08b | CR Book III, Chapter 4

pensable for the attainment of wisdom. Making him-
self into a eunuch for the kingdom of heavens'
sake, a man emasculates himself in body, dress, ma-
nners, thoughts, appetties and perceptions. Thus he
tries to cast off the impediment of his masculin-
ity. The normal flow of sexual energy is being
blocked. The complete inhibition of all motor re-
actions towards females then leads, at least for
a period, to a kind of symbolic projection of fe-
minity - into a kind of disembodied body
which embodies wisdom. Thus we have in history
the Prajnaparamita, Sophia-sapientia, Sarasvati,
Kuan Yan, Minerva, Iztal Ix, and, as a rudiment, the
BMV as sedes sapientiae. The male then tries to
achieve in respect to this female self, in a usua-
lly largely desexualised form, his desire for com-
pletion by reunion with the split-off female part
of himself. He endeavours to get into the female,
and the womb, by identification. Such identificat-
ion, by meditation, words, and body (e.g. ritual move-
ments of the hands) is, in intention, or in effect,
the aim of all the cults mentioned. In the
Tantra, this is said more clearly than elswhere.
In the end: 'She I am. I am the Goddess. I em none
else. I am free.'

This elastic conception of selfhood enables
the emotions to be pressed into the service of
salvation. Appropriate substitute objects are pro-
vided for the love of father, mother, friend, bride;
for obedience, companionship, trust, gratitude, dev-
otion etc. It becomes possible to suffer for the
sake of his love or glory, to feel protected by
him in tribulation etc.

Such indulgence is permissible in the intermed-
iate stages of the Path - which is no other than
the self itself -, while the self, still unachieved,
becomes itself. Another self lies beyond - as
neither male, female nor neuter it can probaby be
realised only after the attitudes to it as male,
female and neuter have been traversed
and exhausted.

(c) As we saw in ch.3, in 'self' as a normative
concept, the extreme of 'exclusion' coincides with
the extreme of 'inclusion'. Insofar as selfhood is
released by terminating otherhood, everything is
shut out in the interest of its purity. Yet, on the
other hand, since all 'things' agree in being them-
selves, attention to selfhood can be used to wel-