American Buddhist Monk
2009-11-01 19:37:12 UTC
Why Don't More Women Attain Enlightenment - Zen Master Rama, Dr.
Frederick Lenz
Main Page:
www.ramaquotes.com
Why don't more women attain enlightenment:
www.ramaquotes.com/html/women_enlightenment.html
Zen Master Rama:
"Why don't more women attain enlightenment?
I observe that more evolved souls are now reincarnating as women.
Women find it easier to meditate and easier to develop the psychic
abilities.
Enlightenment comes through the feminine side of the being.
The most important problem for our world to solve is the inequality of
men and women.
When women come into their full power, a balance will occur which has
not been seen for so long that no one remembers it.
Until women assume their rightful place on earth there will never be
an end to wars, cruelty and opression.
A species divided against itself will eventually fall.
If global extinction is to be avoided, woman must unite and come to
terms with their destiny.
If even one woman in the West were to become enlightened, it would
change karmas on this planet.
The world has never had a greater need for enligthened women and men.
What is male and female? Is it just a physical condition? No. The
energy runs very, very differently in a woman than in a man.
What is a woman? A woman is chaos. Chaos is the naturally perfect
state of all things.
A man, as we see in this world, is chaos, but he doesn't recognize
that fact so he tries to bring order into everything. Order is
disorder. Order creates disorder.
It is much easier for a woman to meditate than it is for men,
innately. Their subtle physical bodies pick up the kundalini much more
quickly.
Women vibrate at a slightly different rate that passes kundalini very
easily. It is problematic though, because a woman also picks up
negative energy, it affects her more.
There is something beyond the natural chaos that is woman or the chaos
with implied order that is man, and that's the totality. To stay as we
are, is not the issue, but to awake from the dream of life.
I don't work with men who are antagonistic to the liberation of women.
I do work with quite a number of men who are supportive of the
enlightenment of women. Such men are rare.
People always say, 'A good man is hard to find.' You've never heard
that about women, have you?
It is equally easy, initially, for either a man or a woman to attain
enlightenment, what we would call liberation or self-realization.
It seems strange, since the aspect of a woman is power and that her
subtle physical body conducts light very well, that more women don't
attain enlightenment than men. I would suggest that the reason this is
so, is cultural.
Women have been denied access to advanced methods of self discovery
throughout the ages.
The few women who have been admitted to the study are usually given a
second-class status in which they are taught only the basics of self-
discovery.
They are denied access to the more advanced techniques of releasing
the kundalini energy, which bring about quantum leaps in self-
awareness.
Many Eastern spiritual groups feel that women are not capable of
enlightenment. They advise women to have sons and pray to be men in
their next incarnations
Women have been systematically pushed out of spirituality by men.
In the Bhagavad-Gita, a book that I revere and respect, it's indicated
that even women, along with animals, are capable of attaining
enlightenment.
Historically men have suppressed women quite effectively. They have
suppressed women since the beginning of our history.
There's this absurd innate need in most men to feel that they're more
powerful than women are, which is ridiculous.
Women have been taught that they are not powerful; they've been given
an opposite description, that they are weak. The word "effeminate"
implies weakness.
A lot of men hate women subconsciously or just are very confused about
them or are afraid of them or are afraid of their power, or want to
suppress them.
Men have reacted very negatively to the power that is inherent in
women.
They have rejected that power and sought to convince women of the
exact opposite, that they are powerless.
They have done this through sexual repression, economic repression,
political repression, social repression, ideological repression and
spiritual repression.
Men, through the ideas they have, project a field of attention that
limits women.
Because they dream so strongly in themselves, their superiority and
women's inferiority, they project an image that a woman finds very,
very difficult to fight against.
Consider a very natural process, menstruation, and how the association
has been created in which this process is dirty, degrading.
Many religions over the years have suggested that when a woman is
menstruating, she should be avoided and not touched.
In their confusion and delusion, men hate the womb that gives them
birth. Not all men, certainly , but enough men to run the world.
Men are suppressing woman politically, philosophically, socially,
through denying them education, equal rights, equal employment, and
just by setting up a description of the world in which a woman views
herself as a vessel, as someone who's only there to have children, as
someone who can't succeed, even spiritually.
