We all talk about finding peace and harmony all the time. Of finding the balance between yin and yang. Of being one with the energy of the universe. I do want all of those things. I want to be in sync with the energy coursing through our universe as well.
But reading a book today makes me doubt that there is a way to achieve that Buddha state to a certain extent. I was reading this book called Scion of Ikshvaku by Amish Tripathi. One of thing it talks about is something called a masculine civilization and feminine one. The reference to gender is probably not a sexist move but uses the characteristics associated with genders to highlight the philosophy of the civilization.
The Masculine method of governance is founded upon Law and to a certain extent the discipline of public to follow the law honestly. The lives of people are governed by strict code of conduct that is intended to lead them to higher fulfilment. The laws are supposed to bring justice to the universe.
The Feminine method of governance is founded not on Law but on the belief that allowing freedom to people makes them achieve higher purpose. Every person is supposed to work and strive for his own fulfilment in this way of life.
You may argue that the feminine way allows for creativity and in general incentive for people to innovate. The ability to unite and achieve a common purpose would be better handled by masculine way of life.
The most interesting part is that the peak of each method never lasts as the stable time frame is negligible compared to the time it takes to reach that peak and then deteriorate from there. Each peak slowly will degenerate into structures that result in unhappiness and eventually people trying to try the other way of life. Each peak and the downfall after it paves the way for next peak of the complementary civilization. The masculine societies become rigid in their law that they cannot change, cannot adapt and slowly the society rebels to eventually mould into the free-feminine society. The feminine society is not able to unite for common causes and flounders in face of attack or disease and eventually paves way for a law based (masculine) society that addresses the concerns of a common enemy.
I pondered over it for quite a while and eventually reached the conclusion that perhaps it is not possible to reach the perfect state for long period of times. The nature itself does not allow stability to be the most probable outcome. In vacuum, you can have something arise of nothing but only last for fraction of seconds. This means that nothing is ever in sync or at peace or stable. There has to be continuous struggle between the positive and negative / male and female / good and bad with each phase leading to the next. The battle goes on forever.
Even in our world you can clearly relate to Capitalism / Democracy to be a certain type of feminine society while Socialism / Communism / Sharia law etc to be a more masculine way of life. Perhaps none is right and none is wrong in its beliefs. But no way of life justifies the lives of innocent-uninvolved humans. To that extent I wonder if we are following similar destinies as in the book.
In the west where capitalist ways of life are blamed for financial crisis etc and we associate greed with capitalism. This has led people to seek refuge in societies where things are based on law and regulated (both rich and poor) like in Religion and Communism. Whereas those living in authoritarian regimes have had the head of states become dictators and these people seek refuge in the west where they can have the notional concept of freedom. Even within in the west we have pockets of societies each living by either the masculine or the feminine way of life. The same goes for east. And after a certain point of time they will tend to decline and try to seek refuge in the alternative.
Perhaps then the equilibrium state is a mere illusion and the best you can do is to reduce the oscillation times from Masculine to Feminine. This is maybe the only way where we can reduce the chaos. And perhaps this realization is what we need. That chaos will reign no matter what we try. The next best thing to do is to embrace this chaos and move and not wait for the elusive state of equanimity.