THE EIGHTEENTH SAYING

SIMON PETER SAID TO THEM: LET MARY GO OUT FROM AMONG US, BECAUSE WOMEN ARE NOT WORTHY OF THE LIFE.

JESUS SAID: SEE, I SHALL LEAD HER SO THAT I WILL MAKE HER MALE, THAT SHE TOO MAY BECOME A LIVING SPIRIT RESEMBLING YOU MALES. FOR EVERY WOMAN WHO MAKES HERSELF MALE WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM.

We will be sailing in rough waters today. But many things have to be understood -- and don't be prejudiced either this way or that, because prejudice makes it almost impossible to understand.

First thing: man and woman differ basically; they not only differ, they are opposites. That's why there is so much attraction. Attraction can exist only between opposites; the similar cannot be very attractive -- whatsoever you are, you are acquainted with it. For a man, the woman is the unknown. It attracts, it invokes, it invites; an inquiry arises, a curiosity arises. For woman, the man is the unknown. For man, God penetrates through this world in the shape of woman, because God is the unknown. For woman, man represents the divine because he is the unknown for her. Hence, the opposite is so significant.

So the first thing to be understood: they are different; not only different, but opposites -- but they are not unequal, they are equal. Difference is there, oppositeness is there, a polarity is there, but they are not unequal, they are equal. Two opposites are always equal, otherwise they cannot oppose each other.

The second thing to be understood: that the female body exists for a totally different purpose; biologically, physiologically, chemically, it has a different function to fulfill than the male body. And it is so different from the male body that unless you penetrate into the deeper layers of biology you will not be able to understand the difference. They exist as if in two worlds apart.

The woman carries a womb. The very word 'woman' comes from 'man with a womb'. And the womb is so important -- nothing is more important than the womb, because a whole life has to come through it. The whole moving phenomenon of life passes through it, it is the very gate into this world. And because of the womb the woman has to be receptive, she cannot be aggressive. The womb cannot be aggressive, it has to receive, it has to be an opening, it has to invite the unknown. The womb has to be a host, the man will be the guest.

Because of the womb being a central phenomenon in the feminine body, the whole psychology of woman differs: she is nonaggressive, noninquiring, nonquestioning, nondoubting, because all those things are part of aggression. You doubt, you inquire, you go in search; she waits, the man will come in search of her. She will not take the initiative, she simply waits -- and she can wait infinitely.

This waiting has to be remembered because that will make a difference. When a woman enters into the world of religion she has to follow a totally different path from the man. Man is aggressive, doubts, inquires, goes out of the way to search, tries to conquer everything. He has to, because he exists around an aggressive semen. His whole body exists around a sexuality which has to seek, penetrate.

All the arms that man has created up to now -- even the bomb, the H-bomb -- they are just projections of the male sex, projections of the penis. The arrow, the gun, or the bomb, they penetrate, they reach, they cross the distance. Even going to the moon... a woman will simply laugh and think it is foolish: "Why go there?" But for man it is worth risking his life because it is a sort of penetration -- penetration into the mysteries of life.

The more distant the goal, the more appealing. Man will reach Everest, he will reach the moon, he will go further ahead; he cannot be checked, he cannot be prevented. Whatsoever becomes known becomes useless: then it is not interesting. Deeper mysteries have to be penetrated, as if the whole of nature is the woman -- and man has to penetrate and know.

Man has created science; women can never be scientific, because the basic aggression doesn't exist there. They can be dreamers because dreaming is a waiting, it is part of the womb, but they cannot be scientists, they cannot be logical -- logic is also aggression. Women cannot be skeptical and doubting; they can trust, they can be faithful, and this is natural to them because it is all part of their womb. And the whole body exists so that the womb can survive in it; the whole body is just a natural device to help the womb. Nature is interested in the womb because through the womb life comes into existence. This gives a totally different orientation to the woman.

For her, religion can be a sort of love, it cannot be a search for truth. The very phrase 'search for truth' is male-oriented. It can be a waiting for the beloved, for the lover; God can be a son, a husband, but God cannot be truth. It looks so bare, flat, dry, dead; there seems to be no life in the word truth. But for man, truth is the most meaningful word. He says, "Truth is God, and if you know the truth you have known all." And the way man is going to follow is to conquer: nature has to be conquered.

