Some time ago I received an invitation email from the International Museum of Women.
My first thought was it was about eminent women from the past as most museums are. I was delightfully surprised to see what a powerful and inspiring site it is profiling living and socially engaged women from all continents and backgrounds especially from areas where women's rights have a long history of suppression. It has a very proactive community action section. Listen to Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva about the power of micro-finance and peer support to change lives. Last year I joined Kiva and am delighted to see how my contribution just keeps giving on and on.
My soul friend Jamie Walter is constantly tuning into her deep feminine wisdom and recreating herself in new visionary ways. Please check out her Deep Feminine and New Edge Pioneers Portals and her cool teleclasses. Waving at you Jamie!
An American Woman's Journey as Peace Pilgrim
From 1953 to 1981 a silver haired woman calling herself only "Peace Pilgrim" walked more than 25,000 miles on a personal pilgrimage for peace. She vowed to "remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food." In the course of her 28 year pilgrimage she touched the hearts, minds, and lives of thousands of individuals all across North America.
Her message was both simple and profound. It continues to inspire people all over the world. She had no organizational backing, carried no money, and would not even ask for food or shelter. It had to be offered without asking. For 28 years all her needs were met. She spoke to all who would listen about the entire peace picture; peace among nations, peace among groups, and the very important "inner peace" because she believed that was where peace began. Watch her speak to a college class.
Peace also requires we protect and nourish the most vulnerable, innocent and exploited girls and children subject to human trafficking around the world.
"Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called sons (and daughters) of God." - Jesus
"God became human, so humans might become God." - St. Athanasius of Alexandria
Her message was both simple and profound. It continues to inspire people all over the world. She had no organizational backing, carried no money, and would not even ask for food or shelter. It had to be offered without asking. For 28 years all her needs were met. She spoke to all who would listen about the entire peace picture; peace among nations, peace among groups, and the very important "inner peace" because she believed that was where peace began. Watch her speak to a college class.
Peace also requires we protect and nourish the most vulnerable, innocent and exploited girls and children subject to human trafficking around the world.
"Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called sons (and daughters) of God." - Jesus
"God became human, so humans might become God." - St. Athanasius of Alexandria
Female and Male Brain: Evolutionary Need Now
Louann Brizendine, M.D. a pioneering neuron-psychiatrist "has done a great favor to every man who are looking to find a satisfying answer to Freud’s question, ‘What does a woman want?’comments Daniel Goleman, author of 'Social intelligence".
Her book “The Female Brain” show how the unique structure of the female brain determines how women think, what they value, how they communicate, and whom they’ll love. Research shows an astonishing array of structural, chemical, genetic, hormonal and functional brain differences between women and men. They have different brain sensitivities to stress and conflict and use different areas and circuits in brain to solve problems, process language, experience and store the same strong emotion.
Her book “The Female Brain” show how the unique structure of the female brain determines how women think, what they value, how they communicate, and whom they’ll love. Research shows an astonishing array of structural, chemical, genetic, hormonal and functional brain differences between women and men. They have different brain sensitivities to stress and conflict and use different areas and circuits in brain to solve problems, process language, experience and store the same strong emotion.
- A woman uses about 20,000 words a day, while a man about 7,000
- A woman remember fights that a man insists never happened
- Sexual thoughts enter a woman’s brain once every couple of days, but enter a man’s brain about once every minute. [It is somewhat of a mystery why Buddha, the Awakened one was initially quite hesistant about admitting nuns in the Sangha. Perhaps to shelter and evolve male brain impulse beyond biological drives to spiritual consciousness. That's has been my sense for some years now!
- A woman knows what people are feeling, while a man can’t spot an emotion unless somebody cries or threaten’s bodily harm. Could it be the reason why so many relationships breakdown, because women feel men are not emotionally available to support them?
- A teen girl is obsessed with her looks and talking on phone focused intensely on her emotion and communication; as testosterone takes over male brain, teen boys grow less communicative and more focused on scoring-in games and in backseat of car.
- Male brains are larger by about 9%, women and men however have the same number of brain cells hich are just packed more densely in female- cinched into a smaller skull
- Women remember smallest details of their first date and their biggest fights, while their husbands barely remember that these things happened
- In the brain center for language and hearing women have 11% more neuron than men. Hippocampus – hub of memory and emotion formation and brain circuit for observing emotion is larger in female brain
- Men, by contrast, have two and a half times the brain space devoted to sex drive and larger circuits for action and aggression. These basic structural differences could explain perceptive differences.
