Just wondering if anyone has practiced Hatha Yoga and what your experiences have been with it.

I recently did some very basic (but needed for me) Hatha Yoga with a teacher and I must say that I am amazed by the amount of Yuan chi that has resulted as well as the timeless states and general feelings of well being. The thing that I feel has contributed to this which I learned from the teacher is to breath properly as well as proper posture as well as the exercises to help with these. I am amazed at the yuan chi that builds from this simple practice of proper breathing and posture. It is basically a very natural kan and li. Proper meditation posture is taught in HT but the breathing isn't.

I guess it is just part of the journey for me. I signed up for Yoga classes and am very much looking forward to them.

Matt

I've been getting into stretching these days too. Good shit.

How do these people teach you to breath?

In the Sanskrit "ha" means "sun" and "tha" means " moon" so I believe Hatha Yoga was at least originally intended to be a type of Kan Li. Revisiting Yoga after working with Taoist stuff for a few years and I'm finding it's a lot more balanced than Chia/Winn make it out to be ... I think Winn was probably doing some really unbalanced Kundalini methods when he met Chia for the first time ... the path is not all ascending fire.

Sean

Couldn't agree more. I find more depth in my yoga practice everyday. It's true that if you keep practicing, the lessons just come to you. I can probably study the 'simple' 3 part breath forever as it continuously reveals it's secrets. Also, the bandhas can get more and more refined and deep in regards to their secrets.
thaddeus


another good thing about yoga practice is having your hands on the floor. You can really understand moving *using* the breath as opposed to 'coordinated' with the breath. Your breath can move you. This is harder to get in something like taichi practice because most people don't get moving the body using the legs the kwa. In that case the breath is pushing down into the feet and moving the body. Yoga makes it much more obvious, then you can use that knowledge in other systems.
fwiw,
thaddeus