Chakras vs Meridians in Yin Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hi Yinis, and welcome back to a yin Yoga, podcast

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you are new around here, welcome.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you are a return listener, welcome back.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So today’s topic,

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is a bit of a tricky one. And I’m going to just preface this, that a lot of what I’m going to say is actually just my opinion, right? There’s no right or wrong here.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But this question comes up often.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Confusion about the origin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Philosophically, the roots

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Nyk Danu Yoga: of Yin Yoga. Right on one hand, you’ll hear people using a lot of Indian philosophical information. And then, on the other hand, people will say it’s connected to Taoism and Chinese medicine, and then, as a new teacher, you’re somehow trying to bridge these things together like when I’m teaching. Should I be talking about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the chakras in Yin, or should I be talking about the meridians? Or should I be talking about both? And

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Nyk Danu Yoga: oh, my gosh, so confused. Okay, so that’s what today we’re going to talk about. So if that sounds like you, you can keep listening for more on that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: before we dive into that, though, just a reminder that although I have the soul of a mermaid, I also have the mouth of a sailor, and that this podcast is for adults with adult subject matter and adult language. So if you have little ones around, just take a moment now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: grab some headphones.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And before we dive into today’s episode. I just wanted to read a brief podcast review that I have received.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I just also wanted to express gratitude

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for those of you who have

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Nyk Danu Yoga: taken a few moments to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: follow or subscribe.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to leave me a 5 star review, whether that’s on apple or spotify.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and for those of you on apple who also did a written review.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Thank you very much.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’ve mentioned it before. But this is one of the ways that the algorithms start to know that people are enjoying this podcast so that when people go into their podcast app and they search out yin, or they search out yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: apple or spotify is more likely to show them this. Podcast

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so thank you for taking a couple of moments to do that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: endlessly grateful, for you appreciate that very, very much.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and if you haven’t done that yet, and you want to, you can just go into whatever app you’re listening to, and just give 5 stars. If you also can do written review, please feel free in Apple, and I would be grateful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I recently found out that in Apple I can only see certain reviews based on the location of the person who offered the review. And there is a way that I can see all the reviews, but it requires like a special link, and all the things. And so I’m sharing some of the some of the ones in the next few weeks that I didn’t actually see originally.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: this one is by bonnie F, 1, 0, 8.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Thank you. Nick, for this, podcast.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I am a true lover of all things. Yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: my favorite to practice and my favorite to teach.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: My training was also based in the trainings of Paul Grilly. My instructor learned from him as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it is so great to have you speak on the practice from this mindset.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: All that being said, I so highly recommend this podcast to anyone.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Thank you so much, Bonnie.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, let’s get into today’s topic.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So 1st of all, I just feel like I need to do several disclaimers.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: One.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I am not a scholar.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I am not

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Nyk Danu Yoga: highly educated

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in either Taoism or in the Indian systems of Yoga. So everything that I’m saying is coming from my, you know what I’ve learned in my 20. It’s at the time of this recording 20 years of teaching

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Nyk Danu Yoga: from teachers.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: etc, etc. And then also just my own personal opinion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so just to preface it with that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I do not speak Sanskrit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: nor do I speak mandarin, so I cannot go myself

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to these source texts and read them and come up with my own sort of ideas about what these say. I have to go, like most of us, do, based on what learned other teachers have told me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I just want to get that disclaimer out there

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then. I also just want to say that I will talk a little bit about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: some of the confusion, and where that comes from, and then I’ll talk a bit more about my own choice of my own decision. But

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as teachers, we should always weigh information

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for ourselves, and figure out what works for us as a teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: In my very 1st teacher training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the irony of this

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Nyk Danu Yoga: never ceases to amaze me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because my very 1st teacher, training many, many moons ago.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: which was in the year of O. 3 to O. 4. So we started in O. 3 finished in O. 4,

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the teacher training, even though it wasn’t in a young Gar certification training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It was an Ayyangar

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Nyk Danu Yoga: influenced program meaning all of the teachers except one. In that program were Ayunga teachers

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Nyk Danu Yoga: certified Ayungar teachers. So really, the the information that we were presented with came through an Ayungar lens.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the irony part is that when I tell you what my teacher said at the very 1st day of our class. It seems ironic, because my younger yoga is not known for being flexible.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s known as kind of being quite rigid and having some very

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Nyk Danu Yoga: strongly held beliefs

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Nyk Danu Yoga: about the body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s just put it that way so.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But what my teacher said to me on the very 1st day of our training. Not just me to the whole group

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Nyk Danu Yoga: was

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that 1st of all, this teacher training was going to change our lives, which it did.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: One of the advantages of having that training spread out over the course of that year and a bit

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Nyk Danu Yoga: was that we really had time to absorb the material

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Nyk Danu Yoga: which was wonderful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: she said, this teacher training will change your life in ways that you’re not even aware of now, which is, from my experience. Almost everybody who’s taken a teacher training has noticed that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then she said, some of the things that I say here

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Nyk Danu Yoga: will sort of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: poke your button, it’ll push a button.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you might not agree with me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you don’t agree with me because you have done the investigation, and it just doesn’t ring true with your own experience, with your own life, with your beliefs. If it just doesn’t resonate on a heart and soul level.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: toss it out, then it’s not for you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If, however, what I say

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Nyk Danu Yoga: pushes that button

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in the other way, which is, it’s pushing up against something that you haven’t examined or don’t want to examine

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right if it’s pushing up against a long held belief or a way that you’ve always done things, or the way that you were taught

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you haven’t investigated that deeply.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then I would encourage you to sit with it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So sit in the discomfort of I don’t like what she just said. I don’t agree with what she just said. I don’t know if that’s true.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s the opposite of what I’ve been doing or thinking so I must be wrong. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: she encouraged us to sit with that discomfort

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and to study it, and to learn from it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that was probably one of the best things that anybody could have said to me when I 1st started teaching.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or in my 1st teacher training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And the reason this was one of the best things that somebody could have said to me in my very 1st teacher training is because I am a bit of a critical thinker.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I am always kind of pondering, thinking, analyzing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, putting it all together in my head. Then I have to drop it into my heart, and my heart’s got to figure out what makes sense and what doesn’t make sense. And I put it into my body. And then I can decide.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Is this for me, or is this not for me?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So? And that’s probably because I’m an introvert. So I do need that time to sort of internally process and and decide if something resonates with me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and if so, in which ways, and not in which ways, etc. So that’s what I want to encourage you to do here.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: not just with this episode. But

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m talking about this episode now, but with any of the episodes that you listen to is, please always remember that what I say is not dogma.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: What I say is coming from my own experience, my own study, my own viewpoint

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Nyk Danu Yoga: at the time of the recording, and things could change.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So please just know that. So I’m going to do my best to kind of break down. Why, there’s this confusion

