The Yin Yoga Institute       Preserving the Spirit

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Yin Yoga Poses

About the History and Art of Yin Yoga

The video is one of Paulie's Kung fu Empty Hands competition performances
at the Long Beach International Karate Championships.
Paulie won the Grand Championship three consecutive years.
Read more about Paulie's Monkey Kung Fu


Paulie Zink's Yin Yoga Teacher
Certification Schedule
Paulie Zink's Yin Yoga Teaching
Philosophy & Ethics

"Yin yoga is an art form not an exact science. The purpose of Yin yoga is to take us out of the systems of social convention, indoctrination, and mechanistic ways of thinking, not to reinforce them by demanding conformity to rigid, limited paradigms. The practice of Yin yoga poses does not require scientific approval or validation. Intellectualizing the practice of Yin yoga serves to obstruct a deeper understanding of its essence. The real power to authorize truth is contained within each and every one of us."

Master Paulie Zink~ the founder of Yin yoga
​PaulieZink.com
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Interview with Paulie Zink- Yoga International Magazine:
yogainternational.com/article/view/the-art-of-yin-yoga

Paulie Zink
Paulie Zink was the sole protégé of Chinese martial arts and Chi kung Master Cho Chat Ling. Master Cho came to Paulie’s
home and instructed him privately every day for six to seven hours. About two to three hours of his daily practice were
devoted to Taoist Chi Kung (energy cultivation, physical conditioning, and flexibility training). Paulie was taught these Taoist arts as a foundation for his martial arts training. Master Cho instructed Paulie in three distinct Kung-fu styles collectively called Tai Shing Pek Kwar and combined into a discipline that demanded tremendous mental concentration, harsh physical exercise, and esoteric spiritual practices. Master Cho trained Paulie for a total of ten years and never charged him for his tutelage, as is often customary with proteges of these secret lineages.

During the years Paulie was being trained by his master, he studied Taoist alchemy theory and spent many hours observing animals on his own initiative. Paulie created his own distinctive style of yoga using the Taoist system he had learned as a foundation. He also incorporated some of the Hatha yoga he had practiced as a teenager. Paulie developed more postures and variations, as well as movements, philosophy, meditations, and perceptions, all of which were based on his ability to embody primal energy, his direct alchemical and mystical experiences, his personal insights and his cultivated animal awareness. It never occurred to Paulie to brand his art. He simply called it "Taoist yoga." (Paulie's master did not call it "yoga." He referred to the flexibility training as a component of the chi kung he schooled Paulie in.)

 

As a three time international martial arts grand-champion, Paulie is renowned for his fluidity, flexibility and artistry of motion. Paulie continues to evolve his Yin yoga as a living, dynamic art. He brings to his teaching over 35 years experience and a profound knowledge he conveys with a simple clarity that comes from true understanding.
 

Yin Yoga
 

Yin yoga is Master Zink's unique style of Taoist yoga which originated from the ancient Taoist health practices, philosophy,
and spiritual traditions of China. Being in harmony with the rhythm and flow of nature is the essence of Taoist attitude.

 

The art of Yin yoga draws upon the doctrine of the five elements of Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire, and the principle of  yin and yang used in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. Yin and yang are the polarities of a whole, the complimentary opposites of dark and light, cold and hot, soft and hard, female and male that allow all things to come into being.
They are the two sides of a coin. One cannot exist without the other. Yin and yang is the vibration of the universe, the

energy that informs all life.
 

In the practice of Yin yoga specific yoga postures are used to invoke the spiritual attributes of various creatures, both real
and mythical, and to activate the transformational properties of the five alchemical elements, thus enlivening and harmonizing these energies within the body and animating the primal spirit that resides within us all. Integrating the power and healing aspects of these principles will help to balance emotions and put one into accord with the true nature of our being.

Master Zink developed his style of Yin yoga from the ancient tradition of Taoist yoga that is indigenous to China.
Master Zink has studied Hatha yoga and has incorporated some of the Hatha tradition into his art. However, the yang component of his style is of Taoist origin. Some yoga teachers are teaching Paulie Zink's Yin yoga combined with yang-like Hatha yoga. However, this is not representative of Master Zink's complete art of yin yang yoga. Taoist yoga is replete with its own yang postures and properties. Paulie Zink's complete art of Yin yoga is more accurately referred to as yin yang yoga,
he uses these two names interchangeably. 

 

THE COMPLETE ART OF YIN YOGA ENCOMPASSES:

YIN YOGA poses of stillness for promoting growth, clearing energetic blockages, and enhancing circulation.

YANG YOGA Poses for developing core strength and muscle tone, balance, and stamina.

YIN YOGA FLOW-
Including both yin and yang yoga posture, yin flow is more than just a sequence of postures.
In yin flow the process of transition from pose to pose is as integral to the practice as the postures themselves.
Yin yoga movement incorporates continuous, smooth and circular motion that promotes relaxed confidence, fluidity

and grace in the body.

YIN YOGA ALCHEMY-
Cultivating and harmonizing the five transforming elemental energies of Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire that are contained in the universal life field and animate distinct qualities in the body such lightness, fluidity, strength, springiness and calm.

 

CHI KUNG-
These exercises involve very simple and gentle movements and breathing techniques. They are designed to increase vitality
and torestore harmony in the natural rhythms and functions of the body and its energetic field.


How Yin Yoga Got Its Name

The popularized version of Yin yoga that is commonly being taught is the first level of Paulie Zink’s Taoist art of Yin yoga.
Paul Grilley studied Taoist Yoga with Master Zink for about a year in the late 1980’s and learned a beginner level of Paulie's Yin yoga art. Grilley then taught the basics he learned about Paulie's Taoist Yoga to Sarah Powers. Sarah began teaching what she learned from Grilley and changed the name to yin yoga.

Grilley developed an academic curriculum based on anatomy, his own philosophy and theories, and Dr. Motoyama's
scientific research on acupuncture meridians and chakras.


Science without Spirit

“What has made technology so destructive, and what has made science so terrifying is that they have exercised spirit. There is no spirit left. And spirit is necessary. By getting rid of spirit, science forever abandoned the possibility of explaining life. They wont be able to. As long as they are reductionist they can forget about explaining life.

If we were to allow the spirit back in then our science would begin to look like alchemy. I believe we have to get past this subject-object dualism. And in the area of technology the way you get past it is in the concept of the philosopher’s stone.* What we need and want is a marriage of spirit and matter where the modalities of each are honored in that marriage.

Alchemy was the belief that there was a perfect form of matter. And if you could create this form of matter it would make you immortal. [This magical matter is an undifferentiated, primordial material that can be willed to assume any form.] It is the externalization of the soul. It is matter behaving as though it were spirit or spirit behaving as though it were matter. And I think a reclaimed science would take this much more seriously because it is possible.

I have actually seen the ordinary laws of physics violated. This means that the ultimate set of laws is not the set of [physical] laws that appear to be in operation.”

Terence McKenna
Excerpt from the lecture "Mind and Time, Spirit and Matter" available at SoundPhotoSynthesis.com


*The Philosopher’s Stone is a legendary alchemical substance believed to be able to transmute base metals into gold. In the Taoist tradition it was considered to be an elixir of life capable of rejuvenating the body and achieving immortality and transcendence of the corporeal form.