Whether you consider yourself a spiritual person or not, whether you think spirituality has played a positive or negative role in history, it's undeniable that man has engaged in these activities since the dawn of time: study, meditation, fasting, prayer, recollection, devotion, purification, discipline, thus marking the evolution of mankind.
In the search for knowledge and wisdom, we can ask ourselves the following question: How can we know what is real?

To define the Tao is to lose it.

To define oneself is to lose all possible options within oneself.
The simplicity that permeates the teaching of the Tao indicates man's moderate stance towards life, valuing the balance between cause and consequence or essence and substance.

Regulating Qi

From a medical and energetic point of view, the body's vital energy, known as Qi/Prana, must circulate throughout the body at all times if the system is to remain healthy. When Qi/Prana stagnates, this creates an imbalance that manifests itself as a deficiency or excess in the meridian system. At best, it's a feeling of discomfort. If it is recurrent, it will evolve into a pathological form.

The methodology presented here is the continuation of a teaching that was lost in time immemorial and has survived through the ages. It synthesizes two major schools of thought in the study of yoga, Sri Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and the Tantric approach to chakra meditation. Both have different perspectives on the same subject, the spiritual nature of humanity and its ascension or realization.

Yin Yoga acts as a particularly conducive platform for the practitioner in search of self-observation and self-exploration, the innate relaxation that emerges from Yin practice exposes the Yogi to profound understandings, usually about the body, phenomenal perception or the mind-consciousness relationship.

If we consider the qualities of Yin Yoga, we can easily recognise that it is a practice of letting go and introspection. The latter two elements constitute the alpha and omega of the practice of Yin Yoga, allowing the practitioner to slowly withdraw from his or her nervous system, and then to expand his or her awareness to a wider range of internal perceptions.

Wu-wei refers to the cultivation of a state of being in which our actions effortlessly align with the ebb and flow of the elemental cycles of the natural world. It is a kind of "going with the flow" that is characterised by a high degree of ease and perception, in which - without even trying - we are able to respond ideally to any situation that arises, in sport he would call it being in the zone.

Yin Yoga brings TCM to the forefront, drawing on its Taoist roots, but also on its scientific approach. Indeed, Yin Yoga has contributed greatly to the understanding of modern meridian theory with the groundbreaking work of Dr Motoyama and that of Paul Grilley who received an honorary doctorate for his research into the relationship between fascia and the network of energy channels.

If we explore the different aspects of meditation that we find in the two traditions, yogic and Buddhist. We can conclude that there has always been an interdependent dynamic and polarity in meditation. The best known being Dharana & Dhyana also found in the 8 limbs of Patanjali.

Is there anything more obvious than the constant change of all life's phenomena?

You don't have to look very far to grasp the concept of impermanence, like the constant cycle of the seasons or even the natural ageing of our own bodies...

It is obvious that nothing lasts... Neither the sunny days nor the comfort of youth, like the progression of the sun rising, shining and diminishing in the sky, from the moment we are born the finiteness of our physical life is implanted and the seed of impermanence sprouts ad libitum.

Why should I do this training?

The involvement with this training began almost two decades ago, when we started attending meditation retreats and having a regular meditation practice from 2002. We knew we wanted to go further, deeper on the path of finding the Self. We have both been practising yoga since the early 90's, and then we naturally turned to meditation, that was the unfolding of our Sadhana.

Interview with Sebastian Pucelle & Murielle Burellier: Yin Yoga Teacher Training, by Gabrielle Harris

Gabrielle: I don't teach and I don't plan to teach. Would these courses be suitable for me?

Murielle and Sebastian: Yes of course, you don't have to be a teacher or even want to teach to be able to follow our training. We are building our module 1 around a functional approach to yoga practice and we believe that this will completely change the way you approach your practice and your teaching.