"I've long had an understanding about achieving spiritual growth that differs from the major religions of the world. Perhaps I'm aware of this because the Intuition Age is bringing a new balance between yang-masculine and yin-feminine energy and awareness. Historically, I think the world has held an unquestioned view of spiritual growth that is based largely on men's experience of how it works for their physiological makeup and brain chemistry. I think women have a different experience of the process. I don't say this out of any sort of feminism or divisiveness, but because I sense a more comprehensive view is opening to us, and acknowledging how women's bodies and brains understand the universe and enlightenment will help round out a bigger picture for everyone. By combining the yang and yin views, we can find a unified way where all people, no matter their sex, can attain the highest levels of awareness.
In a nutshell, because men's brains have fewer connecting fibers between the left and right hemispheres, they tend to perceive the world in an either-or, one-side-of-the-brain-at-a-time sort of way, which gives them natural skills with analysis and compartmentalization. Right-brain intuition is a mode they often must intentionally activate. Therefore, it makes sense that men naturally understand the Divine through separation; their path is to be in the world and not of it. Men's self-realization is typically based on abstinence from physical "temptations," contemplation and study, structured physical ceremony, surrender of personal will to a teacher, and monastic isolation. With Zen, for instance, all things of the world are treated neutrally, as "nothing special/everything special." Heaven or the Pure Land is a goal that is "up and out," beyond this world.
Women, on the other hand, have many connecting fibers between the two sides of the brain, giving them the ability to perceive in a both-and way, where separation from others and the world, and even between thought, emotion, and spirit, is inherently difficult. Women thrive on relationship, conversation, nurturing, merging, feeling, and intuition. It makes sense that women's path to enlightenment is "down and into" the world, through matter, into everything human. Women tend to know the worlds, both physical and nonphysical, as part of their body. They are about being the world. Life is about tending and care-taking, since it's all too easy to feel another's pain. For women, enlightenment isn't a separate goal; it's a place where they come from, deep down.
In the Intuition Age, it seems to me that humanity as a whole is finally bringing its unique kind of perception into full bloom. As human beings we have a special potential because we're endowed with conscious sensitivity and free will — we can develop our capacity to feel to the nth degree until it turns into the enlightened emotions of empathy and compassion, and we can feel our way right into a merger with our Source. Because feeling and sensitivity are body-related, our perception of the invisible realms can be more real and personal. That means we can complete our "evolutionary experiment" of being self-realized individuals by consciously experiencing ourselves as mini-holograms, or microcosms, of the Divine.
With sensitivity, you relate to, then include, then integrate everything in the world, much as you eat food. As your experiences digest, you receive the divine food value in it all. As you take in both light and dark, each new part teaches and expands you, becoming part of the diamond light in your personal field. Knowledge becomes personal, complexity simplifies, dissonance harmonizes, and you experience kinship with all forms of life. Differing world views merge to form a larger truth. Eventually you become so inclusive, you let go of defining yourself. The Divine becomes you and you become it. You know your highest identity by receiving everything; you're holy in all your humanness.
Both the yang way and the yin way to enlightenment work, but there is one path that works equally well for all people, and that is the path of the Heart. Where brains and hormones may differ, all our hearts function the same way. Being open-hearted and heart-centered means you're in your home frequency which lets you know via feeling, yet brings insights that are clear and wise. Your heart is like a doorway to oneness."
copyright by Penney Peirce
