Releasing tension and stiffness helps us feel more

Tension and stiffness in the body create numbness. They create a barrier to awareness and the full experience of life. If we can’t relax, then life becomes dulled; the extra tension is tiring to hold and inevitably produces an undercurrent of fatigue. Look around you when you walk through the streets of the city and you'll see tension is a chronic condition. Happily through, yoga and meditation practice teaches us how to begin releasing all these tensions, better align and balance ourselves, and brings us to a new appreciation of the incredible vibrancy of life.


Perhaps one of the first things we notice when we start with our yoga and/or mindfulness work are these areas of stiffness or tension – and for some of us discomfort or even pain. They come about for a number of reasons, and can affect us on various levels: from the superficial to the deep. Causes include:

• our genetics (for example weak joints mean the muscles have to work harder, or scoliosis causes asymmetries in the spine muscles)
• past accidents (e.g. a broken toe meant you avoided putting weight on that foot and now the other leg feels overworked)
• past traumatic experiences (the body mirrors the mind in wanting to protect our soft vulnerable parts so often we end up hunching over)
• our occupation (e.g. sitting at a desk for long hours with bad posture)
• our hobbies (e.g. playing or doing an asymmetric sport like tennis or shooting)

So you can see that the reasons our body might be tight or stiff are intimately connected to our past, our upbringing, and our life choices.

I can see now that when I started my own journey into the world of yoga and self-exploration, I was pretty numb, desensitised, and tense! There were many blockages and tight areas, and I was nowhere near being able to feel the subtleties I'm now able to tune into. In the words of a good friend of mind, I was a brut... An insensitive, lumbering vertebrate with his heads in the clouds and a body that, if on a map, would be labelled “here be dragons”!

When we experience unpleasant sensations in our life, one of our strategies for blocking these out (after all no-one wants to feel unpleasantness!) is to tense up, because tension causes numbness. The body learnt that a long time ago!

Releasing the tension

For many years I understood in my head that yoga could help us release the tensions, blockages and imbalances, but I struggled to relate it to any actuality in my body. I could see my weight changing, muscles developing, and stamina improving, but had no sense of my body coming into better alignment or flow.

It took a sustained level of awareness and the keen eyes of my Zen teacher Daizan Roshi and yoga teacher Jonathan Monks to show me, on a physical body level, that this was actually happening. Through my yoga and meditation practice (and to some degree through my years of psychotherapy), I'd begun to let go of my body’s patterns of tension. Slowly, I’d begun to dismantle the layers of holding and blockages built up over years and years. With alignment, mindfulness and relaxation I suddenly found I could feel finer and subtler sensations in the body that I’d never noticed before.

One of the keys to releasing tension and encouraging relaxation is bringing the body into correct alignment. By aligning ourselves with the vertical, with our innate sense of “up” and “down”, then the force of gravity will support us instead of weigh us down. Right now try leaning to one side. It takes work! So aligning of the physical body with gravity allows us to relax and shed unnecessary tension. This is why in meditation sitting up straight is so important, and why in yoga we learn to move with gravity, not against it.

In the words of Will Johnson (from his lovely book Alignment, Relaxation, Resilience), I've started tuning in to the "fine, shimmering currents of sensation that constantly flow through the body”. As I described in this previous post, these are the shimmering currents of our subtle bioelectromagnetic field.

Spiritual energy by Alex Grey

History of zen yoga

Here's a part of an article I've been writing on Zen Yoga for wikipedia. This is the history and origins section. Previously I wrote an article putting Zen yoga in context with all the other main styles out there - read it here.

Origins with the Buddha

The first mention of the word "yoga" seems to have been in in the Rig Veda, written around 1500 B.C.E, together with a description of the hierarchy of mind-body constituents—the senses, mind, intellect, etc. – and ways to control them. 

From the very earliest city-states in the region now known as Iraq, people spread in all directions, including the East. One group, that some call the Aryans, emerged on the steppes of Eurasia about 4000 yrs ago. In Sanskrit they were the “Aryas” (“Aryans”). The root of this word served as the foundation of the name of the conquered Persian territories, “Iran”. The Aryans first entered India around 1500 BC and drove the native Harappa-Mohenjodaro people southwards. 

The class division of the Aryans and the conquered darker-skinned native people into nobility and tribesmen was gradually expanded to become the caste system of India. The Sanskrit word for caste, “varna", also means colour. By the ninth century B.C.E., the religion of the Aryans was codified in the Vedas. Ritual and offering were central to their beliefs, and these could only be performed by the spiritual caste, the Brahmins. The ritual act of making offerings was even, at times, venerated even more than the gods themselves, and as a consequence the Brahmins became very powerful and secretive.

The concept of yoga appears again in one of the key pieces of literature that evolved from the Vedas called the Mahabharata. This great story, including a section known as the Bhagavad Gita, became seminal for the development of later Hinduism and Yoga.

The Buddha grew up in a time of great political and spiritual upheaval. In Northern India at around 500 B.C.E., the merchant class was on the rise. The separate kingdoms emphasis on wealth accumulation and the use of violent force, caused an increasing restriction in peoples' freedom and their suffering become increasingly greater. Spiritual practice, which offered ways to alleviate this suffering, had become increasingly ritualised and restricted only to the Brahmin caste. As a result, a number of ‘radical’ spiritual schools and teachers emerged (the ''shamana'' schools) in reaction to the established orthodoxy (sometimes called the “movement of the forest sages”). Common to them all was the rejection of a supreme god, such as Brahma, or any other form of a creator, and they all offered ways to alleviate suffering and paths to liberation to people of all castes.