Up until now, women have depended completely upon men for their
survival. You're dealing with thousands of years of history, where
sexual slavery was the condition. While suddenly the laws may change,
to some extent, the conditioning doesn't go away that fast.
Women have been dependent upon men for their survival, for the
survival of their children.
A woman's place, her entire experience in life, has been and in many
places still is dependent upon the man she marries.
It's unfortunate that we see a great many women settling. They think
that simply because they have gotten the right to vote, own property
and have gained some simple freedoms that the battle for women's
suffrage is over.
The male establishment power structure has not really changed its
attitude towards women. They did not give these rights to women out of
kindness. These rights were fought for by many highly evolved women
who cared about the lives of their daughters and granddaughters.
When you wish to subjugate a people, you have to convince them of
their own inherent weakness.
The social repression and ideological repression of women began with
depriving them of education, political decisiveness, mobility and
essentially creating sexual slavery.
Women have been sexual slaves for most of recorded history.
Women are the sexual slaves of men. They have been convinced that they
are the "weaker" sex through a variety of manipulative devices in the
Judeo-Christian tradition.
God is seen as a male whose first creation was another man, Adam, whom
we are told was made in his image and likeness.
God then made the first woman, not directly out of his own substance,
but from Adam's rib. Her purpose was to serve man.
Eve was blamed for the fall of man, and in return all women to come
were to inheret her karmic responsibility for the so-called "fall of
man". Their punishment was to experience pain in childbirth, and never
be trusted by man or God again.
By asseting the creation myth, in which God is a man over ealier
creation myths in which God was viewed as a woman, men hoped to prove
that the position of supremacy that they had assumed was Divine Law.
With this imaginary mandate from God, men have not allowed women to be
given the educational, religous and social freedoms that are necessary
for women to free themselves and become all that they are capable of
being.
Men fearing their innate power, pushed woman back into slavery.
In the case of the brujos, the sorcerers in Mexico, the Spanish
Conquest forced them to develop their second attention.
The second attention is the occult side of the being. It is the
ability to manipulate others, be it for good or ill intent.
Women have developed the second attention because they were repressed,
because they were manipulated, because they were used as property, as
chattel, historically, for thousands of years and still today.
In order to survive women have developed their second attention, which
men have not evolved. They use the second attention, and have used it
most effectively, to manipulate men; it's a justifiable reaction that
has been necessary for survival.
What women have done is developed a survival mechanism, and it's a
fascinating one and it's been effective and justified, in my opinion.
That is the ability to manipulate men sexually.
Woman knowing this was not right but not knowing what else to do,
developed the only means to fight for their survival that they had,
since their survival was dependent upon men, and that was to use
sexuality to survive.
Women wrap men with their second attention.
What they have done over the centuries is evolve the fine use of
sexual power.
It's everyday for a woman to project a very strong wave of sexual
energy through her second attention into a man, for him to assume that
the energy he feels is his own.
Women developed it as an art. They've had to, in order to survive. The
problem is that it limits you. You are in a controlling situation in
duality.
Men are really not all that interested in sex. For most men, sex is a
very simple experience.
A young girl is taught through the example of other women how to
manipulate a man. She's absolutely correct in doing so because the
job she will get, the man she will marry, the experiences she will
have, are very much dictated by her ability to do so.
As a woman experiment and observe. Observe yourself as you go through
a day. You will be amazed to discover the number and variety of things
you do just on the physical level to control, or at least pass without
being hassled.
Consider your second attention as a spiritual perceiver. Consider how
you use it. You may plead innocence. You're not doing anything wrong.
Don't feel that you've sinned. You have done what you had to do to
survive, as did your mother, as did your grandmother.
Review your description of the world, what it is to be a woman, and
see how inadequate it is.
See how it's a philosophy that's been handed to you by a bunch of men
who were afraid. So instead, they overcompensate with hatred and
violence and repression.
Examine what you do and examine what other women do. Examine the
dreams that men hold of you and how they force you in a corner,
literally and figuratively.
Your very success is what's going to destroy you. The survival
mechanism that you've developed is the very thing which will cause the
downfall of your subtle physical body.
Many women devlop the second attention, attract a great deal of sexual
attention, and for many years, appear to be very vibrant and strong.
Then there will come a time where, very quickly, a woman will lose
what some call her beauty.
