Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Male and Female both the mystical or practical
Jeffrey
Veteran
I want to throw it out there a topic about male and female. I was wondering if there is a way to understand between the mystical like yin and yang and also the practical like understanding how is the difference between males and females in relationships including work and marriages.
I had been thinking about the practical side awhile to help be a good person in relationships, but I am also curious about a religious or mystical difference in the sexes. @anataman might (or might not) be interested; I got the thread idea (to actually post) from his avatar of the yin yang symbol and participation in a different thread
0
Comments
what have the pet shop boys have for this?
Can you define mystical? What do you mean?
@Whoah, like yin and yang as opposed to 'men and when in relationships'.
Study Traditional Chinese Medicine. I did. The studying never ends, and remains ever fascinating....
The deeply ingrained and inextricable truth of one being totally dependent on the other, is there, in everything.
The 5 Elements are both Yin and Yang; the physical aspects of the human body they represent, contain both yin and yang.
However, what you have to primarily get through "your" head, is that something is only Yin, or Yang when you have something else with which to compare it.
Nothing is ever Yin or Yang, through its own merit.
They are not solid, independent 'forces' or elements. They cannot stand alone; and every single aspect of Yin, contains an element of Yang, and every single aspect of Yang, contains an element of Yin. Hence the "twinFish" symbol, as many peoplecall the Yin/Yang symbol...
>
No such thing. Men are not yang or Yin; they are both. Women are not Yin or Yang; they are both.
Is a man more Yang than a Woman? usually, but not always, and not in all ways.
Is a woman more Yin than a man? usually, but not always, and not in al ways.
Bear in mind that if a Man is evidently strong in Yang, his Yin is weak. There should be BALANCE.
If a woman is evidently strong in Yin, her Yang needs nourishing.
Oh, okay. Good to know, I was about to waste time looking into it but I can be assured that you already know the answers! :O
....Anyway I recall reading a hypnotist stating that she saw a huge correlation in people of the same memory in their subconscious. They all recalled being "souls of both masculine and feminine energy planning to be reincarnated into existence, and upon reincarnating both of these essences would be separated and they would feel like a part is missing"
"These hypnotically induced memories come from the subjects of Dr. Shakutala Modi, a Board Certified Psychiatrist practicing in West Virginia. She has written about her sessions in two books: Amazing Healings and Memories of God and Creation. In her books, Dr. Modi makes it clear that she does not allow any of her personal views to affect her subjects’ responses. Furthermore, she points out that she is careful not to ask leading questions; she simply asks open questions and records her subjects’ responses. Although I quote sections of her books, Dr. Modi has not been approached regarding this article."
Kind of like the whole soulmate thing. I don't necessarily buy it in that context. I do think females and males have "evolved" to compliment each other in certain ways. It is interesting. While balance varies from person to person, facts are that women and men are still very much different, in physiology, psychologie, emotion etc.
Yes, they're different, but you have to understand one thing: The Chinese attach no mysticism, no 'supernatural', no 'other-worldly qualities to Yin and Yang. They are forces at work in everything, and quite grounded and down-to-earth. There is nothing magical or spiritual in the practice and discipline of TCM. Everything is very practical and can be explained simply by understanding that man and nature are one.
The work and research you speak of, of Dr Shakutala Modi, is something entirely different and totally disconnected and separate from Yin/Yang.
Expound these theories to a TCM Chinese practitioner, and he - or she - would give you a very funny look....
We're broaching two completely different and diametrically opposite situations here. I would leave it to @Jeffrey which one interests him more with specific regard to this thread.
Yes but I hope you know by now that I'm not worried by "funny looks"
What was asked was mysticism about female/male. That falls under that category, other then yin and yang which was already mentioned I only knew this view, OP didn't state anything about a specific interest in the chinese view. By the way, buddhism itself isn't exactly known for being female friendly at all, so maybe they can learn a little about balance
>
Admittedly. Which is why I opted for giving him the avenue he wishes to pursue, because the two are separate, even though he mentioned both.
>
Buddhism is completely female friendly. There is nothing in Buddhism whatsoever, in any tradition you could mention, that is not 'Female Friendly'.