The Buddha trod the middle path between some of the more extremes that appeared, accepting as parts of the path to liberation the use of logic and reasoning, ethical behaviour, and the direct “knowing” gained through insight and meditation. He taught that there are no absolute “things”, there are only processes in a constant state of change (''annica''); that there is no fixed or permanent essence or soul (''annata''); and that suffering is inherent to life (''dukkha'') (the Three Marks of Existence). His way of liberation was the end to suffering.

The Buddha described four foundations (or bases) of mindfulness in the Satipatthana Sutta – mindfulness of the body, of sensations, of the mind, and of dharmas (i.e. phenomena, thoughts, arisings), and is recorded as saying, 

“There is one thing that leads to happiness in the present and liberation in the future; and what is this one thing? It is mindfulness of the body.” (Anguttara Nikaya, sutta I, 21). 

Thus mindfulness of the body is the direct way to liberation and the end of suffering. Zen yoga practice is primarily concerned with the body and sensations, and observing life as a process in a constant state of change, so is in direct line with the Buddha's method of awakening.

Again in the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha says

"Furthermore, when going forward & returning, he makes himself fully alert; when looking toward & looking away... when bending & extending his limbs... when carrying his outer cloak, his upper robe & his bowl... when eating, drinking, chewing, & savouring... when urinating & defecating... when walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, & remaining silent, he makes himself fully alert.

"In this way he remains focused internally on the body in & of itself, or focused externally... unsustained by anything in the world. This is how a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself."

Evolution into China and Japan

With the revival of the brahmana and caste system around the turn of the first millennium C.E. and the Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent in the 12th century C.E., Buddhism began to decline. However, yoga and Buddhism had already spread into neighbouring countries, including Tibet and China to the north. In fact, descriptions of yoga-type exercises were discovered in a number of silk and bamboo books in Mawangdui Han tomb in Hunan Province dating from way back to the early West Han Dynasty (around 400 B.C.E.), so perhaps it was more like a re-spreading or merging. 

At around 500 C.E., an Indian monk called Bodhidharma arrived in southern China and taught practices centered on meditation and the direct mind-to-mind transmission teachings of the Lankavatara Sutra. According to Chinese legend, he also taught a number of practices to monks to prepare them for meditation. These include a series of external exercises called the Eighteen Arhat Hands (Shi-ba Lohan Shou) and an internal practice called the Sinew Metamorphosis Classic. The Yijin Jing ("Muscle/Tendon Change Classic”) is also attributed to Bodhidharma. As these practices developed, they led to the creation of Shaolinquan school of Kung Fu.

As the Buddhism of Bodhidharma fused with the prevailing Chinese philosophies and practices of Confucianism and Taoism, it became Ch’an (from Sanskrit "dhyāna", meaning meditation or "meditative state"). Over the centuries, Ch'an spread to Japan where it become known as Zen, taking with it the rich combination of practices known variously as yoga, Qigong, Tao Yin, etc.

Dating back to around the fourth century C.E., Yogācāra (literally yoga practice) is one of the two main philosophical systems that underlies Zen. It contains a sophisticated psychology of awakening and emphasises the practice of mindfulness. This mindfulness leads not to an experience but to a total shift in the way we relate to all experiences. This shift is referred to in the Yogācāra tradition as parāvṛtti, "turning around”.

Hatha and Yantra Yoga

Hatha Yoga emerged as a discipline in the centuries following the Buddha, tracing its origins to the Yoga-sutras written by the sage Patañjali (from the 2nd century B.C.E.) and the Goraksha Samhita (written in the 11th-century by yogi Gorakshanath). The word 'hatha' in Sanskrit literally means 'force', so Hatha Yoga is the “Discipline of Force”. It stresses mastery of the body as a way of attaining a state of spiritual perfection in which the mind is withdrawn from external objects. The Buddha once related his experiences with a Hatha Yoga-stype breath-retention practice and found it had a great effect, but not conducive to awakening:

"...I stopped the in-breaths & out-breaths in my nose & mouth. As I did so, there was a loud roaring of winds coming out my earholes, just like the loud roar of winds coming out of a smith's bellows... So I stopped the in-breaths & out-breaths in my nose & mouth & ears. As I did so, extreme forces sliced through my head, just as if a strong man were slicing my head open with a sharp sword... Extreme pains arose in my head... There was an extreme burning in my body... And although tireless persistence was aroused in me, and unmuddled mindfulness established, my body was aroused & uncalm because of the painful exertion... But with this racking practice of austerities I haven't attained any superior human state, any distinction in knowledge or vision worthy of the noble ones. Could there be another path to Awakening?"

The word hatha can also be seen as a combination of two separate "Bīja mantras" or single syllables – "ha" representing the masculine or solar energy and "tha" as the feminine or lunar energy. Thus Hatha Yoga is the practice of bringing balance to the two opposing forces[4]. The first occurrence of the term 'hatha yoga' is in fact found in the Buddhist Guhyasamāja tantra dating from the 8th century[5].

Yantra yoga (or Trul khor) is a the Tibetan Buddhist parallel to the Hindu or Vedic Hatha yoga tradition. The discipline includes similar body postures (asanas) and pranayama practices, and includes mantra practice and visualisations. Originating with the mahasiddhas of India, it was brought to Tibet in the eighth century by the great master Padmasambhava and transmitted to the Tibetan Dzogchen master Vairochana. Its practice is nowadays found in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Modern Zen yoga in Japan

In modern times, Zen masters Hogen Daido Roshi and Harada Tangen Roshi, in particular, have advocated and taught yoga practices to compliment their Zen training. In an article published in the Buddhist Society's Middle Way magazine in May 2014, a student of Hogen Daido Roshi recalls that he constantly imparted the importance of mixing moving Zen (do-zen) into Zen practice: 

"...there are four kinds of Zen: sitting, standing, lying, and moving. We should practise them all. Whatever we do, we must do it fully, mindfully, wholeheartedly, one thing at a time without being attached to or involved in it. When we practise moving Zen, the quality of our daily lives becomes very different.”

