The Elements of Male and Female
陽性和陰性元素
Speaking about the fundamental differences between male and female, Sadhguru discusses the elemental tendencies of one’s physical and mental body, explaining the significance behind this complementary engineering, and the possibility for one’s perception to rise beyond the physical nature.
談到陰陽之間的根本差別，薩古魯說起人的肉身和思想身的基本傾向，解釋了這種互補構造背後的意義，以及人的洞察可以超越物質的可能性。
Q: Namaskaram, Sadhguru. My question is, in terms of the five elements and how they function in the human system, what is the difference in body and mind between males and females?
提問者：尊敬的薩古魯，我的問題是，按照五大元素和它們在人體系統內的運作，男性和女性之間在身體和頭腦上有什麼差別？
Sadhguru: This need not be true for every individual, but generally, the female is leaning more towards water while the male is leaning more towards earth. This gives a female a certain level of flexibility, both in body and mind. Leaning towards the earth gives the male a certain sense of firmness and assertion, a certain rigidity, which also gives a certain strength of manifestation.
薩古魯：這個因人而異，但是大體上說，女性略偏向水而男性略偏向土。這使得女性在身體和頭腦層面具備某種程度的靈活性；略偏向土使得男性具備一定的堅實和堅定，一定的硬度，和一定的顯化的力量。
A lot of women think they are intuitive. It is not necessarily true with every woman, but by nature, because the experiential dimension of the female is a little higher than the logical, they may be a little less logical. As I said, this is not true with every individual. The general tendency is that a woman wants to experience life, while a man wants to understand life. It is a big difference, the way they approach it. This is mainly because of the tilt of the female towards water and the male towards earth. The other elements play differently in each individual.
很多女人覺得自己直覺敏感，不見得每個女人都如此，但是憑著本性，女性因為經驗緯度稍高於邏輯緯度，所以她們邏輯性沒有男性那麼強。我說了，情況因人而異，但是總的傾向是，女人期望體驗生命，而男人期望理解生命。他們如何去實現，構成一個大的差別。這主要是由於女性略傾向於水，男性略傾向於土。其他元素在每個個體生命裡作用都有所不同。
Body and Brain
身體與頭腦
There is no such thing as body and mind, there is just body, body and body! There is a physical body, there is a mental body and there is an energy body. There is no such thing as mind, as such. That is a European invention. Generally, the thought process that is happening is considered as mind. The thought process is just one aspect of the mental body. There is much more happening right across the system.
根本就沒有所謂的身體與頭腦，只有身、身、身！有一個肉身，一個思想身和一個能量身。沒有什麼所謂的頭腦，那是歐洲的發明。一般來說，運作中的思想過程被稱為頭腦，其實思想過程僅僅是思想身的一個方面，系統中發生的遠不止於此。
By modern definition, what you are referring to as mind is just a certain amount of memory and intelligence. If you look at the nature of your body, every cell in your body has more memory – a trillion times more memory – than you carry in your conscious mind. And we always measure one’s intelligence in terms of the complexity of activity that one can perform. If one can do only simple things, we say, 「He is a simpleton.」 If one can do many complex things, then we say, 「He is an intelligent person.」 If you go by this definition, every cell in your body, every molecule of DNA in the system is performing more complex functions than your thought process can ever imagine.
以現代的定義方法來看，你所說的頭腦不過是一定數量的記憶和智力。如果你觀察一下自己身體的本性就會發現，你體內的每一個細胞裡存儲的記憶都比你的意識頭腦裡存儲得更多 —— 多出萬億倍。我們總是依據一個人能實現的活動複雜程度來測量他的智力，如果他只能做些簡單的事情，我們就說「他頭腦簡單」，如果他能做許多複雜的事情，我們就說「他是個聰明人」。你要是按照這個定義走，那必須得說你體內的每個細胞、系統內每個DNA分子都在行使著你的思維程序絕對無法想像的複雜功能。
So both in terms of memory and the complexity of activity, which is referred to as intelligence, every cell in your body is far more than your entire brain put together. The only thing is, it is functioning on an automatic mode – you are not conscious of it. With the mental activity, as we refer to the psychological space, you can be reasonably conscious of it. But you are generally not conscious of the mental body that you carry.
所以不論是比記憶容量還是比被當作智力的活動複雜性，你體內的每一個細胞都比你的整個大腦都更強大。問題是，它的運作是自動化的 —— 你意識不到它。你對在心理範疇下所說的頭腦的活動可能有或多或少的意識，但是一般說來，對於你所承載的思想身你是意識不到的。
Both men and women can train themselves, or can become capable or competent of what the other is competent of, in the mental space. That is, a woman, by training, can very much become competent of whatever thought a man is competent of, or a man can become competent of whatever intuitiveness a woman may be competent of. But that will need a certain amount of training. By nature, they would tend to lean this way because in one, the earth element is strong, while in the other, the water element is strong or dominant.
