18 A JOURNEY INTO YIN YOGA
and had an internal focus. He taught his students to be aware equally of both
the external and inner world. In 1989, Paul Grilley became a student of Paulie
Zink. Paul Grilley wrote the following in his book, Yin Yoga: Principles and
Practice (2012, xiii):I contacted Paulie, and he graciously invited me to join his weekly
class on Taoist Yoga. Paulie practiced poses for five to ten minutes
at a time, chatting contentedly as he led the class. After nearly two
hours of floor poses we would stand and do some moving yang
forms that imitated the movements of animals. It was all very inter-
esting and all very different from the hatha yoga I was teaching.I stopped training with Paulie after about a year. By then I under-
stood the simple principles of yin yoga. I had practiced some of his
yang forms and had even dabbled in some of his kicking and punch-
ing exercises, but my interests were the floor poses, and it seemed
inappropriate to take up Paulie’s time when he had several students
who wished to learn all aspects of the Taoist Yoga he had to offer.When I started to teach long floor postures in my public classes
the studio owners wanted to know what to name the style in their
advertising. Even though I included many traditional hatha yoga
postures in my classes, the long, slow holds were certainly differ-
ent from what everyone else in the studio was teaching, so out of
respect for Paulie Zink I suggested “Taoist Yoga.” And that was the
name I used for 10 years.Paul Grilley created an incredible yin yoga video. Viewing it was a pivotal
moment in my life when I was healing my serious knee injury. His video
provides multiple practices that have different emphases. He also includes
educational lectures that explain some of the science related to yin yoga,
inspired by anatomy teacher Dr. Gary Parker. Paul’s other inspiration, Dr.
Motoyama, who was a Shinto priest and held doctorates in philosophy and
physiological psychology, was also an inspiration in introducing the concept
of the chakras and the meridians.
So, you may be wondering where the name yin yoga came from when
the original name was Taoist yoga. Enter yoga and meditation teacher Sarah
Powers, of “Insight Yoga.” Sarah Powers was led to Paul Grilley’s yin yoga
practice because of a back injury. In her book, Insight Yoga (2008), she writes
the following: