by Desikachar by Livia Kohn
Taoist Yoga: Merging Two Ancient Healing Traditions
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Taoist yoga is a system of stretching and movement exercises that coordinates our breathing with certain postures and movements. Although it is based on some ancient and complex exercises from Hatha yoga and Tai Chi traditions, it is in fact a very simple system that can be practiced by any person regardless of age, size, ability, or health.
Taoist yoga is simple and versatile because it is founded upon a few basic and fundamental principles that underlie the true practice of Tai Chi and yoga. Once we have gained a solid foundation in the essential principles of Taoist yoga, we can apply them to virtually any movement and situation in life.
In essence, Taoist yoga is a means through which we can more fully understand our bodies. Through this we can create a personal practice that is made up of movements, postures, and activities that are specific to our body’s needs, interests, and abilities.
Taoist yoga has three primary goals:
Taoist yoga comes from the tradition of Tao Yin (Dao Yin) of Han Dynasty China, whose earliest transcripts date back to about 180 BC. The Tao or way, as it is often translated, is the underlying component of reality. It is the infinite rhythm of our cosmos that every aspect of our life adheres to. It is the vibration of the electrons in atoms, the rotation of the earth and its revolution around the sun, the changing of the seasons, and the rhythmic breath and heartbeat that keeps us alive and animated. The Tao is comprised of two opposite but interdependent aspects called Yin and Yang. Yang is the sun, the fervent, aggressive, powerful aspect of the universe. Yin is the shade, the nurturing, maternal and gentle aspect of the universe. The idea of the Tao, which is inherently Chinese, is similar to the Yogic term Prana which is from India. It is nice to see how two very different cultures can share an idea that is so pivotal to each of their traditional spiritual practices and ways of understanding reality.
Tao Yin is the cultivation and understanding of Tao through soft, gentle, healing, and nourishing exercises. The early Taoists developed many practices geared toward keeping themselves healthy and prolonging their life so they could spend more time practicing, studying, and meditating to understand the deepest aspects of Tao.
The postures and exercises of Tao yoga are very similar to Hatha yoga. Modern Tao yoga directly incorporates many aspects of Hatha yoga, including breathing techniques, postures and yoga’s spiritual teachings taken from the Yoga Sutras.
Both yoga and Tao Yin have different exercises, philosophies, and breathing techniques, but the underlying essence is the same. Taoist yoga encourages a person to find their own ways to access the Tao by learning methods from a variety of traditions. This encourages a person to seek the deepest meaning and benefit from every action and situation in life, instead of holding a person back through an insistence on remaining loyal to a particular form, movement, or way of understanding.
Traditionally students of a particular discipline, whether Tai Chi, yoga, or martial arts, were discouraged from participating in anything that was not within their own discipline. This served a purpose. A student’s strict adherence to a discipline ensured they would understand it better and, through that understanding and mastery, experience the Tao. That was in the distant past when people had many hours each day to dedicate to their practice. Presently we live in a time when we have little opportunity for self-realization and cultivation. To demand a strict adherence to one discipline would for many people lead them further from the truth they are trying to realize. Often people get too involved in the particular philosophy of their practice and fail to see the underlying essence due to the amount of energy spent on the fine details of their art. They become lost within their own dogma.
The way for a person to realize his or her own personal truth must be taught in an individual way. Focus must be placed on teaching how a person can come to understand truth and beauty through pure and simple means. There is no harm in leading all people to the secrets that have been unfairly protected through dogma over the past centuries. The nature of the Tao is to change, move, and be spontaneous. Therefore no one teaching can hold the secrets to the Tao. It will be different for each person at different times in his or her life.
What does it mean to understand the Tao? An understanding of the Tao is not a cognitive concept that one can hope to write down or give a dissertation on. It is pure and simply a state of being or awareness.
Most of us have experienced those times when everything in our immediate life seems to flow effortlessly. In that time our mind is not clouded or preoccupied, our body moves smoothly and without pain, our emotions are true and we feel at home in our body. The point of our practice is to nourish this aspect of our being so we can access it at any point.
We know we are in touch with the Tao when we are comfortable with everything that is happening presently in our life. This often occurs even in the midst of chaos and turmoil. It is an ultimate acceptance of the truth of life where it doesn’t matter whether we live or die in the next moment, so long as the present moment is sweet and authentic. We become both aware of and accepting of any injuries, diseases, or perceived imperfections that exist within us. We are able to exhale any negative emotion surrounding our pain, whether physical or mental, so we can focus on what it is we truly want to do, say, or be in this moment. It is possible through a regular practice to create this within our being. A few principles and exercises can help us along. It is important to note that although instruction through reading is a great way to learn about things, there is no substitute for a competent and compassionate teacher to help us along. It is important to explore what options are available to you either in your community or a place you would like to visit and study at.
In our practice it is often the case that we want to push ourselves to the extreme, which sometimes creates injury and tension in our body. This can be considered a violent act against ourselves. We are many times not accepting of where we are in our abilities and therefore cannot build a solid foundation based on our true needs and proficiency. We use ahimsa or a non-violent approach to our practice to calm the ego and allow our body and mind to adapt to a certain movement or posture so the body and mind can grow and change in a smooth and even way.
This means that what is small reflects that which is big, and that which is big is comprised of that which is small. We can also look at this as our spirit is reflected in our mind, our mind is reflected in our body, and our body is reflected in our environment. Essentially it states that all things are interconnected. If we understand that our mind can affect the amount of comfort we have in our body and our body can affect the soundness of our mind, then we will be more aware of our physical and mental states both in the practice hall and in everyday life.
Also if we accept ourselves compassionately and seek to strive within our limits then we are practicing ahimsa. We can take the same patience and compassion we show ourselves during our practice and bring it into our relationships and daily life. In this way we are decreasing the amount of violence in the world by addressing the underlying causes within ourselves.
Without the breath we would die. This undeniable truth is often ignored and we usually go about our day without paying much attention to our breath. Bringing awareness to our breathing will deepen our understanding of ourselves. In our practice we learn different methods of breathing and breath awareness to guide us in our movements. This affects the way we hold a posture, the speed at which we move, and the duration we hold the posture.
In this way the breath is the guru and we are its eager students. Our body becomes a vessel for the breath and we use it to clear obstructions and knots from our body and psyche.
It is important to choose the exercises carefully so they address our individual needs. The first part of the practice is to find out where in the body we are tight or need special attention. From there we put together a series of exercises to address these specific needs.
A Taoist yoga practice usually consists of six parts.
An entire class from start to finish is about 1 1/2 hours. Students are encouraged to practice on their own at home, but it is common that most people don’t have the time to do a full session. If someone does 20 to 30 minutes of focused practice each day they are doing great. It is inevitable though that as people begin to feel the positive effects in their bodies they will spend more time practicing each day. This approach to establishing a personal practice is good because it is motivated by inspiration and not by a neurotic obsession for perfection or immediate results.
If this article has spiked your curiosity and has inspired you to learn more here are a few suggested resources. Enjoy!
by Desikachar by Livia KohnJoshua Graner has been studying martial arts for 15 years and yoga for four years. He has a passion for teaching and a talent for simplifying the principles of Tao yoga to make them more accessible for his students.
He currently teaches at Yoganic Studio and Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego, California. He has a Bachelor’s of Science in Nutrition and is presently working on his Master’s degree in Chinese herbology and acupuncture. You can contact him on the web at Joshua@all1mind.org or visit www.yoganic.net.
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