What Is Masculine, what Is Feminine?

Energy has two directions

Masculinity can have two directions, just as feminineness 
can have two directions. The masculine mind can be aggressive, violent, 
destructive -- that is only one of the possibilities. Men have tried 
that, and humanity has suffered much from it. And when men try this 
negative aspect of masculinity, women naturally start moving into the 
negative feminineness, just to keep together with men. Otherwise the 
rift will be too great, unbridgeable.

Negative male qualities: aggressiveness, violence, destruction
Negative female qualities: inactivity, lethargy, indifference

When the feminine is negative it 
is inactivity, lethargy, indifference. The negative man can only have a 
bridge with a negative woman.
 But there is a positive aspect too. Nothing can be only negative; every 
negativity has a positive aspect too. Every dark cloud has a silver 
lining, and every night is followed by a dawn.
Positive masculinity is initiative, creativity, adventure. These are the 
same qualities, but moving on a different plane. The negative masculine 
mind becomes destructive, the positive masculine mind becomes creative. 
Destructiveness and creativeness are not two things, but two aspects of 
one energy. The same energy can become aggression and the same energy 
can become initiative.
 When aggression is initiative it has a beauty of its own. When violence 
becomes adventure, when violence becomes exploration, exploration of the 
new, of the unknown, it is tremendously beneficial.


Feminity turning into receptivity and detachment

And so is the case with the feminine. Inactivity is negative, 
receptivity is positive. They both look alike, they look very similar. 
You will need very penetrating eyes to see the difference between the 
inactive and the receptive. The receptive is a welcome, it is an 
awaiting, it has a prayer in it. Receptivity is a host, receptivity is a 
womb. Inactivity is simply dullness, death, hopelessness. There is 
nothing to wait for, nothing to expect, nothing is ever going to happen. 
It is falling into lethargy, it is falling into a kind of indifference. 
And indifference and lethargy are poisons.
 But the same thing that becomes indifference can become detachment, and 
then it has a totally different flavor.

Indifference looks like 
detachment, but it is not; indifference is simply no interest. 
Detachment is not absence of interest -- detachment is absolute 
interest, tremendous interest, but still with the capacity of 
non-clinging. Enjoy the moment while it is there and when the moment 
starts disappearing, as everything is bound to disappear, let it go. 
That is detachment. 
Lethargy is a negative state. One is like a lump of mud just lying there 
-- no possibility of growth, no exuberance, no flowering. But the same 
energy can become a pool, a great pool of energy -- not going anywhere, 
not doing anything, but the energy accumulating and accumulating and 
accumulating.


A tremendous pool of energy


Positive feminineness is not like lethargy, it is like a tremendous pool 
of energy. And as the energy gathers and accumulates, it goes through 
many qualitative changes.
A man, to be really masculine, has to be adventurous, has to be 
creative, has to be able to take as many initiatives in life as 
possible. The woman, to be really a woman, has to be a pool of energy 
behind the man, so the adventure can have as much energy as possible. 
Energy will be needed so that the adventure can have some inspiration, 
so that the adventure can have some poetry, so that the adventurous soul 
can relax in the woman and be replenished with life, rejuvenated. 
Man and woman both together, moving positively, are one whole. And the 
real couple -- and there are very few real couples -- is one in which 
each has joined with the other in a positive way. Ninety-nine percent of 
couples are joined together in a negative way. That's why there is so 
much misery in the world. 
I repeat it again: the man has to be masculine and the woman has to be 
feminine, but in a positive way. Then to be together is a meditation, 
then to be together is really a great adventure. Then to be together 
brings new surprises every day. Then life is a dance between these two 
polarities, and they help each other, they nourish each other.

Osho, excerpted from Book of Wisdom, #8

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In this Osho quote the positive and negative ways of feminity and manhood are described. Ordinary love is between two negative poles, aware love between energies that are positive. For the man those are: initiative, creativity, adventure. For the woman: receptivity, detachment, a tremendous pool of energy...