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Nyk Danu Yoga: between, are we doing the Indian systems Indian? Or are we doing Chinese medicine, Indian or Taoism? And is that different than Chinese medicine?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Because it gets a little confusing?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’m going to break that down a little bit. And then I’ll tell you kind of my own experience and what I’ve decided based based on my own path. But you should

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Nyk Danu Yoga: definitely consider this information for yourself.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, before we get into all of that, I want to mention that you don’t have to use either of these systems in your yin classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You do not feel like you do not have to.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, before we get into all that, I want to just say that you don’t have to use either of these systems or philosophies in your yin classes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: at all.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just because you learn something in a teacher. Training

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Nyk Danu Yoga: doesn’t mean that that automatically has to go into your classes. And, in fact, if you haven’t studied the subject matter in depth, and I mean, like, beyond a 200 500, or even 800 h program. If you haven’t really spent the time to study that philosophy with a qualified teacher in depth. It’s probably smart that you don’t talk about it in your classes. Right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So for years and years and years I taught Yin, and never mentioned anything about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Taoism, Chinese medicine, meridians, sinew channels, the seasons, the elements, none of that came into my class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I simply talked about.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We are doing this pose

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Nyk Danu Yoga: hopefully to access this area of your body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’re not feeling that, let me know, and we can move things around or give you something else to focus on

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or give you another pose. If you’re not comfortable here, and that’s our intention. And then I would offer some tools for them to help them deal with their mind, their monkey mind while they were in the pose. And that was it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I didn’t mention any of this stuff for years.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the reason for that is because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wasn’t qualified.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wasn’t learned it enough, or studied enough in either of these traditions

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to talk about them in any kind of an educated way, and also to decide what of these

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Nyk Danu Yoga: philosophies and information. Maybe I shouldn’t talk about with my students, because maybe it’s not what they came for, or they’re not ready yet.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or I need to find a way to make it really easily digestible.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or to just share it with the students that are ready.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Right? So if somebody comes in because they’re in extreme pain. Physically.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: they don’t really want to hear you talk about.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re meridians

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right? It’s I mean, it’s that’s all. Just going to wash right over them.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: First.st They have to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: get to a point of feeling, a sense of harmony in their body and their mind and their spirit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that they can be open to these sort of deeper teachings.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I just wanted to mention that, too, that if you are a teacher who’s been feeling really pressured

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to talk about meridians, or talk about the Chakras, or any of that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you don’t need to feel pressured

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right and plus. There’s plenty of simple, everyday stuff out there in your life that you could add in very simple stories that can

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that can be a little, a little kind of teaching, but in a really light, you know, easily digestible way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I remember once being in a Buddhist meditation group.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that that particular monk

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Nyk Danu Yoga: was really good at

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Nyk Danu Yoga: making the teachings

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Nyk Danu Yoga: kind of every day right like just everyday stuff.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I remember him telling this whole story about attachment

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and teaching us about attachment based on the hummus sandwich that he had in the fridge, that he was really looking forward to eating that someone else ate

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right? So he got to dive into a deeper teaching of Buddhism

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Nyk Danu Yoga: by using a sandwich as an example. So.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: dear teacher, you have these things in your daily life, right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you don’t need to feel like you need to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: wax on poetic and philosophical. If that isn’t your experience, or if you don’t have the understanding of the philosophy, then don’t just use your everyday life to share.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so I wanted to just mention all of that before we get into this.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So one of the reasons that I think there’s so much confusion

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in Yin is because, 1st of all, let’s start with the name

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Nyk Danu Yoga: it’s called Yin Yoga. Okay. So now we’ve already got a Taoist concept and an Indian concept. So huh? How does that work.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, the story goes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and if you have not heard my interview with Paul Grilly, I highly recommend that you listen to that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: He’s often credited as being the founder of Yin, whether he was the founder or the guy who just codified it, and kind of made it popular. We could debate till the cows come home. But my teacher Paul learned some of this yin way of stretching from poly zinc, so I get it’s confusing. There’s a Paul, and a poly

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Nyk Danu Yoga: poly zinc is actually a martial artist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so poly zinc.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: His foundation would be Taoist

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right. His teachings would be Taoist

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the Yoga. He was practicing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We can use the word yoga with air quotes would have been Taoist his

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the names of the shapes he was making Taoist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So then my teacher, Paul Grilly, who, by the time he even went to study with Pauly, had already been teaching and practicing and reading for many, many years in the Hatha Yoga. Tradition

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Nyk Danu Yoga: goes and studies

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with Polly.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then

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Nyk Danu Yoga: starts incorporating some of these longer held, still poses into his teaching. Originally. He was calling it Taoist Yoga, because that’s what Polly called it Taoist Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then eventually, when his book came out, and when him and Sarah Powers had a conversation about.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, because she she had then learned it from Paul, and that she started teaching

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Nyk Danu Yoga: they had a conversation about the fact that really they’re not truly doing Taoist Yoga, because they were only doing half of the practice from Poly. They weren’t, including all sort of the the more movement based martial arts shapes. They were just doing the still long held floor based postures.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the name Yin came in because what they were offering in that format wasn’t yin and yaw right? It wasn’t movement and stillness. It was just the still part.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So when Paul and Sarah were sort of creating, you know Paul was creating this he was teaching, and then Sarah started teaching, and that, you know, became colleagues. This conversation happened. This is how the story goes, and they decided, or she mentioned it. And then Paul decided, not really sure how that works, that he would start calling what he was doing. Yin Yoga! And he did have a book coming out, and needed a title for the book. So it became Yin Yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: now in a culture where

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we are rightfully

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and yet overreacting, at the same time concerned with things like cultural appropriation.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We could ask the question, should

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the words Yin and Yoga even go together?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: isn’t that culturally appropriating Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: by putting Yin in front of it?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This is something I’ve grappled with myself. I do not have a decisive answer for you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: What I will say is that although if you really understand yin, and you really understand the word yoga, the name kind of doesn’t

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Nyk Danu Yoga: quite make sense.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we have to think about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the fact that there needed to be a vernacular put on this

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so yes, it could have been called yin stretching.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: although that’s not entirely accurate, either. It could have been called.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t know yin make shapes on the floor with your body, but, like what else would you call it

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when you’re taking mostly the same shapes that you would in a regular yoga practice. You’re just changing the way you do them. Then it. It is Yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And actually, if you look back at the Hatha Yoga perdikapa, I’m probably not saying that right probably butchered that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you look at the recommended hold times for the poses. They were actually all longer holds.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It wasn’t until Ashtonga took off, and then Vinyasa, which is kind of based on Ashtonga took off that we started in the Yoga world doing these shorter held poses anyway.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So in that sense

