Osho : Great Qualities Are Feminine

Let all gender distinctions disappear, says OSHO

 

All great qualities are feminine — love, compassion, sympathy, kindness. Male qualities of the warrior are hard qualities; one has to be like steel. Because man’s qualities have developed through war, and female qualities have developed at home, in the garden of love, with husband and children — she has lived in a totally different world. Man has lived continuously fighting. In three thousand years, there have been five thousand wars on earth — as if killing is man’s only profession.

 

The world has lived in two parts. Man has made his own world while the woman has lived in a shadow —  she has created her own world in the shadow. But man or woman, to be complete, whole, must have all the qualities together. Both men and women should be as soft as rose petals and as hard as a sword. If the situation needs you to be a sword, you are ready; if it needs you to be just a rose petal, you are ready. This flexibility — between rose petal and sword — will enrich your life. This goes for all other qualities as well.

 

Two Parts Of A Whole

Man and woman are two parts of one whole; their world should also be one whole, and they should share all qualities — no quality should be stamped as feminine or masculine.

 

When you make somebody masculine, that person loses great things in his life. He becomes juiceless, he becomes stale, hard, almost dead. And the woman who completely forgets how to be hard, how to be a rebel, is bound to become a slave, because she has only soft qualities. Now, roses cannot fight with swords, they will be crushed, destroyed. A total human being has not been born yet. There have been men and women, but not complete human beings.

 

My approach is to bring the whole human to earth — with all the beautiful qualities of woman and with all the courageous, rebellious, adventurous qualities of man. And they should all be part of one whole.

 

From the very beginning, we start telling children... A small boy, if he wants to play with toys like girls, we immediately stop him — “Shame; you are a boy, you are a man, don’t be girlish.” If a girl tries to climb a tree, we stop her immediately: “This is not ladylike, climbing a tree, this is for boys — rough. You just come down!”

 

For Nature, Everyone’s Alike

From the very beginning, we start dividing man and woman into parts. Both suffer — because climbing a tree has a joy of its own; no woman should miss it. To be on top of a tree when the wind is strong, in the sun, with the birds singing...if you have not been to that point, you have missed something. And just because you are a woman. Strange...To be adventurous — to climb mountains, swim the oceans — should not be prevented just because you are a woman, because that thrill is something spiritual.

 

A man should not be prevented if he wants to cry. Then he cannot bring tears — tears are only for women: “You are a man; behave like a man!” And tears are such a beautiful experience. In deep sadness or in great joy, whenever something is overflowing, tears give expression to it. And if tears are repressed, at the same time what they were going to express — the deep sadness or the great joy — is also repressed.

 

Remember that nature has made no difference. It has given men and women the same tear glands, of equal size. But if a man cries, everybody condemns him. “You are behaving like a woman,” they will say. You should say, “What can I do? Nature has given me tear glands. It is not my responsibility. I am simply enjoying my nature. Tears are my right.” All qualities should be available to everybody. There are men who become incapable of love because they are trained for certain qualities: “You have to be hard; competitive. Don’t show emotions, don’t be sentimental.” Now how do you expect a man who is not emotional, not sentimental, who is not allowed to feel...how can you expect him to love? And when he misses love, his life becomes miserable. And the same is happening on both sides.

 

Let all distinctions disappear. Everybody should be allowed everything that is naturally possible to the person whether man or woman. And we would have a richer world of richer people.