Dear YinYogi (great handle by the way!)
Paul Grilley has a wonderful resource that you may want to invest in if this is a topic of great interest to you. It is his DVD called
Chakra Theory and Meditation. He also offers a 16-day training on Chakra Theory, which you can review on his
web site.
Normally, to balance the chakra the emphasis is on meditation and breathwork. (See Paul’s book
Yin Yoga – 10th anniversary edition, where he says, “In the physical dimension, purification [of the chakras] is achieved by sitting still and slowly restricting the breath”. – page 105). You are asking for yin yoga asanas, and I am not aware of any direct correlation to only yin yoga postures and balancing the chakras.
However, Paul’s teacher –
Dr Hiroshi Motoyama, has
written often and extensively on the chakras. He too suggests guided meditation, bandhas, mudras and breathwork to work these areas. In his 2003 book,
Awakening of the chakras and emancipation, he suggests for training of the muladhara chakra sitting in Siddhasana or Japanese Seiza (sitting on the heels) while meditating and focusing on the tip of the nose. Again this is a meditation, not an asana. For the svadhisthana, he suggests the pranayama practice of
Nadi Shodhana, Nauli, Shusten (the
Microcosmic Orbit), but he is suggests Locust pose, which is very yang. To learn his recommendations for all the other chakras, I refer you to his book.
In his earlier book,
Theories of the Chakras, he does make more recommendations for asanas to stimulate the chakras, but again these are mostly yang postures. He groups the asanas into 3: the first for promoting prana circulation (which includes the
pawanmuktasanas); the second for regulating the shusumna nadi (these include tadasana, hasta uttanasana, pada hastasana, yoga mudra, caterpillar, straddle, sphinx/seal, dhanurasana, snail, fish, triangle, seated twists, neck movements); the third meditation. Again to learn these in detail, I suggest you acquire his book.
As you just saw, most of these postures were yang-like: muscular or dynamic movements. The meditations are done in yin-like postures, however. I suppose another approach is to equate the Daoist map to the Indian map: Kidney/Urinary Bladder is similar to the Svadhisthana chakra; Stomach/Spleen is similar to the Manipura chakra; Heart/Lung meridians could be equated to the Anahata chakra. I don’t know if we can equate the other meridian/organs to the other chakras, but fore these three, anything you do in Yin Yoga to stimulate the Kidneys, Stomach, Heart meridians could be helping balance the Svadhisthana, Manipura and Anahata chakras. But that is a pure speculation on my part.
Good luck! I hope this helps a little.
Bernie