Osho Quotes on Feminine Qualities
- Love, trust, beauty, sincerity, truthfulness, authenticity — these are all feminine qualities, and they are far greater than any qualities that man has. But the whole past has been dominated by man and his qualities. Naturally in war, love is of no use, truth is of no use, beauty is of no use, aesthetic sensibility is no use. In war, you need a heart which is more stony than stones. In war, you need simply hate, anger, a madness to destroy. In three thousand years, man has fought five thousand wars. Yes, this is also strength but not worthy of human beings. This is strength derived from our animal inheritance.
- A woman should keep her separateness, should save all her feminine qualities and purify them. In this way she is going, according to her nature, towards enlightenment. Of course once you are enlightened, you have gone beyond the discrimination of sexes. Beyond enlightenment, you are simply human beings. But before that…. Be proud of your qualities. Increase them, refine them because they are the path towards godliness. Man is not in a better position than woman as far as religious experience is concerned.
- I would like the whole world to be full of feminine qualities. Then only can wars disappear.
- A woman is more humble, more grateful, more loving.
- Respect the feminine — it is higher, certainly higher, than the male qualities. But the male chauvinist mind is incapable of accepting it. Out of an inferiority complex the male mind has tried to repress the feminine and of course because the male is aggressive, violent, destructive, he can repress it. The feminine is receptive, surrendering; it knows how to let go, it knows how to adjust, so it has become adjusted even to the male chauvinist attitude. The whole past of humanity is ugly and the reason is that we have not allowed the feminine qualities to blossom. So become more and more receptive, sensitive, creative, loving, dancing, singing — and that’s how you will go on becoming more and more meditative. And the more meditative you are, the more you will find feminine qualities blossoming in you. The moment the male energy becomes feminine a Buddha is born, a Christ is born.
- A really wise man is feminine, receptive, passive. That’s why Buddha looks so feminine. That quality of passiveness, that quality of receptivity… He is just a receptacle. He reflects life: he allows life to reflect in him, to be reflected through him. He sings the song that existence wants to sing through him. He has no ideas of his own; he does not hinder.
- For centuries manliness has been praised. It is time to drop that whole nonsense. It is because of that praise that humanity has suffered much. Manly qualities are aggressive, violent. We should start praising feminine qualities. The most feminine quality is receptivity, openness, vulnerability. Man has dominated long enough and that domination has been destructive of all that is fragile, beautiful, of all that is flowerlike. Only rocks have remained, flowers have disappeared. My whole effort here is to praise the feminine qualities. The world needs them. If I love Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, the most fundamental reason for my love is that they are all feminine, they are not masculine. Friedrich Nietzsche has condemned Buddha and Christ for the same reason — they are not manly enough. I praise them for the same reason — they are not manly enough. That is good; they have a grace, the feminine grace. We have to change the whole gestalt of human consciousness. we have to make it more surrendering, more receptive, we have to teach it how to relax and how things can happen in a deep let-go. all that is great — truth, love, bliss, god, freedom — happens in a state of let-go. You cannot force them to happen. that is not possible, that is not i the nature of things at all. You can only be a host, you can only be pregnant with those qualities, you can allow then to happen. Don’t hinder, that’s all that you can do. Keep the doors open, keep the heart open, and you become a song. God starts singing through you. You become a joyous spirit, you become a celebration.
- Be a little more feminine. Not only does the woman have to be liberated from men, the man has also to be liberated from men. There is a great need for a men’s liberation movement — not liberation from women, but liberation from all the nonsense that has been taught to him down the ages: Be hard! Be steel! Don’t bend! Break but don’t bend! Man has been taught to be hard like a rock — man has missed much. And now women are following in the same tracks. It is a dangerous situation. If the woman also follows the man, she will be a second-rate citizen, she will never be equal to man. And not only that: if she follows man and becomes hard, as lib women ARE becoming — their faces are becoming hard, their bodies are losing roundness, softness, vulnerability, they are becoming more and more angry and less and less loving — the danger is that that will be the end of the whole of humanity, if it happens. The only hope for humanity is in the quality of feminineness — the only hope. The hope is not with Friedrich Nietzsche, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini: the hope is with Buddha, Chaitanya, Meera — with a totally different kind of people. And we have to turn men and women BOTH into a kind of feminine lovingness.
- It is absolutely right to be feminine. You should feel fortunate, because this is the quality that one needs in the search for god. One can move towards god only in utter passivity. One cannot be aggressive towards god. In the East we have a saying: ‘God is the only male and everybody else is female.’ It is in deep feminine receptivity that god penetrates. So this is the quality of a disciple, of a devotee. The problem is arising because of your Western conditioning. In the West the male ego is praised. To be active is thought to be very valuable. In the East we have learned something more profound. To know the art of inaction is the greatest thing in the East — we call it tao, wu-wei. And this inaction is not lethargy. Much action happens through it, but you are not the doer. The doer is god, you are just a vehicle. So it is not lethargy. Action will be there but it will come through inaction. And you are ready for that jump.