在頭腦層面，男人和女人都可以訓練自己或者可以變得具有對方所具備的能力，也就是說，一個女人通過訓練可以達到男人具備的任何思維，而一個男人也可以達到女人所具備的任何直覺能力。但是這需要一定的訓練。從本性上看，他們各有傾向，因為一邊的土元素比較強而另一邊水元素比較強或者佔主導。
Complementary Elements
互補的元素
This disposition of elements in male and female is the way it is essentially to fulfill certain basic responsibilities of being male and female. These responsibilities can be argued about today in the modern world because we have created an artificial world of our own. Our cities, our homes, our dwelling places, our working places are all of our making. Here, the gender differences are leveled out.
男女在元素傾向上之所以如此主要是為了滿足男性女性的某些基本職責。在當今的現代世界裡我們之所以爭論這些職責的劃分是因為我們創造了一個非自然世界，我們的城市、家、住所、單位都是我們製造出來的，在這樣的環境中性別差異已經被消磨掉了。
But if you lived in the wild, then you would see that these dispositions were naturally necessary. Above all, we exist because a woman that we call our mother bore us. This means that generating the next generation of people is the responsibility of the female body. Because of that, it is made in a certain way, and water is an important element for the reproductive purpose.
但是如果你在野外生存的話就會意識到這些傾向是自自然然的需要。首先，我們之所以存在，是因為我們叫她為媽媽的那個女人懷了我們，也就是說，生養後代是女性身體的責任，正因為如此，女性身體有它的特點，而對於繁衍生息的目的而言，水正是一個重要元素。
The way these two dimensions of the human species are engineered elementally is complementary to each other till a certain age. After that, they reorganize themselves to become their own. After that, people may try to make their emotions paramount and still try to continue that, more out of habit and emotional insecurity. Otherwise, the rapport between these two dimensions – of leaning towards water and leaning towards earth on the elemental level – is only to a certain point.
直到某個年齡為止，人類的這兩個緯度在基礎上的這種設計使二者互為補充。在那個年齡之後，它們就重新自我組織以成為獨立的個體。比如人可能出於習慣和情感上的不安全感而試圖讓情感佔據首位並進而不斷發展它；不然的話，這兩個緯度 —— 傾向水還是傾向土 —— 之間在基礎水平上的和諧關係是有局限的。
How quickly one works out of it also depends on how much akash one develops within themselves. Once one’s perception rises beyond the physical nature, then suddenly there is no male, there is no female. There is just a human form, which can be made competent in many different ways. Competence is not just of doing things, competence is of perception. Competence is as a life, not as a person – that one’s life can become more competent than another life to be alive. To be more alive than everything else around you, this means you know life in larger dollops than others.
人以多快的速度衝出這個限制也取決於他在內在發展出多大的AKASH，一旦人的覺察超越了身體層面，那麼突然之間就不再有什麼男性和女性，而只有可以以各種不同的方式發展出能力的人形肉身。能力並不僅僅指做事，能力也指覺察力，能力說的是生命而不是人 —— 某個生命比另一個生命具備了更強的活著的能力。如果你能比周圍的一切都更有生機，那意味著你對生命比別人知道得更多。
Aspiring to Transcend
渴望超越
Every human being is capable of this. It is just that socially, people are unfortunately conditioned to believe that they should continue with the same things that they have been doing all their life, otherwise you are a cop-out. Because of this very judgmental and stigmatizing society and out of their own emotional and psychological insecurities, they continue doing the same things.Otherwise, this aspiration of wanting to transcend is there in every human being. If they give themselves a little bit of time away from their office, from their family, from their friends, from social media, from their phones and computers, everyone will know that they need to transcend their present limitations, there is no question about it. They do not need a teaching, they do not need someone goading them all the time. Every human being will know if they just give themselves some time.
每個人都有能力做到，只不過在社會中，人們很不幸被訓練得以為他們一輩子以來一直都在做的事必須繼續做下去，不然就是逃避。正是因為這個非常審判性的、指責性的社會以及人們自己情感和心理上的不安全感促使他們繼續著老一套，不然的話，每個人都有超越的願望。如果人們給自己一點時間離開辦公室、家庭、朋友、社交網絡，放下手機、電腦，那麼每個人都能夠認識到他需要超越現有的局限，這是毫無疑問的。他們不需要被教導，不需要別人不停地激勵。只要給自己一些時間，每個人都能夠意識到。