- Men also have larger processors in the primitive core area of brain – amygdale, which registers fear and triggers aggression. Some men can go zero to fistfight in seconds, why many women will try anything to defuse conflict.
- Overall the female brain is gifted at quickly assessing the thoughts, beliefs and intentions of others, based on smallest hints.
- Unlike females, in the male brain most emotions trigger less gut sensation and more rational thought. The typical male brain wants to avoid emotion at all costs.
- New born girls less than a day old respond more to human faces and cry of other babies than do boys.
- Female brain has a tremendous aversion to conflict for fear of angering other person and losing relationship. She avoids anger and confrontation the same way a man avoids emotion. In case of extreme discomfort in a relationship, female brain can go into same spectrum as seizure and there are extra processing or chewing on anger happens in pre-frontal and the anterior cingulate cortex.
- Women have different emotional perceptions, realities, responses and memories than do men and these differences based on brain circuitry and function – are at the heart of many misunderstandings.
- There may be more mirror neurons in the human female brain than in the male brain (p 118). Mirror neuron are associated with empathy, language ability and understanding intentions of other.
- Men have about 6½ times more grey matter in the brain related to cognition and intelligence than women, while women have nearly 10 times more white matter related to cognition and intelligence than men. Grey matter processes information locally in the brain, whereas white matter networks and connects information between different centres. This grey/white matter difference is one reason men tend to excel when focusing on one task only, while women excel at integrating and assessing information from wider sources of the brain and can multitask with more ease. (Leadership & Sexes by Michael Gurian). Also see white matter matters.
Voices of Sacred Feminine
VOICES OF THE SACRED FEMININE
Internet Radio Show
with Karen Tate
Internet Radio Show
with Karen Tate
- LISTEN LIVE EVERY WEDNESDAY
6PM Pacific Time/9PM Eastern Time - Listen from the Archives at your Convenience
- Subscribe to PIVTR and Download Interviews
The Sacred Feminine, whether an archetype, ideology or deity, has been absent from the center stage of the world for centuries. In her absence, humanity has grown up like a child without it's mother. Humans are in chaos and disharmony worldwide in part because the feminine face of god has been stripped from too many of our cultures, religions and psyches.
We are like children with an emptiness in our hearts and we compensate in ways that have had tragic consequences for humankind. In this show, author, scholar and Goddess Advocate, Karen Tate, will encourage listeners to rethink, reclaim, and reawaken the Divine Feminine, She of Ten Thousand Names, personally, politically and spiritually as they hear voices redefining this resurging movement to restore the Great Mother to her throne.
Who among us isn�t tired of turning on the television or radio and hearing how fear, greed and abuse of power is sending our world spiraling out of control? Who is not ashamed to read the paper and see what passes for the norm these days? Are there others out there tired of our leaders failing us and being part of the problem as they are immersed in scandals, lies, and corruption? Where are the guideposts and benchmarks that help us steer a healthy course? Everything old is new again. Let us remember her story and vision. Her Thousand Names can be a catalyst to make positive change. Whether you embrace Goddess as deity or ideal, as archetype or metaphor, the Sacred Feminine, restored to her rightful throne, is one answer, one method, one vehicle that might change the face of the world. And we must herald her coming.....
The TAO of Evolutionary Enlightenment
Quotes From Tao Te Ching ~
- When Masculine and Feminine combine, all things achieve harmony.
- Knowing Others is Wisdom, Knowing Self is Enlightenment.
- Knowing ignorance is strength, ignoring knowledge is sickness; the sage is not sick, because he is sick of sickness; as such he is not sick.
- In the pursuit of learning, everyday something is acquired, In the pursuit of Tao, something is dropped
The softest thing in the universe, overcomes the hardest thing in the universe
That without substance can enter where there is no room
Hence the sage knows the value of non-action.
Man follows the earth,
Earth follows heaven,
Heaven follows the Tao
Tao follows what is natural
The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead,
He is detached, thus at one with all
Through selfless action, he attains fulfillment.
