Firstly, there is no such thing as "QRS", or a QRS system, or anything like that. The "QRS" label is something that past detractors of this forum have coined in an attempt to reduce what is happening here to cult-like behaviour.I’m sorry for using this thread for a totally irrelevant inquiry but I have a question. I don’t know a whole lot about QRS and I am rather new to this system. But what is all this reference to masculinity (on this forum and in its descriptions)? It seems that masculinity is the preferred characteristic. Am I right? And why is this approach considered better than the feminine approach?
There are shared values among some of us here - e.g. truth, wisdom, enlightenment, rationality, the conquering of all delusion, independence of thought, etc - but that is more or less the extent of it. There is no method to practice, no scripts to follow, and no authority figures to worship. We're just a collection of like-minded thinkers who like to engage in good old-fashioned thinking.
As for the issue of masculinity/femininity, I refer you to a short essay that I wrote some years ago. It still reflects what I think today:
Feel free to ask further questions, if you desire.Masculine and Feminine Psychology
Understanding masculine and feminine psychology is extremely important as far as one's philosophical development is concerned. If one is going to be serious about becoming enlightened, then one has to know exactly what the ego is and how it operates. And one cannot begin to understand the ego without understanding its component parts - namely, the masculine and the feminine.
One thing is certain. Failure to gain a proper understanding of this issue will undermine one's spiritual search from the outset. There have been countless individuals who have fallen short in their attempts to become enlightened because of an overwhelming attachment to femininity, and to women. They are attachments that run deep in all of our psyches, in both men and women. They go to the core of our egos and fundamentally shape who we are and what we choose to value, usually without our even knowing it. They sit behind the scenes, as it were, deep within the mind, relentlessly wielding an influence upon one's thought-processes, powerfully distorting them and rendering them incapable of apprehending Truth. All attachments do this to greater or lesser degree, of course, but woman/femininity is unquestionably the largest and most fundamental attachment that we have.
Yet there are very few people alive today who are genuinely aware of what is happening inside of them and willing to face up to it. Ours is a culture with a huge mental block about the nature of women and femininity. Because they are such powerful attachments that go to the core of the ego, people are strongly motivated to protect them at all costs and, as a result, they instinctively block out all but the most harmless truths about women and femininity.
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Everyone knows there are broad differences between the sexes. Men are generally physically stronger, more aggressive, more single-minded, more attached to logic, more solution-orientated, and more anti-social. Women, on the other hand, tend to be more passive, more nurturing, more attached to feelings and relationships, more sensual, more childlike and more able to find happiness in the moment. These are generalizations, of course, but most men and women seem to fit neatly into their respective gender categories.
Men are usually more extreme in everything they do. They are the ones who commit the great crimes like serial killing, just as they are the ones who create the great masterpieces in music, art, science and philosophy. The masculine qualities of aggression and single-mindedness lend themselves to the achievement of great things, whether it be in creation or destruction. Women, on the other hand, generally do very little of note either way.
Because of this, men are far more suited to the philosophic life than women are. The goal of enlightenment/perfection is very lofty and difficult to reach. It is literally the greatest prize open to the human mind. If someone wants to attain it, they have to be highly motivated, mentally-resilient, aggressive, single-minded, attached to logic, and anti-social. In other words, they have to be masculine.
This doesn't mean that a woman cannot attain enlightenment. I, for one, like to believe it's possible. But clearly, a woman who intently develops her masculinity at the expense of her femininity would be a woman going completely against the grain. She would become unlike any other woman alive today, so much so that she would stick out like a blazing beacon in the darkness. To my knowledge, no woman has ever attained enlightenment.
Yet develop her masculinity she must, if she wants to lead an ethical life. There can be no goodness without consciousness of Truth, and there can be no consciousness of Truth without a sustained masculine drive to conquer one's ignorance. We are all morally obliged to do everything we can to eliminate our femininity in an effort to become purely masculine. Only in this way will we be able to enter into the marvelous clarity of enlightenment, be at one with Nature's flow, and begin acting as responsible human beings.
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My interest in masculinity and femininity is spiritual in nature. It is important to keep this in mind when studying my thought. All of my comments and observations about women are made in the context of the Absolute. The Absolute is my primary interest in life. I have no desire to hurt people, especially women, but at the same time the truth needs to be said!
In simple terms, I define the masculine to be that in us which seeks greatness. It is the active principle and incorporated into it are the traditional masculine qualities of idealism, courage, persistence, single-mindedness, rationality, independence, and the desire to dominate.
The feminine, on the other hand, is that part of us which is easily contented and loves going with the flow. It incorporates the qualities of unconsciousness, submissiveness, passiveness, absorption in immediacy, indulgence in emotional pleasure, scatteredness, and the desire to minimize one's existence.
All of us have these two aspects within us to varying degrees. In women, the feminine is overwhelming and forms the core of their ego, personality and psychology. Very few women have significant amounts of masculinity in them; in those instances where masculine behaviour is displayed it is usually simulated. In most cases, women can only ape masculinity and only then under certain specific conditions (which, ultimately, are created and sustained by men).