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Nyk Danu Yoga: old school Yoga did have longer holds.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then the holds became shorter and shorter, especially as this practice moved to North America. And it was all about, you know, getting your sweat on and detoxifying and getting your yoga butt in time for swimsuit season, and all that other

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Nyk Danu Yoga: shrapnel that’s been attached to Yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I just want to mention that first, st that the name itself can be a bit confusing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would love to have an alternative of what to call it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but that would make sense to the average person walking down the street not to see Yoga. Teachers haven’t come up with one yet. If you do, please let me know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s just a little bit of the history. So then, Paul Grilly, my teacher, takes what he’s learned from Poly Zinc, who he was attending his classes and his years and years of already teaching and studying and practicing Hatha Yoga, and brings them together under this umbrella that they now start calling Yin Yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you had only studied Yin yoga with poly zinc.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s likely that the philosophy that you would have been exposed to would have been Taoist philosophy

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because he is a martial artist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and he talks a lot about Taoism and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: elements and things like that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and nothing would have been wrong with that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I also think that we need to remember that, you know, sitting on the floor with one leg out in front of you, and the other one bent with your foot on your inner thigh and then folding over your

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Nyk Danu Yoga: straight leg. That’s not an Indian thing like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: people culturally around the world were doing a lot of these stretches right.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: What makes Indian Yoga Yoga in the bigger, broader sense, isn’t these funny shapes we make with our body? In fact, a lot of these funny shapes we make with our body are universal to many different cultures all the way from again from China, maybe even Japan, you know. Even in Egypt.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Right. So I think we need to remind ourselves as Western teachers, that, like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yoga, the word yoga does not mean making funny shapes with your body. The word Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is a larger, bigger picture conversation, and that the Asanas are the shapes we’re making with our body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So all of this to say.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, Polly likely would have had a Taoist influence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and would have been referring to these shapes in a Taoist way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then he teaches Paul, and Paul learns a bit of this Taoist stuff from Pauly, but probably not a ton, because he didn’t study with him that long, although I know he’s done extra studies on his own.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then

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Nyk Danu Yoga: takes that and adds it to what he has already been doing, and learning

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Nyk Danu Yoga: which is half a Yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So this is why there is so much confusion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You will hear people say

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that Yin Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: isn’t an Indian form of Yoga that it is based on traditional Chinese medicine and Taoism.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Maybe if you’re looking at it the way that poly zinc

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Nyk Danu Yoga: taught it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then I guess we would also ask, why are you using the word yoga? But you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So maybe.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then you’re going to hear people say

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: it’s not.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s not Chinese medicine.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s not Taoist

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that really the word yen.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s just put on there to denote the energetics of the practice, and that these shapes are just classical Indian shapes that we’re holding for longer

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Nyk Danu Yoga: also, not inaccurate.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I think we need to take the the idea of the shapes 1st out of the situation.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that we can understand more about the philosophy. So what funny shapes you’re making with your body, and whether you want to call that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know Taoist yoga, or Indian yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: again, I’m sure there’s a ton of crossover. None of these are none of the yin shapes are like fancy, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: really intense, advanced Asana. There’s simple basic poses that you make with your body. And I’m sure, culturally, many cultures we’re making with their bodies. Again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the Indian system of Yoga the Asana is only one tiny, tiny part of that tradition.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So so far you may be listening and thinking. Well, great Nick, thanks. You cleared up absolutely nothing for me again. Remember, I’m not here to give you answers.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m here to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: explain what I know, what I don’t know, and then my own opinion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then my teacher Paul, has also studied with somebody named Dr. Motoyama

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Dr. Motoyama in this book.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and hold it up for those of you that are on Youtube

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Nyk Danu Yoga: awakening of the Chakras and emancipation.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: In this book

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Dr. Motoyama does make connections or bridge points between meridians

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and Chakras.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It might be in this one.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: There’s some of it in this one also. He has a book called Theories of the Chakras, again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Great book to pick up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But here’s the thing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So he will make connections in here with the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the Chakras, the meridians, etc. Also

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Nyk Danu Yoga: theories of the Chakras. Also it’s a good book by him.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So Dr. Motoyama was one of Paul’s teachers, and if you want to hear more about how he met him and studied with him, and what their relationship was like again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And the same with Polysync. Please listen to my interview with Paul Grilley. I’m just paraphrasing here

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to make this efficient.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as

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Nyk Danu Yoga: far as I know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I could be wrong. So if you have some other source, please let me know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But, as far as I know, the only person who tried to blend chakras and meridians and make charts about the connection between these 2. The only person that talked about these 2 systems and how they are connected

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is Dr. Motoyama.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So all of the information that Paul has on this, to my knowledge, and I could be wrong.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: was learned from Dr. Motoyama.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Dr. Motoyama is the only person I know of, and again I could be wrong. Please let me know if I’m wrong. Who has ever tried to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: blend these traditions together in like charts and things like that in a book.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now Paul has said that he believes that Dr. Motiyama was an enlightened being.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I can’t speak to that because I never met him. I wish I did, but I never met him

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for me, for my critical thinking. Mind.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: For somebody who always has one foot in the woo woo

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and one foot in the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah. But I don’t know skepticism.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would need more than one source

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Nyk Danu Yoga: of this information in order for me

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to wholeheartedly say yes to it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So Dr. Motoyama may see these connections. If he is an enlightened being, maybe he sees meridians and chakras, and I can’t see those things. And so he has seen the bridge of these things, and that’s what he’s put in his books.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s possible.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But he’s the only person that I know of. And again, please let me know if I’m wrong.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That has tried to merge these 2 things as if they are simpatico systems.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, of course Paul talks a bit about the chakras in his book as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Again, based on his years of studying

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hatha Yoga before he became a Yin teacher, and then he also talks about them

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and his his studies with Dr. Motoyama. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Paul has Yogi’s Guide to Chakra meditation. I believe he might even mention them in his yin book. So again, that’s likely based on Dr. Motoyama’s work.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I will not put links to these books in the show notes. I will put the titles. The reason I won’t put links is because you all are listening from all over the world.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so I I don’t know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t know if you get Amazon. If you shop at Amazon, if you shop local, you know I have no idea.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Are you Amazon? Do, Kit? Uk, Australia, Canadian, I don’t know, so I will just put the names of the books that I mentioned, and then you can cut and paste into the Googles and find them for yourself if you are interested in reading them

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for my own brain, my own skeptical question, everything. Don’t ever take anything just because someone has said to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: mind.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I at this time of this recording, and I reserve the right to change my mind.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Do not like to blend

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the Indian system of Chakaras with the Chinese medicine system of meridians.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I think. And this, again, is just my opinion

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that Indian philosophy and Taoist philosophy philosophy actually have some key differences

