Oriental approaches to masculine and feminine subtle energy principles

Abstract

According to ancient Indian and Chinese texts the subtle energy (pra-na or chi) flows through several thousand anatomically indistinguishable channels or meridians (nadis). Three channels are especially important (ida, pingaia, and sushum-na). The ida and pingaia channels correlate with left and right uninostril breathing, respectively. Like yin and yang, they are considered to represent the masculine and feminine principles present in all creation irrespective of sex. From this perspective these principles are assumed to be present simultaneously in persons of both sexes. This suggests that any sex-specific effects of uninostril breathing may be associated with sex-based physiological differences, not with 'masculine' and 'feminine' attributes of the channels (and the corresponding nostrils).