Daoyin

What is Daoyin?

Daoyin (導引) is a loose collection of Chinese body arts that consists of rolling, crawling, jumping, and massaging. With roots in shamanic dance, daoyin embodies the movement of animals and the flow of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.

The goal of this practice is to open up spaces in the body, freeing us to return to our spontaneous natures. In this way, daoyin is a thread of Daoist cultivation—a body practice that harmonizes with meditation, diet, medicine, and art.

The name “daoyin” is boringly translated as “guiding and pulling.” Dao (導) combines the character for “path” with the character for “inch.” Hence, “guiding, tweaking, nudging us back to the Way.” Yin (引) includes the character for “bow and arrow.” To draw a bow is to open a space of potential energy. In the body, this means the ability to move in any way with no preference.

Daoyin can be wild and theatrical, or calm and meditative. Because the Dao is “bigger than Mount Tai” and “smaller than the tip of a downy hair,” daoyin is a limitless practice. By emphasizing playfulness and improvisation over fixed forms, we discover our innate capacity for movement. As we unlearn old habits, we may be surprised to discover an appetite for all kinds of self-expression. Fiery people can dive into cool, refreshing water. Earthy people can discover the boundless curiosity of the wood element.

There is certainly a place for form, technique, and good body mechanics. Daoyin simply flips the game on its head by showing us the power, precision, and discipline that comes from doing something we actually enjoy.

People come to daoyin for many reasons. Some want to heal injuries or chronic conditions. Some want to become better fighters. Some want to get their body ready for swimsuit season. When I approach my practice in a sincere, open-minded way, the benefits seem to arrive on their own—and the ones that don’t, I am better able to let go. Perhaps nude sunbathing wasn’t for me anyway.

Building your daoyin practice means building a relationship with yourself. It is a journey into the possibilities within you, but also out into the glittering world around you. In the Daoist view, life is a web of concentric circles: body, home, community, world, cosmos. Your practice sends ripples through the web, and the ripples come back to you.

Life is a dance between the known and the unknown. We make all sorts of connections, but we can never see the whole web. Daoyin teaches us to stay alive to possibility without holding on too hard to one thread.

I hope you will join me in this seriously playful practice.

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