Because of these distinctions, this has always been a problem. It arose with Buddha because Buddha's whole method was male-oriented. It has to be so, because to devise methods is again an agression. Science is an aggression, yoga is also an aggression, because the whole effort is how to penetrate the mystery and dissolve it, how to come to know; the whole effort is how to demystify the universe. That is what knowledge means: we have come to know, now there is no mystery.

Unless mystery dissolves, man cannot rest at peace. The universe must be demystified, everything must be known, no secret should be allowed to remain a secret. So they -- men -- devised all the methods: Buddha is a man, Jesus is a man, Zarathustra is a man, Mahavira is a man, Krishna is a man, Lao Tzu is a man. No woman comparable to them has ever existed who devised any methods. There have been women who became enlightened, but even then they could not devise methods, even then they followed. They cannot, because to devise a method, a methodology, a path, an aggressive mind is needed.

Women can wait, and they can wait infinitely, their patience is infinite. It has to be so, because a child has to be carried for nine months. Every day it becomes heavier and heavier and heavier, and more and more difficult. You have to be patient and wait, and nothing can be done about it. You have to love even your burden, and wait and dream that the child will be born. And look at a mother, a woman who is just about to be a mother: she becomes more beautiful, because when she waits she flowers. She attains a different type of grace, an aura surrounds her when she is going to become a mother, because now she is at her peak -- the basic function her body has been devised by nature to fulfill. Now she is blooming, soon she will flower.

And look at her dreams: no mother, or a woman about to be a mother, can think that an ordinary boy or girl is going to be born -- the unique child is always in her dreams. A few dreams have been recorded: Buddha's mother dreamed, Mahavira's mother dreamed, and in India they have a tradition of recording the dreams of the mother whenever an enlightened person is born. But I always suspect that this is how every mother dreams. You may not record her dreams, that's another thing, because they are not needed -- but every mother dreams she is going to give birth to a god. Otherwise is not possible. Buddha's mother's dream has been recorded, that's the only difference; your mother's has not been recorded. Otherwise you will come to know that she was also dreaming of a Buddha, a Jesus, something unique.... Because it is not a question of giving birth, she is going to be born through it.

Whenever a child is born, not only is the child born -- that is one part of it -- the mother is also born. Before that she was an ordinary woman; through the birth she becomes a mother. On one side the child is born, on the other side the mother is born. And a mother is totally different from a woman: a gap exists, her whole existence becomes qualitatively different. Before that she may have been a wife, a beloved, but suddenly that is no longer so important. A child is born, a new life has entered: she becomes a mother.

That's why husbands are always afraid of children. Basically they never like children because a third party enters into the relationship -- not only enters, but the third party becomes the center. And after that the woman is never the same wife, she is different. After that, if a husband really wants love he has to become just like a son, because this woman who has become a mother can never be an ordinary wife again. She has become a mother, you cannot do anything about it now. The only thing left is that you become a son to her. That is the only way you can get her love again, otherwise the love will be moving towards her son.

A mother has attained to the peak. It is as if the husband, the lover, was just a means to become a mother. Look at the difference: a woman is seeking to become a mother, waiting to become a mother; the husband, the lover, is just a means. For a husband children are not the goal; the man is seeking a woman to love, a beloved, and if children happen they are simply accidents. He has to tolerate them; they are by the side of the road, they are not the goal where the road ends.

This will make a difference when one moves on the path towards God. The question has arisen again and again. Thousands of women became interested in Buddha, and they wanted to enter on the path, they wanted to be initiated, but Buddha resisted, Buddha tried to avoid it. The reason was that the method was basically male-oriented, and to allow women would corrupt the whole scheme. But he had to yield because he was a man of compassion. And when thousands of women came again and again to be initiated, he yielded, but he said very sadly, "My religion was going to be a living force for five thousand years. Now it will only be a living force for five hundred years" -- because the opposite had entered, now everything would be a chaos. And this is how it happened: Buddhism disappeared from India within five hundred years. It could not remain a living force, because when a woman enters, many problems enter with her: she brings her womanhood in, and the method is basically for the male.

