Vinaysa vs Hatha | Motion vs Stillness | Yoga is Life
When people realise I am yogi, the question i get is "what kind of yoga do you do?". I often want to start that answer with a smile and a long explanation- but I then think it might come across as too pretentious and arrogant and end up answering with a plain " I do all kinds - hatha, vinaysa, but the core of all asana practice of all yoga is hatha yoga". And that's true - any kind of physical asana practice (ashtanga, bikram, power, vinyasa) is all Hatha - which is a perfect balance of the Sun (Ha) and the Moon (Tha) - the hot and cold energies, the male and female present within each of us, the need to be willful and also let go - prevalent not just in human beings, but anything you see around you in nature. Every ying has it's yang, every night circles back to a day. I see this confluence a natural way of being - for no-one and nothing can stay static in it's own form forever. This impermanence scares people - it has scared me many a time in the...