According to Osho, the feminine mystery is the eternal, foundational dimension of existence—the ocean from which all waves arise and into which they dissolve. It is complete, stable, symmetrical, intuitive, and primary; the masculine is temporal, restless, and logical. Because perfection is stable, Lao Tzu names the supreme secret of being 'the Feminine Mystery'—the womb-like, intuitive wholeness underlying all change.
It’s the quiet, steady “ocean” behind life—the mother-like wholeness that stays while the busy waves come and go.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, yesterday you spoke about the feminine mystery of existence. Kindly shed more light on this subject in greater detail.
All the dimensions of existence can be divided into the feminine and the masculine. The division of woman and man is not merely a sexual division. In Lao Tzu’s vision, the division into feminine and masculine is the very dialectics of life, an essential part of life’s dialectical evolution. Man and woman differ not only at the level of the body; they also differ at the level of the mind. Wherever existence manifests, there the polarity of feminine and masculine will appear. But in understanding Lao Tzu, keep one thing in mind: the masculine is the transient form of existence, and the feminine is its eternal form. Like the wave that rises on the ocean—its rising is momentary. The ocean was there before the wave, and will be there after the wave. Femininity is the ocean of existence; the masculine is a passing wave. Hence the Judaic tradition that narrates…
Question: bhagwan sri, yesterday you talked about the feminine-mystery. Will you kindly enlighten us more on the subject?
Bhagwan Sri: All dimensions of Existence can be divided into male and female dimensions. The division of man and woman is not on the basis of sex alone. According to Lao Tzu it is a necessary part of the dialectical evolution of Existence. Not only on the body-level, even on the mental-level man and woman are different. Wherever Existence manifests itself, there is always a difference of male and female. What is to be kept in mind however, according to the Lao-Tzu thought is, that the male form is always the temporal form of Existence whereas the female is always the eternal form of Existence. When a wave rises in the ocean, it is momentary. The ocean is present whether the wave arises or not. Femininity is the ocean of Existence. Therefore the story of the development of mankind as written by the Jews, is completely false, from the point…
Question: CHAPTER 6: SUTRA I & 2 THE SPIRIT OF THE VALLEY 1. THE VALLEY SPIRIT DIES NOT, EVER THE SAME. THE FEMALE MYSTERY THUS DO WE NAME. IT'S GATE FROM WHICH AT FIRST THEY ISSUED FORTH. IS CALLED THE ROOT FROM WHICH GREW HEAVEN AND EARTH, 2. LONG AND UNBROKEN DOES ITS POWER REMAIN, USE GENTLY AND WITHOUT THE TOUCH OF PAIN. The door of this Feminine-Mystery is the original source of heaven and earth. Whether it is the birth of matter or whether it is the birth of consciousness; whether the earth is born or heaven, everything is born through the mystery that lies hidden in the depths of Existence. Therefore I have said that those who have looked upon God as mother -- as Durga or Amba -- their understanding is much deeper than those who look upon Him as Father.
Beloved Osho, sitting silently, suddenly, softly, slowly, soundlessly, peacefully, something peeled off which I could see was my illusion for a better world and good people. Beloved Osho, can you say something about the difference between a vision and an illusion?
The difference between a vision and an illusion is very delicate and fragile, but the difference is very big. The dream is a mind phenomenon; it happens in your mind. It happens because you repress, and whatever is repressed comes up in the night when the conscious represser is asleep. Then the unconscious releases itself in dreams. Dream is the language of the unconscious. Through the dream, the unconscious is doing many things: one is catharsis, second is giving messages to the conscious. If you don't hear, the same dream will be repeated again. It has happened in very rare cases that a dream was repeated almost every night for years. And it happened to a very intelligent, great creator -- Leo Tolstoy. He used to have a dream -- which was a nightmare, although there was no violence, no torture -- but the set-up of the dream was such…
Therefore Eastern lands that understood the feminine mystery gave to woman her highest honor not as wife, but as mother. This is very surprising. People asked me: you call male renunciates “Swami,” but female renunciates “Mother,” even though they are not married yet, even though they have no child? In truth, “mother” pertains to the woman’s supreme dignity. She is at her highest only in the moment of motherhood. Her peak experience is not to be a wife, not to be a beloved—being a beloved or wife is only the beginning of the ascent; her peak experience, the summit, is to be a mother. Therefore, in those societies where women decide that to be a wife is their summit, women will be very miserable—because that is not their summit.