If you can understand Buddha's standpoint, Jesus will look more compassionate. Then you will not think him a male chauvinist -- he was not: he was not for man, against woman. And his method, which the church has completely lost, can be used by both. And the man who raised the question is the man who created the church. Simon Peter is the man who created the whole church, Christianity -- and of course he should be the first to raise the question.

SIMON PETER SAID TO THEM: LET MARY GO OUT FROM AMONG US, BECAUSE WOMEN ARE NOT WORTHY OF THE LIFE.

The church has remained anti-women: monasteries have existed where men have not allowed any women to enter -- woman seems to be the root cause of evil. The stranger always seems to be evil because you cannot understand. If you can understand then something can be done. Woman remains the mysterious, and once a woman enters into your life she starts dominating you. And her domination is so subtle, you cannot rebel against it.

Man has always been afraid of this, so those who are in search of some secret in nature or in God would like to avoid woman, because once she comes, she starts to dominate everything. And she wants your total attention: she would not like God to be there as a competitor, she would not like the truth to be there as a competitor; she will not allow any competitor, she is jealous. So if somebody is to seek, it is better to avoid women.

Socrates is reported to have said.... Some young man asked him what he would suggest, whether he should get married or not. And he asked the right man! He thought that he was asking the right man, because Socrates had suffered so much through marriage. He had a wife, her name was Xanthippe, one of the most dangerous women in the whole history of man. And he had suffered a lot: continuously she was nagging and dominating him, throwing things at him. She even poured hot tea on his face, and half his face remained burned his whole life. So this young man was right to ask this man -- Socrates knows. Socrates said, "One must get married. If you get a good wife you will be happy, and if you get a wife like mine you will become a philosopher. In either case you will be profited.'"

PETER SAID TO THEM -- to his friends and other disciples -- LET MARY GO OUT FROM AMONG US, BECAUSE WOMEN ARE NOT WORTHY OF THE LIFE.

It was dangerous to allow women in -- because then territories become blurred, you don't know where you are going, you don't know what is going to happen. Woman symbolizes the mysterious, the unknown, the strange, for man; woman symbolizes the poetic, the dreamy, the illogical, the irrational, the unconscious, for man. Woman symbolizes the absurd. It is always difficult to find any logic in a woman's behavior. She jumps from one point to another, there are gaps, she is unpredictable.

One day it happened: There was a long fight between Nasruddin and his wife. And at the end, as it always happens, Nasruddin thought he would surrender. It is difficult to fight with a woman. She has to win, otherwise she will create such trouble that it is not worthwhile, the victory is not worthwhile. So Nasruddin thought, "Why waste three or four whole days? And then one has to surrender anyway, so why not surrender now?" So he said. "Okay, I agree with you."

His wife said, "Now it won't help -- I have changed my mind."

And those who are in search of God have always been afraid because with women you are never certain. And it is not better to make them fellow-travelers -- they will create trouble, and the trouble is multidimensional. Their behavior is illogical, their mind is unpredictable. And not only that, there is also always a deep possibility of falling in love, a deep possibility of being attracted to them, a deep possibility of sex entering. And once sex enters the whole path is missed, because now you are moving in another direction. Monks, seekers, have always been afraid; their fear is understandable. And this man Simon Peter was giving the direction for the coming centuries, that the purity of religion would be lost, the rationality would be lost....

So he said: LET MARY GO OUT FROM AMONG US... and Mary was no ordinary woman -- the mother of Christ! Even that could not be allowed... BECAUSE WOMEN ARE NOT WORTHY OF THE LIFE. What life? The life that they were seeking, the eternal life. Now try to understand why women are not capable of that life.

The whole focus of the woman is natural, she lives in nature, she is more natural than man. In India, we have called her prakriti, the very nature, the earth, the base of all nature. She is more natural; her tendencies, her goals, are more natural. She never asks for the impossible, she asks for what is possible. Man has something in him which always seeks the impossible, it is never satisfied with the possible -- just becoming a satisfied husband is nothing. A woman will be happy if she can be just a deeply contented wife, a mother; then her life is fulfilled.