In Zen, the inseparability of the “body-mind” is often stressed, together with the need to retain our flexibility for life. Hogen Roshi taught that:

 “By doing yoga and zazen, we can begin to appreciate the real state of our body and mind, both of which are stiff and unpeaceful. We should not hate them. Please, let them be as they are. Taste their special bitter taste”.

Yoga to work with the seasons

How are you affected by the changing seasons? Do you just feel hot in summer and cold in winter, or do you feel some other effects of the seasons?

On Saturday (29/3) I went to a yoga teachers workshop run by my Zen teacher, Daizan Skinner, on the topic of the seasons – exploring the needs of the human system through the changing year, and how we can adapt our yoga practice to work best with each season.

Living in harmony with nature includes bringing body and mind into harmony with the changing seasons. I'm sure this was obvious to people in the past whose lives were much more connected to the outside environment, but these days, with our new fangled electric lights and central heating, we can live like there's no difference between winter and summer!

In the Indian yoga tradition, less emphasis is put on the seasons since India mostly has a sub-tropical climate. In the Ayurvedic system there are only three seasons: autumn/winter, spring and summer, whereas in the Chinese/Japanese system there are five (as we'll see below).

As I've written before, in the Chinese energy meridian system, each organ and organ meridian (see this page for simple meridian diagrams) is associated with a different quality, and the seasons are no exception. Each season is associated with two paired organs, and the properties of each organ and the effects of opening their meridian line dictates the flavour of your yoga practice for that season.

Here is a summary of what we learnt for each season.

Spring
Associated organs: liver and gall bladder

The liver is located on the right side of your body just under your rib cage, and the gall bladder is tucked in right next to it. The liver's function is to remove toxins from the blood, and the meridian line runs from the big toe up the inside of the leg up to the side of the belly.

The gall bladder stores and secretes bile to aid in digesting fats and acids, and its meridian line runs from the little toe right up the side of the body up to the head.

Any imbalance in the liver-gall bladder system tends to show up in the eyes, and/or as ligament/soft tissue tension or stiffness. When it's impaired the associated emotion is anger (we English have the term "a liverish person", or to be "livid"), and when functioning well we feel creative and kind.

So in the spring, our yoga practice should concentrate on working with stiffness in body (waking up from the winter) and stiffness in our attitudes, to help us detox, release anger, working with the eyes, and encouraging creativity and kindness. Postures should concentrate on stretching/opening the sides of the body and the insides of the legs.

Myself and Yulia teaching our Spring yoga sequence

Summer
Associated organs: heart and small intestine

As we all know, the heart pumps blood around the body. It is seen as the home of the spirit, and governs joy. Interestingly, the tongue has a special relationship with the heart, being thought to be an a kind of "offshoot", and our facial complexion often reflects the state of our heart. The heart meridian line runs down the inside of our arm into the little finger.

The small intestine is five metre long narrow tube in your belly that does about 90% of the work of digestion, absorbing nutrients from the food as it passes through. It's meridian line runs from your little finger back up the outside of your arm, zig-zagging across your shoulder, and finishing on the side of your face.

When the heart-small intestine system is impaired we feel arrogance and hastiness, whereas when it's functioning well we feel love and connection.

Yoga for the summer should concentrate on opening the chest/heart area, and make use of flowing postures with an emphasis on that quality of timelessness in order to counter any hastiness. This would be the time to explore a more athletic practice to get the heart rate going, and at the same time foster an appreciation and love of the body and mind. Bear in mind though, that in the summer the mind is at it's most outward looking and distracted, so balancing this with some time for quiet introspection and calmness would work well.


Late summer (harvest)
Associated organs: spleen and stomach

In our western medical understanding, the spleen is part of your lymphatic system, and acts as a blood filter, destroys old red blood cells and helps fight infections. In the traditional Chinese medical system though, it's understood to have a very different function! It's seen as governing the transportation and absorption of food and water, turning digested food into usable nutrients, and ki (chi) energy for the body. It's also understood to control muscle strength, thinking and pondering, and is connected to the lips and mouth (like the heart is to the tongue). The spleen meridian runs from the big toe up the front inside of the leg, over the front of the hip up to the arm pit.

The stomach is located next to the spleen, on the left just under the rib cage. It's function is to receive food from the oesophagus, and secrete acid and enzymes to digest the food. The stomach muscles contract periodically, churning everything around to help everything digest fully. It then passes this partly-digested food onwards to the small intestine for further digestion and absorption. The stomach line runs from the 2nd toe up the front of the leg, front of the hip, the front side of the belly and chest, finishing up on the cheek next to the nose.


When the stomach-spleen system isn't working too well then we feel worried and insecure; or if it's functioning well then we feel empathetic, and nourished.


Yoga for the late summer should emphasise our connection to the earth, perhaps with poses close to the floor. Smooth continuous movements help to extend and challenge the muscles, particularly along the front side of the body where both these meridians run. Obviously back bends work well for this, but beware that going into a backbend too strongly can stimulate worry and insecurity in some people, not release it. Exercises using the voice and explanations that encourage a very detailed attention to bodily sensations helps to assuage any pondering and worry.