She'll find rapid deterioration, which is particularly noticeable in
the skin.This is the sign that the subtle physcial is aging.
All disease and aging occurs as the subtle physical body breaks down.
The problem is in the type of energy that is directed, either in the
act of sex or simply walking down the street or talking to someone.
The attention that's being projected by men who simply watch you
walking down the street, in the office, or in bed, in most cases, is
going to be extremely destructive.
The sexual energies returned, when they're not evolved, are still
linked with violence and the fear of power -- the fear of women.
These energies when directed towards the subtle physical body cause
the subtle physical body to break down, to lose its lumonisity.
If it's not true love, then that energy will gradually wear the subtle
physical down.
For men, it's necessary to push aside that marvelous ego that tells
you that you are all knowing and capable, and see that you are not.
Much of the time your attention is directed towards the world of
sexuality, it's done through the second attention of a woman - not
simply in your physical presence but from thousands of miles away.
The majority of times when a man thinks he has been the instigator,
which men like to think, in sexual and romantic experiences, that has
not been the case.
Women have allowed you to think that, which is a part of their
inaccessibility in using their second attention.
For men, it's absolutely essential to stop believing that they're
superior to women because that very belief engenders ego, which sets
them off balance. Therefore, they don't realize that they're being
manipulated by the second attention of woman because their ego won't
permit them.
What a man must do is realize that his continued belief in the
inferiority of women is going to produce a type of karma that is going
to hold him back, and already has.
Men have learned the secret of unity.
Women do not help each other attain enlightenment because in the
description of the world they've been given, unlike that of men, it's
every woman for herself in order to survive.
Your very own sister may take your husband away and your husband may
be the ticket for economic survival.
Observe how women defeat each other; whether it's simply for a
promotion, for a husband, for survival, so she won't be beaten up in a
relationship. She has to now fear every other woman because every
woman represents a threat to her.
If her security rests upon her alliance with a man, another woman may
take that man away; therefore women have no unity between
themselves.
Sisterhood is powerful. Woman can support each other as women, in
their pursuit for enlightenment or anything else, without fear. But as
long as she's still in the commodities exchange market, buying and
selling, she must fear the competition.
It's necessary, sometimes, for women to embrace the company of other
women even more than might seem normal. But there is no normal in this
world. Radical change is necessary to counterbalance what has
occurred.
As a woman you must unite with other women for a while and perhaps
even reject the world of men, just to balance yourself.
You must ban together with other women of like mind and for the first
time find fellowship, womanship, without the need to compete, without
having to climb to the top over each other.
In meditation you can erase the conditioning. But still, you have to
fight the description of the world that everyone else is carrying
around.
The average woman today is almost completely out of touch with her own
power.
While notable advances in certain parts of the world in woman's rights
have occured in the last hundred years, the centuries of conditioning
and the mentality that views women as inferior still prevade our world
today.
Women must work doubly hard to overcome their conditioning in order to
become enlightened. They must erase both conscious and unconscious
ideas of sexual inferority that have been programmed into their
awareness.
Women have very powerful second chakras, and the goal is to move that
energy up and use it.
Meditation erases conditioning. It allows a person to channel the
kundalini energy through their subtle physical body and reach
enlightened states of awareness.
Through the proper application of kundalini, a woman can quickly
become aware of the tremendous power that resides inside herself and
reach enlightenment.
For the first time, we live in a society that shows any sign of the
possibility of women changing this condition.
Only until you rise above the use of the second attention for
manipulation that you can enter into a consciousness in which there is
enlightenment.
I'm not blaming men, I'm not blaming women. What's gone by has
already gone by. It's history. It's done. There is no right or wrong
in higher spirituality.
I don't feel that men have been wrong. I don't feel that women are
wrong for using their second attention to combat sexual repression.
That's just how it's been.
Today for the first time, at least in this country, you don't have to
use those powers to survive. Our societal structure now provides the
possibility to survive without using sexual manipulation.
More men will continue to attain enlightenment than women, unless
women change their use of the second attention.
You have developed the second attention much more than you realize and
you use it more than you realize as a woman. That's why I feel women
can attain enlightenment more easily than men.
If you seek to change your life and attain enlightenment, you must
deal with these questions. If there is no truth in this, then ignore
these silly words."
