Zen

NIRVANA: THE LAST NIGHTMARE

Chapter 6: Taking the risk

Question 3

 

 

Energy Enhancement                Enlightened Texts                Zen                 Nirvana: The Last Nightmare

 

 

Question 3

YOU HAVE MENTIONED MANY TIMES THE CHRISTIAN TRINITY: THE FATHER, THE SON AND THE HOLY GHOST. COULD YOU TELL US PLEASE, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MOTHER?

All the religions of the world were founded by men; not a single religion has been founded by any woman. And of course the male ego, the male chauvinism, has been the root cause of all the doctrines that have been created to explain existence.

It is very difficult for the male ego to think of woman as the creator. Even to give a small portion in the trinity to woman seems to be difficult. Everything has been managed by man. Man has been the manager in this world and, of course, he has created the concept of the other world. There also he goes on managing.

God is man, the holy ghost is man, the son is man.... Not that it is so. If there is any god, he is bound to be both man and woman. He cannot be just male -- that is impossible, that will be incomplete. He must be a complete circle -- male-female, yin-yang.

In the East we have been more aware. In sanskrit, the brahma, the ultimate god, is neither male nor female. That's truer -- because he is both. He does not belong to any gender. He is beyond gender. That seems to be truer, a better concept. Because life exists in polarities. Life cannot exist with one pole. Electricity cannot exist only as positive or only as negative. The negative and the positive -- both poles are needed. Between these poles exists the phenomenon of electricity.

Humanity cannot exist just as man or as woman. Both are needed to make it a complete whole... a graceful, elegant whole. Man alone is incomplete. Woman alone is also incomplete.

Look at life. All polarities are joined together there -- life and death, love and hate, day and night, summer and winter. All polarities are joined together... the earth and the sky. The god is the total, the whole.

The whole cannot be just male. This is a male attitude -- if people say that the whole is just male. It is a male chauvinist attitude.

Now women are reacting to it. Women who are in the lib. movement have started calling god 'she'. They don't call god 'he' any more. That is a reaction. One can understand the reaction. But the reaction is again the same -- the same mistake is again committed. God is both he and she.

In sanskrit we don't use he or she for god. We use tat -- tat means that. An indication, a simple indication without saying who god is -- he or she. Tat -- that. A simple indication without saying anything about god's gender.

Sooner or later humanity will come to understand this -- that man and woman are complementaries. Opposites, yet complementaries, creating one whole.

Because of this idea that god is man, man has created such absurd theories that you cannot imagine. In India also, jains say that a woman cannot be liberated, cannot become liberated from the female body. First she will have to be born as a man; only man can become liberated. Stupid! -- because the soul is neither man nor woman. Even Buddha, for many years would not allow women to be initiated as sannyasins. Only very late in his life he relaxed.

People come to me and they say, 'What is happening in this ashram? So many women, so many men!'

Because in the past, ashrams have existed always for men. If ashrams existed for women then they were purely for women.

Religions have been separating man and woman. There are christian monasteries in the West where no woman has ever entered, where no woman is allowed to enter. There are trappist monasteries where, once a man enters, he never comes out because of the fear of meeting some woman in the town, in the city somewhere.

Sex has been the forbidden thing. Love has been the condemned thing. And man has tried to become completely independent -- as if that is possible. That is not possible. The energy needs the opposite.

Hindus are more scientific in that way. If you go to a hindu temple, there you will find Krishna with Radha, Shiva with Parvati, Ram with Sita. The feminine energy is there. It has to be there to make the god complete.

In a jain temple, Mahavir stands alone. It looks a little awkward, a little incomplete. In a buddhist temple, Buddha sits alone. In a christian church, Jesus is crucified, is on the cross, but alone. Of course, if a church looks very sad, it is natural. The other energy, which can make it a celebration, is missing. When man and woman are together, life celebrates; there is rejoicing.

Have you watched twenty men sitting in a room? You will feel a certain sadness settling. Then a woman comes in -- suddenly a flare-up of energy... kundalini arises. Everybody becomes alert; something is happening. It is not a question of bodies; it is a question of energy. The opposite polarity has come in -- sparks start happening. The opposite energy is there -- the magnetism starts functioning.

A world only of men will be a very drab and dull world. The trinity must be bored by now. The father, the holy ghost and the son -- what are they doing now? It must be very boring company. Just think of it -- one should get scared!

No, it cannot make life complete. A mixing of energy is needed; only then life goes on reaching to higher levels. It is a dialectics -- the thesis, the antithesis, and between the two arises the peak of synthesis. Then the synthesis again functions as a thesis, again antithesis... a higher synthesis arises. It is a continuous creation of a symphony of energies.

So my ashram is very strange. That's why you don't see many indians here. They cannot believe that this is an ashram. They have known only sad people sitting in ashrams, almost dead. They cannot believe so much rejoicing, so much delight.

Just the other day one indian wrote a letter and he said, 'Everything is okay, but after the meditations, or even after your lecture, there are a few couples who start hugging each other, kissing each other. This looks irreligious.'

What can be more religious?

Love is religion, but for centuries love has been condemned. For centuries love has been a sin. For centuries man and woman have existed separately, meeting only in the dark of the night when nobody knows that they are meeting, and then separating again. And feeling guilty for the meeting, and feeling deeply troubled that the desire arises for the woman or the desire arises for the man. It is simply natural. It is not a question of you; it is a question of energies -- positive and negative energies meeting. When they meet, new life arises.

The christian doctrine is certainly wrong. God should be given more freedom so that he can move between the polarities. In India we have a concept of Shiva as Ardhanarishwar -- that seems to be one of the highest peaks of understanding.

Ardhanarishwar means god is half-man, half-woman. You may have seen the statue or a photograph of the statue of Ardhanarishwar in which Shiva is half-man, half-woman. It is greatly symbolic; deeply indicative of understanding. This is how it should be.

It happened once:

"A vicar was awarding prizes at the local dog-show. He was very much scandalized at the costumes worn by members of the younger fair sex.

'Look at that youngster,' he said, 'the one with cropped hair, the cigarette and the breeches, and holding two pups. Is it a boy or a girl?'

'A girl,' said his companion. 'She is my daughter.'

'My dear sir,' the vicar was flustered, 'do forgive me. I would never have been so outspoken had I known you were her father.'

'I'm not,' said the other. 'I am her mother."'

Someday this is going to be the case with god. And it will be a beautiful day when god comes in unisex costumes, and no one will be able to say who is coming -- she or he. That will be a great day of liberation from male concepts. That will be a great day of human understanding about god -- not man's understanding or woman's understanding.

 

Next: Chapter 6: Taking the risk, Question 4

 

Energy Enhancement                Enlightened Texts                Zen                 Nirvana: The Last Nightmare

 

 

Chapter 6

 

 

 

 
ENERGY ENHANCEMENT
TESTIMONIALS
EE LEVEL1   EE LEVEL2
EE LEVEL3   EE LEVEL4   EE FAQS
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
NAME:
EMAIL:

Google

Search energyenhancement.org Search web