someone to see the benefits of Ashtanga yoga and send a tweet or upload a blog post about their experiences," Tudor Jones says.

Jois Sydney, an incense-scented studio on Bondi's hip Hall St, features a boutique packed with Tudor Jones's new Jois range of clothing, varying from yogawear to eveningwear and casual dresses that are beautiful, with price tags to match.

Some items cost up to $300.

Classes cost $22 for drop-ins or $132 for an unlimited monthly pass.

Vanity Fair described the Jois movement thus: "Many Ashtanga teachers have not just their livelihoods but their very existence tied up in the practice, and Jois Yoga, which from the outside can seem like one part Lululemon (the hugely successful line of high-end yoga clothing) and one part YogaWorks (the California-based chain of yoga studios), is a challenge to all of that. It feels like a commercial enterprise or worse," the article reads.

Tudor Jones dismisses such thinking.

"We do not feel Jois is commercial," she says. "We have started a clothing line, but a percentage of the profits will be dedicated to The Jois Education Foundation to help spread Ashtanga yoga and general wellbeing to public schools, charter schools and universities in the United States.

"In June, we are starting a program in Kenya teaching yoga to five to 10-year-old children, which we hope to spread across Africa and  start a similar program in Australia in the near future."

The Vanity Fair feature also raised questions about what academics called the "murky" history of the practice.

The official story is that the "father of modern yoga", Sri T. Krishnamacharya, was developing a set of postures that would come to be known as Ashtanga in the 1930s after finding the remains of a 2000-year-old manuscript in Calcutta's library. But the remains of the Calcutta manuscript no longer exist, and recent work by scholar Mark Singleton has cast doubt on how important physical postures were in ancient yoga.

Whatever the craft's real roots, Tudor Jones maintains that anyone can learn Ashtanga yoga as long as it is taught correctly. That's why she ensures all of her Jois teachers have made the trip to Mysore in India to become officially authorised to teach.

"The correct method is the Mysore method, which was mastered by Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India," she says. "This method is taught very slowly, learning one pose at a time. As you become adept with that one posture, then you move on to the next posture, slowly, slowly, one by one.

"It is by using this method that enables everyone to be able to practise Ashtanga yoga regardless of age or fitness level."

Tudor Jones's older sister Michelle Bennett, 49, is the brunette version of her sibling. She is fit, healthy and toned with a glowing complexion.

She says she is extremely proud of her sister's firm faith in her message.

"Sonia is trying to share this with as many people as she possibly can and she is so happy to be able to do that in her home town," Bennett said, sitting comfortably cross-legged on the floor of the bright, spacious studio.

"Its popularity is definitely increasing. We have a lot of raw beginners and they keep coming. People come most days and some people only come a few days a week, but it has been fantastic. It really gives me a sense of wellbeing. I feel great and I love that we can share that with people. Sonia is doing such a good job because she really believes in this, and wants to bring that to as many people as she can."

Their goal was to take the practice to primary schools in the eastern suburbs, making it accessible to people of a younger age, she said.

Certified Ashtanga and Jois Yoga teacher David Roche, 68, says yoga should be accessible to everyone, but encourages those who attend classes at the local gym or with instructors that aren't properly trained to try the correct form for full benefit.

"You pay for what you get," he says.

"If you want expertise, you want someone trained - you don't go to McDonald's for brain surgery.

"If you do go to a gym or other yoga facility, I would ask if your instructor is trained. If you go to a doctor you want to know their qualifications. That is when the possibility of injury arises."

Those comments will raise the hackles of plenty of Sydney's devoted yoga and fitness instructors, but Roche is confident in the legitimacy of the venture he's sharing with Tudor Jones. Ashtanga, he says, can speak for itself.

"The purpose of yoga is to still the turnings of thought and the mind," he says. "To bring that to stillness you have to have something to focus on, and that is what Ashtanga does - it is a tool to quieten your mind."