Hi Joe, I came across yin yoga not very long ago and I also found it very close and quite complementary to my meditation practice.
Do you practise other yoga styles? I found myself quite reluctant and not responsive to anything that is exciting after yin practice, including yang yoga. I feel like being still all the time, don't feel like moving. If I don't do a lot of yin, I enjoy vinyasa a lot. My teacher always reminds me to have balanced practice - yin and yang. This also makes me think if sittings and the stillness in it make us less energetic, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps, we don't need to be that energetic because maybe, there are many things we do while they are not necessary. Perhaps, I'm simply not balanced, always swayed way to far from the mid point. Siska -----Original Message----- From: "Joe" <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Sat, 12 May 2012 00:03:27 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [Zen] Re: News: Stanford scholar tracks meditation's migration from ancient monasteries to modern yoga In the article, the "difference" between monastic practice and lay practice is emphasized. The difference does not have to be a difference, however (and, indeed, I *do* take the article referenced with a grain of salt). As lay students, we still have the opportunity to attend several sesshin, or intensive retreats, per year with our teacher and our sangha. The important thing about zazen is to practice it, not to imagine how it might be different if we were monks or nuns. We'd still have to practice... . Physical practice is also important, to support sitting meditation, and to improve our health. Chinese Ch'an teachers emphasize this more than Japanese teachers or their Western successors, and so the Ch'an teachers are my heroes, and my favorite Bodhisattvas. Yoga is a fine adjunct to zazen. The recently so-called "Yin-Yoga", deep and prolonged holding of relaxed poses in order to treat the connective tissue, is the most useful to my practice. Aerobic exercise is a great adjunct to influence the diaphragm (muscles), and to enable the deepest relaxation in zazen, and the smoothest breathing, there; Samadhi practice becomes possible. Although lay practice and monastic practice seem different, we can still benefit from the encouragement of the Chinese Ch'an monastic teacher, who, in the Golden Age of Ch'an in China, taught that "A day without work is a day without eating." The "work" is not desk-work, or cubicle work, but physical work. To add Yoga to this is even better. Strong practice, all, --Joe / Sonoran Desert / Arizona > Interesting but take with a grain of salt.... Edgar > > Stanford scholar tracks meditation's migration from ancient monasteries to > > modern yoga