Autumn
Associated organs: lungs and large intestine


The lungs obviously get us breathing – they control respiration. However, in the Chinese system, they are also associated with governing ki (chi energy), disseminating and regulating water in the body, and controlling skin and body hair. They are also connected to the nose. The lung meridian runs from the thumb along the inside of the arm to the shoulder.

The large intestine's job is to remove water and any remaining absorbable nutrients from the food as it passes through, before sending the indigestible matter to the rectum. As a matter of interest, the full digestion of our food takes about 16 hours from start to finish! The large intestine also absorbs vitamins that are created by the colonic bacteria, such as vitamin K, vitamin B12, thiamine and riboflavin. It's meridian line runs from the index finger along the top of the arm up, over the top of the shoulder, up the side of the face to the nostril.


When these organs and their energy systems are functioning well we have an ability to let go and move forward; when they're not there's a sense of grief or depression. There's a clear connection here between these emotional qualities and the organ functions!

Yoga for the autumn should therefore focus on releasing and letting go on all levels. Shaking movements very helpful for this. Since the lungs are involved, a focus on breath-work would also be good.


Winter
Associated organs: kidney and bladder

Physiologically, the kidneys act like a filters to remove wastes and fluids from the blood – each day they process around 200 litres, removing about 1-2 litres as urine. The kidneys make three important hormones: erythropoietin to stimulate the production of red blood cells, renin which is involved in the control of blood pressure, and vitamin D which controls calcium uptake and helps make strong bones. They are connected with the ears, and energetically, thought to govern the reception of qi (chi) from the air. They kidneys suffer a lot when they get cold, so in Japan, they often wear a 'haramaki' – a garment worn around the abdomen (hara) to keep the stomach and kidneys warm. In the days of the samurai, it was a long piece of cloth (often augmented with chain mail or other metals) wrapped around and around the belly, but these days you can get something far more comfortable and convenient. The kidney meridian runs from the ball of your foot, up the inside of your leg, and up the front of your belly and chest, finishing at your collar bone.

The bladder the waste fluids filtered out by the kidneys, meaning that we don't have to constantly leak waste fluids – we can go to the loo and release a batch at a time... It's normal capacity is 400-600 ml. The bladder is lined by layers of muscle tissue. During urination, the bladder muscles contract, and two valves open to allow urine to flow out to the urethra (which passes through the centre of the penis in men). The bladder meridian runs from the little toe, up the back of the leg, splits and runs in two parallel lines just to the side of your spine, over the back of the head and finishes in the corner of your eye.

When this paired system is functioning well we feel a sense of courage, or a can-do attitude; when it isn't we might feel emotions relating to despair. When the kidneys are feeling down, the whole system can feel down, so that's why it's so important to protect and take care of your kidneys.

Yoga for the winter should therefore focus on warming the body (particularly the lower back and kidney area; perhaps through tapping or rubbing), and opening through the kidney and bladder meridians. The feet can also suffer a lot at this time of year, getting cold and never seeing the light of day, so giving them some attention can be nice. Mobilising the joints can help to release trapped cold, and a slower, more restorative practice connects in with our winter hibernating tendencies.

Kidney tapping/rubbing

In the workshop, we then split into pairs, each taking a season and coming up with a 30min yoga sequence relevant to that season. Teaching these sequences back-to-back, we experienced a whole year of yoga in just 2 and 1/2 hrs!

What is zen yoga?

There are a myriad different styles of yoga out there these days, from the traditional to the more unusual (like aquayoga which is done in a swimming pool or aerial yoga done in a hammock). I often get asked "what is Zen yoga?" and where does it fit in the yoga family tree? So here's a summary of the main yoga styles out there right now, including a little on what Zen yoga is.

Hatha yoga
The word "hatha" means willful or forceful in sanskrit. Hatha yoga is the practice of exercises, postures and movements designed to strengthen the body and mind, and open the energy channels. Hatha can also be translated as meaning "sun" and "moon", as it is also a practice of balancing of masculine (strong, outward, giving) and feminine (soft, inward, receptive) aspects within us. Hatha practices are described primarily in three texts of Hinduism, including the "Hatha Yoga Pradipika" by Yogi Swatmarama (written in 15th century). All types of physical yoga taught in the west are Hatha yoga.
With regards to how teachers name their classes, hatha yoga has come to mean any 'unbranded' style. Most often it's used to describe a gentle, basic class with no flow between poses.

Iyengar
The style that originated from the Indian yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar (1918-) who trained alongside Pattabhi Jois with the great populariser of yoga practice Krishnamacharya in the early 20th century. This style is characterised by a slow, precise practice, with an emphasis on alignment. It also focuses on the aspect of "sequencing," intentionally grouping and linking specific asanas together for a specific effect. Props (like blocks, straps, or chairs) are used extensively to aid students to find correct alignment. Igengar wrote the 'bible' of all yoga postures "Light on Yoga".

Ashtanga Vinyasa
Ashtanga translates as "8 limbs" (referring to the 8 limbs of yoga set out by the sage Patanjali in the yoga sutra - yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi) but Ashtanga yoga has come to mean the yoga style that originates from an Indian yoga guru Pattabhi Jois (1915-2009) who trained with Krishnamacharya in the early 20th C in Mysore, Southern India. It is one of the most popular styles worldwide, and is usually quite vigorous and athletic. The practice follows a set of sequences called the primary, second (intermediate), third and fourth (advanced) series, increasing in difficulty, flexibility and emphasis on pranayama and meditation. Classes usually begin with a number of rounds of the sun salutation sequence.