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in how they see our world.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: although a lot of people are much more comfortable making crossovers and saying where things are the same. I actually think, when we do that, we often miss the beauty of each of the systems that we’re talking about.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I don’t believe that Chakras meridians same same, but different.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I believe that these are 2 different systems that come from

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 2 different traditions and 2 different philosophies that have more differences.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then they do similarities.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I know that in the Indian tradition, for example, they talk about the Naughty’s, and a lot of people will say, Oh, yeah. Well, the Naughty’s are those energy pathways. So that’s the same as the meridians. No.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: from my studies, but with both they have again some really key differences. Now in the Indian system. There’s like a ton of naughty. So it’s possible that there’s crossover with what the the Chinese medicine meridians are. It’s possible that the ancient Rishi’s

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the ancient Taoists saw similar things, and then just kind of put different cultural lenses on them. That’s possible. It is possible that the Naughtys

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Nyk Danu Yoga: may have some crossover with meridians. I don’t know. I can’t see these energy pathways in bodies, boy, do. I wish I could, but I cannot.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But what I do know is that the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a lot of the Indian philosophy that we are taught, especially if you’re a Yoga teacher and you were taught, and I don’t know why Western

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yoga teacher trainings are obsessed with Patanjali, and they ignore all of the other beautiful Indian philosophies like the Gita and Vedas and the Upanishads, etc, etc.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But most of us would have learned something at least an overview of the Patanjali system of Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in our teacher, training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I always find that interesting, because, according to the scholars that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I have listened to, and that I’ve learned from Patanjali is not a householder. Tradition.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: meaning. The system of Yoga that Patanjali is talking about is actually for people that are renunciants.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right for

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Nyk Danu Yoga: people who have kind of given up their life. And they’re now focused on this.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This, you know, sort of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: merging with God, so to speak, transcending the body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s not a

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Nyk Danu Yoga: philosophical

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Nyk Danu Yoga: manual for those that are

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Nyk Danu Yoga: raising kids

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Nyk Danu Yoga: work in a job

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Nyk Danu Yoga: paying taxes, living life.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the fact that that is the one

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Nyk Danu Yoga: philosophical text that is overused, in my opinion in Western Yoga teacher trainings is already a bit problematic

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when there’s others that could be used.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then there’s a lot of Yoga teachers out there that talk about potentially, but all they know is the Yamas and the Niyamas, and they use them as if they’re the 10 Commandments. So they’ve taken their sort of history as a

350
00:31:37.860 –> 00:31:52.249
Nyk Danu Yoga: as a person, maybe, who was raised in a Biblical tradition, and they just transpose that kind of same Judeo Christian viewpoint onto the Yamas and the Niamas like these are the shoulds and Shouldn’ts and the stages of Yoga.

351
00:31:52.510 –> 00:31:55.430
Nyk Danu Yoga: Again, remember, Patanjali is just one

352
00:31:55.870 –> 00:31:56.990
Nyk Danu Yoga: of the many

353
00:31:57.610 –> 00:31:58.490
Nyk Danu Yoga: books

354
00:31:58.700 –> 00:32:01.389
Nyk Danu Yoga: and teachings out there on Yoga.

355
00:32:02.360 –> 00:32:03.470
Nyk Danu Yoga: So then.

356
00:32:03.830 –> 00:32:10.120
Nyk Danu Yoga: but if you are looking at the Patanjali system of the idea is to get the body stable

357
00:32:10.230 –> 00:32:13.299
Nyk Danu Yoga: to follow these moral and ethical precepts.

358
00:32:13.410 –> 00:32:18.709
Nyk Danu Yoga: to learn to meditate so that you can move beyond your small self.

359
00:32:18.770 –> 00:32:26.360
Nyk Danu Yoga: and you can move the energy up and out. And eventually you can merge with the divine right that you can become connected to

360
00:32:26.570 –> 00:32:28.520
Nyk Danu Yoga: whatever you want to call it, God.

361
00:32:28.600 –> 00:32:30.720
Nyk Danu Yoga: the divine, the universe, etc.

362
00:32:31.720 –> 00:32:33.280
Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s kind of the goal.

363
00:32:33.890 –> 00:32:35.440
Nyk Danu Yoga: With that particular

364
00:32:36.050 –> 00:32:37.480
Nyk Danu Yoga: philosophy.

365
00:32:39.140 –> 00:32:42.800
Nyk Danu Yoga: however, from my understanding of Taoist philosophy.

366
00:32:43.870 –> 00:32:48.300
Nyk Danu Yoga: actually, they’re trying to keep the energy inside of the body.

367
00:32:48.600 –> 00:32:54.859
Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re not trying to move up and out and sort of disconnect themselves from their body.

368
00:32:55.480 –> 00:32:58.180
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s more of a nature-based tradition.

369
00:32:58.700 –> 00:33:03.110
Nyk Danu Yoga: so they’re much more concerned with working in the seat in.

370
00:33:03.670 –> 00:33:13.949
Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re much more concerned with working in tune with the seasons and the elements, and then seeing those seasonal and elemental representations within themselves.

371
00:33:14.770 –> 00:33:18.970
Nyk Danu Yoga: This is why the organs and the meridians are connected

372
00:33:19.050 –> 00:33:22.359
Nyk Danu Yoga: to not only an element, but also a season.

373
00:33:22.950 –> 00:33:30.010
Nyk Danu Yoga: There’s this sort of holistic view of nature and the outside world that is also inside of us

374
00:33:30.360 –> 00:33:31.480
Nyk Danu Yoga: and doubts them.

375
00:33:32.310 –> 00:33:40.089
Nyk Danu Yoga: And one of the goals of Taoism is to preserve your jing or your essence.

376
00:33:40.390 –> 00:33:44.069
Nyk Danu Yoga: so that you can live a long and healthy life.

377
00:33:44.920 –> 00:33:47.589
Nyk Danu Yoga: So it’s not so concerned with.

378
00:33:47.720 –> 00:33:51.250
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know. Let’s get enlightened as quick as we can, and, you know.

379
00:33:51.350 –> 00:33:53.029
Nyk Danu Yoga: get out of this body and

380
00:33:53.590 –> 00:33:59.700
Nyk Danu Yoga: merge with the divine, which in the Patanjali system is usually taught as separate from you

381
00:34:00.620 –> 00:34:03.190
Nyk Danu Yoga: instead, in Taoism

382
00:34:03.671 –> 00:34:06.020
Nyk Danu Yoga: they’re looking at, preserving the body.

383
00:34:06.030 –> 00:34:07.260
Nyk Danu Yoga: cherishing

384
00:34:07.310 –> 00:34:16.150
Nyk Danu Yoga: their Chi, your essence, and to take care of your body so that you can have a life of longevity, a long, healthy life.

385
00:34:16.219 –> 00:34:22.969
Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, this might sound like I’m splitting hairs. But if you really think about those 2 philosophies, they’re quite different, actually.

