masculine & feminine

This is the very basis of sex, of sexual reproduction: another fundamental duality which we need to face and transcend on the spiritual path. Of course, we find ourself in a body, a physical body, which is either masculine or feminine. Yet inside, we are both masculine and feminine. Both these aspects are present within us, within our psychology, within our energy. Normally, one aspect has been rather neglected, suppressed. It is still there within us, but rather unconsciously.

Carl Jung coined the terms animus and anima, for the inner masculine and the inner feminine. Usually, a man is living in his masculinity, and his feminine side is anima, is repressed in the unconscious. With a woman, it is usually the other way round: she is living from her femininity, and her masculine aspect, her animus, is repressed.

This duality and the suppression of one aspect of the duality within us feeds in to sexual desire. We feel incomplete. There is a yearning for the aspect which appears to be lacking. A masculine person yearns for the feminine, and a feminine yearns for the masculine. This greatly increases sexual desire. In fact, from the point of view of natural selection and fitness for survival, in these terms of Darwinian evolution, this sexuality has an advantage. It increases the likelihood of sexual reproduction. In this sense, it makes us more fit for survival. Our genetic code is more likely to be passed on to coming generations.

But on the spiritual path we are not concerned with coming generations, and we are not concerned with the survival of our genetic code. On the spiritual path our only interest is to live this life, here and now, to its fullest potential, to become whole, to flower. And this flowering of our being requires us to go beyond even the masculine and feminine duality. Of course we will remain in a physical body, which will be either masculine or feminine, but inwardly, psychologically and energetically, we can go beyond this one-sided masculine or feminine existence. It can take time of course, and it requires much courage. It requires an attitude of exploration, to explore the inner feminine or the inner masculine, to bring it into the light of awareness, to allow its energy to grow, until the point where the masculine and feminine within us are balanced. At this point, as with all dualities, when the balance is achieved, the duality can collapse. The masculine and feminine can melt into each other and we can find ourself in a space beyond this duality, feeling ourself to be neither masculine nor feminine.