Vinyasa flow (flow yoga)
Vinyasa means movement, often meaning breath-synchronised movement. In contrast to the fairly rigidly set sequence of postures and routines prescribed in the Astanga style, it allows freedom in the class sequence and postures/practices to be combined as the teacher chooses. In this style movement is generally synchronised to the breath, and movements are smoothly flowing, sometimes dance-like. Styles such as Anusara, Bikram/Hot Yoga, Forrest, Jivamukti, and Power Yoga can all be classified under the Vinyasa flow umbrella.

Bikram
Originates from Indian yoga teacher Bikram Chowdhary (1946-) who brought his style to the US in the 70s. The practice comprises a dynamic set sequence of 26 poses, including breathing and pranayama exercises, and is done in a room heated to 40C and a humidity of 40%. The heat is designed to help flexibility in the body, and aid detoxification through sweating. Teachers are required to train in the US with Bikram himself (at considerable cost), and teach using a set script of instructions. In recent years Bikram Chowdhary has become mired in allegations of sexual misconduct and many Bikram studios have begun to distance themselves from his brand.

Power yoga
Similar to vinyasa flow, power yoga (or hot power yoga) has developed as a freer extension of the Ashtanga and Bikram styles. Like Bikram, it's often practised at 40C but teachers create their own classes consisting of both standing and sitting sequences of movements linking the usage of physical movement, breath-work or pranayama.
Rocket Yoga is gaining popularity in the UK and is also a type of power yoga. It was developed by American Larry Schultz in the 1980s, and is rooted in the Ashtanga practice, consisting of a dynamic and fast-paced flow of postures from the Primary and Intermediate Series of Ashtanga as well as key postures from the 3rd and 4th advanced series.

Sivananda
Originates from Indian yoga master Swami Sivananda (1887-1963) who trained with teachers and ascetics in the Himalayas in the very north of India. The style now known as Sivananda yoga is the form propagated by his disciple Swami Vishnudevananda (1927-1993). After the initial relaxation, the practice typically starts with pranayama breathing exercises, then rounds of the sun salutation, before the standard program of the 12 basic postures/asanas. Some variation is allowed from class-to-class, but the headstand is emphasised and often done early on in the class.

Kundalini yoga
Kundalini literally means "coiled" and refers to a metaphorical coiled snake (representing dormant energy) at the base of your spine. The purpose of Kundalini practice is to awaken and "uncoil" your snake to release that energy up the spine. This practice is one of the oldest forms of yoga and is present in many traditions (yoga or not, under different names and guises).
Kundalini yoga, as it is taught today, is based on the treatise Kundalini Yoga by the guru Sivananda (see above), published in 1935. It was popularised by the Sikh yoga master Bhajan (Harbhajan Singh) who brought the style to the US in 1969 and started teaching it publicly. Kundalini is quite different to other forms of yoga, and includes dance, jumping, long-held poses, deep breathing, and chanting to encourage the awakening of the coiled snake. Practising Kundalini yoga does not require belief in Sikhism, however many followers of Harbhajan Singh Yogi choose to follow a Sikh way of life.

Yin yoga
This is a slow-paced style of yoga with postures/asanas that are held for longer periods of time - five minutes or longer per pose is typical. It originates in China and was first taught in the US in the 70s by martial arts expert and Taoist yoga teacher Paulie Zink. The practice involves passive stretches to the connective tissues (rather than muscles) with the aim of increasing circulation in the joints and improving flexibility. This also helps improve the flow of qi, the subtle energy said in Chinese medicine to run through the meridian pathways of the body.

Taoist yoga
Tao Yin (sometimes referred to as Taoist Yoga, or in Japanese do-in) is a series of exercises practised to cultivate chi (qi, or in Japanese ki). The practice of Tao Yin was a precursor of Qigong (which I've written about before), and aims to create balance between internal and external energies and to revitalize the body, mind and spirit, developing strength and flexibility in muscles, tendons, and fascia.

Zen Yoga
Zen is the Japanese transliteration of the sanskrit word "dhyana" (one of the 8 limbs mentioned above), meaning meditation. The Zen yoga style draws on elements of Japanese do-in, and traditional hatha yoga, and emphasises three intertwined areas – physical alignment, the flow of energy in the body and awareness (or mindfulness). Mindfulness of the body is one of the four practices taught by the Buddha that lead directly to enlightenment. Each pose is designed to bring new parts of the body into focus so that any tightnesses or restrictions can be seen, and this simple awareness leads very naturally a softening and release. Zen yoga is based in the philosophies of Zen Buddhist practice, directing us towards a non-dual experience of the reality of life.

I teach zen yoga and zen mindfulness classes at a few different studios around south London. See my website for more details.

The sanskrit symbol for the sound of "om" - the adopted symbol of yoga.

I teach Zen yoga classes at the ZenYoga studio in Camberwell, London. See my website for my class schedule and more details.

I'd love to hear from you

Do you agree with my summaries? Anything you'd like to see added? I'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment below, join the discussion. 

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Sailing your ship

There's been so much rain recently that there's a chance we might soon just float away! So in that vein I've got a few watery metaphors for practice I wanted to share with you.


The what, how, and why

The first one comes from my yoga teacher Jonathan Monks (YogaMonks). He likes to connect the three main aspects of traditional yoga – Hatha, Raja, and Bhakti – to the different parts of a sailing boat on the sea: the boat, the sails, and the wind.