Biologists say there is a reason: in man there is an imbalance physiologically, a hormonal imbalance; woman is more complete, she is like a circle, balanced. They say that the first cell from which you come decides whether you will be a male or a female. Twenty-three chromosomes are given by the mother and twenty-three chromosomes are given by the father. If the twenty-three from the mother and the twenty-three from the father make twenty-three symmetrical pairs, then there is a deep balance: a girl will be born. They balance, they make a symmetry, so a girl will be born. But the father has an odd pair of chromosomes which is balanced in the mother. If a cell containing the twenty-three incomplete chromosomes moves and meets the mother egg, then a male will be born, a boy will be born, because there will be an imbalance.

And you can see this imbalance even on the first day a girl and boy are born: the boy is restless from the very first day, the girl is at ease from the very first day. Even before the first day, even in their wombs, mothers know, because boys are restless; they kick, they do things, even in the womb; a girl simply rests, she sleeps. Mothers can become aware whether a boy is to be born or a girl, because a boy cannot be at rest. A deep restlessness exists in man, and because of this deep restlessness he is always moving and going somewhere, always interested in the distant, in the journey.

A woman is more interested in the home, in the surroundings; a woman is more interested in the gossip of the near neighborhood. She is not much worried about what is happening in Vietnam, it is too distant; what is happening in Cyprus, it is meaningless. She cannot even conceive why her husband goes on reading about Cyprus: "How does it enter into your life?" And the husband thinks that she is not interested in higher subjects. That is not the point. She is at ease with herself, so only the surroundings interest her. Just if somebody's wife has gone with somebody else, or somebody is ill, or a child is born, or somebody is dead, that is the news. That is news -- more personal, more homely; just the neighborhood is enough.

And a more contented wife or mother will not even worry about the neighborhood, her own house is enough. She feels perfect, and the reason is biological: her hormones, her cells, are balanced. A man has a restlessness, and that restlessness gives him inquiry, doubt, movement. He cannot be satisfied unless he finds the ultimate. And even then you don't know whether he will be satisfied or not, or whether he will again start inquiring into something else. This makes a difference. And all religions have existed for the distant.

So whenever a woman comes to a Jesus, she has not come in search of God. No, that distant thing cannot be meaningful for her. She may have fallen in love with Jesus. When a woman comes to Buddha she has not come to find what truth is -- she may have fallen in love with Buddha; Buddha may have attracted her. This has been my feeling also: if a man comes to me he always says, "Whatsoever you say appears convincing, that's why I have fallen in love with you." Whenever a woman speaks, she never says it the same way. She says, "I have fallen in love with you, that's why whatsoever you say appears convincing."

Peter is rightly afraid that even Mary, the mother of Jesus, will create trouble. You are moving in unknown territory. It is better to remain with the boundaries, definitions. Don't allow women in! You can depend on the male mind, you know how it functions, you know the very working of it. Man functions with the conscious and woman functions with the unconscious. So man can accumulate details, but can never be very deep. Woman cannot accumulate details, but can be very deep in a small, simple fact. Man can attain to knowledge, much knowledge, but not to intense love. Woman can attain to intense love, but not to much knowledge -- because knowledge is a conscious phenomenon and love is an unconscious phenomenon.

Said Saint Peter:

LET MARY GO OUT FROM AMONG US,

BECAUSE WOMEN ARE NOT WORTHY OF THE LIFE.

And all religions basically have remained against women, because they were created by man. Nothing is evaluated by this, it is not an evaluation, it is simply because they were created by man. He was afraid of women, he would like his territory to be clearcut, he would not like women to enter it.

So all religions have remained basically homosexual, they are not heterosexual. And all religious communities have remained homosexual: monks living in a homosexual society. If they have ever allowed women, they have allowed a secondary status to them: they must not decide anything, they simply have to follow the rules -- whatsoever men have decided to be followed -- so that they don't create any trouble. And they have never been given the same importance, the same significance; they have been put aside, given a secondary role. They can be nuns, and they can have their own monasteries, but they will never be important, they will not be the deciding factors.