Men in general are also very feminine, but in some men at least the masculine is large enough and deep-rooted enough to have an impact on their lives. These men can be thought of as possessing a "masculine consciousness". Yet, in truth, only a perfectly enlightened Buddha is entirely without femininity, for only such a being has thoroughly eliminated his ego (together with its feminine and masculine parts). To the degree that a man has an ego femininity still exists as a force inside him.
Men constantly suppress what little masculinity they have in order to remain pleasing to women. Very rarely, for example, does a man allow his masculinity to infiltrate his personal thought to any significant degree, for the simple reason that masculine forms of thinking tend to be very unpopular with women. When a man becomes more masculine in his thinking, he becomes more independent and solitary in his mind and therefore less concerned with women's desires and more indifferent to their charms. Women, therefore, despise and fear masculine thinkers.
When men do express some masculinity, it is usually done with women's implicit (or explicit) approval. Because women in the main are crude, sensual creatures with little or no higher aspirations, the masculinity that men tend to express is usually just as crude, sensuous and aimless. At other times, men just explode out of sheer frustration at having to constantly suppress a significant part of themselves - their masculine yearnings, their soul and conscience.
Men clearly have a love-hate relationship with their masculinity. While they might feel violated and cheated at having to constantly suppress their masculinity, they are at the same time deeply afraid of it. They are afraid of its potential, of where it might lead them and what it might do. For they know deep down that masculinity seeks higher things than a wife, and that to go beyond wife is to go beyond the warm embrace of the human race and venture alone into unknown territory. Most men think it much more desirable to be safely tied to a woman than to be cast adrift in the loftiness and solitude of greatness, and they quite willingly shut down large tracts of their minds to facilitate this.
As far as the spiritual path is concerned, the cultivation of masculinity and the elimination of femininity is the foundation for all spiritual and philosophical development. The goal is to go beyond both the masculine and the feminine, but only the masculine can achieve this. In other words, only the active principle can eliminate itself - after it has eliminated the passive principle. The perfect Buddha is neither masculine nor feminine, nor a mix of both - just as Nature itself is none of these things.
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Apart from those close to perfection, no one is 100% masculine - just as no one is 100% feminine. Most of us lie somewhere along the spectrum between the two extremes, having a certain amount of both masculinity and femininity. Most women, for example, are about 98% feminine, while most men are around 90% feminine.
At the extreme end of the feminine pole are those who do absolutely nothing with their lives in any shape at all. They lie around all day, watch TV and have other people take care of them. They are indistinguishable from rocks. Going up the scale a touch are the housewives whose husbands take care of them
If I'm not sure about a particular person and I'm having difficulty summing him up, I always look to his views on women/femininity. If he isn't thoroughly disgusted with feminine behaviour, and if he doesn't judge women to be vastly inferior to himself and to other men, then I immediately know he is not destined for greatness. It's clear that he has been taken in by the mediocrity of the world.
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Q: How can you call yourself a follower of the Buddha if you believe that women are inherently inferior? It goes against the whole of the Buddha's teaching (which is based on the view that all things lack inherent existence).
A: I don't say that women are *inherently* inferior, only that they are inferior at the present time and have been for thousands of years.
I do agree that no one is intrinsically superior or inferior. We are all equal before God, if you like. However, this doesn't mean that everyone has the same capacity for wisdom.
A thing is only "superior" or "inferior" within a particular context. For example, Bach is often cited as the greatest musical genius of all time. As far as composing music is concerned Bach is probably superior to everyone else, even though it remains true that all people who compose music are equal before God.
Similarly, men and women have different capabilities, different fields of expertise, different values and different goals in life, even though the sexes are equal before God. The existence of these differences implies that men are superior to women in some areas of life, and vice versa.
For example, women are superior to men in the skill of being happy. This is primarily because women are more childlike, more able to live "in the moment" and have a greater ability to lose themselves in their emotions. They have less consciousness and therefore less capacity for suffering. As well, women are probably superior in terms of physical beauty and personal charm and in sharing their emotional life with others. The only problem with these skills and pockets of expertise is that they don't aid one in the quest for enlightenment, and in many ways they hinder it.
One of the major differences between the sexes is that women have very little appreciation of the concept of Truth. Mention to a woman that the most important thing in your life is Ultimate Truth and she will probably stare at you as if you were from another planet. I find that with men, however, there is always an appreciation of it to some small degree. They may never pick up the baton and follow the Truth themselves, but at least they have an inkling that the concept is important in some way. Accordingly, they have a spark in them which women lack.
It mainly stems from upbringing, although part of it is probably genetic as well. Men are brought up to believe that they are consciously responsible for their own lives, as well as the lives of others. Women, on the other hand, are brought up in a cocoon of femininity inside which they can frolic and play to their heart's content. Men create and sustain the cocoon, believing it to be their greatest obligation in life. They willingly form a protective barrier between women and the wild chaos of Nature, and, like loyal servants, attend to their needs inside.
