Bettina Goodwin examines the gender-neutral state of love and what this means for discovering our True Selves.
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Men and women—they always seem to find a way to end up at odds with each other, creating power struggles through their cited differences. And physically, we are very different, right down to our chromosomes.
But physicality is where it ends.
In our humanity we are as diverse as can be, not only men from women, but person to person. We travel different paths, like and dislike different things and as results of our upbringing and moral standards, have varied beliefs and ideas which often drive us apart.
But we are not only human, we are divine and in that divinity we are very much connected.
The center of our human thought process is the Ego self—which strives to divide, separate and create—conflict at every turn. From it, anger, fear, hatred, guilt and shame are born. It continually creates problems based on “anything but this,” in other words, “take me out of this place I’m in and take me somewhere else that promises happiness.”
But it’s a promise of happiness without the actual deliverance of it. This is what keeps us in a state of suffering and unfortunately, what keeps us tied to our human identity. The Ego believes in time, space, gender and boundaries of all kinds and it uses these to lead us down the rabbit hole as long as we are willing to follow it.
The True Self is the divine part of us that doesn’t recognize time, space, gender, boundaries, judgment or pain.
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The True Self is the divine part of us that doesn’t recognize time, space, gender, boundaries, judgment or pain. It is the loving presence that watches and waits for us to remember that it is who we really are. It only knows peace, compassion, kindness, beauty, contentment, acceptance and love.
Love has no gender. The energy of love is neither masculine nor feminine. It is all inclusive and in the presence of that energy is true equality. We all meet as equals through our connection to the loving presence.
‘Namaste’ is a widely-used form of greeting in Indian culture, of which the literal meaning is “I bow to you”; but it has an even deeper spiritual meaning that acknowledges the divine spark in each of us which could expand the meaning to “the divine in me bows to the divine in you.” It is an acknowledgement of the loving presence in each of use and reminds us to recognize not only our own divinity, but that of others. It is a way to move past the Ego behavior that not expressing love and know that beyond this surface pain is someone no different that ourselves.
This is not exclusive to men or women but available to everyone.
When we let our Ego self guide us we find ourselves disconnected from the love that we are. But when we hear the quiet whisper of our True self we express ourselves in the world with unconditional love.
And in the end, male or female, isn’t that what we’re all really looking for?
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Read more Good for the Soul. Redefining the discussion of men and spirituality.
[photo: via Hartwig HKD on flickr]
Really enjoyed the read Bettina. Thank you.
Thanks Steve. Glad you enjoyed it.
Lovely sentiments Bettina, but that is where the lovely ends. None of what you wrote, as lovely as it is, has any real meaning or application. Don’t typically like raining on parades, but what you wrote is mystical nonsense – if you want to literally propose that we are all made of stardust, then that is fine, and that is where the divine both starts and stops. The true self does not recognize time and space, yet recognizes “love and compassion”….yeah, not really – there is no beauty to clouded and distorted ideas of truth, even though they sometimes feel… Read more »
Hi elissa,
There are so many different levels on which this topic can be discussed. I chose one level, you chose another. That’s what’s so great about the world – so many different ideas and ways of looking at everything. I appreciate your feedback and although it may not resonate with you, it may be just what someone else needs right now.
Thanks for taking the time to read the piece.
Bettina
Hi Bettina I just read your piece of Love has no Gender and it really resonated with me. I look forward to reading more of your posts on this and related subjects. Thank you Dermot
Hi Dermot,
So glad you liked it! Thanks for your kind words.
Bettina