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Main Index
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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 7 | Previous Next | |
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same proportion with Buddha, with Mahavira, with Jesus, with everybody. The woman proves to be the more authentic disciple. When Jesus was crucified all the men disciples escaped. Those twelve apostles, not even a single one.... But the women disciples were there. Even the prostitute, Mary Magdalene, was there; she did not escape, she was ready to risk her life.
Mahavira had forty thousand sannyasins: thirty thousand were women and ten thousand were men. And exactly the same was the proportion with Buddha -- and you can see here. People ask me why I am giving the whole ashram into women's hands. What can I do? They are the best disciples, they know how to say yes, they know how to trust, they know how to be committed totally. Man remains a little skeptical, somewhere deep down the no remains alive. Even if he trusts, he trusts conditionally. The woman trusts unconditionally, her trust is forever. The man trusts intellectually. The woman trusts with her whole body, mind, soul, with her every fiber. Her trust is love not logic.
Hence Buddha says, if a woman is not graceful she is missing something, that is an impurity. The absence of grace in a woman is impurity. It can be forgiven in a man, but not in a woman; and in a man, generosity, sharing, giving -- that is an outgoing phenomenon. If a man is not generous, if he cannot give, then he is not really a man.
That's why there have been so many male masters, because it is generosity, it is giving, it is sharing. The woman can receive, the man can give. The question is not who is the master and who is the disciple. The question is, in whatsoever way you are perfect you are fulfilling your nature. Be a perfect disciple and you will enter into God, be a perfect master and you will enter into God. Perfection is the key. It doesn't matter whether you are a disciple or a master, but be perfect.
And thirdly, and the most important, which has nothing to do with man or woman, which is applicable to both is: BUT THE GREATEST IMPURITY IS IGNORANCE. Not knowing yourself is the greatest impurity. The first two impurities are peripheral, on the circumference; the third and most important is central, is
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