What Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz Taught – A Sampler

Women and Enlightenment

Why don’t more women attain enlightenment? Why don’t more men attain enlightenment? More men than women attain enlightenment. This suggests an imbalance. I would like to address the question- — why don’t more women attain enlightenment. But in addressing that question, I’m also addressing the question, why don’t more men attain enlightenment? Why don’t we live in an enlightened and happy world? Because I feel one is wrapped up in the other and one cannot be separated from the other, but there is a greater imbalance reflected on one side of the question than on the other. I’d like to look at that side. Why don’t more women attain enlightenment?

There are many, many reasons why more women don’t attain enlightenment. In presenting my theory to you, I would like to first look historically at a few important items or consolidated histories, because without an understanding of what has been, it will be very difficult to understand what is.

It is equally easy, initially, for either a man or woman to attain enlightenment, what we call liberation or self-realization. Ultimately there is no sex. The jiva or soul, the principle within us that is existence, is neither masculine nor feminine. It composes both. Structurally we know there are obvious differences between the male and the female body. There are also differences between the subtle physical body, the luminous body, of a man and woman. But beyond the physical and the subtle physical bodies, what we see is that all of us are androgynous. All of us really contain both sides, or it’s even incorrect to say that there are two sides because that implies that there is a difference, and there is no difference. We are one integrated reality, but we live in a diurnal world, a world of duality where there’s dark and light, good and bad, heat and cold, relative pairs of opposites. That’s how a fragmented consciousness sees reality, in pairs.

Historically, men have suppressed women quite effectively. They have suppressed women since the beginning of our history. We must ask ourselves why this is so, and in doing so, not assign blame. We’re looking at a historical principle. But there’s no sense of judgment involved in our examination, only detached observation so we can understand cause and effect.

Women exemplify, from a spiritual point of view, power. The power of the kundalini energy, the energy of life, flows through them in a very different way than it does through a man, innately. In a fallen world, in a world of fear and darkness, men have reacted very negatively to the power that is inherent in women. Rather than realizing that that power is also indigenous to themselves, that they have the same power, only it manifests in other ways, they have rejected that power and sought to convince women of the exact opposite, that they are powerless.

They have done this through sexual repression, economic repression, political repression, social repression, ideological repression and spiritual repression. Women have been given a description of the world that they are taught from childhood, which they believe is true, as are men. We are taught by our societies, by our parents, by the examples of those we see.

There is really no such thing as a woman or a man. There is a physical body, a subtle physical body, a soul. But there is no such thing as a woman or a man. What we consider to be a woman is an idea. This idea has been formed through history, culture, politics, art, religion the same is true of a man. These ideas are out of balance. They are not true or accurate. Women have been taught that they are not powerful, as a matter of fact, they’ve been given an opposite description-that they are, in fact, weak. The word “effeminate” implies weakness, stemming from feminine. Women have been taught that they are not particularly sexual. Who has taught them this? Men.

Women have also been systematically pushed out of spirituality by men. This must also be considered in our view of why don’t more women attain enlightenment. Even in the Bhagavad-Gita, a book that I revere and respect, it’s indicated that even women, along with animals, are capable of attaining enlightenment. The idea is that to be a woman is a lower birth, but still, all can attain enlightenment if they truly aspire. Even in a very high spiritual and philosophical book we see the concept, which is quite ridiculous, that a woman is in a lower birth, that to be a woman is innately wrong, in other words. You made a mistake somewhere and that’s why you were born in the body of a woman. Traditionally, in most spiritual organizations, women are not allowed to become priests, in many cases ministers, monks. Or if they are, they have special sets of rules and are denied power in the spiritual organization. So women, again, are cast into an image. And that image is inferiority.

What is the solution? The solution is not easy, either for men or for women. We have two people, a man and a woman, who are fighting each other. They are so busy fighting each other that they don’t realize that they could be inspiring each other or giving each other strength or learning from each other. Or if they can’t do that, at least leaving each other alone, and each growing without interference from the other.

What is necessary for a woman to attain enlightenment is for her to undo everything that’s been done…As a woman, you have to work on power, independence, self-confidence, supporting other women and not always running to a man for justification, for condolence, for support, and not always looking for the nod of the father figure saying, “Yes this is right,” or someone to just pat you on the shoulder. Rather, you have to realize that you have tremendous power in your being and you can bring that power into eternity.

What a man must do is realize that his continued belief in the inferiority of women is going to produce a type of karma that is going to hold him back, and already has. And he must be honest enough, and have enough integrity, to change his description of the world, even though everyone else in the world may not feel that way.

By doing this, a man or woman will not necessarily change the world, but they will change themselves. They will enter into a state of balance. It’s not an easy task, but it’s a necessary task if one seeks enlightenment.