You cannot think of a woman becoming a pope, impossible! She will destroy the whole structure, the whole establishment. Because he was thinking in terms of creating an establishment, a church, a great organization of followers, that's why Peter says, "Women should not be allowed. And we should start with Jesus' mother, because once she is allowed, and if we give this preference because she is Jesus' mother, then other women will enter -- and it will be impossible to stop the chaos."

JESUS SAID: SEE, I SHALL LEAD HER SO THAT I WILL MAKE HER MALE, THAT SHE TOO MAY BECOME A LIVING SPIRIT RESEMBLING YOU MALES. FOR EVERY WOMAN WHO MAKES HERSELF MALE WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM.

Jesus said, "Don't be afraid. I SHALL LEAD HER SO THAT I WILL MAKE HER MALE." What does he mean? To make a woman male means to make her unconscious conscious; to bring her inner darkness into the conscious mind, so the unconscious disappears and it becomes a conscious whole; to make her mysteriousness not a stumbling-block, but a stepping-stone. That can be done, but a very great master is needed: a very great master who is both a male and a female, who has attained to the inner perfection where his own inner male and female have dissolved and he is no longer divided; who has become asexual, who is neither male nor female. Only he can help, because he can understand both. So Jesus says: I WILL MAKE HER MALE.

What is he saying? Is he going to change her body? No, that is not the point. The body is not the point: there are feminine minds even in male bodies, and there are male minds even in feminine bodies. A Madame Curie is possible, and she can be as perfect a scientist and as rational as anybody else; the body is feminine but the mind is not. And there are males who can be as absurd as any woman. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a perfect male, he was a great logician, a philosopher. History would have recorded him as one of the greatest logicians if he had remained with it and stuck to it. But then he renounced all logic, became a madman, started dancing and doing kirtan on the streets. He became feminine, even his face became feminine, so graceful: even his body followed, he became more curved, curves came to his body. And he started to love God as a beloved, dancing and singing. That has happened.

What is Jesus saying? He is saying that the unconscious of the woman can be changed into a conscious, then she becomes totally different. "And I will do this. SEE, I SHALL LEAD HER SO THAT I WILL MAKE HER MALE. What does he mean by 'make her male'?

Males should not think that they are in some higher position. It only means the inner darkness from which a woman ordinarily lives, from which she has to live, because she is more body-oriented. Nature needs her more than man: man is just on the periphery, he is disposable; woman is not disposable.

Man is not needed so much, that's why you don't find fathers in nature. Mothers are everywhere -- with birds, animals, fishes, mothers are everywhere -- but no fathers. Only in human society do you find the father, because the father is just a formality, a social convention; the father is not a natural phenomenon. Linguists say that 'uncle' is a more ancient word than 'father'; 'father' came into existence very late. When the one man, one woman relationship became established, then the father came. But the uncle was already there because all the males were uncles for the child, nobody knew who the father was. Just as with animals, nobody knows who the father is but all the males are uncles.

There can again be a world where the father disappears, there is a possibility, because the father came into existence with private property. Once there was private property the father came into existence. Then he not only dominated his private property he also guarded his private female. Private property is going to dissolve some day or other. Once private property is gone, the father will dissolve.

Already in the West the phenomenon has entered: there are many women alone with their children, the father has been disposed of. This is going to grow more and more. But the mother cannot be disposed of, nature needs the mother more. That's why the mother is a more bodily phenomenon; women are more body-conscious than men. If they take too much time while they are dressing, that is the reason. You may go on honking your horn and they don't come and they don't come....

I once heard one woman: I was sitting in the car and her husband was honking, and she looked out of the window and said, "I have told you a thousand times that I am coming in two minutes!" And she was exactly right, because for one hour she had been saying, "I am coming in two minutes." Why so much time in dressing? She is body-conscious. Man is more mind, woman is more body.

One famous actress said once -- when she said it people thought she was very humble, modest, and actresses are not expected to be so -- she said, "I know I am not a very beautiful woman, but what is my opinion against the opinion of the mirror? What is my opinion against the opinion of the mirror? I know I am not a very beautiful woman, but the mirror says, 'You are the most beautiful.'"

