To be a disciple, you need to be in a feminine receptivity

ALL THE TANTRA TREATISES ARE DIALOGUES BETWEEN SHIVA AND DEVI. Devi questions and Shiva answers. All the tantra treatises start that way.

Why? Why this method?

It is very significant. IT IS NOT A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A TEACHER AND A DISCIPLE, IT IS A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO LOVERS. And tantra signifies through it a very meaningful thing: THE DEEPER TEACHINGS CANNOT BE GIVEN UNLESS THERE IS LOVE BETWEEN THE TWO -- the disciple and the teacher. The disciple and teacher must become deep lovers. Only then can the higher, the beyond, be expressed. So it is a language of love. The disciple must be in an attitude of love.

But not only this, because friends can be lovers. BUT TANTRA SAYS A DISCIPLE MEANS A RECEPTIVITY, so the disciple must be in a feminine receptivity -- only then. YOU NEED NOT BE A WOMAN TO BE A  DISCIPLE, BUT YOU NEED TO BE IN A FEMININE ATTITUDE OF RECEPTIVITY. When Devi asks, it means the feminine attitude asks.

Why this emphasis on the feminine attitude?

MAN AND WOMAN ARE NOT ONLY PHYSICALLY DIFFERENT, THEY ARE PSYCHOLOGICALLY DIFFERENT. Sex is not only a  difference in the body, it is a difference in psychologies also.

A feminine mind means receptivity -- total receptivity, surrender, love. A DISCIPLE NEEDS A FEMININE PSYCHOLOGY, OTHERWISE HE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LEARN. You can ask, but if you are not open then you cannot be answered. You can ask a question and still remain closed. Then the answer cannot penetrate you. Your doors are closed, you are dead. You are not open. A FEMININE RECEPTIVITY MEANS A WOMB-LIKE RECEPTIVITY IN THE INNER DEPTH, so you can receive.

And not only that  -- much more is implied. A woman is not only receiving something. The moment she receives it, it becomes a part of her body. A child is received, a woman conceives. The moment there is conception, the child has become part of the feminine body. It is not alien, it is not foreign. It has been absorbed. Now the child will live not as something added to the mother, but just a part, just as the mother. And the child is not only received: the feminine body becomes creative, THE CHILD BEGINS TO GROW.

A DISCIPLE MEANS A WOMB-LIKE RECEPTIVITY. Whatsoever is received is not to be gathered as a dead knowledge, it must grow in you. It must become blood and bones in you. It must be a part now. It must grow! THIS GROWTH WILL CHANGE, WILL TRANSFORM -- THE RECEIVER. That's why tantra uses this device. Every treatise starts with Devi asking a question and Shiva replying it. DEVI IS SHIVA'S CONSORT, HIS FEMININE PART.

One thing more...

Now modern psychology, depth psychology particularly, says that MAN IS BOTH MAN AND WOMAN. No one is just male and no one is just female; EVERYONE IS BI-SEXUAL. Both sexes are there. This is a very recent research in the West, but for tantra this has been one of the most basic concepts for thousands of years. You must have seen some pictures of Shiva as ardhanarishwar -- half man, half woman. There is no other concept like it in the whole history of man. SHIVA IS DEPICTED AS HALF MAN, HALF WOMAN. So Devi is not just a consort, she is Shiva's other half. And unless a disciple becomes the other half of the teacher, it is impossible to convey the higher teachings, the esoteric methods. When you become one, then there is no doubt. When you are one with the teacher -- so totally one, so deeply one -- there is no
argument, no logic, no reason. ONE SIMPLY ABSORBS, ONE BECOMES A WOMB.

And then the teaching begins to grow and change you.

OSHO
Vigyan Bhairav Tantra
Vol 1, Ch #1: The World of Tantra
pm in Woodlands, Bombay

posted by Subhuti