386
00:34:23.670 –> 00:34:25.330
Nyk Danu Yoga: So this is why

387
00:34:25.630 –> 00:34:33.320
Nyk Danu Yoga: I wouldn’t myself personally merge teaching about meridians and chakras in the same class.

388
00:34:33.580 –> 00:34:38.090
Nyk Danu Yoga: because the goal in the in a Chakra practice is to, you know.

389
00:34:38.290 –> 00:34:41.739
Nyk Danu Yoga: open balance, heal whatever words you want to use.

390
00:34:42.366 –> 00:34:43.420
Nyk Danu Yoga: Your chakras.

391
00:34:44.159 –> 00:34:46.859
Nyk Danu Yoga: and to, you know, eventually

392
00:34:47.590 –> 00:34:50.520
Nyk Danu Yoga: pop up through the top of your head and transcend.

393
00:34:50.989 –> 00:34:53.460
Nyk Danu Yoga: whereas in Taoism that’s not the goal.

394
00:34:54.030 –> 00:34:59.559
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so to me, the practices have different energetic goals.

395
00:35:00.830 –> 00:35:14.919
Nyk Danu Yoga: Now there might be Indian systems or philosophies out there that are not Chakra based that are more in tune with Daozem. If there are, I don’t know about them again, I’m not an expert in this area. This is just my opinion based on the studies I’ve done so far.

396
00:35:15.820 –> 00:35:16.850
Nyk Danu Yoga: So then.

397
00:35:17.620 –> 00:35:31.529
Nyk Danu Yoga: if you feel comfortable as a Yoga teacher merging these 2 traditions, if you feel like you have enough knowledge, information, and skill to talk about these 2 things in one Yoga class

398
00:35:32.750 –> 00:35:35.500
Nyk Danu Yoga: without confusing the shit out of your students.

399
00:35:35.620 –> 00:35:37.230
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then you should do that

400
00:35:37.380 –> 00:35:39.670
Nyk Danu Yoga: party on with your damn self rock on.

401
00:35:41.610 –> 00:35:42.940
Nyk Danu Yoga: But again.

402
00:35:43.130 –> 00:35:50.650
Nyk Danu Yoga: I always like to have more than one source for my information, and the only source of information that I have found thus far

403
00:35:51.370 –> 00:35:53.029
Nyk Danu Yoga: that connects

404
00:35:53.170 –> 00:35:55.170
Nyk Danu Yoga: meridians and

405
00:35:55.280 –> 00:35:57.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: chocolate us together is Dr. Motoyama.

406
00:35:58.350 –> 00:36:13.479
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I have never met him. I’ve never studied with him anything I know of his teachings is from books, which to me is always the worst way to learn information is from a book. If you can’t actually talk to the teacher and ask questions. Then it’s very surface level information.

407
00:36:14.420 –> 00:36:19.169
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I don’t feel comfortable blending those 2. I think that

408
00:36:19.230 –> 00:36:24.340
Nyk Danu Yoga: that system in Indian philosophy and the system of Taoism have very different

409
00:36:24.440 –> 00:36:26.400
Nyk Danu Yoga: foundations.

410
00:36:26.570 –> 00:36:28.169
Nyk Danu Yoga: and so I don’t blend the 2.

411
00:36:29.640 –> 00:36:39.669
Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, I will also say that I didn’t know a lot about Chinese medicine. I still don’t know a lot about Taoism. It’s an area of study that I definitely want to dive more into.

412
00:36:39.920 –> 00:36:42.310
Nyk Danu Yoga: But I didn’t know a lot about Chinese medicine.

413
00:36:42.620 –> 00:36:49.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: And by the way, Chinese medicine is based on Taoism. So if you wonder why I keep saying both of those yeah, overlap big overlap.

414
00:36:51.870 –> 00:36:58.070
Nyk Danu Yoga: I didn’t know a lot about Chinese medicine until I decided to go to school to study

415
00:36:58.200 –> 00:36:59.790
Nyk Danu Yoga: traditional Chinese medicine.

416
00:37:00.190 –> 00:37:17.029
Nyk Danu Yoga: So up until that point all of the philosophical information that I had about Yoga was in the Indian tradition. So for many, many years of my teaching, that was kind of my focus. Now, I didn’t share that information a lot in my classes, because

417
00:37:17.290 –> 00:37:20.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: I have the humility to know what I don’t know.

418
00:37:20.750 –> 00:37:46.979
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I know that you would need to do years and years and years, and years and years and years and years, a very in depth study, with a very learned teacher to really even have a small grasp on these philosophies and on these these books and these Sutras and the Upanishads, and the Vedas, and all of that, and I didn’t have that. So I wasn’t going around reading these things in my class or sharing these things in my class. They were just something that I was trying to study

419
00:37:47.210 –> 00:37:50.889
Nyk Danu Yoga: more and more as I could, and when it was available to me.

420
00:37:52.790 –> 00:37:56.450
Nyk Danu Yoga: so I knew enough to know all the things I didn’t know which is why I didn’t share them

421
00:37:57.490 –> 00:38:06.100
Nyk Danu Yoga: again. When I was teaching up until I took my Chinese medicine studies. I just shared the anatomical area of a pose.

422
00:38:06.130 –> 00:38:08.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: This pose we’re doing

423
00:38:08.710 –> 00:38:11.139
Nyk Danu Yoga: to feel sensation in your hamstring.

424
00:38:11.400 –> 00:38:33.280
Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’re not feeling that sensation in your hamstring, let me know, and I’ll either come and give you something else to do, or if you’re just a very, very flexible person who never feels sensation in their hamstring, I’ll give you some other things that you can focus your mind on to help with the practice. Right? So that’s what I was doing. I wasn’t talking philosophy. I wasn’t. I was guiding meditation.

425
00:38:34.249 –> 00:38:39.980
Nyk Danu Yoga: The other thing about my own personal philosophical background is that I am Buddhist.

426
00:38:40.290 –> 00:38:54.510
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so there are some definite overlaps in some traditions of Buddhism like, especially Tibetan with the Indian philosophies, and then in others there aren’t. And that’s because Buddhism is a practice that

427
00:38:54.966 –> 00:39:02.580
Nyk Danu Yoga: doesn’t try to go into a country and change the country, so that that country has to leave all its beliefs behind.

428
00:39:02.620 –> 00:39:08.419
Nyk Danu Yoga: or that culture has to leave all their beliefs behind. And now believe this right. It’s not a missionary style

429
00:39:08.640 –> 00:39:10.460
Nyk Danu Yoga: of practice.

430
00:39:10.490 –> 00:39:18.120
Nyk Danu Yoga: if anything, the Buddhism just kind of morphs and changes so that it works with the culture that it’s in. So, for example.