- Women all over the world are trying in every possible way to behave like men. They are wearing men’s clothes, smoking cigarettes like men, and whatsoever they can do. They use language like men have always used it, becoming arrogant, aggressive, losing the feminine quality. See the women of the liberation movement: they have lost something — something soft, feminine, receptive, passive, is no more there. They are aggressive, violent. They can’t wait for another life. In this very life they are in a hurry, they want to become like men. They want the same jobs, the same kind of work, the same kind of freedom. Even if that freedom is just stupid, even if that job is hard, they want to prove that they can manage it, that they are not less than men. Their next life they are bound to be born as men.
- A woman always wants to belong. That has nothing to do with any particular individuals; it is something to do with the very nature of womanhood. It is part of the feminine mind to lean to somebody, to possess and to be possessed. So it is not a question of somebody being like that. All women, more or less, are like that. That is their intrinsic quality. And when a woman loses that quality, she loses something of her womanhood. Then she is not worth much. She is almost like a man; she has a male mind. You will not feel that softness, that fragileness that gives grace and beauty to a woman. It is just like a creeper. The creeper needs some tree to belong to, to creep upon, to be supported by. The creeper cannot stand on its own. But that is one of the most beautiful experiences — that somebody belongs to you and you belong to somebody. Belonging is one of the most desired states of the human mind. You feel rooted when you feel that you belong to somebody.
- A man may be physically a man and may not be psychologically a man; he may have a feminine psyche. Hence things become complicated. A woman may have a masculine psyche. There is no necessity that the body should decide the psyche. The woman, the feminine quality I call the moon type, and the masculine quality I call the sun type. Their paths are bound to be different. Of course the goal is the same; they reach the same peak but they follow different paths. The feminine psyche follows the path of love. Sufism is basically a feminine approach towards existence. The masculine spirit will not find any appeal in Sufism, in the path of love; it will be more attracted to Zen, the path of meditation. The path of love is more of feelings, emotion; it is greener. The path of meditation has the beauty of a desert, the silence, the infinity of a desert.
- Unless one becomes a womb one never becomes pregnant with god. One cannot conquer god, one can’t be aggressive — that is the sure way to fail. One can only surrender and allow god to happen. That’s what the quality of being feminine really is. That is the essential core of meditation.
- The lotus is the most loved flower in the East and it is tremendously significant as a symbol. The lotus is the most soft flower, the most feminine, very receptive, and that’s what the East has been searching for: the quality of being feminine, soft, receptive. Because god cannot be conquered — one has to surrender to god, and only the feminine can surrender. God has to be a guest and only the feminine can become the host. God has to be received and welcomed, and one has to learn infinite patience because one never knows when the guest will come; there is simply no way of predicting it. its ways of coming are infinite but there is no way to know them beforehand. its ways are mysterious, and only the feminine heart can understand the mysterious.
- My whole work consists of creating more and more of the feminine quality. So when it starts growing in you, the old mind says ‘Now you are vulnerable, weak — how are you going to face that ugly world?’ Here you were protected, here you lived with like-minded people. All freedom was there. Everybody was ready to accept you — whosoever you are, whatsoever you are, with all your flaws and faults and limitations; there was no imposition on you. You relaxed, you started growing; you became softer and softer. Now, I can understand the fear, but don’t be worried — you are not weak; you have simply become more feminine. Start feeling this as your strength; it is strength. And soon you will see that it goes on growing: on the one hand you become more and more soft, on the other hand more and more strong. But this strength is subtle, not gross; this strength is divine, not that of the beast. This strength is that of a buddha. It grows slowly, slowly. Have you not looked at the statue of Buddha — how feminine he looks? Don’t be worried… and I am coming with you!
- Be passive. In your passivity, God comes. Be feminine. In your femininity, God comes. Have you not watched it? Buddha looks very feminine, Krishna looks very feminine. Why? — because it is simply a metaphor. They have been depicted as feminine, graceful, to show that that is their inner quality — receptivity. When you are doing something you are being aggressive. When you are not doing anything you are non-aggressive. And God cannot be conquered; you can only allow him to conquer you.
- Grace is a feminine quality.
- All the great artists of the world slowly slowly start growing a quality of feminineness, grace, elegance, exquisiteness. A certain flavor of softness, relaxedness, calmness and quietness surrounds them. They are no longer feverish. What I am teaching here is really to turn the whole world feminine.
- Receptivity is always feminine. The male quality is aggressive, the feminine quality is receptive. It is not only physically that a woman has a womb, it is also spiritually true. When when a man attains to the truth he has to learn the art of being feminine. Hence you will see in the statues of Buddha, Mahavira, Krishna, Christ, a certain quality of femininity, a grace, a sensitivity, an availability, a vulnerability, because truth has to be received, welcomed. You cannot conquer truth, you have to allow the truth to conquer you. There is no way to be aggressive as far as truth is concerned. Aggression is violence and the violent person becomes incapable of knowing the truth. One has to be utterly loving. The feminine quality makes you a host and then the guest can come at any moment. Whenever your receptivity is ripe the guest inevitably arrives. Not even a single moment is lost.
