[Buddha-l] Vicente & Guanyin

[alx437 at charter.net]

     Hello again cybersanghoids, 

       Now I'm no psychoanalyst, Lord knows, but it's clear to me that there's a close relationship between historical oppression of women by men on the one hand and general idealization of a religious female figure on the other. Men have power and women have power, just different types, and they sometimes can seem incompatible. Men in particular can be threatened by female power, I know I was for many formative years, because they do not understand it, cannot control it, and thus are strangely fascinated by it- characteristics of the sacred as pointed out by Otto many years ago. When a man feels threatened, he can easily respond by enforcing what power he feels he does have, primarily physical power, or threats of its use, which continue to be backed up in the most obvious fashion around the world up til now. Taboos restricting women, especially during their menstrual cycle, are a clear sign of this attitude. But the ill treatment that women receive at the hands (sometimes quite literally) of men turns out to be not so great for the male perpetrators either. A man can beat up a woman on average fairly easily, but he does not therefore prove that his personal power is superior. Because he does not understand female power, he does not know how to respond to it, except that it makes him nervous. Females of his own species can be dominated by institutions, customs, the whole male power structure, but men do not thereby erase their underlying worry about what female power is, and how best to respond to it. It is much easier to idealize it in theory and select certain stories that demonstrate the exemplary qualities revered by that bunch, which becomes the scripture of the cult that follows. 
    Because I worry about what my mother thinks of me, it makes it easier and somehow necessary for me to worship a female deity. And women can find some measure of fulfillment in buying into the mythology created in the scriptures. 
     Well it's late and I'm rambling again. Gotta send my mom some e-mail.

              All the best,      Alex Naughton