- Zen Master Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz
www.ramaquotes.com
Why don't more women attain enlightenment?
www.ramaquotes.com/html/women_enlightenment.html
Frederick Lenz
Main Page:
www.ramaquotes.com
Why don't more women attain enlightenment:
www.ramaquotes.com/html/women_enlightenment.html
Zen Master Rama:
"Why don't more women attain enlightenment?
I observe that more evolved souls are now reincarnating as women.
Women find it easier to meditate and easier to develop the psychic
abilities.
Enlightenment comes through the feminine side of the being.
The most important problem for our world to solve is the inequality of
men and women.
When women come into their full power, a balance will occur which has
not been seen for so long that no one remembers it.
Until women assume their rightful place on earth there will never be
an end to wars, cruelty and opression.
A species divided against itself will eventually fall.
If global extinction is to be avoided, woman must unite and come to
terms with their destiny.
If even one woman in the West were to become enlightened, it would
change karmas on this planet.
The world has never had a greater need for enligthened women and men.
What is male and female? Is it just a physical condition? No. The
energy runs very, very differently in a woman than in a man.
What is a woman? A woman is chaos. Chaos is the naturally perfect
state of all things.
A man, as we see in this world, is chaos, but he doesn't recognize
that fact so he tries to bring order into everything. Order is
disorder. Order creates disorder.
It is much easier for a woman to meditate than it is for men,
innately. Their subtle physical bodies pick up the kundalini much more
quickly.
Women vibrate at a slightly different rate that passes kundalini very
easily. It is problematic though, because a woman also picks up
negative energy, it affects her more.
There is something beyond the natural chaos that is woman or the chaos
with implied order that is man, and that's the totality. To stay as we
are, is not the issue, but to awake from the dream of life.
I don't work with men who are antagonistic to the liberation of women.
I do work with quite a number of men who are supportive of the
enlightenment of women. Such men are rare.
People always say, 'A good man is hard to find.' You've never heard
that about women, have you?
It is equally easy, initially, for either a man or a woman to attain
enlightenment, what we would call liberation or self-realization.
It seems strange, since the aspect of a woman is power and that her
subtle physical body conducts light very well, that more women don't
attain enlightenment than men. I would suggest that the reason this is
so, is cultural.
Women have been denied access to advanced methods of self discovery
throughout the ages.
The few women who have been admitted to the study are usually given a
second-class status in which they are taught only the basics of self-
discovery.
They are denied access to the more advanced techniques of releasing
the kundalini energy, which bring about quantum leaps in self-
awareness.
Many Eastern spiritual groups feel that women are not capable of
enlightenment. They advise women to have sons and pray to be men in
their next incarnations
Women have been systematically pushed out of spirituality by men.
In the Bhagavad-Gita, a book that I revere and respect, it's indicated
that even women, along with animals, are capable of attaining
enlightenment.
Historically men have suppressed women quite effectively. They have
suppressed women since the beginning of our history.
There's this absurd innate need in most men to feel that they're more
powerful than women are, which is ridiculous.
Women have been taught that they are not powerful; they've been given
an opposite description, that they are weak. The word "effeminate"
implies weakness.
A lot of men hate women subconsciously or just are very confused about
them or are afraid of them or are afraid of their power, or want to
suppress them.
Men have reacted very negatively to the power that is inherent in
women.
They have rejected that power and sought to convince women of the
exact opposite, that they are powerless.
They have done this through sexual repression, economic repression,
political repression, social repression, ideological repression and
spiritual repression.
Men, through the ideas they have, project a field of attention that
limits women.
Because they dream so strongly in themselves, their superiority and
women's inferiority, they project an image that a woman finds very,
very difficult to fight against.
Consider a very natural process, menstruation, and how the association
has been created in which this process is dirty, degrading.
Many religions over the years have suggested that when a woman is
menstruating, she should be avoided and not touched.
In their confusion and delusion, men hate the womb that gives them
birth. Not all men, certainly , but enough men to run the world.
Men are suppressing woman politically, philosophically, socially,
through denying them education, equal rights, equal employment, and
just by setting up a description of the world in which a woman views
herself as a vessel, as someone who's only there to have children, as
someone who can't succeed, even spiritually.
Up until now, women have depended completely upon men for their
survival. You're dealing with thousands of years of history, where
sexual slavery was the condition. While suddenly the laws may change,
to some extent, the conditioning doesn't go away that fast.