Even in our modern age of feminism, men are still expected to achieve and succeed and assume responsibility for what goes on in the world, whereas women aren't. Achieving something with one's intelligence, or with one's hands, is merely one of several options that lie before a woman, but with men there is no choice. It is a matter of life and death. His status and identity as a man is wholly dependent upon it. A woman's status and identity, by contrast, is already assured by virtue of a fact that she is a woman.
It follows, then, that men, by sheer dent of their lot in life, are forced to face reality more squarely and more intelligently than women. Anyone who is strongly motivated to succeed in this world has to deal far more directly with reality than those who, for whatever reason, lack this motivation. This motivation is deep-rooted in almost all men, having been instilled into them at a very young age, while it is relatively foreign even in the most passionate and single-minded of women.
As a result, a man's consciousness is larger and deeper than a woman's. Its horizons are further, its scope is bigger, its perspective is more realistic, its workings are more coherent and structured, and its knowledge of the world nowhere near as trivial.
Th difference between a man and a woman is like the difference between the eldest and youngest sons in a large family. One is reserved, hard and serious; the other flighty, aimless and sensual.
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Q: Men and women may be different to one another, but this doesn't mean that one is strong and the other weak. They each have different abilities and different value systems, that's all.
A: I would say that, in general, women are weak in reasoning about abstract matters and in valuing absolute truth. At the same time, they are strong in living more spontaneously in the moment and in being satisfied with imperfection in general. This is why they are at a large disadvantage when it comes to spiritual life. They lack the sheer hunger for absolute truth, as well as the reasoning skills needed for finding it.
Q: But it could just be that women search for "absolute truth" in a different place than where men search for it. Their paths to get there may not be the same, but the destination may well be.
A: There is really only one path to Truth and that is the path of shedding delusions. People may have different personalities and temperaments, and have different attachments, but everyone is in the same boat in that they have to abandon all falsehood if they want to become involved with Truth.
From my experience, most women secretly believe that they are already perfect - simply due to the fact that they are women! Apart from a bit of tinkering on the sides to make themselves appear more charming and beautiful, they really don't believe there is anything to do.
Put simply, women have no conception of how evil and removed from Truth they really are. Men, on the other hand, having been brought up in our feminine-worshiping society, are thoroughly familiar with the notion that they are evil. Hence, their outlook on life is more realistic. They have a conscience about themselves.
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Q: Men are not superior to women in the practice of spirituality. Women are not superior to men in the practice of spirituality. "PEOPLE" may be at different levels of spirituality at different periods of time... Spirituality cannot claim to be a masculine activity nor should it be claimed as such by anyone. It is a process that ANYONE can participate in. All religions or pursuits of higher planes of existence are not the sole domain of any gender! It is open to all who would seek to pursue it.
A: I agree. Anyone can attain enlightenment. Although I claim to be enlightened, I do not claim any monoply over it. Many people have attained enlightenment in the past and many more will do so in the future. I am perfectly open to the possibility that a woman can become a sage.
I am not sexist. I never make judgments upon people based purely on their sex, but only on the quality of their minds. If a woman develops the latent masculinity already within her - i.e. develops her singlemindedness, perserverence, intelligence, courage, desire to achieve greatness, and cultivates a disgust for all lies and a burning desire for Truth - then I see no reason why a woman cannot achieve full integration with Ultimate Reality.
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Although I am often called a misogynist, I actually treat women as equals and judge them by the same standards that I judge men. This explains why I think so lowly of them.
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Q: Men and women are not the same in appearance. We all know that. But there is not a whisker of difference between them when it comes to their Buddha-Minds. It's important not to be deceived by outward appearances.
A: There is also not a whisker of difference between cows and people when it comes to their Buddha-Minds. However, a cow will never become enlightened, not even if it lives for a million years.
It was Oscar Wilde who said, "Only shallow people don't judge by appearances."
Q: So now you're comparing women to cows. Well, at least its out in the open. I find your views repulsive. I don't see how anyone can doubt that women have Buddha-Minds. Only a bigot could fail to see that men and women are no different when it comes to their Buddha-Minds.
A: If a woman becomes enlightened, then yes, she will realize that there is no difference between her Buddha-Mind and men's. It all hangs on this "if", however.
Q: As a man, how can you possibly know how women perceive things, spiritually or otherwise?
A: All of us have masculinity and femininity inside of us to varying degrees. By studying the "woman" inside of me, I can develop a good understanding of the essence all women. Together with careful observation of the way women (and men) conduct themselves in everyday life, I can come to a very good understanding of a woman's mind.
I admit that it is not an easy task, and requires a lot of courage and honesty. It takes years of hard thinking to come to a good understanding of women. In some ways, understanding women is a lot harder than understanding Ultimate Reality itself.
To my reckoning, only a handful of people (all of them men) in the entire history of the human race had a full grasp of women's psychology. Women themselves have no understanding of who they are, and neither do most men.
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