431
00:39:18.470 –> 00:39:23.360
Nyk Danu Yoga: Buddhism in Japan, in Japan could be quite different than Buddhism in India.

432
00:39:23.770 –> 00:39:25.280
Nyk Danu Yoga: and they’re both Buddhism.

433
00:39:25.590 –> 00:39:32.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: This core teachings are the same, but how those teachings are taught, and what’s focused on and what’s not focused on, as much can be quite different.

434
00:39:33.320 –> 00:39:39.329
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I do know that there’s a lot of overlap between Tibetan Buddhism and the Indian philosophies.

435
00:39:40.647 –> 00:39:44.580
Nyk Danu Yoga: In Tibetan Buddhism. There are Chakras. There’s less of them, though.

436
00:39:44.650 –> 00:39:47.490
Nyk Danu Yoga: and again, I’m not an expert to speak on that, so I won’t.

437
00:39:48.800 –> 00:40:02.410
Nyk Danu Yoga: But my philosophical love. And this started probably at about age 21 or 22 was Buddhism, and so I loved learning about these Indian traditions.

438
00:40:02.718 –> 00:40:08.991
Nyk Danu Yoga: But my heart was always over here with the Buddha. By the way, in case you didn’t know Buddha was Indian.

439
00:40:09.650 –> 00:40:10.650
Nyk Danu Yoga: True that

440
00:40:10.910 –> 00:40:18.730
Nyk Danu Yoga: he would have been, I think it would have been, you know, not called Hinduism at the time, but you know he would have been of that tradition. Right?

441
00:40:19.050 –> 00:40:22.670
Nyk Danu Yoga: If you know the story of Buddha, he went wandering around.

442
00:40:22.690 –> 00:40:30.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, trying all these really extreme aesthetic practices as a wandering yogi, and then decided, this isn’t the way.

443
00:40:30.900 –> 00:40:37.949
Nyk Danu Yoga: sat down under a tree and vowed to stay there until he reached enlightenment. That’s this could be a whole, other podcast episode. So I’m not Gonna

444
00:40:38.120 –> 00:40:40.110
Nyk Danu Yoga: not going to go there, but just know

445
00:40:40.260 –> 00:40:41.050
Nyk Danu Yoga: that

446
00:40:41.230 –> 00:40:42.550
Nyk Danu Yoga: Buddha was Indian

447
00:40:43.420 –> 00:40:58.990
Nyk Danu Yoga: and so that was sort of where my philosophical heart was, was more in the Buddhist tradition, which is still a tradition in India it is just considered non orthodox. Right. So again, Buddha was an Indian. Lots of Buddhists in India.

448
00:40:59.410 –> 00:41:03.370
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s just a non-orthodox tradition. So that was kind of where my heart always was.

449
00:41:04.740 –> 00:41:25.760
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then through my own journey of healing from help from Chinese medicine doctors. I started getting really curious about Chinese medicine and Tcm. And you know why, when no doctor could figure out what was wrong with me all of the sudden in Chinese medicine made perfect sense to you, and you were able to needle me in places and give me herbs, and, oh, my gosh! Now I feel better.

450
00:41:25.790 –> 00:41:27.700
Nyk Danu Yoga: What is this miraculous thing?

451
00:41:28.110 –> 00:41:34.360
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so I decided at some point in my life as part of my midlife crisis that I was going to

452
00:41:35.012 –> 00:41:37.200
Nyk Danu Yoga: go study Chinese medicine. And I did.

453
00:41:37.520 –> 00:41:41.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: I studied Chinese medicine, for somewhere in between 2 and a half and 3 years.

454
00:41:42.101 –> 00:41:47.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s hard to know exactly whether it was 2 and a half or 3, because I was also taking other biomedical courses

455
00:41:47.420 –> 00:41:57.839
Nyk Danu Yoga: at my Chinese Medicine College at the same time, like pathophysiology and anatomy and surface anatomy. And you know all these other courses. In addition to my Tcm courses.

456
00:41:58.670 –> 00:42:05.670
Nyk Danu Yoga: I dropped out of that program because I realized at a point that I actually wasn’t super excited about putting needles in people.

457
00:42:06.130 –> 00:42:10.209
Nyk Danu Yoga: Not that it was gross or scary or anything. I just it kind of left me flat.

458
00:42:10.220 –> 00:42:11.560
Nyk Danu Yoga: which is kind of yeah.

459
00:42:12.300 –> 00:42:16.620
Nyk Danu Yoga: And since I already had a long career previous teaching Yoga

460
00:42:17.020 –> 00:42:28.529
Nyk Danu Yoga: that I loved. I was like, I think I’m a little bit too established in Yoga, and a little too old to continue to spend hours and hours and hours and thousands and thousands of dollars on something that leaves me with.

461
00:42:30.080 –> 00:42:32.340
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I realized I didn’t want a needle.

462
00:42:32.910 –> 00:42:36.200
Nyk Danu Yoga: but I fell in love with the philosophy fell in love with the medicine.

463
00:42:36.270 –> 00:42:45.939
Nyk Danu Yoga: and was just about to start studying medical Qigong when you know Covid happened. And so that’s been delayed slightly. But that’s kind of where my path is going to lead.

464
00:42:46.220 –> 00:42:53.810
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’m saying all of this just to say that there was a clear point in my schooling, actually, where I had to kind of look at this again.

465
00:42:54.790 –> 00:42:58.429
Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, I feel really pulled and drawn to Tcm.

466
00:42:59.160 –> 00:43:02.170
Nyk Danu Yoga: And it more so than the Indian tradition.

467
00:43:02.710 –> 00:43:07.540
Nyk Danu Yoga: But is that just because maybe I haven’t studied Ayurveda and the Indian tradition enough?

468
00:43:07.580 –> 00:43:09.689
Nyk Danu Yoga: Maybe maybe not. So I took.

469
00:43:09.780 –> 00:43:14.259
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, a couple more college level Ayurvedic courses.

470
00:43:14.390 –> 00:43:20.710
Nyk Danu Yoga: and that just affirmed to me at the end that although I thought that was a beautiful tradition, the one that really lit me up

471
00:43:20.750 –> 00:43:29.310
Nyk Danu Yoga: set my heart on fire, so to speak, unintended, was traditional Chinese medicine in particular, the 5 elements.

472
00:43:29.940 –> 00:43:34.449
Nyk Danu Yoga: That that philosophy was really just made me go. Yes, yes.

473
00:43:34.760 –> 00:43:38.389
Nyk Danu Yoga: and so that’s kind of where I shifted my teaching.

474
00:43:39.140 –> 00:43:40.770
Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, that being said.

475
00:43:40.810 –> 00:43:43.530
Nyk Danu Yoga: I absolutely love Mantra.