- The feminine mind has both qualities, the negative and the positive. The positive is love, the negative is jealousy; the positive is sharing, the negative is possessiveness; the positive is waiting, the negative is lethargy, because waiting can look as if it is waiting and it may not be, it may be just lethargy. And the same happens with the male mind: the male mind has a positive quality that he inquires, goes in search, and a negative quality that he always doubts. Can you be an inquirer without doubt? Then you have chosen the positive. But you can also be a doubtful man without inquiring, just sitting and doubting.
- To be motherly is a totally different phenomenon. It is something absolutely human; it transcends animality. It has nothing to do with biology. It is love, pure love, unconditional love. When a mother loves unconditionally — and only a mother can love unconditionally — the child learns the joy of unconditional love. The child becomes capable of loving unconditionally. And to be able to love unconditionally is to be religious. And it is the easiest thing for a woman to do. It is easy for her because naturally she is ready for it.
- Tantra believes that just as a man has to be born out of a woman, so the new birth of a disciple is also going to be out of a woman. In fact, all the Masters are more mothers than fathers. They have the quality of the feminine. Buddha is feminine, so is Mahavir, so is Krishna. You can see the feminine grace, the feminine roundness; you can see the feminine beauty; you can look into their eyes and you will not find the male aggressiveness. So it is very symbolic that a Buddha took the form of a woman. Buddhas always take the form of a woman. They may be living in a male body, but they are feminine — because ALL that is born is born out of the feminine energy. Male energy can trigger it but cannot give birth. A Master has to keep you in his womb for months, for years, sometimes for lives. One never knows when you will be ready to be born. A Master has to be a mother. A Master has to be tremendously capable of feminine energy, so that he can shower love on you — only then can he destroy. Unless you are certain about his love, you will not allow him to destroy you. How will you trust? Only his love will make you able to trust. And through trust, by and by, he will cut limb by limb. And one day suddenly you will disappear. Slowly, slowly, slowly..and you are gone. GATE, GATE, PARA GATE — going, going, going, gone. Then the new is born.
- Man has dominated the past and messed up everything. The future belongs to the feminine qualities, not to the manly qualities. The male quality is basically that of aggression, and the female quality basically is that of receptivity. It is because of man that there have been so many wars. It is because of man that there has been so much destruction. Man has to learn to be a little more feminine. The feminine has to be freed from the past and its domination, man has to learn to become a little more feminine, and we can create a better future than the past, we can create a more peaceful earth, more loving. There is no future for manly qualities; they are finished, man is spent. Woman has to be explored — for new visions, for new perspectives, for new possibilities.
- Man has been condemning women. Perhaps there is a reason; perhaps he was aware of some superiority in woman — the superiority of love. No logic can be higher than love, and no mind can be higher than the heart. But the mind can be very murderous; the mind can be very violent, and that’s what the mind has done for centuries. Man has been beating women, repressing women, condemning women.
- The man and the woman are not really two separate entities, but the personality of the man needs the supporting qualities of the woman. If those supporting qualities are not there, the man will fall apart. And the same will happen to the woman. She cannot exist only on female qualities, she needs male supporting qualities. So each human being is a composite whole of two polarities which appear opposed to each other but are not really opposed; they are basically, absolutely essential components of each other.
- A buddha laughs too, but his laughter has the quality of a smile. His laughter has the feminine quality of grace. When an ignorant person laughs, his laughter is very aggressive, egoistic. The ignorant person always laughs at others. The contented person, the person who knows life a little, laughs at himself — at the whole play of life itself. It is not addressed to anybody in particular. He just laughs at the absurdity of it all… the impossibility of it all.
- Sleep is a feminine energy. If you look at it — and here you come to a very significant point — the feminine energy functions in a totally different way than the male energy. The woman wants you to chase her. She does not want you simply to sit and wait for her to come. Even though the woman wants you, loves you, wants to be yours, first she will run away. She will not run very fast. She will run in such a way that you can catch her; she will give you every chance to catch hold of her. Every feminine energy has the same quality. Sleep is feminine, you cannot catch hold of her. You have just to close your eyes and lie down and wait. She will come … she is just in the other room. In the same category are all great values: friendship, love, peace, silence, and ultimately the realization of your godliness — they all happen. You are not the doer.
- Poetry has an indirect way of hinting at things. Poetry is feminine. Prose is masculine. Prose, the very structure of it, is logical; poetry is basically illogical. Prose has to be clear-cut; poetry has to be vague — that’s its beauty, its quality. Prose simply says what it says; poetry says many things. Prose is needed in the day-to-day world, in the marketplace. But whenever something of the heart has to be said, prose is always found inadequate — one has to fall back to poetry.