As happens just as much with other religions, some BuddhisTS are not 'female friendly'. That's their Dhukkha, not mine.
And what does that have to do with the topic in discussion, anyway?
We're discussing Male/Female Mysticism/Yin-Yang....
I wish sometimes people would consider their terminology before hitting the 'post comment' button... :rolleyes: .
Thanks @Jeffrey,
My view should be interpreted with the following in mind:
Practically - there can be no doubt that our human existence derives from the continual union of males and females in sexual intercourse... Ironically many preachers of several religions try to preach chastity and abstinence from sexual intercourse. Well that seems a bit like the bodhisattva vow to keep returning to liberate each and every sentient being from samsara - no, it's not really achievable is it? Hence the samsaric realm. ...
...
Mystically - we can obviously go down the lines of tantric yoga and the awakening of kundalini energy which, well I'd be interested to hear of others experiences of such awakenings if they have had them, and how they occurred, but waking up the divine feminine sounds pretty cool.
However, I appreciate that I am not completely male, it's just a physical expression - I'm searching for that divine feline (oops feminine) in me! However, my genetic makeup is half female, so I know it's there. Looking at women genetically, they may appear to be completely feminine i.e. XX - but now look at it this way (and remember that the chinese knew absolutely nought about genetic makeup (genetic makeup - it's a pun... well I'm laughing with the divine feminine here!) - an X is just a Y with a bit broken off, and a Y is an X with a bit missing, now do you see the Yin and Yang, its that little bit missing or required that is the dot in the fish eyes. How mystical is that! Now go wake up that kundalini and experience that little fishy eye! Yee ha!
Sorry, buddhism is supposed to be serious right? Not when you have fish eye lenses for glasses....
Where's my LAMA (Laugh At Myself Again) button!
... \ lol /,,,
Hey @Jeffrey, check out Carl Jung and the 'anima' and 'animus'. Jung leaned way out over the abyss between the mystical and the practical, and had much to say about the complementary/oppositional 'energies' of the male and female, animus and anima. His material was primarily the dreams of his patients, but also world mythology (ie, religions).
From my own experience certain females in my life, you know those people we have the special fuzzies for automatically bring out more of the feminine part of my personality.
It seems to "awaken" naturally, without any conscious act, so yeah I'm utterly convinced as well it is there.
It was very sneaky, totally slipping past the radar, and while using hand gestures and whatnot during conversation I suddenly thought to myself: Wait a minute... I'm acting like a chick! :') How you can consciously awaken it, I don't know, but certain people can bring it out quite easily
That's called 'mirroring'. It's quite common; when we like someone we mirror their actions. Nothing sneaky about it, not their doing. Your doing. Because you basically want people to like you, particularly if you're attracted to them.
I guess I wanted to get to something beyond my current perception is why I mentioned both mysticism and relationships.
I want something practical. I liked this:
Thanks, Federica.
It's funny because even yin isn't yin or yang, but is both.
Yang at its most extreme is yin and yin at its extreme is yang. Even the yinest part of yin is a little yang.
No such thing as opposites except conceptually. Just different aspects of the same thing.
We may decide that a red delicious apple is the opposite of a green sour one but the only opposite of apple is no apple which is just a concept.
The opposite of an apple is two apples as well. So while your analogy makes sense it also makes non-sense....
.
How is the opposite of apple 2 apples?
An apple implies we are speaking of a specific apple so there is no 2 of one specific apple.
Just the opposite of apple can only be no apple.
no apple or 1 apple.
1 apple or no apple or 2 apples.
It depends on your interpretation of 'opposite'....
I speak but don't understand it, myself. Rather like the concept of Yin Yang. You grasp it, but yet, its meaning is elusive...Just when you think you've got your head around the concept, it blindsides you with a new angle....
@Jeffrey
I wrote this a couple days ago contemplating my journey from a teenager to a man. This is using archetypes I've found in myself. I can only talk for the masculine in me. The feminine cannot be talked about or articulated. Way too chaotic and fierce. But you can sense the yin and yang polarity in my writing and even the implication of non-duality. Enjoy friend.
"Let's talk about alchemy.
Sophisticated creations of identity.
