Taoist Yoga

What is Tao Yin?

Tao Yin is an ancient form of qigong, known as a soft martial art or internal art. In Chinese medicine, qi, pronounced “chee”, is the breath, or life force, similar to the yogic belief that prana is life. Gong means to practice discipline or to achieve a technique. Chinese monks practiced Tao Yin as a form of breathing and body discipline in order to remain healthy and achieve spiritual awareness.

To truly experience Tao is not to classify it, but to simply be one with it. Throughout the universe, there is a need for balance. You may be familiar with the Taoist terms yin and yang, which define the cycle of opposites in the universe. Yin is the nurturing and gentle aspect, otherwise known as the dark or the shade. Yang is the powerful and aggressive side, otherwise known as the light or the sun. A Taoist seeks to make these forces of nature and with him- or-herself equal to promote harmony.

As more people turn to Eastern medicine and practices to find balance in their lives, Taoist yoga is experiencing a resurgence. Its ease of movement, the sense of calm it instills, and its accessibility are just a few factors that contribute to its renewed popularity.

The Purpose of Taoist Yoga

Taoist yoga consists of three primary objectives:

1. Increase your life force, which consequently expands life all around you. This is accomplished through breathing exercises similar to those used in tai chi, qigong or yoga.
2. Build awareness of self through the unity of the relationship between mind, body, and breath, and transform that into a sense of peace.
3. Use movement to improve health and the mind-body connection.

Other principles of the practice include:

• Practice non-violence, or ahimsa. This also means treating your body with respect, and not pushing yourself in any way to the point of tension.
• Motion is medicine. This is a common theme in Eastern body movements in that, by taking the body through a series of regenerative postures, blockages are released and the body is set upon a course of healing.
• Respect the breath as the life force. Taoist yoga practitioners use breath as the absolute foundation for every motion, every thought.
• Everything small is big. In Tao, the belief is that all big things are made from small things, thus everything small is big. This is a simple of an explanation as it gets, but it’s a way of demonstrating that how we treat ourselves individually radiates into the world.

Taoist Yoga Practice

In an effort to achieve these objectives and principals, and create balance, the physical practice of Taoist yoga is actually a combination of a more energetic yoga routine with a more meditative yoga routine.

Taoist yoga is a full concept, and one that can take quite some time to integrate into a busy lifestyle. It’s best taught by a Taoist master, but there are some helpful resources that include both the theory behind the practice and the breath and body movement sequences. These DVDs will get you started, and from there, you can determine how much further to travel along the path.

• Yin Yoga, by instructor Paul Grilley, is a comprehensive guide to Taoist yoga principles. The DVD includes a lecture, instructional practice sequences, as well as voice-guided sequences that allow you to expand your individual practice.
• Paulie Zink’s Taoist Yoga Series features five different DVDs that can be purchased as a set or individually. Zink instructed Grilley, and is considered by some to be responsible for popularizing the term “yin yoga” in relation to understanding and practicing Taoist yoga. Zink’s movements may not be accessible to yoga novices.
• Yin and Vinyasa Yoga by Sarah Powers also combines the more familiar steady flow of vinyasa yoga with the equally opposite yin poses.