First a little about what these aspects are:  
The sanskrit word "hatha" means wilful or forceful, sometimes also translated as "ha" meaning sun and "tha" meaning moon. As these two sounds, the word captures both the active (masculine, yang, hot, solar) aspect, and the receptive (feminine, yin, cool, lunar) aspect within all of us. Hatha yoga is a spiritual path that can be traced back to the "Goraksha Samhita" written by Yogi Gorakshanath in the 11th century and the "Hatha Yoga Pradipika" written by Yogi Swatmarama in the 15th century. It is, in the words of Jonathan, "the juxtaposition of two opposing forces to reveal the one (all emcompassing) force beneath and beyond." All physical yoga practices can be classified as hatha yoga.

Raja yoga, meaning "royal yoga" or "royal union" and is concerned principally with the cultivation of mind. The term can be traced back to the "Yoga Sutras" of Patanjali, who described a succession of meditation steps for preparing and building up to complete contemplative absorption (dhyāna, dhyana, samadhi). Basically raja refers to the meditation aspect of yoga.

Bhakti yoga is a spiritual path in Hindu philosophy for fostering love of, faith in, and surrender to oneness (or God). It's the devotional aspect of yoga, and might include practices such as listening/reading the sutras, kirtana (praising or singing), doing service, worshipping, and surrendering the self.

In this analogy, Jonathan likens the 'hatha' aspect to the boat. It's our vessel for travelling on the often stormy seas of life, and our regular physical practice helps to make sure our boat is seaworthy.

If hatha and our boat is the 'what', then the raja aspect is the 'how'. He associates this 'how' with the sails – for the boat to gather speed and follow the right course the sails have to be in good clean condition and properly rigged. The mind has to be properly cultivated in order for it to perceive clearly the winds of life, and catch them most wisely.

That leaves the bhakti aspect, the 'why'. Why do we do any of this practice in the first place? Something has to motivate us – if not God, then the wonder of life, or to become one with 'the way', or perhaps simply the wish to help others. In this analogy, bhakti refers to the wind. It's what powers us along, fills our sails and drives along our vessel.

And the water? It's life itself, with all it's waves of up and down. And what are waves? Just temporary patterns of energy on the surface of the ocean of emptiness.

Jonathan Monks's yoga analogy - drawing by Carol from our sadhana course

Rowing out of the marina

The second little metaphor is from my Zen teacher Daizan Skinner (ZenWays.org), and relates to the stages of practice.

Let's imagine we've got a little sailing dinghy at its berth in the harbour. In order to get it out of the sheltered marina and onto the open water, we need to row it out (or I guess these days you'd most likely start up the outboard motor). As you row out, you have to be careful for obstacles and other boats, and it's slow going. But in the busy marina without any wind it's the only way.

Once you're out on the open water with a good stiff breeze, you can hoist your sails and let the wind push you forward.

Now, as we've said, it's no good hoisting the sails in the port – they would get in the way, flapping about and blocking your view. But equally, there's no use in rowing when you're out of port and the sails are up catching the wind. At best it simply doesn't help, and at worst it actually gets in the way, hindering your progress.

So you need both the oars and the sails, but for different circumstances. They need to be used wisely.

Using our oars is like putting in the effort when it's needed, like doing something on a recommendation until you start seeing the benefits. We need to row ourselves out to a place where the wind can take over and can blow us forward – doing our practice until the practice does us! The wisdom then comes in knowing when to stop rowing...


Course changes

So we've got a seaworthy boat, we know why we want to practice, and we've managed to row out of the marina into the open sea. We're up and going, cutting through the waves with the wind filling our sails. Now the course we take becomes important – are we heading to a tropical island hideaway for silence and no distractions, or to a disaster zone to help out?

Something a friend of mine very wisely said on a retreat recently: a tiny course correction right now makes a massive difference to your destination over a long journey. A half-degree course change could put you 100s of miles away from where you were originally headed. That's why setting your course is so important. 

But it doesn't mean you shouldn't be flexible and change course when needed – sometimes a dramatic and unanticipated change is needed when a storm unexpectedly brews, or you realise that you're needed more at home than at the latest war zone.

Do small changes in navigation matter?

Water and ice

The final metaphor comes from Zen Master Hakuin (1685-1768). Hakuin taught that Buddhas (not just The Buddha – he's referring to any enlightened being) are like water and ordinary people are like ice. We're all made of the same stuff. There's no difference, except they are in different states. 

Mindful attention is like sunlight, melting away the frozen places in the body-mind. As things free up on the physical level, things open up on the emotional level. As things start to let go in our body and hearts, then our mind begins to open up and we become able to slip more and more easily into that wonderful flow of life.


Got any more? Add them in the comments below – I'd love to hear them. 

Workshop on the 8 Silk Brocades of Qigong

On Saturday I went to a workshop at the ZenYoga studio led by long-time martial arts practitioner and teacher Keith Alker on the 8 silk brocades of Qigong (Chinese: Ba Duan Jin, Japanese: Hachi Danken). It was great - we learned just 8 very simple moves in 6 hours! Simple on the outside maybe, but certainly not simple on the inside... 

So what is Qigong? Qi (sometimes spelled 'chi', Jap: ki) is the universal energy, life force, or vital energy. Literally translated it means breath or air. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine, martial arts including T'ai Chi, and is also part of Zen practice. The idea is we're born with a certain amount in us, and then we take in more via food/air and directly from the universe, and use it to move and live. 

Qi flows around the body through meridians or energy channels. There are 12 main meridians associated with each of the different organs (heart, lungs, kidneys, etc), and 8 subsidiary meridians which include the belt meridian around your waist and the governing/conception meridian going up the spine, over the head, and down the front. 