Women have been dependent upon men for their survival, for the
survival of their children.
A woman's place, her entire experience in life, has been and in many
places still is dependent upon the man she marries.
It's unfortunate that we see a great many women settling. They think
that simply because they have gotten the right to vote, own property
and have gained some simple freedoms that the battle for women's
suffrage is over.
The male establishment power structure has not really changed its
attitude towards women. They did not give these rights to women out of
kindness. These rights were fought for by many highly evolved women
who cared about the lives of their daughters and granddaughters.
When you wish to subjugate a people, you have to convince them of
their own inherent weakness.
The social repression and ideological repression of women began with
depriving them of education, political decisiveness, mobility and
essentially creating sexual slavery.
Women have been sexual slaves for most of recorded history.
Women are the sexual slaves of men. They have been convinced that they
are the "weaker" sex through a variety of manipulative devices in the
Judeo-Christian tradition.
God is seen as a male whose first creation was another man, Adam, whom
we are told was made in his image and likeness.
God then made the first woman, not directly out of his own substance,
but from Adam's rib. Her purpose was to serve man.
Eve was blamed for the fall of man, and in return all women to come
were to inheret her karmic responsibility for the so-called "fall of
man". Their punishment was to experience pain in childbirth, and never
be trusted by man or God again.
By asseting the creation myth, in which God is a man over ealier
creation myths in which God was viewed as a woman, men hoped to prove
that the position of supremacy that they had assumed was Divine Law.
With this imaginary mandate from God, men have not allowed women to be
given the educational, religous and social freedoms that are necessary
for women to free themselves and become all that they are capable of
being.
Men fearing their innate power, pushed woman back into slavery.
In the case of the brujos, the sorcerers in Mexico, the Spanish
Conquest forced them to develop their second attention.
The second attention is the occult side of the being. It is the
ability to manipulate others, be it for good or ill intent.
Women have developed the second attention because they were repressed,
because they were manipulated, because they were used as property, as
chattel, historically, for thousands of years and still today.
In order to survive women have developed their second attention, which
men have not evolved. They use the second attention, and have used it
most effectively, to manipulate men; it's a justifiable reaction that
has been necessary for survival.
What women have done is developed a survival mechanism, and it's a
fascinating one and it's been effective and justified, in my opinion.
That is the ability to manipulate men sexually.
Woman knowing this was not right but not knowing what else to do,
developed the only means to fight for their survival that they had,
since their survival was dependent upon men, and that was to use
sexuality to survive.
Women wrap men with their second attention.
What they have done over the centuries is evolve the fine use of
sexual power.
It's everyday for a woman to project a very strong wave of sexual
energy through her second attention into a man, for him to assume that
the energy he feels is his own.
Women developed it as an art. They've had to, in order to survive. The
problem is that it limits you. You are in a controlling situation in
duality.
Men are really not all that interested in sex. For most men, sex is a
very simple experience.
A young girl is taught through the example of other women how to
manipulate a man. She's absolutely correct in doing so because the
job she will get, the man she will marry, the experiences she will
have, are very much dictated by her ability to do so.
As a woman experiment and observe. Observe yourself as you go through
a day. You will be amazed to discover the number and variety of things
you do just on the physical level to control, or at least pass without
being hassled.
Consider your second attention as a spiritual perceiver. Consider how
you use it. You may plead innocence. You're not doing anything wrong.
Don't feel that you've sinned. You have done what you had to do to
survive, as did your mother, as did your grandmother.
Review your description of the world, what it is to be a woman, and
see how inadequate it is.
See how it's a philosophy that's been handed to you by a bunch of men
who were afraid. So instead, they overcompensate with hatred and
violence and repression.
Examine what you do and examine what other women do. Examine the
dreams that men hold of you and how they force you in a corner,
literally and figuratively.
Your very success is what's going to destroy you. The survival
mechanism that you've developed is the very thing which will cause the
downfall of your subtle physical body.
Many women devlop the second attention, attract a great deal of sexual
attention, and for many years, appear to be very vibrant and strong.
Then there will come a time where, very quickly, a woman will lose
what some call her beauty.
She'll find rapid deterioration, which is particularly noticeable in
the skin.This is the sign that the subtle physcial is aging.