476
00:43:44.280 –> 00:43:46.350
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’ve been singing since I was small.

477
00:43:46.880 –> 00:43:50.610
Nyk Danu Yoga: and so I still will do mantra practices from the Indian tradition

478
00:43:50.750 –> 00:43:59.130
Nyk Danu Yoga: and from in Poly and in Sanskrit. So I will still do it. Mantras that are from that tradition

479
00:44:00.670 –> 00:44:05.519
Nyk Danu Yoga: for me. They’re all non nondenominational. So nothing with a particular god or goddess. But

480
00:44:06.278 –> 00:44:08.509
Nyk Danu Yoga: so that’s kind of where I sit

481
00:44:08.530 –> 00:44:11.109
Nyk Danu Yoga: philosophically in case you were interested.

482
00:44:11.770 –> 00:44:19.649
Nyk Danu Yoga: So what this means for me is that now, what if I do want to share some of this kind of bigger picture philosophy stuff with my students.

483
00:44:20.120 –> 00:44:22.190
Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t feel confused about.

484
00:44:22.300 –> 00:44:39.339
Nyk Danu Yoga: Am I sharing about the 8 limbs? Am I sharing about the Chakras? Am I sharing the Gita, or am I sharing Taoism? Tcm, or am I somehow, in my very confused and stressed out brain, trying to merge these 2 and share them all and not overwhelm my students.

485
00:44:39.660 –> 00:44:41.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: I no longer have that problem

486
00:44:42.700 –> 00:44:43.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: because I,

487
00:44:43.960 –> 00:44:46.139
Nyk Danu Yoga: through my studies, made a choice

488
00:44:46.170 –> 00:44:49.359
Nyk Danu Yoga: that I’m in the sort of Buddhist Taoist.

489
00:44:49.740 –> 00:44:51.680
Nyk Danu Yoga: leaning philosophically.

490
00:44:52.230 –> 00:45:03.339
Nyk Danu Yoga: You might not be that way for you. It might definitely be the more classical or orthodox Indian traditions that you really find. Speak to your heart of hearts.

491
00:45:03.710 –> 00:45:10.479
Nyk Danu Yoga: or some other philosophical tradition I haven’t mentioned at all just talking about these ones, because this is where the confusion usually lies.

492
00:45:11.980 –> 00:45:14.999
Nyk Danu Yoga: What I would say is that I think you should follow your heart.

493
00:45:15.970 –> 00:45:19.430
Nyk Danu Yoga: that if you believe in past lives which I do.

494
00:45:20.520 –> 00:45:25.480
Nyk Danu Yoga: I believe that there’s a reason that I resonate with specific traditions.

495
00:45:25.550 –> 00:45:29.179
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so rather than fighting, that I’m going towards that

496
00:45:30.718 –> 00:45:33.509
Nyk Danu Yoga: and you should definitely choose for yourself

497
00:45:36.730 –> 00:45:40.450
Nyk Danu Yoga: if you feel comfortable and adept at talking about

498
00:45:40.640 –> 00:45:44.509
Nyk Danu Yoga: the Indian traditions and the Taoist traditions together

499
00:45:44.890 –> 00:45:46.680
Nyk Danu Yoga: without confusing yourself

500
00:45:46.840 –> 00:45:48.249
Nyk Danu Yoga: or your students.

501
00:45:48.720 –> 00:45:49.810
Nyk Danu Yoga: You should do that

502
00:45:50.510 –> 00:45:57.610
Nyk Danu Yoga: for most of you, and I’m guessing, based on the confusion. I often see in Facebook groups. That isn’t the case

503
00:45:57.830 –> 00:45:59.990
Nyk Danu Yoga: for most of you.

504
00:46:00.870 –> 00:46:03.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: You are going to

505
00:46:03.490 –> 00:46:12.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: feel sort of like. That’s a lot of information to share, and a little bit of inner turmoil and confusion. And so I would, I would say, sit with it.

506
00:46:12.560 –> 00:46:15.269
Nyk Danu Yoga: learn more about both traditions.

507
00:46:15.610 –> 00:46:17.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: and see which one speaks to your heart

508
00:46:18.040 –> 00:46:23.060
Nyk Danu Yoga: and know that as a Yoga teacher you don’t ever have to talk about Taoism or Chinese medicine.

509
00:46:23.120 –> 00:46:25.340
Nyk Danu Yoga: nor do you have to talk about the Chakras

510
00:46:26.300 –> 00:46:28.120
Nyk Danu Yoga: in your Yoga classes at all

511
00:46:28.880 –> 00:46:31.080
Nyk Danu Yoga: right. You can find other themes.

512
00:46:31.190 –> 00:46:35.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: You can find things from your own life that you can authentically speak to

513
00:46:36.295 –> 00:46:37.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: in those classes.

514
00:46:38.190 –> 00:46:44.000
Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’ve been feeling like you should this you should. That you should should, should, should. We’re always shooting all over ourselves.

515
00:46:44.020 –> 00:46:54.109
Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’ve been feeling that way about this kind of information in your classes, here is your big pink permission slip that you don’t need to talk about any of it in your classes.

516
00:46:54.610 –> 00:47:02.730
Nyk Danu Yoga: If you don’t feel knowledgeable enough to, if it doesn’t resonate with your heart, if it doesn’t come from a grounded sort of embodied place in you.

517
00:47:02.870 –> 00:47:03.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then don’t.

518
00:47:05.260 –> 00:47:06.520
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s that simple.

519
00:47:06.790 –> 00:47:12.200
Nyk Danu Yoga: And the people who are talking about the things that they really resonate with that light them up

520
00:47:12.220 –> 00:47:14.639
Nyk Danu Yoga: will attract the students that

521
00:47:14.710 –> 00:47:17.310
Nyk Danu Yoga: want that information or need that information.

522
00:47:18.580 –> 00:47:20.729
Nyk Danu Yoga: And whatever that information is.

523
00:47:20.760 –> 00:47:28.069
Nyk Danu Yoga: whether it’s just tidbits from your own life, or whether it’s, you know, deeper studies into the philosophies of India, or whether that’s.

524
00:47:28.110 –> 00:47:31.270
Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, deeper studies into Taoism or Buddhism.

525
00:47:31.600 –> 00:47:32.570
Nyk Danu Yoga: Who knows?

526
00:47:34.000 –> 00:47:35.839
Nyk Danu Yoga: One thing I would say.

527
00:47:35.920 –> 00:47:38.189
Nyk Danu Yoga: as kind of a way to

528
00:47:38.690 –> 00:47:39.859
Nyk Danu Yoga: wrap this up

529
00:47:40.650 –> 00:47:41.710
Nyk Danu Yoga: is

530
00:47:42.880 –> 00:47:46.840
Nyk Danu Yoga: what is important to me. I think, as teacher as a teacher is that

531
00:47:47.360 –> 00:47:49.650
Nyk Danu Yoga: we don’t forget that

532
00:47:50.070 –> 00:47:53.090
Nyk Danu Yoga: this is not just a physical practice.