They go on standing at the mirror for hours looking at themselves. A man cannot even imagine what is happening.

Mulla Nasruddin was killing flies one day and he told his wife, "I have killed two women and two men, two male and two female flies."

His wife was puzzled, she said, "How did you come to know which was male and which was female?"

He said, "Two were sitting on the mirror."

Women are more body-conscious, more body, more grounded -- that's why they live longer than men, four years longer than men. That's why there are so many widows: they always exhaust the husband first. One hundred and twenty boys are born to one hundred girls, but by the age of fourteen twenty boys have died, and nature maintains its balance. Just to maintain the balance, nature gives birth to one hundred and twenty boys per hundred girls, because those hundred girls, by the age of fourteen, will still be a hundred, but twenty boys will have disappeared.

If you are so restless, your restlessness dissipates energy. If everything is taken into account exactly, then woman is the stronger sex than man: she lives longer, she is less ill -- she may pretend, that is another thing, but she is less ill -- more healthy, life is stronger in her, she can resist diseases more easily than man. Look: when it is winter, men are going with their coats and sweaters, and women are moving sleeveless and nothing is happening to them. They have more tolerance, more resistance, they are more protected because they are more body-grounded.

Man lives in his head, he is more mental. That's why more men go mad, more men commit suicide, but less women. Women are not so weak; man is weaker because the mind cannot be as strong as the body. The mind entered into existence very late, the body has a long experience. But this body-groundedness becomes a problem when they enter on the path towards God.

In life, in natural life, women are the winners. But a spiritual life is going against and beyond nature. Then their body-groundedness becomes a problem: unless their whole mind becomes conscious their body-groundedness is not going to leave them, they are so deeply rooted in it. Man is like a bird, flying, and they are like trees, rooted. They get more nourishment, of course, and whenever a bird -- a man -- wants to rest, he has to come in the shade of a woman, under the tree, to be nourished, sheltered. This is good as far as ordinary natural life is concerned, it is helpful; women are the winners there. But when one starts to move beyond nature, then the very help becomes the hindrance.

JESUS SAYS: SEE, I SHALL LEAD HER SO THAT I WILL MAKE HER MALE, THAT SHE TOO MAY BECOME A LIVING SPIRIT....

She is a living body and the path is longer for her. Think of three things: the living body, the living mind and the living spirit. These are the three layers. Woman is the living body, man is the living mind, and beyond the two exists living spirit, atman. From mind it is a shorter distance to move towards spirit; from body a longer distance has to be traveled. But don't be discouraged by it in any way because in nature everything is balanced. It is difficult because the distance is long, but in another way it is easier, because a woman is a simple phenomenon. Man is very complex and his complexities create trouble.

From the mind the spirit is nearer, but to take a jump from the mind is not easy because the mind goes on creating doubts. A woman can take the jump easily: she is body-rooted, she is trust, she has no doubts. Once a woman falls in love with a man she can move with him to hell, she will not care. Once the trust is there, she will follow. That's why a woman can never imagine how a man can deceive so easily, how a man can be so faithless so easily. That's impossible for her to conceive, because she never is. She is always trusting, and she lives with her trust and cannot conceive how a man can be faithless so easily.

So there are difficulties; because the body is further from the soul, a gap exists. But there is some help also: that is that woman can take a jump easily. Once she is in love, in trust, she can take the jump. So there have not been many masters from the world of women, but there have been great disciples. And no man can compete with women as far as great disciplehood is concerned, because once they trust, they trust.

Look, go through India: you will see Jaina monks, and look and see Jaina nuns. Jaina monks will look just ordinary; their dress is different but they are just ordinary businessmen. If you change their dress and put them in the market you will not find any distinction. But Jaina nuns are different: they have a purity; once they trust they have a purity. Look at Catholic nuns. They are different from Catholic priests and Catholic monks. Monks are cunning and you cannot believe whether they are really celibate or not. If they are absolutely foolish, then it is okay, and if they have just a little intelligence they must have found some ways.... But nuns? They are celibate, you can depend on them. Once they take the step, they stick to it.

So there are difficulties because the distance is long, but there are also capacities which help because the jump is certain. Once they decide, the jump is taken, then they don't waver. The body knows no wavering, only the mind knows wavering.

