Yin & Yang Beyond the binary

As a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, yoga practitioner and teacher, over the past several years I have become increasingly aware of the problematic conceptual binaries that run through our western approach to the traditional energetic philosophies & practices of Yoga and Traditional Chinese Medicine. In yoga language we see this as Shiva & Shakti, the lunar and solar energies of the body, and here at the clinic in Chinese Medicine, the ever-present Yin and Yang. Often, these are presented as two ends of a spectrum (yang/shakti/pingala/solar = heat, light, active, “masculine” etc. and yin/shiva/ida/lunar = cool, dark, passive, soft, “feminine”), however in both theory and felt experience they are inherently fluid and relational as the edges of one can only be delineated in correlation to the other. Within this great cosmic dance of the continual rise and fall of all conditioned phenomena, the processes of the body/mind/spirit are also dynamic and always in flux. Using the example of heat and cool, one can only be defined in comparison to the other (where there is heat, there is not ice, and vice versa) and there is a vast range of temperatures (lukewarm, warm, cool, etc) and associated manifestations between/within each. Queer bodies are viewed by western culture in a way that is antithetical to my understanding of the core energetics of practice. This reframed, deconstructed approach is one way to assert that queerness is not simply welcome within this framework but a foundational part of it.

The yin/yang circular symbol is a beautiful representation of this inherent fluidity: while there are clear borders between the white and the black segments, within each is a piece of the other, demonstrating the constant interchange between the two, as each exists within the other as well as in complement to each other. One always contains the other. One is always transforming into the other. One cannot exist without the other. Imbalance occurs when there is too much of one overacting on or drawing from the other one, as it is only in relaxed, moving interchange that there can be balance. Returning to the heat & cool analogy: if there is too much heat, fluids and other matter will burn up; however, without heat, cool can turn to ice, which leads to stagnation. Both heat and cool are natural and vital; even at their fiery, icy extremes, they exist not in a state of co-dependence, but of interdependence. Temperature and all of the representations of yin and yang are much like gender itself: subjective, malleable, and ultimately only definable by the individual experiencing it. 

There is a casual and somewhat pedestrian association between yin/female and yang/male which can be limiting at best and hurtful at worst; the traits that are often culturally ascribed to each are not intrinsically male or female but simply traits that can, do, and should exist within all genders. Masculinity and femininity are far more prismatic and expansive than the binary into which they are too-often forced. One of the things I love about working with the body is observing the near-infinite different manifestations of patterns, sensations, and experiences by the near-infinite different manifestations of bodies. Is the anger that simmers about reproductive rights inherently male? Is the cool dispassion that we can experience in deep states of meditation somehow female? Or, we can simply recognize that each of us is a microcosm of all of the energies, phases, and expressions of the universe at large. Nuance comes with awareness, skill and a willingness to see with some level of objectivity where we are in each moment, looking toward an understanding of the bigger picture while recognizing that health and disease fluctuates as much as we do, both from person to person and within the same individual. When we understand that the reality of the subtle energy of the human body is far more complex and sensitive than a simple binary, we open ourselves to truly stepping into the flow of ourselves as expressions of nature.