Acupuncture/acupressure or any kind of Anma practice works on energising or unblocking these meridian lines and the points along them. A few of the most important points that Keith mentioned include Bai Hui on the crown of the head, Hui Yin on the pelvic floor, Lao Gong on the palm, Yong Quan on the sole of the foot, Ming Men on the small of the back, and the three Dan Tien's (energy centres) in the belly, chest and head. 

What is the difference between Qigong and T'ai Chi?  

Tai Chi is a Taoist moving meditation practice based on the interplay of the two complimentary forces - yin and yang. Tai Chi consists of four types of practice (the 'Four Pillars'): Qigong, Form, Pushing Hands and Application. When you see people practicing in the park they're most likely doing the Form. This is an aesthetically beautiful flowing sequence of movements designed to develop physical and mental skill and health, and varies in emphasis and complexity between different schools. Qigong (the first pillar) is the foundation of Tai Chi, and comprises a set of exercises to get your qi moving: both around and into/out of the body. 

Does the 'qi' or 'chi' in the two names refer to the same thing? It's pronounced the same...

I didn't know this before asking Keith, and apparently no it doesn't. The confusion arises from the different ways of romanising certain Chinese symbols. T'ai chi is the spelling using the Wade-Giles system and is the one most commonly known, whereas Taiji is the spelling according to the Pinyin system. The 'qi' in qigong refers to the energy that moves along the meridians, whereas the 'chi' in Tai Chi doesn't (hence Taiji is a better spelling). Taiji means the "great pole", or the "Supreme Ultimate".

At the beginning of the workshop Keith introuduced us to a few main concepts or principles.

One of these was that in all martial arts, qigong and meditation, we aim to regulate (1) the body – through alignment, movements, and the balance between tension and relaxation; (2) the breath (and hence our qi) – through breathing exercises, focusing on the tanden, breath sounds, etc.; and (3) the mind – through concentration, mindfulness, awareness, etc. 

He also talked about how finding the balance between yang/yin is so important. Taking our arm as an example, he showed how if you tense your arm, both the bicep and the tricep are working as if almost fighting each other. He called this double yang, and, he said, corresponds mentally to a state of active distraction. The opposite is a weak and limp arm which is obviously double yin, and corresponds to a kind of mental fog. Finding that balance (tension only where needed) is the key to correct practice in any of these arts. 

He also emphasised the concept of 'peng', meaning expansion – through the head, feet, hands, and ultimately through the energy body as well. It's very difficult to describe, but incredible to experience in a well practised teacher like Keith. It was literally explosive, and when he sent it in my direction I actually felt a physical push backwards!

So, what about the movements, the 8 silk brocades? Keith taught us the standard issue version from the Chinese Health Qigong Association and recommended by the Chinese government to maintain health and wellbeing after much research. 

The 8 exercises are:

• Holding the hands high with palms up to regulate the internal organs
• Posing as an archer shooting both left and right handed
• Holding one arm aloft to regulate the functions of the spleen and stomach
• Looking back to prevent sickness and strain
• Swinging the head and lowering the body to relieve stress
• Moving both hands down the back and legs and touching the feet to strengthen the kidneys
• Thrusting fists and making the eyes glare to enhance strength
• Raising and lowering the heels to cure diseases 

Now I need to go and practice them...  

Watch the full set of movements:

The Energetic Basis of Zen Yoga

This week I'd like to review a workshop I went to last weekend (12th Oct) led by our Zen master, Daizan on "The Energetic Basis of Zen Yoga". The workshop was designed to look a little below the surface of our Zen yoga and meditation practice - to look, as it were, at the underlying operating system, what the practice is built on.

This workshop formed part of the continuing professional development (CPD) days Daizan runs for his yoga and meditation teachers.

We started off looking at the Japanese word for yoga: do-in - literally translated as guiding and pulling! Sounds strange until you think of it in terms of energy. We guide and direct our energy around the body using movements and stretches in order to unblock or work on certain channels. That really set the scene for what this day was about. (For the energy sceptics out there, see this article.)

The workshop was centred around the teachings of the first monk to bring Zen to Japan, Myōan Eisai (b. 1141). After originally studying Tendai Buddhism, he spent 4 years in China learning Zen (or Chan), before coming back to Japan and establishing the first zen temple in remote Kyūshū (the third largest island of Japan to the southwest). Among his notable disciples was Dōgen, founder of the famous Sōtō Zen school. Eisai is also credited as the first person to bring green tea into Japan from China.

It seemed Eisai was pretty successful (read politically skilled) at bringing Zen into the Japanese mainstream, and in 1202 he founded the famous Kennin-ji temple in Kyoto (still very beautiful and worth a visit today). The Shogun (military governor) at this time, Minmoto no Sanetomo, was a complete alcoholic, and Eisai took on the responsibility of trying to get him to sober up an live a more healthy life. Eisai thought that he could get him to drink tea instead of alcohol... Jolly good plan I say ;-)

Drink Tea and Prolong Life

In the process of trying to convince the shogun it's not all about going out on continuous benders, and that being an alcoholic is actually very bad for the body, he wrote in 1211 a book called the Kissayojoki - literally translated as "Drink Tea and Prolong Life". In it he says "tea is the most wonderful medicine for nourishing one’s health; it is the secret of long life." More on that later.

As you might imagine, it actually contained more than just a plea to drink tea. It was a manual for healthy living, in fact describing very much what we would call Zen yoga. The Kissayojoki is part of the tradition of Yangsheng (Chinese) or Yojo (Japanese) referring to a broad array of practices aimed at nourishing and prolonging life through breathing exercises, dietetics (especially abstention from grains), sexual practices, meditation and visualization exercises, pharmaceutical prescriptions, and methods of "guiding and pulling" (Japanese: Do-in, Chinese: Dao yin). Why you'd want to prolong your life will be the subject of a future article.