Because he does not compete
He does not meet competition
The highest good is like water
Water does not strive
It gives life to ten thousand things
It flows in places men reject
So it is like the Tao
That without substance can enter where there is no room
Hence the sage knows the value of non-action.
Man follows the earth,
Earth follows heaven,
Heaven follows the Tao
Tao follows what is natural
The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead,
He is detached, thus at one with all
Through selfless action, he attains fulfillment.
Because he does not compete
He does not meet competition
The highest good is like water
Water does not strive
It gives life to ten thousand things
It flows in places men reject
So it is like the Tao
SHE ALONE DOES NOT COMPETE, AND SO THE WORLD CAN NEVER OVERCOME HER - Lao Tzu
Most quotes come from Tao Te Ching, Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Most quotes come from Tao Te Ching, Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Confession of a Bodhisattva: Difficult Birth of Divine Masculine
My friend Jamie sent me an interesting blog which I can very much relate to from my own real encounter with boomeritic bodhisattvas of both gender. Ken Wilber describes 'boomeritis' as a strange mixture of very high cognitive capacity of the green meme and its eagalitarianism and noble pluralism, infected with rather low state of emotional narcisissm and ego-centric reactivism regressing to pre-conventional narcissistic attitudes that go against anything integral or even universal.
Reactivism and resistance in any form overt or subtle arises due to exposure to repeated hurts and unmet emotional needs, actual and perceived in relationships from opposites sex parent/teacher, siblings/friends or partner/boss and our inability to stay with, voice, accept, recognize and reconcile this pain welling from within.
The old ways of fight or flight to cope with perceived or real physical danger fails miserably in case of emotional pain and alienation. Material success and social image do not compensate for the pervasive sense of alienation, lack of intimacy and human warmth that conscious men and women are feeling deep inside their hearts now.
As Deepak Chopra in The Book of Secrets comments:
"If it weren't for the enormous effort we put into denial, repression, and doubt, life would be a constant revealation. It takes a thousand of choices to keep the book of secrets closed, but it only takes a single breakthrough to open it again. The locked door is inside you, and so is the key."
"The Divine Feminine voice in me said she was waiting for five little boys to grow up (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism). She needs -literally- to make love in this world, to give birth to a new way for the planet to exist. She has been holding her love and attention over this planet for thousands of years, watching as five little boys have had their way with a World they are not mature enough to steward. She is waiting to usher in a future, but she can't do it alone, and she won't have a partner until the five little boys grow up. Humanity's survival depends on it.
Not the survival of the religions, or faith, or god, or even the planet. People. If people are going to keep living, if we have hope of being around in 1,000 or 10,000 years from now, we will have grow into a full, mature balance with the feminine -at every level of ourselves.
....I had a very distorted perspective of love, family, relationship, and spirituality. I was a dissociated Zen Practitioner. My idea of practice was climbing into my Buddhist Tree Fort in the clouds and removing myself from the mess of reality, family, relationships. My wife is the only one who's ever been able to get me out of that tree fort in the sky." - Qouted from musician Stuart Davis's blog
Five other human endeavors suffering from boomeritis are the fields of Science & Technology; Art & Architecture, Economics & Politics; Ecology and Environment; and New Age Spirituality. Science and technology of course impacts medicine, health, education and psychology (See Spiral Dynamics of memes).
Reactivism and resistance in any form overt or subtle arises due to exposure to repeated hurts and unmet emotional needs, actual and perceived in relationships from opposites sex parent/teacher, siblings/friends or partner/boss and our inability to stay with, voice, accept, recognize and reconcile this pain welling from within.
The old ways of fight or flight to cope with perceived or real physical danger fails miserably in case of emotional pain and alienation. Material success and social image do not compensate for the pervasive sense of alienation, lack of intimacy and human warmth that conscious men and women are feeling deep inside their hearts now.
As Deepak Chopra in The Book of Secrets comments:
"If it weren't for the enormous effort we put into denial, repression, and doubt, life would be a constant revealation. It takes a thousand of choices to keep the book of secrets closed, but it only takes a single breakthrough to open it again. The locked door is inside you, and so is the key."
"The Divine Feminine voice in me said she was waiting for five little boys to grow up (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism). She needs -literally- to make love in this world, to give birth to a new way for the planet to exist. She has been holding her love and attention over this planet for thousands of years, watching as five little boys have had their way with a World they are not mature enough to steward. She is waiting to usher in a future, but she can't do it alone, and she won't have a partner until the five little boys grow up. Humanity's survival depends on it.
Not the survival of the religions, or faith, or god, or even the planet. People. If people are going to keep living, if we have hope of being around in 1,000 or 10,000 years from now, we will have grow into a full, mature balance with the feminine -at every level of ourselves.
....I had a very distorted perspective of love, family, relationship, and spirituality. I was a dissociated Zen Practitioner. My idea of practice was climbing into my Buddhist Tree Fort in the clouds and removing myself from the mess of reality, family, relationships. My wife is the only one who's ever been able to get me out of that tree fort in the sky." - Qouted from musician Stuart Davis's blog
Five other human endeavors suffering from boomeritis are the fields of Science & Technology; Art & Architecture, Economics & Politics; Ecology and Environment; and New Age Spirituality. Science and technology of course impacts medicine, health, education and psychology (See Spiral Dynamics of memes).
"Love is the most universal, the most tremendous, the most mysterious of the cosmic forces. Is it truly possible for humanity to continue to live and grow without asking itself how much truth and energy it is losing by neglecting its incredible powers of love?" -
Pierre. Teilhard de Chardin, The Spirit of the Earth,1931
"Fearlessness is the most prominent characteristic of all bodhisattvas and all who tread the bodhisattva path. For them, life has lost its terrors and suffering its sting. Instead of scorning earthly existence, or condemning its 'imperfection', they fill it with a new meaning." -Lama Anagorika Govinda, A Living Buddhism for the West
Feminine Principle in World Traditions
This morning I just came to this beautiful recording by Tara Brach, which weaves through her personal experiences and stories of Dalai Lama and other monks, Jungian Archetypes, African and Native American wisdom tales, her miscarriage experience and much more....
You can listen to this and many other wonderful free audio from the Spirit Rock Foundation, Dharmaseed.org
here Feminine Principle in Buddhism by Tara Brach, Enjoy!
During the Great Jubilee, Pope John Paul II issued an apology for all the past sins of the Roman Catholic Church, dividing the sins into seven categories. Among general sins, sins in service of the truth, sins against Christian unity, sins against Jews, sins against respect of love, peace and culture, and sins against human rights, he also apologized for sins against the dignity of women and minorities. Misogyny can be traced back to the origins of Modern civilization, such as in Greece and Judea, in which stories and legends on the Fall of Man into a world of tragedy and death had been brought about by a woman.[See wikipedia, Misogyny in Religion]
Theri Sanghamitta, daughter of the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka (272-232 B.C.), was the first female Dhamma Ambassador in recorded history sent from one Head of State at the express invitation of another Head of State.
You can listen to this and many other wonderful free audio from the Spirit Rock Foundation, Dharmaseed.org
here Feminine Principle in Buddhism by Tara Brach, Enjoy!
During the Great Jubilee, Pope John Paul II issued an apology for all the past sins of the Roman Catholic Church, dividing the sins into seven categories. Among general sins, sins in service of the truth, sins against Christian unity, sins against Jews, sins against respect of love, peace and culture, and sins against human rights, he also apologized for sins against the dignity of women and minorities. Misogyny can be traced back to the origins of Modern civilization, such as in Greece and Judea, in which stories and legends on the Fall of Man into a world of tragedy and death had been brought about by a woman.[See wikipedia, Misogyny in Religion]
Theri Sanghamitta, daughter of the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka (272-232 B.C.), was the first female Dhamma Ambassador in recorded history sent from one Head of State at the express invitation of another Head of State.
Quotes from Book of Proverbs
- She is more precious than all riches: and all the things that are desired, are not to be compared to her. (3:15)
-
Her ways are beautiful ways, and all her paths are peaceable. (3:17)
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her: and he that shall retain her is blessed. (3:18)
Exalt her [Lady Wisdom], and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her (4:8)
- She will place on your head a beautiful garland; she will bestow on you a crown of glory (4:9)
- Keep hold of instruction; do not let go: Gaurd her, for she is your life. (4:13)
- My son, keep the commandments of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. (6:20)
Homage to Women by Divine Masculine
Love is the prerogative of the brave. A coward is incapable of love. - Gandhi"I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice." - Gandhi
"Man can never be a woman's equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her." - Gandhi
"I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God's creation, woman, the object of our lust." - Quoted from Mohandas K. Gandhi
"Woman is the embodiment of love, man is here to behold her radiance" - Bernie Prior
<><><>
The Woman
by Rabindranath Tagore
by Rabindranath Tagore
God, with his message of love, has sent women as guardians of individuals, and, in this their divine vocation, individuals are more to them than army and navy and parliament, shops and factories. Here they have their service in God's own temple of reality, where love is of more value than power.
