Yin Yoga: Landscape
Essay by Caitlin Rose Kenney
The style of Yin Yoga cannot be attributed to one single teacher because it combines the wisdom of several areas of study including anatomy, Taoist Yoga, Chinese Meridian Philosophy and Indian Hatha Yoga. Within each of these treasure chests of knowledge there are teachers who taught students, the students then became teachers themselves and continued to discover other teachings and began to weave the influences of several fields of study into unique yoga offerings. This natural diversification and blending lends a richness to the landscape of Yin Yoga.
Unlike some styles of yoga, Yin Yoga is a descriptive name — it is not named after a guru or master teacher. Yin Yoga encompasses practices that cultivate stillness, receptivity, tenderness, nourishment and awareness of the subtle. Yogis across time and space have discovered the sweet life-giving nectar of Yin Yoga as an essential balance to invigorating yang practices.
The first time I knowingly practiced Yin Yoga was in my early twenties in New York City. I took a 90-minute class described as a heated flow class in the beginning and a slow wind down of long holds in “yin poses” at the end. When I found myself draped over my leg in a pose called “Half Dragonfly” for five minutes, my eyes gazing at the slow expanding and contracting of my belly and my hands relaxed against the wood floor with no effort being made to push or pull myself into a prettier or deeper pose, I had the poignant realization I have been here before. The physical surrender and letting go of my mental attachments to how long I would be in the shape propelled me back to my days as an aspiring dancer. Between the ages of 12-16 I took my ballet training very seriously and would arrive an hour early to class to stretch on my own. I would start with active stretching and then let my body release with the pull of gravity and I taught myself how to stay and breathe. I began to notice significant shifts in the flexibility and resilience of my body. I saw this ritual as essential for my training, performance and peace of mind — but I didn’t know why or how this type of stretching was working. Looking back, I know that I was reprogramming the mobility of my body in a way that would last for a very long time. I didn’t have the language for my experience, but now I know the peace of mind I felt was a result of affecting the flow of energy within me.
Many yogis, martial artists, dancers and athletes have stumbled across Yin Yoga and intuitively integrated it into their personal training for health and wellbeing. Indian Hatha Yoga in its earlier manifestations prescribed a balance of yang and yin practices. Around the mid 20th century Hatha Yoga as it was being practiced in Europe and America had a balance of active and passive poses and breathwork. Hatha was intended to unify the energies of the sun (ha) and moon (tha); in other words, to balance yang and yin.
In the 1980’s a new wave of yoga started to wash over the Western world that was dynamic, sweaty and ambitious — Ashtanga Vinyasa. This highly physical and yang style of yoga spread rapidly with the teachings of Pattabhi Jois and his senior students and has since unfolded into the cornucopia of “flow” yogas we see today. In addition to the rigorous physical practice, Ashtanga teachers led pranayama (breathwork) and meditation practices — the asana practice was emphasized as a preparation for subtle practices. Many teachers in this lineage shared chants, dharma talks on ethics, guides and esoteric teachings. On a physical level, the seated pranayama and meditation practice that followed some asana classes was the dose of yin balancing the yang.
Over the next 40 decades yoga became mainstream in the West and practices became more yang-centric — in many places the holistic approach to yoga was lost. The texture that chanting (mantra) provided and the moral context of dharma talks rooted in culturally significant teachings fell away. Additionally, the subtle practices of pranayama, meditation and even the completion posture of Savasana became eliminated or abbreviated. In some small corners of the West yin techniques were offered in a yoga class, martial arts training or meditation course, but it wasn’t well-known.
So, when Paul Grilley started to teach Yin Yoga in 1992, which he called Taoist Yoga at the time, many people asked, “What is this new kind of yoga?” It wasn’t actually new, it just hadn’t been popularized. Thanks to Paul Grilley and several other influential teachers, Yin Yoga started to take root in the early 90’s and now we see it steadily gaining traction.
The practice Paul Grilley was teaching was an integration of his knowledge in anatomy, Taoist Yoga, Indian Hatha Yoga and the subtle body (which can be mapped by the Chakra and Nadi system or Chinese Meridian Philosophy). His influential teachers were Dr. Garry Parker who taught him anatomy, Paulie Zink who trained him in Taoist Yoga and Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama who has used science to objectively identify the chakras and meridians.
In the 1990’s in California a yoga teacher named Sarah Powers began taking Paul’s yoga classes. Inspired by Paul’s classes, and her own studies of Chinese Meridian Philosophy, she began to share the yin practice. In addition to the standing flow classes she taught, Sarah started to teach seated and lying postures with long holds. She also wove her own wisdom of Buddhism, mindfulness and psychology into her teachings. Sarah called her dynamic sequences “yang” practice and the passive long holds “yin” practice. Sarah coined the term Yin Yoga and Paul eventually adopted this name too.
While influential teachers have spread the practice and familiarized many with “Yin Yoga” it is important to know that this style of yoga does not belong to anyone.
Another popular yoga teacher named Bernie Clark began using the name Yin Yoga for his teachings circa 2002. In 2009 he filed for the trademark “Yin Yoga” and it was later abandoned in 2010. Another trademark for the name was filed by Karma~Free LLC in 2016 and abandoned in 2017. No one legally owns “Yin Yoga” nor has it been codified in such a way that could be deemed proprietary. At this stage, with the history of abandoned trademarks and the descriptive nature of the word “yin” it is unlikely Yin Yoga will be trademarked.
The lack of trademarking, in my opinion, is a tremendous gift for yin yogis. It leaves the field open for multiple and infinite discovery and an evolutionary understanding. That being said, there is value in knowing who the historical and contemporary teachers of Yin Yoga are. Bernie Clarke offers more detail in his forum titled “Who Owns Yin Yoga”.
Paul, Sarah and Bernie continue to teach Yin Yoga today with their own unique insights and expertise. They often have the same students and make referrals to one another. Paul’s book Yin Yoga: Outline of a Quiet Practice, Sarah’s book Insight Yoga and Bernie Clark’s book Yinsights have become important guides for yin practitioners.
In this day and age, we are fortunate to have access to learning in a variety of ways — whether you self-study by getting into your own body, pick-up a book, take an online course or enroll in an in-person training, the benefits of Yin Yoga can be felt and shared with others. As a moral guide, give credit to your teachers and inspirations and continue to attune to your own insights and discoveries.
©Caitlin Rose Kenney ~ please do not distribute without consent and credit to the author