[FairfieldLife] Re: Fwd: Hey, Ron, Do me a favor

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 04:45:38 -0800

 
 
 
  What I heard from many learned people is that, Asian men are very insecure and have many inferiority complexes.  They are afraid of the woman's sexual power and so they try to subjugate them as economic slaves.
 
  Eckhart Tolle also has a similar view to Rama's

-------------------OriginalMessage------------------
From: "Irmeli Mattsson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 11:03:49 -0000
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Fwd: Hey, Ron, Do me a favor
  
      Islam should be added in your list as the number one of religions that have made the subservience of the women a dogma to keep men in their position of superiority and control over women. I think largely the problems of violent fanaticism is due to the subordinate position of women. That kind of women cannot raise healthy children, who can adopt in adulthood independent clear moral reasoning and who have no need to subjugate others to feel good about themselves.

      I just read in a magazine an interview of Dr.Salman Asif. He was born in Pakistan and is working as a consultant in Britain in the Ministry of the Interior on non-violent crisis resolution. The article dealt with honour realated violence that is prevalent in Islam cultures. In the article he brings out many oddities (to me terrible features) in the moral reasoning related to women in Pakistan. For example a raped woman has to bring to court as witness four men or eight women. If she cannot, she will be put in prison. 70% of the prisoners in Pakistan are raped women!
I felt myself sick and nauseous after reading the article.

   Irmeli
      ***
From: "TurquoiseB" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>   
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 09:37:18 -0000
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Fwd: Hey, Ron, Do me a favor
   
---  Ron F <[EMAIL PROTECTED]...> wrote:
<snip to>
> >The day before Diwali, in order to evoke the grace of  >God, women fast. It is not that God wants you to go >hungry or takes pleasure in your suffering - the principle >is that you gain only by giving up.

   Ahem.  Can you say sexism and an attempt to prolong it?  I think you can.

      I'm hip to the value of giving, and of giving up.  But it's the word 'only' that is offensive here.  It's an attempt to create a role for women that is eternally subservient to the man.  And to the family:

 >> Women pray for the welfare of the entire family.

      Don't get me wrong...these rituals and traditions are fascinating from a cultural and anthropo- logical standpoint.  It's just that I think it's good to be aware of the potential down side of some of the traditions.
 
      Many of the women who were attracted to Rama and
his teaching were very clear about why.  He was a strong believer in the empowerment of and the enlightenment of women.  The women students found it to be a contrast to other, primarily Indian- based spiritual trips they had been part of before. In many of these trips, it was a given that women should *always* be in a service mode, that their primary path in life was serving men and having family.  In some of them, the teachers actually said outright that the best they could hope for in terms of enlightenment was to be reborn next time as a man.

      I'm sorry, but this stuff strikes me as male chauvinist pigdom crystallized into religious tradition.  I have to consider it as "off" and as far from reality as I do the caste system.

      I tend to agree with Rama that it is actually *easier* for a woman to realize enlightenment than it is for a man.  It's not a value judge-ment; it's an energetic thing.  But it doesn't seem to happen as often as it should, and I personally think that one of the reasons is the encapusaltion of sexual bigotry into religion. If a society that is run by men wants to *keep* being run by men, how do you pull that off?Easy.  You just make the superiority of men and the subservience of the women a part of the dogma of the prevalent religion.  Look at the Catholic Church.  Look at India.

      I don't think it's necessary.  I think that there are many paths to enlightenment, for men and forwomen, and the attempt to present one path as the best or the 'only' is a disservice to those whose paths may lie in other directions.
 
   Unc
 

                      

 

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