One of the central ideas that's been around in traditional Chinese medicine for at least 4000 years is that of the energy meridians. These are energy pathways through the body that make up a circuit or web that delivers our life force, (Chinese: qi, Jap.: ki) to the organs and tissues of the body. There are 12 major meridian channels, each correlating to the organs in the body in a reciprocal relationship. For example a healthy liver allows energy to flow easily along the liver meridian, and unblocking the liver meridian can help the liver function better. The idea is that when meridians are blocked, or the flow is too great or too little, problems result.

Qi/ki is stored in three main centres in the body, known as Tan Tien (or Dan Tian; Chinese) or Tanden (Japanese) literally translated as 'field of elixir'. They are the East Asian equivalent to the Indian Chakras. The main tanden is in your belly, known in Japanese as your hara.

Japanese monks have been involved in accupuncture at least from 1227, which implies a good understanding of the energy meridians (Japanese: myaku). In the Kissayojoki, Eisai goes into some detail about the meridians and their relationship with the organs (see picture).

So why tea?

In the meridian system, each organ and organ meridian is associated with a different quality - season, colour, taste, element, direction, emotion. Here are the organ associations for the 5 tastes:

Heart – Bitter
Liver – Sour
Spleen – Sweet
Lung – Spicy
Kidney – Salty

The heart is seen as being the chief among the organs, but the problem was that at that time (and probably still nowadays) very few bitter foods were eaten - particularly by this drunken shogun. Nowadays those that are bitter, we tend to liberally sweeten.

So, as a way of balancing our diet and restoring health to our chief organ, the heart, Eisai suggested drinking tea. If you've ever had green tea, you'll know how bitter it is! These days other bitter foods include coffee, beer (bitter), cocoa/dark chocolate, olives, and citrus peel.

Prolonging life further

Of course, balancing the diet and promoting the health of our inner community of organs is just the start. We can't do anything if our physical body is out of whack, undernourished, weak, unbalanced. Once we've got that under control though, we can start working on boosting our health and wellbeing higher and higher - and this is how we really prolong our lives.

With this in mind, the physical yoga practice during the workshop focussed on stretching and opening up all our main meridians. Not only is it important to open/unblock these channels, but it's also important to get the energy flowing down them, and for that we did some practices using the sound 'mu'.

Mindfulness and meditation are also an essential part of this unblocking process. If you're interested I run regular courses in mindfulness in Camberwell, London.

Two years is no long stretch at ZenYoga Camberwell

This is an article I wrote about the 2nd anniversary of the ZenYoga studio. It was published by the SE5 Forum.
Here is a related article I wrote about ZenYoga which was published on the South London daily magazine belowtheriver.co.uk

On Sunday 16th June, the ZenYoga studio in Camberwell celebrated its second anniversary. The studio runs a variety of yoga classes and workshops throughout the week, and is the home of a thriving Zen meditation group led by Zen Master Julian Daizan Skinner (the first Englishman to become a Zen Master in the rigorous Rinzai school).

The ZenYoga studio. Photo credit: Hogetsu Baerndal.

The party began with a Precepts Ceremony (Jukai) led by Daizan Roshi for Michael Nathan-Pepple, inducting him into the Zen Buddhist path. Founding member Chris Owen then gave some heartfelt words of thanks, and related the story of an encounter he had four years ago with Daizan Roshi's teacher, Shinzan Roshi (who lives in Japan). After asking him to bow forwards, Shinzan beat him five times on the head with his fan and told him he must find a centre for the burgeoning zen group to practice in!

Fearing what he might be hit with next time, Chris found an ideal place through his contacts at the Butterfly Tennis Club in Camberwell. In what was (previously) a sales office for an up-market residential development on Camberwell Grove, ZenYoga (also known as the Yugagyo Dojo) has grown to become a much-needed oasis of calm just off the busy Camberwell Green, and a perfect practice space for both yoga and meditation.

Video greetings from Matt Shinkai Kane, a zen monk who has spent some time practicing with the group in the last few years, and Shinzan Roshi were projected onto the stunning Enso (circle) hung at the far end of the room. From Shinzan Roshi, now in his late-70s, came an incredible bubbly vitality and an encouragement to everyone to practice, practice, practice.

The enormous Enso was originally drawn by Shinzan Roshi himself at the opening ceremony of Zen Yoga back in 2011 with a cloth broom. The event was documented by Astrid-Hogetsu Baerndal as part of her year-long photographic study "A Portrait of Zenways", a contribution to the London Village Project organised by London Independent Photography. A selection of these photos formed a stunning backdrop to the party, capturing some of the people and events that took place in 2011-12 at Zen Yoga (published as part of a book).

Most of us who have been to a yoga class or two might have heard of styles like Ashtanga or Bikram, but not many people have heard of Zen Yoga. When I asked Daizan Roshi, himself a very experienced yoga teacher with over 5000 hours of teaching practice, he said that Zen Yoga "emphasises physical alignment, the flow of energy in the body and the student’s quality of awareness." Poses or movements are designed to "bring parts of the body into focus so that we can become aware of any tightness or restriction", and that the simple awareness of these areas can lead to them shifting and releasing. He went on, saying that "the great Zen master Hakuin taught that Buddhas (enlightened/awakened beings) are like water and ordinary people are like ice. Zen yoga practice melts away the tightness and resistance that prevents us from enjoying the flow of life."

For more information, and to see the schedule of classes at ZenYoga see www.zenyoga.org.uk.