Man can not altogether crush woman's nature into dust or into his dead building materials. Woman's home may have been shattered, but woman is not, and cannot, herself be killed. It is not that woman is merely seeking her freedom of livelihood, struggling against man's monopoly of business, but against man's monopoly of civilization where he is breaking her heart every day and desolating her life. She must restore the lost social balance by putting the full weight of the woman into the creation of the human world.
Men have seen the absurdity of today's civilization, which is based upon nationalism,- that is to say, on economics and politics- and its consequent militarism. Men have been losing their freedom and their humanity in order to fit themselves for vast mechanical organizations. So the next civilization, it is hoped! ! ! ! , will be based not merely upon economical and political competition and exploitation but upon world- wide social co-operation; upon spiritual ideals of reciprocity and not upon economic ideals of efficiency. And then women will have their true place.
Because men have been building up vast and monstrous organizations they have got into, the habit of thinking that this turning-out power has something of the nature of perfection in itself. The habit is ingrained in them, and it is difficult for them to see where truth is missing in their present ideal of progress. But woman can bring her fresh mind and all her power of sympathy to this new task of building up a spiritual civilization, if she will be conscious of her responsibilities."
____
Adoration of Divine Mother
Poem by Sri Aurobindo , Savitri, Book III
Poem by Sri Aurobindo , Savitri, Book III
Hers is the mystery the Night conceals;
The spirit's alchemist energy is hers;
She is the golden bridge, the wonderful fire.
The luminous heart of the Unknown is she,
A power of silence in the depths of God;
She is the Force, the inevitable Word,
The magnet of our difficult ascent,
The Sun from which we kindle all our suns,
The Light that leans from the unrealised Vasts,
The joy that beckons from the impossible,
The Might of all that never yet came down.
All Nature dumbly calls to her alone
To heal with her feet the aching throb of life
And break the seals on the dim soul of man
And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things.
All here shall be one day her sweetness' home,
All contraries prepare her harmony;
Towards her our knowledge climbs, our passion gropes;
In her miraculous rapture we shall dwell,
Her clasp shall turn to ecstasy our pain.
Our self shall be One Self with All through her.
On Female Enlightened Teachers
Q: Was there a time when there were a lot of enlightened females, is it a cycle?
Rinpoche: Long time ago there were a lot of female teachers. In India and in Tibet as well. There were always female teachers, and one problem that we have is that most of the female teachers, their life stories are not recorded. There is no books, no texts. One reason for this is that the female enlightened beings, they didn't have a lot of disciples. The reason is, many female teachers and enlightened beings, a lot of them had children, they lived at home. They didn't really give formal teachings. They're occupied with having children and so forth, but they were highly realized beings. They were recognized by other lamas -- "She is emanation of Tara. She is emanation of Vajrayogini, so on." So they didn't have disciples. This is one reason. Also, there were female teachers, like yoginis, who were wandering around, themselves living in caves and villages. Also, it's partly because of society, you know, male chauvinist society. So the people always go to men teachers, lamas who have many disciples, they don't go to female teachers. And also female teachers are modest and humble, so they just don't care if they have disciples or not. They just do their own practice. So there was none recalled in stories, unfortunately. But there was many teachers, enlightened ones. And long time, of course, there were more female teachers. I think it's possible, it's true, there will be more women teachers in the future. [Guru Yoga Teaching by Lama Zasep Tulku Rinpoche, 1998, Van.Canada
“The Mother Tantra says that if one is not aware in vision, it is unlikely that one will be aware in behavior. If one is not aware in behavior, one is unlikely to be aware in dream. And if one is not aware in dream, then one is unlikely to be aware in the bardo after death.” -- The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, pgs. 81-82.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
