Jump to content
  • Welcome to the TransPulse Forums!

    We offer a safe, inclusive community for transgender and gender non-conforming folks, as well as their loved ones, to find support and information.  Join today!

I am not the body


Vidanjali

Recommended Posts

This discussion is for anyone for whom nonduality resonates. It is said that Truth is One, but is expressed in many forms, called by many names, and spoken of in many ways. That is what I believe. Please respect that and do use this thread as an opportunity to refute or invalidate anyone else's spiritual beliefs. 

 

As far as I can recall, I've always been a spiritual seeker & I've always been trans. I did not encounter nondual teachings (such as Vedanta) until about my mid-30s & I did not fully understand that I'm trans until about my mid-40s.

 

I sometimes wonder how much my relative understanding of nonduality and my transness intersect - in particular, regarding non-identification with the body. I do not see the former as necessarily the prime motivation for the latter, as I understand that plenty of people who aspire to enlightenment identify affirmatively as cisgender while embodied.

 

One distinction between the two (nondual spiritual beliefs and transness) would be non-identification with the body versus desire for a different body. I don't so much feel "trapped in the wrong body" as "trapped in a body", although I am curious about what my life would be like navigating it in a male body. This segues to my belief that I have been provided the optimal life circumstances for my spiritual evolution. But, one's life circumstances, which for me include being afab and trans, do not preclude the path of pursuing changing the body - indeed for some, medical transition, say, is part of their path to realizing greater peace, happiness and love in this life. Moreover, there are expressions of divinity and cases in Hindu scriptures and in the lives of spiritual masters which exemplify the fluidity of gender and its likewise fluid expression as a means to deeper divine insight. 

 

Does anyone think about this? 

Link to comment

I'm not sure where this is going…

 

Before I realized I was transgender I had come to see "gender" as such as a spectrum.  I think very few people are completely at one end or the other (M or F).  It is possible that this even shifts during a lifetime.  IDK

 

I don't think we are our body, although we are kinda stuck with it.  Personally, I don't believe I have ever felt "trapped in the wrong body" as many trans folks say.  It's just where I am at this time.  "Gender" as I understand it is not a physical thing, but perhaps something in our mind - mind being different than the brain.   Some of us do attempt to alter our bodies to be more congruent with our gender as we perceive it.

 

It's like the brain is the hardware, and spirit (?) is the software running on it.  This results in the mind.  Of course the brain affects the software, but it's not the same thing.

 

This leads me to the question of whether the mind can exist without the body.  What about the spirit?  Do we even know what the spirit is?  Does it have gender?  Is it individualistic, or collective?  IDK

It doesn't seem like this "spirit" (if it exists) can be measured or detected by our physical science.  But fortunately we don't have to understand everything to live our lives.

 

I have lots of thoughts on this stuff.  But I still have to eat, sleep, and poop in my everyday life.

 

This little animal that I inhabit…

 

Link to comment
5 hours ago, Vidanjali said:

Does anyone think about this? 

I don't read the literature but I often pondered the eternal nature of my spirit long before I became aware of my being transgender.  The idea of reincarnation resonates with me - I think my soul used to exist in the body of a nurse killed during the Vietnam war.  I get extremely emotional when I've watch documentaries on this war, yet I can watch other war documentaries without any emotional impact on me.  I've always been drawn toward medicine (nursing) but didn't follow that path because "nursing wasn't a career option for boys/men" was the story told by the careers advisor at my high school.  I've been considering a change of career (toward nursing) ever since I accepted that I am a trans-woman.

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

Having spent years in Yoga with a student of Swami Satchidananda i have alwayscrelated to his teachings that "Paths Are Many,

Truth is One."

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

Link to comment
19 hours ago, Ivy said:

It's like the brain is the hardware, and spirit (?) is the software running on it.  This results in the mind.  Of course the brain affects the software, but it's not the same thing.

 

Vedantic scriptures refer to the Self (with a capital S) to mean the one imperishable, ineffable, indivisible divinity which is beyond names, forms, and distinctions. 

 

In Kathopanishad, which is part of the ancient Vedas, it is said, "Know that the Self is the rider, and the body the chariot; that the intellect is the charioteer, and the mind the reins. The senses, say the wise, are the horses; the roads they travel are the mazes of desire. The wise call the Self the enjoyer when it is united with the body, the senses, and the mind."

