Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: The Masculine and Feminine In Us, Oct 2, 2022, live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Topic - The Masculine and Feminine in Us

The terms masculine and feminine can easily evoke a gender conflict, but Baba asserts that both of these qualities are in each one of us. If our identification with the gender of our body is too strong, that is, if we identify as strictly male, then the feminine qualities in us get repressed. The same is true for the feminine. Baba says when both the masculine and feminine are fully developed in us, we are approaching Realization.

What are the qualities associated with the masculine and feminine? Baba says broadly that the masculine in us "excels in qualities of head and will", and the feminine "in qualities of the heart". One who balances both qualities in himself or herself will have a more integrated experience of oneself.

Speaking very simplistically, the masculine in us is generally considered assertive and goal-oriented, while the feminine is receptive and relationship-oriented. The masculine relies, in Baba’s words, on the mind with its “sound judgment", “steadfast purpose,” and willpower, the feminine on the heart with its feelings, empathy and intuitions; they are “capable of intense love,” “devotion" and “any sacrifice”.

Paradoxically, it is possible for a woman to be very masculine and a man to be quite feminine. Neither gender has a monopoly on the masculine and feminine.

How do these qualities play out in you? Have you seen Baba develop the qualities in you that are usually considered the opposite of your gender?

Have you found that because of the outer stereotypical and cultural definitions and restrictions of gender, the process of balancing the masculine and feminine within has been more challenging and difficult? Due to pressure or even fear from society, sometimes our usual gender qualities may be repressed in us.

An effort has to be made to balance these qualities within. While seeking this balance, Baba says in the case of a man, that he “tries to understand a woman, not through the eyes of the male, but through an imaginative reaching out toward what the woman feels herself to be, in her own personal experience.” The same is true for women.

Over recent decades, there seem to be two concurrent paths: the traditional stereotypical male and female gender roles alongside growing trends of individual expression. In what ways do you see variations on the traditional stereotypes? What looks and behaviors would have been unheard of just a few decades ago? Could this in anyway be moving toward “balancing out the attributes” that Baba refers to?

Could it be that the current questioning and expression of gender today is the soul's attempt to balance the masculine and feminine qualities within?

Have you been affected adversely by the stereotypical definition of your gender? In what ways? How does the societal culture of your country play into the experience of your gender?

Could Baba be making an invaluable DISTINCTION between MASCULINE and FEMININE attributes, rather than the more limiting MALE and FEMALE genders? In that case, is there more room for acceptable overlap—for example, a strong-minded take-charge woman, or a shy devotional man? Haven't we already begun loosening the ways we see others? What role does detachment from gender play in balancing out our inner nature?

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