JESUS SAID: SEE, I SHALL LEAD HER SO THAT I WILL MAKE HER MALE, THAT SHE TOO MAY BECOME A LIVING SPIRIT RESEMBLING YOU MALES. FOR EVERY WOMAN WHO MAKES HERSELF MALE WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM.

This is one part of Jesus' teaching, the other part has not been recorded. The reason may be because there was no woman to record it -- this too was recorded by a man. But I know there is another part, and I must tell you so that it is recorded.

In the ultimate culmination, in the crescendo of spiritual being, the male becomes female as much as the female becomes male. It is not one-way, it cannot be, because you both are extremes, opposites. If the woman becomes like man, then what will become of man? He will become like woman, then opposites dissolve.

A woman will have to transform her unconscious into conscious, her irrationality into reasonableness, her faith into an inquiry, her waiting into a movement. And a man will have to do exactly the opposite: he will have to make his movement into a rest, his restlesness into a tranquility, into a stillness, his doubt into trust; and he will have to dissolve his reason into the irrational. Then a supra-rational being is born. From both sides they have to move: man has to move from his manhood, woman has to move from her womanhood. ... Because a mind which is male is half, and the half cannot know the whole; a mind which is female is half, and the half can never know the whole. Both have to move from their static positions, become liquid, melt into each other, become asexual.

Hindus are very clear about it: their term for the ultimate, brahma, does not belong to either gender. In English it is difficult because there are only two genders, but in Sanskrit they have three genders: one for male, one for female, and one for one who has transcended both. Brahma is the third, neutral gender, and one who reaches Brahma becomes Brahma-like: male will not be male, and female will not be female, their oppositeness will disappear. And only then is being complete; then being is free, then being is liberated.

Jesus must have told the other part also. It has not been recorded because whenever we record, we record according to ourselves. I am saying so many things to you, your mind is continuously recording, but you will record according to yourself. You will leave out many things and you will not even be aware that you are leaving them out. This is the problem: you may not be aware, you may not be leaving them out consciously, you simply will not record them, your memory will not record them; you will simply drop them, you will record according to yourself.

And in those days it was a greater problem, because Jesus would go on talking, the disciples would listen, and the sayings would not be recorded immediately. Sometimes years would pass, sometimes hundreds of years would pass, and the saying would go from one person to another and then it would be recorded. It would have changed completely.

Do one small experiment, then you will know: gather twenty friends and sit in a circle. Give a piece of paper to everybody and then write a sentence. The first man in the circle writes a sentence on his piece of paper and says the sentence in the ear of the next one. He listens to the sentence, he writes it on his paper, keeps the paper with him and tells the sentence to the third one. Let the sentence go on being recorded, and you will be surprised: when it comes back to the first person it is not the same sentence, much has changed, much has been added, much has been dropped out. If it can happen within a half-hour's experiment, then when words have been carried in the memory for centuries, it is natural that much has changed -- the other part is missing.

For a man like Jesus it is not a question of male or female, it is a question of becoming whole. One has to leave his part and reach the whole. So don't think that you are a male and therefore you have some priority; don't think that you are a male, so God is nearer to you; don't think that you are a male, so you have nothing to do, that you have already done much just by being a male. No, you also will have to become female, just as a female has to become male. You both have to move from your static states and become dynamic, merging into each other. You both have to go beyond the parts and become the whole.

So I would like to tell you that I will lead the males to become females, and I will lead the females to become males, so that both are dissolved, so that transcendence is achieved and sex disappears, because sex exists on the division. Are you aware of what the word sex means? The original root in Latin means division, to divide. So when you reach God you will be neither male nor female. If you are male you are still divided -- how can vou reach the whole? So don't make this saying a male ego-trip, it is not. They have done that in the church.

Try to understand that the part has to be left so that you can become whole. You should not be identified with any division, so that the indivisible can enter into you.

SIMON PETER SAID TO THEM: LET MARY GO OUT FROM AMONG US, BECAUSE WOMEN ARE NOT WORTHY OF THE LIFE.