 

This simile is oft repeated throughout scripture. My Swami explains that the Self is the enjoyer, further, when the ego takes a backseat. 

 

19 hours ago, Ivy said:

This leads me to the question of whether the mind can exist without the body.

 

It is said that the mind is both the cause of and the remedy for suffering. An uncontrolled, indiscriminate mind is a tool of the ego. Practice of nonattachment to the self (lowercase s) by controlling the mind leads to intuitive knowledge of the Self and serenity of mind. Therefore, I believe the answer to this question is yes, but only when the illusion that the relative mind belongs to the individual self is removed. I believe there is Cosmic Mind from which the knowledge "I AM the Self" is discerned. That Mind exists without the body and is free of all illusion. 

 

19 hours ago, Ivy said:

What about the spirit?  Do we even know what the spirit is?  Does it have gender?  Is it individualistic, or collective?

 

Vedanta offers subtle distinctions of "states" of spirit with regard to levels of conscious awareness. "Self" is also called "Brahman". From the point of view of an embodied human, Brahman expresses as "jiva", an individual soul or spirit. Jiva is Brahman enmeshed, as it were, in illusion - in a state of ignorance experiencing an embodied life via senses, mind and intellect. I would venture to say that mind has gender, ego and body express gender, but jiva does neither. (Although we do refer to things such as a person having a "feminine or masculine spirit", I believe "spirit" in that sense is used poetically. "The soul of a poet" - I believe such phenomena are more a matter of karma.) Spirit is individual from a relative illusory point of view - jiva. When the mind is controlled and surpassed by intuitive knowledge of the Self, spirit is collective or rather indivisible and unified - Brahman. 

 

19 hours ago, Ivy said:

It doesn't seem like this "spirit" (if it exists) can be measured or detected by our physical science.

 

Indeed, Brahman is beyond the senses, mind & intellect. 

 

A common refutation of "God" (whatever name one prefers for That) offered by atheists is that God cannot be detected by scientific methods. While that is a true statement, it is no refutation; rather it is one way to describe what God is - by describing what God is not. This is actually one such Yogic path to knowledge called "neti neti" meaning "not this, not that". E.g. I am not this perishable body, I am not these limited senses, I am not my likes and dislikes, I am not this personality, there is nothing that belongs to me, etc. 

 

2 hours ago, Charlize said:

Having spent years in Yoga with a student of Swami Satchidananda i have alwayscrelated to his teachings that "Paths Are Many,

Truth is One."

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

 

My beloved teacher, Swami Jyotirmayanda, is a disciple of the same lineage as Swami Satchidananda - both with Swami Sivananda as guru. ❤️🤗🙏

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Who's Online   6 Members, 0 Anonymous, 77 Guests (See full list)

    • Ashley0616
    • Heather Shay
    • Betty K
    • AllieJ
    • April Marie
    • Petra Jane
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      80.5k
    • Total Posts
      767.2k
  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      11,942
    • Most Online
      8,356

    taxicab
    Newest Member
    taxicab
    Joined
  • Today's Birthdays

    1. Amyjay
      Amyjay
      (58 years old)
    2. bettyjean
      bettyjean
    3. Breanna
      Breanna
      (52 years old)
    4. Emily Ayla
      Emily Ayla
    5. JET182
      JET182
  • Posts