If we realize the underlying essence of all identity then one could switch one identity with another. Very much like putting a suit on.
When one wears a suit there is a sense of regality to it. A sense of form-fitting, which is a bit uncomfortable yet it brings a sense of uprightness. This also brings a disposition of being just.
Generally I only wear a suit during funerals or weddings. So there is a formal element to the symbology of the suit.
Anyways what I trying to get at is that the outer influences the inner and vice versa. What is missing is direct cognition of what the variables are and how meanings interact in this luminous display.
I'd like to talk about archetypes and how they are formed and enacted.
Dare I even say that archetypes are written in our blood, our make up as biological creatures. Most of these archetypes are enacted without any consideration of how they are formed and how various pushes and pulls create disharmony.
The human being is a state of disharmony because the various pushes and pulls towards enactment of new archetypes or conflict with olds ones.
As a male I've come across the archetypes of warrior, magician, lion, and lover. Lion is quite the recent development. Through knowing bright as a visceral energy one feels a tremendous vulnerability and surrender. Through that hell one finds fearlessness. A true power of majesty and sacredness. One is found to be the ruler of one's kingdom. All enactment of good and bad in one's own heart. All of existence to be found right here in this beating heart, this mind and body. Not only does one have claws, one has a mane, one moves as regality in a wide open space. One is a lion and there is only feast. Nothing can harm a lion. The sheep scatter at the instant of a roar. Only those of the same kind can understand and stand together. In a world of sheep a lion is utterly alone. But each kind knows its place in such natural hierarchy. A lions power comes from a total emergence into sheepness.
Warrior is also quite a recent development. A kind of aggressive energy turned tender. So much power, so much respect. A meeting of total masculine energy. Power see's power and bows. There are no wars to enact once power is had. For all wars are the result of a lack. In such completion the warriors duty is to uphold virtue and pass on the torch to children so they too can become men. A warrior understands the true power the nature. Her soft skin and her curved knives. It is she that moves the warriors heart towards surrender and servitude. If she needs him to be strong, he is strong. If she needs him to be weak, he is weak. Whatever she needs the warrior is there. A warrior is nothing without her.
Ah the lover. The poet or the artist. The seeker of divine things and translator of the hidden. It is he that see's her and tries so damn hard to capture. A glimpse or inspiration is both his curse and reason to be. Tormented when there is no flow from her, so powerfully driven when connected. It is through him we find a bridge from materiality to the divine. The artist communes with the unseen, dives into the mystery, and it is through him that all is seen to be beautiful again. The artist is in awe of her and recognizes his control and aggression is merely a childish attempt at imitation. In relinquishing all control, the artist dies into her and through her he becomes the art itself.
The magician... so we are called. To be a maker of kings and kingdoms. To learn to transform this to that. To enact and awaken.
Many men toil their lives pretending or ignoring the divinity that life is.
It is through him that man regains his eyes. His innocence. Through him the divine task is given. Many are called, only a few answer.
Are we worthy? Can we do it? The magician is the one who disregards all of humanities poverty mentality. In doing so he offers a path towards exactly where you really are.
Maybe you learn a few tricks here and there. Maybe you believe to gained some knowledge or secrets of life.
All of it is tossed into the cauldron.
Many believe their lives to be works of non-fiction.
But to those who see their lives as works of fiction.
Then the range of engagement is much wider.
And yet even rarer are the ones called to throw fiction out completely.
Bring me such a being and I will kiss his or her feet"
Even up and down are complimentary and relative. We can say up is the opposite of down but the only opposite of direction is no direction.
Not all that important but it helps my perception when I see "other"
@taiyaki because I feel you are using metaphors I found your prose very interesting but for me at this time it is only felt as a few seeds for next year. The prose didn't fit my mind exactly as we are at different resonances I feel. But I can nonetheless fit it to my experience just as song lyrics are mutable and each one's interpretation. I will say that I believe you have a gift to be inspiring like Gandalf with the ring of fire, Narya. Haha I am probably longing for power thinking of that. But what I am saying is that you have an energy that can inspire people even if they don't see all of the perceptions that you see. I don't mean 'perception' as a negative skhanda rather it is a skhanda released through practice as wisdom. Kudos!