This is Simon Peter's mind, not Jesus'. And it is bound to be so: a disciple's mind, he is not yet enlightened, he cannot see the indivisible, he can only see according to his mind. A disciple is half blind. He has started to see, but not yet completely. A master is completely open, he can look at both the sides, he can look at all the fragments. A disciple is still in the world of ignorance, of division. This is Simon Peter, his mind. And when Jesus is gone, Simon Peter will become more important than Jesus, because Simon Peter will be more understandable to people -- he belongs to the same world.

Peter created the church, he became the rock -- the word Peter means rock. And the whole church stands -- he really proved to be a very strong rock! Nobody has proved to be such a strong rock, neither a disciple of Buddha nor a disciple of Mahavira has proved to be like Peter, because the Catholic church is the strongest church that has ever existed on the earth. But that's why it is more dangerous also: strength in wrong hands. And when a master is no more, disciples become the masters, they start deciding things. Of course, their attitude can only be a prejudice, a half-understood truth, a half-baked truth. And remember well, a lie is better than a half-truth because the lie can be exposed any day, but you cannot expose a half-truth.

A lie will be thrown some day or other, because you cannot deceive people forever and forever. But a half-truth is very dangerous: you cannot expose it because it carries an element of truth. And this saying is a half-truth: it carries one element, that the female has to become male. But this is a half-truth, and if you make it the whole truth it is very dangerous. The other has to be added to it. That's why I said we would be sailing in rough waters.

I would like to add the other half: every male has to become like the female, because he has also to learn waiting; he has also to learn receptivity; he has also to learn nonaggression, passivity; he has also to learn compassion, love, service -- all the qualities of the feminine mind. Then only, when you are whole -- neither male nor female -- do you become capable of entering into the kingdom. Then you are a god yourself, because God is neither male nor female -- he is both, or neither.

Remember that other part of the truth also, otherwise you will miss. Nobody is more capable of entering into the divine, nobody is less capable. There are differences, but on the whole, if you take account of the whole, everybody is equally capable of entering into the divine; everybody, I say, is equally capable. But there are foolish people who will always use their negative qualities, then they cannot enter. And there are wise people who will use their positive qualities, then they can enter.

For example: the feminine mind has both qualities, the negative and the positive. The positive is love, the negative is jealousy; the positive is sharing, the negative is possessiveness; the positive is waiting, the negative is lethargy, because waiting can look as if it is waiting and it may not be, it may be just lethargy. And the same happens with the male mind: the male mind has a positive quality that he inquires, goes in search, and a negative quality that he always doubts. Can you be an inquirer without doubt? Then you have chosen the positive. But you can also be a doubtful man without inquiring, just sitting and doubting.

One philosopher in the second world war went to the front. Then his girlfriend's letter and a photograph came as he had been expecting. She was sitting on a beach, one more couple was there in the background, a happy couple, very loving to each other, in an ecstasy, and she was sitting alone, depressed, sad. For a moment he felt very happy that his girl was sad for him, but the next moment the doubt came: "Who is this guy who has taken the picture?" Then he was worried because there must have been one more person who had taken the picture -- "Who is that guy?" Then he could not sleep the whole night.

This is how negative doubt functions. A man has a positive quality that he is in search of rest, and a negative quality that he is restless. Just because he is restless, there is no need for him to get identified with it. You can use your restlessness as a jumping-board to attain a restful repose. You have an energy, an urge to do something -- you can use that urge to become a non-doer, you can use that urge to be a meditator. The negative has to be used in the service of the positive, and each has both. Wherever there is a positive quality, just by the side exists the negative. If you pay too much attention to the negative you will miss; pay much attention to the positive and you will attain.

And male or female, both have to do that. Then happens the most beautiful phenomenon in the world. That phenomenon is an indivisible person, a one, a unity, an inner cosmos; a symphony where all the notes have become helpers to each other, not just a noise, but they give rhythm, color to the whole. They make the whole, they create the whole, they are not against the whole, they are not fragments anymore, they have fallen into a unity. This is what Gurdjieff calls 'inner crystallization', or what Hindus have called 'attaining to the self', and what Jesus calls 'entering into the kingdom of God'.