Most of the men I know are too busy attempting to ‘penetrate’ everything. They cannot experience holiness, or relate deeply with mystery, because to do so they must reverse their customary polarity. They do not like to ‘not know’.

Women, though they may suffer their own gender-relational idiosyncrasies, are more generally well-equipped for these forms of learning. They already know what it is to give up the self, to become receptivity, to be the womb of mystery, holiness, wilderness, and presence.

They certainly require no masculine authority to direct their progress, but with the slightest nudge from one with vision, they are more likely to slide fluidly into learning and grace as though their brief absence was but an accident, or necessary journey.

Men, on the other hand, are often so bound up in mastery and penetration that they may require a great deal of nudging. And even then, they often remain bound in their obstructions.