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A Teaching: Many Women Are Souls

Tsze-kung asked, "What do you say of a man who is loved by all the people of his neighborhood?"

Confucius replied, "We may not approve of him for that."

"And what do you say of him who is hated by all the people of his neighborhood?"

The Master said, "We may not for that conclude that he is bad. It is better than either of these cases that the good in the neighborhood love him, and the bad hate him."

The Law of Jante

The "Law of Jante" by the Danish writer Axel Sandemose:

1. Don't think you are special.
2. Don't think you are of the same standing as us.
3. Don't think you are smarter than us.
4. Don't fancy yourself as being better than us.
5. Don't think you know more than us.
6. Don't think you are more important than us.
7. Don't think you are good at anything.
8. Don't you laugh at us.
9. Don't think anyone cares about you.
10. Don't think you can teach us anything.

The pinpointed tenets can be counteracted by building a group climate to thrive in, as Peter Drucker has shown. [Efe] In addition, careful assertiveness training may help the individual to cope well enough.

Long-standing "Jante experiences" are the bad conformity that "bakes" lots of persons of unfulfilled patterns.

We should prefer good and savoury sayings to blunderbuss talks because it is decent to do so. Also: "Strive or try to make it on your own. Try to get on and up to stuff in some local here and now."

Bad conformity cows, and cheerfulness can be a token of excellence in one's work.

Good instructions are terse - brief and to the point. Yet for the lack of a good education nowadays, many get unfulfilling life conditions in the long run.

"Get Tao" pearl-stringed points may be put nicely into a way of presentation that is much like how Eihei Dogen (1200-53) arranged main outputs. [Link]

"Women have souls" - by one vote

In Buddhism women have had far better conditions than women in other main religions, inspired by statements and practices of Buddha.

But there has been progress in Christianity too. During the Nicaean Council in 325 a vote was cast in the council, to decide whether women had souls. The idea that women had souls won by one vote.

It appears the adaptations to the Roman emperor cost the early Church much, also in the 300s. The emperor Constantine in 321 AD passed a law making Sunday the Sabbath, and thus setting aside a cornerstone commandment of the Bible. Similarly, the doctrine of priestly celebacy was unknown to early Christians. The day of the Sun, 25 December, was declared by Constantine to be Christ's birthday. It made the Church of Antioch write: "How come you suddenly know when Christ was born, when we have not known for 300 years?" [More]

❖ "Religion may in most of its forms be defined as the belief that the gods are on the side of the government." [Bertrand Russell]

Rude

The two hallmarks of being of the chosen people were enforced by death penalties in Judaism: ritual Saturday rest (i.e. Sabbath rest, from Friday evening till Saturday evening) and "foreskin off". Then one day God was born with a foreskin and circumcised to be acceptable in "his own people". He did not get acceptable anyhow, but was executed. I would have claimed my foreskin back in such a case . . .

Women should avoid much foreskin mishap.

Jesus also had difficulties with recognising his mother. "Who is my mother? My followers. (Paraphrase)" He said things like that and refused to greet his own biological mother. But she is the one Catholics have made icons of, pray to by Hail Mary and so on, because they think she is GOOD against a saying of Jesus that none is good but God alone. Besides, medieval Catholicism came to maintain that Mother-Virgin Mary was the Catholic Church itself. It appears that the madonna-and-child icon was lifted over from ancient Egyptian religion, by the way. [More]

And if you cross yourself over truths like these, think that the cross is a device older than Christianity and mankind itself. Two twigs that fall to the ground and overlap, can form a cross. A Crossing oneself by movements in the air up front suggest on the one hand a need for strength, and on the other hand a grasp of superstition that is allotted meaning, as far as I know. After all, the cross did not enter Christianity until the 300s or so. So it is nothing advocated by the Bible either. [More]

Stepping Things Up a Bit

Did not all the bishops at Nikea that voted against women having souls, sin against them thereby? If they denied them being souls, those old fogeys most likely did sin against the inherent goddess of women. "Don't you know you are gods . . .?" said Jesus to angry Jews who tried to stone him. And did not all the bishops and prelates who held the same idea against women, also sin against the women who had given them birth, fed and cared for them, and slept with them?

If your brother sins and does not repent, eventually treat him as a tax collector, says Jesus. [Matthew 18:15-17]. One of the evangelists had been a tax collector. How was he treated? As a follower of Jesus. So were bishops in the early church treated too.

Also, Jesus tells that "A man's enemies will be the members of his own household." [Matthew 10:36-38]. In that case, why marry?

Bishops wear crosses, and so many others wear a tiny crucifix in a chain around their neck, thinking "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." [Matthew 11:29-30] Compare this with what happened to many disciples and martyrs if you like:

You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me—If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also." [Matthew 24:9 and John 15:20]

That is no easy yoke. However, as long as all nations do not know you and have not heard about Jesus, the saying cannot come true. That the saying of Jesus is untrue, is that alarming - a threat? Not in a wider perspective that considers the facts.

Jesus also said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." [Cf. Matthew 15;24 etc]. It should be good to consider that the obvious swindle - the missionary command in Matthew 28;19 - is a later forgery [Link].

Jesus and his sayings and doings were "for Jews only" he said. Gentile followers (most Christians) soon got Acts 15 (and 21:25) as their deal. Words by Jesus were not included in the four requirements for Gentile followers, but refraining from blood sausages and blood puddings is one of the four pillars of Christianity for non-Jews.

Besides, the "worth" of following Jesus is like that of an ill sheep [Mark 2:17; Matthew 12:12; John 21:16]. By going for the self-help way of life of basic Buddhism and meditation - TM, for example, hope to get better.

Whether you think that someone has or is a soul or not, he or she might take up the kind of living and training that improves the future, and get into a better life.

Padma Sambhava

Philosophically, what are the key differences between those who are souls and all the others if they exist [1]? Good souls function mahayanic, irrespective of religion, I would say. Mahayana Buddhism holds that the mind is real, and that enlightenment is had through right conduct and wisdom and meditation. The view that souls have an indwelling Buddha Nature [2], or such a seed to develop, is also in it. This said, there are many schools of Mahayana, and different viewpoints and opinions and nuances in the teachings. The essential points above are the most generally helpful ones of it, I would say. And I very much like Padma-Sambhava's corner-stone teachings.

Literature  

Efe: Drucker, Peter. Effektiv bedriftsledelse. Oslo: Gyldendal, 1970.

Thd: Zukav, Gary. The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics. London: Rider, 1979.

Notes

[1] (a) Soul, centre of being. (b) For the idea of otherness, the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics contains interesting opinions [Thd]. (c) Wikipedia, sv. "Other".

[2] Wikipedia, sv "Buddha Nature". Cf "Tathagatagarbha".

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