All disease and aging occurs as the subtle physical body breaks down.
The problem is in the type of energy that is directed, either in the
act of sex or simply walking down the street or talking to someone.
The attention that's being projected by men who simply watch you
walking down the street, in the office, or in bed, in most cases, is
going to be extremely destructive.
The sexual energies returned, when they're not evolved, are still
linked with violence and the fear of power -- the fear of women.
These energies when directed towards the subtle physical body cause
the subtle physical body to break down, to lose its lumonisity.
If it's not true love, then that energy will gradually wear the subtle
physical down.
For men, it's necessary to push aside that marvelous ego that tells
you that you are all knowing and capable, and see that you are not.
Much of the time your attention is directed towards the world of
sexuality, it's done through the second attention of a woman - not
simply in your physical presence but from thousands of miles away.
The majority of times when a man thinks he has been the instigator,
which men like to think, in sexual and romantic experiences, that has
not been the case.
Women have allowed you to think that, which is a part of their
inaccessibility in using their second attention.
For men, it's absolutely essential to stop believing that they're
superior to women because that very belief engenders ego, which sets
them off balance. Therefore, they don't realize that they're being
manipulated by the second attention of woman because their ego won't
permit them.
What a man must do is realize that his continued belief in the
inferiority of women is going to produce a type of karma that is going
to hold him back, and already has.
Men have learned the secret of unity.
Women do not help each other attain enlightenment because in the
description of the world they've been given, unlike that of men, it's
every woman for herself in order to survive.
Your very own sister may take your husband away and your husband may
be the ticket for economic survival.
Observe how women defeat each other; whether it's simply for a
promotion, for a husband, for survival, so she won't be beaten up in a
relationship. She has to now fear every other woman because every
woman represents a threat to her.
If her security rests upon her alliance with a man, another woman may
take that man away; therefore women have no unity between
themselves.
Sisterhood is powerful. Woman can support each other as women, in
their pursuit for enlightenment or anything else, without fear. But as
long as she's still in the commodities exchange market, buying and
selling, she must fear the competition.
It's necessary, sometimes, for women to embrace the company of other
women even more than might seem normal. But there is no normal in this
world. Radical change is necessary to counterbalance what has
occurred.
As a woman you must unite with other women for a while and perhaps
even reject the world of men, just to balance yourself.
You must ban together with other women of like mind and for the first
time find fellowship, womanship, without the need to compete, without
having to climb to the top over each other.
In meditation you can erase the conditioning. But still, you have to
fight the description of the world that everyone else is carrying
around.
The average woman today is almost completely out of touch with her own
power.
While notable advances in certain parts of the world in woman's rights
have occured in the last hundred years, the centuries of conditioning
and the mentality that views women as inferior still prevade our world
today.
Women must work doubly hard to overcome their conditioning in order to
become enlightened. They must erase both conscious and unconscious
ideas of sexual inferority that have been programmed into their
awareness.
Women have very powerful second chakras, and the goal is to move that
energy up and use it.
Meditation erases conditioning. It allows a person to channel the
kundalini energy through their subtle physical body and reach
enlightened states of awareness.
Through the proper application of kundalini, a woman can quickly
become aware of the tremendous power that resides inside herself and
reach enlightenment.
For the first time, we live in a society that shows any sign of the
possibility of women changing this condition.
Only until you rise above the use of the second attention for
manipulation that you can enter into a consciousness in which there is
enlightenment.
I'm not blaming men, I'm not blaming women. What's gone by has
already gone by. It's history. It's done. There is no right or wrong
in higher spirituality.
I don't feel that men have been wrong. I don't feel that women are
wrong for using their second attention to combat sexual repression.
That's just how it's been.
Today for the first time, at least in this country, you don't have to
use those powers to survive. Our societal structure now provides the
possibility to survive without using sexual manipulation.
More men will continue to attain enlightenment than women, unless
women change their use of the second attention.
You have developed the second attention much more than you realize and
you use it more than you realize as a woman. That's why I feel women
can attain enlightenment more easily than men.
If you seek to change your life and attain enlightenment, you must
deal with these questions. If there is no truth in this, then ignore
these silly words."
- Zen Master Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz
www.ramaquotes.com
Why don't more women attain enlightenment?
www.ramaquotes.com/html/women_enlightenment.html