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Frequently Asked Questions
    
     
Do I need a certificate to teach Yin Yoga?
   No, you do not need a certificate to teach "Yin" or "Taoist" Yoga. If you believe the style you teach is best described as "Yin" you do not need my permission. I have met many, many students and teachers who have confided they have "Always practiced Yoga this way - at home - when no one was looking - but I didn't have a name for it." I make no claim to have invented this type of practice. I learned this style from Paulie Zink but if you read Yoga books published before the 1970s the descriptions are of a "Yin Style". It is an historical accident that "Yin" is considered new or different.
     
Do you teach "Taoist Anatomy"?
   No, I teach Human Anatomy. The Anatomy Trainings are meant to clarify all forms of Yoga practice, not just "Yin", or "Yang", or "Iyengar", or "Ashtanga". Whatever the style of practice the Human Anatomy remains the same. There are many myths and misconceptions about Yoga practice that simply do not stand up to logical, anatomical scrutiny. The Anatomy Trainings are meant to provide teachers and students with the basic conceptions of how the body moves so they don't injure themselves or anyone else.
     
Is there a central message in your Anatomy workshops?
   Yes. That message is "Discriminate between the sensations of Tension and Compression when practicing Asanas." The entire workshop is an elaboration of that central theme.
     
Why do you teach Yin?
   Because most popular styles of Yoga are "Yang" in nature. They emphasize muscular effort and repetition. Yang activity is an essential form of exercise if you live a sedentary lifestyle. Yang exercise energizes us, throws off fatigue and overcomes depression. But it is only one half of the equation. We also need to learn to relax, be patient, be quiet and focus on the skeleton and its joints. I emphasize Yin in my book and my workshops because the Yang styles of Yoga are well represented in every corner of the country.
     
What are "Yin" and "Yang"?
   The first thing to remember is that anything can be described in terms of Yin and Yang. The second thing to remember is that the words "Yin" and "Yang" are adjectives, not nouns. We cannot point to a "Bucket of Yin" anymore than we can point to a "Bucket of Soft" or a "Bucket of Hard". The fundamental insight is that nothing can be described except in contrast to something else.
     
Why use Taoist terms? Why not Yoga terms?
   In their energetic heart Taoism is Yoga. I chose to use the Taoist terms because they are used throughout the description of Chinese Energetics and the Meridians. It is very convenient to use terms that in one context can describe the flexibility of a tissue and in another context describe the effort it takes to move the energy through those tissues. It would have been just as possible to develop the expressions "Sattwa, Rajas, Tamas" instead of "Tao, Yang, Yin" but why reinvent the wheel?