    • Heather Shay
    • Heather Shay
    • Heather Shay
    • April Marie
      Good morning, everyone!!! Two cups of coffee in the books and I am just feeling so wonderful this morning. Not sure why, but I'm happy and smiling.   Enjoy this beautiful day!!!
    • Heather Shay
      A U.S. dollar bill can be folded approximately 4,000 times in the same place before it will tear. -You cannot snore and dream at the same time. -The average person walks the equivalent of three times around the world in a lifetime. -A hippo’s wide open mouth is big enough to fit a 4-foot-tall child in. -Chewing gum while you cut an onion will help keep you from crying.
    • Susan R
      Love it! This is great news. We need more of this to combat the excessive hate-filled rhetoric and misinformation. 👍
    • Susan R
      The experience was the same for me @April Marie. I slept much deeper and I woke up each morning feeling so much more restful sleeping with forms solidly in place. For me, wearing breast forms at night started when before I was a teenager. I had no access up to modern breast forms and certainly no way to buy mastectomy bras back then. I wore a basic bra my mom had put in a donation box and two pairs of soft cotton socks. I have some crazy memories of things I did in my youth to combat my GD but regardless, these makeshift concoctions helped me work through it all.   All My Best, Susan R🌷
    • awkward-yet-sweet
      Colorado isn't exactly a Republican place, and won't become one anytime soon.  I think those folks might be better off not spending their time playing Don Quixote.    We certainly have our share of California "refugees" moving into where I live, so I wouldn't be surprised to start seeing Coloradans too.  I suspect the trend over the next few years will see the blue areas getting more blue and the red areas getting more red as anybody who can relocate tries to find a place where they fit better.   
    • awkward-yet-sweet
      Well, at least it'll be a place some folks could choose.  Options are a good thing.
    • awkward-yet-sweet
      My family would have gobbled that jar up in a minute or two.  When we do have pickled herring, its usually for Christmas.  I didn't grow up with that particular dish, but I grew up in a Greek family so I like just about any kind of fish if I can get it.  However, ocean fish and freshwater fish taste so different.  We usually have more catfish and tilapia to eat than anything else.    What I can't quite get used to is the tons of cabbage my GF insists on eating.  When you live with a Russian, there is always cabbage soup.  Always.  When I first moved in with her, breakfast was "shchi" for soup and either bread or "kasha" which is a bowl of boiled buckwheat with butter and salt.  Those dishes can be made in any number of ways, some are better than others.  In the winter, it can even be salty and sour like kraut.  Not exactly sauerkraut, but packed in tubs with vinegar and salt so it keeps partially for the winter.  But I drew the line when the cabbage soup included pieces of fried snake one day.  😆
    • Ashley0616
      Good evening to you as well @Mmindy   That is awesome that you have support from her side. My dad has communicated with me once and that was because he was forced to. His new wife wanted to spend time with my kids. He hated me so much he was in the process of taking my rights away as a parent to my two boys. He was talking to a lawyer and I called him out on it. I don't love him at all. I'll respect him because I wouldn't be here without him but I wished I had another father. My uncles don't talk to me and unfriended me on Facebook. Almost all cousins except for two are still Facebook friends but they don't give me any support. My mom said she won't support me with that but she has said that she loves me. I have nieces and nephews that are still Facebook friends but they have yet to talk to me. I have one sister that supports me out of three. The other's disrespect me by deadnaming me. They have never called me their sister. I think for them they think it's still a phase. They don't ask questions about me being trans. I have to bring it up and on the look of their faces they don't look comfortable about it. 
    • Mmindy
      Good evening @Ashley0616,   I just got offline with HP tech support trying to get my printer tool box icon locked to my tool bar. This is one of the most important features of my printer that I like because it keeps track of ink, paper, and scanned documents. I'm diffidently not a computer geek.   I'll catch up with the other bookmarks next week. We leave to go home for the Easter Holiday with our families. Saturday with her side, and Sunday with my side. What's odd about that is I'm out to more of her side and they're reluctantly supportive. My side on the other hand are less supportive, and my sister just under me in age will not acknowledge my being there. She will be constantly moving to keep from dealing with me. I'm dead to her.   Hugs,   Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋  
    • Ashley0616
      I used to follow baseball and the team I would cheer for is Boston Red Sox. My favorite player was Papi. He was an awesome guy and even held a child during the National Anthem. I haven't watched baseball for a long time. It just died off to me. 
    • Ashley0616
      That stinks that nothing transferred, and no bookmarks were saved! 
    • Ashley0616
      I'm doing patches for now but I think soon I'll go to shots because it's hard to alternate when you are doing two xx patches at once. Unless she gives me Estradiol and progesterone
  • Upcoming Events

Contact TransPulse

TransPulse can be contacted in the following ways:

Email: Click Here.

To report an error on this page.

Legal

Your use of this site is subject to the following rules and policies, whether you have read them or not.

Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
DMCA Policy
Community Rules

Hosting

Upstream hosting for TransPulse provided by QnEZ.

Sponsorship

Special consideration for TransPulse is kindly provided by The Breast Form Store.
×
×
  • Create New...