533
00:47:53.530 –> 00:47:56.410
Nyk Danu Yoga: that this isn’t about making funny shapes with your body.

534
00:47:57.000 –> 00:48:01.280
Nyk Danu Yoga: and that you, as a Yoga practitioner and a Yoga, teacher.

535
00:48:01.890 –> 00:48:04.239
Nyk Danu Yoga: should I hate to use that word? But

536
00:48:04.900 –> 00:48:11.259
Nyk Danu Yoga: here’s your permission, slip to feel inspired, to study these things deeply, find knowledgeable teachers.

537
00:48:11.630 –> 00:48:14.820
Nyk Danu Yoga: and study them for your own sake.

538
00:48:14.900 –> 00:48:18.770
Nyk Danu Yoga: for your own practice, for your own heart, for your own spirit.

539
00:48:19.190 –> 00:48:24.880
Nyk Danu Yoga: and then, if at some point in your life you feel like you have enough knowledge and foundation to share that with your students

540
00:48:25.130 –> 00:48:27.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: from an inspired place. Please feel free.

541
00:48:28.690 –> 00:48:35.520
Nyk Danu Yoga: but don’t hear this. You don’t ever have to speak about these things ever again, and think that there’s no point, then, to a deeper study

542
00:48:35.560 –> 00:48:40.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: of philosophy and Yoga there absolutely is. In fact, I will guarantee you.

543
00:48:40.660 –> 00:48:43.359
Nyk Danu Yoga: If you haven’t hit this point yet, you will at some point

544
00:48:43.390 –> 00:48:46.810
Nyk Danu Yoga: once. You’ve been teaching for a long time, like I have.

545
00:48:46.920 –> 00:48:53.180
Nyk Danu Yoga: since, you know, 2,004. If you don’t have a study of a deeper philosophy.

546
00:48:53.600 –> 00:48:55.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: you’re going to get pretty bored

547
00:48:55.570 –> 00:48:58.939
Nyk Danu Yoga: because you know what Asana is only so exciting for so long.

548
00:48:59.540 –> 00:49:02.239
Nyk Danu Yoga: Not that I’m not doing it. Not that I’m not teaching it.

549
00:49:02.840 –> 00:49:07.689
Nyk Danu Yoga: but you know one more way to describe how to get a stretch in this pose.

550
00:49:07.900 –> 00:49:09.209
Nyk Danu Yoga: Whether it’s you know.

551
00:49:09.270 –> 00:49:11.120
Nyk Danu Yoga: whatever practice you’re doing.

552
00:49:11.910 –> 00:49:13.529
Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s not what lights me up

553
00:49:14.580 –> 00:49:25.600
Nyk Danu Yoga: learning more about my craft. The philosophies. Also. You know, current nervous system studies. That’s what I’m nerding out about, you know, Fascia, whatever your thing is.

554
00:49:25.850 –> 00:49:35.700
Nyk Danu Yoga: keep learning. Keep studying, even if you’re not going to use them in your classes. Remember that before you were a teacher you were a Yoga practitioner.

555
00:49:36.250 –> 00:49:40.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: and so keep studying the things that light you up, because what we do for a living

556
00:49:40.530 –> 00:49:45.170
Nyk Danu Yoga: is hard. It’s hard to be a Yoga teacher, especially if you’re trying to do it full time.

557
00:49:45.200 –> 00:49:57.330
Nyk Danu Yoga: So you gotta have something from these practices that’s yours, to just light you up, to fill your heart and to inspire you otherwise on the days where you don’t want to get up, and you don’t want to teach another class.

558
00:49:57.400 –> 00:49:59.400
Nyk Danu Yoga: You don’t have anything to

559
00:49:59.939 –> 00:50:01.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: to help you.

560
00:50:02.260 –> 00:50:03.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

561
00:50:03.920 –> 00:50:13.759
Nyk Danu Yoga: I hope that I didn’t confuse things more. I know I did not give you in a definitive answer. You know the title might have led you to think that I’m going to tell you whether you should talk about Chakras.

562
00:50:13.990 –> 00:50:17.559
Nyk Danu Yoga: or whether you should talk about meridians, or whether you should talk about them both.

563
00:50:17.980 –> 00:50:19.630
Nyk Danu Yoga: But I’m not the boss of you

564
00:50:20.030 –> 00:50:20.880
Nyk Danu Yoga: so.

565
00:50:21.200 –> 00:50:30.350
Nyk Danu Yoga: My hope is just that for those of you that are really confused, that either you learned something from this, or even if you didn’t learn anything. You knew all of this history already.

566
00:50:30.470 –> 00:50:33.489
Nyk Danu Yoga: Maybe it just gave you a permission slip to follow your heart

567
00:50:33.560 –> 00:50:35.590
Nyk Danu Yoga: with your teachings, because

568
00:50:35.620 –> 00:50:40.220
Nyk Danu Yoga: if your teachings don’t come from a grounded, centered, rooted place.

569
00:50:40.690 –> 00:50:44.569
Nyk Danu Yoga: That, then, is inspired by your heart, meaning your

570
00:50:45.330 –> 00:50:49.550
Nyk Danu Yoga: compassion for wanting to share what you know with your students.

571
00:50:50.190 –> 00:50:51.200
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then it’s

572
00:50:51.250 –> 00:50:52.619
Nyk Danu Yoga: just pretzel stuff.

573
00:50:53.520 –> 00:50:56.690
Nyk Danu Yoga: and that’s not going to feel good for very long as a teacher.

574
00:50:57.790 –> 00:51:00.250
Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, my friends, I hope you find this helpful.

575
00:51:00.933 –> 00:51:12.430
Nyk Danu Yoga: Please feel free to let me know if you have questions. If you have topic ideas, if you are confused, if you have conundrums, please message me on Instagram.

576
00:51:12.880 –> 00:51:15.485
Nyk Danu Yoga: Just send me a little message.

577
00:51:16.060 –> 00:51:28.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: either at Nick, Danu, Yoga, or at Yin Yoga, podcast with your questions, and I will happily make an episode on them. If I feel qualified to talk about it, I will. If I don’t, I will find someone who is qualified to talk on it.

578
00:51:28.810 –> 00:51:29.680
Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

579
00:51:29.940 –> 00:51:31.430
Nyk Danu Yoga: until we meet again.

580
00:51:31.650 –> 00:51:32.670
Nyk Danu Yoga: Bye, for now.

581
00:51:37.500 –> 00:51:39.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, until we meet again.

582
00:51:40.190 –> 00:51:41.240
Nyk Danu Yoga: Bye, for now.