Buddhist Nuns are so Androgynous!

[Guest Juniper Blue]

Hi All,

I have been attending a Zen Buddhist Center where the Nuns are just as androgynous as I am. It is such a wonderful feeling to be a part of a community were I feel perfectly at ease. ( This center is very small .. there are only nuns.) I have visited many centers over the years and I have felt extremely welcome and comfortable at every Buddhist Temple that I have visited (in the United States and in China and India.) It seems that the acceptance of gender variance is universal amoung Buddhists ... it seems to be an non-issue. Have others here at LP experienced this as well? I asked about gender variance and the Shifu simply responded "We all have Buddha nature."

Best to All,

JB

[Charlize]

Thank you for that post. I have wondered about acceptance in the Buddhist community. As I grow older some time at a monastery seems a good thing to do.

Hugs, Charlie

[Guest]

Good Morning, JB,

It seems that you've found the Zen Center that fits you perfectly! You're right about the nuns - one came to our Sangha and gave a talk a few weekends ago. With short-clipped hair, no makeup, in loose robes, other than her voice, she had no feminity at all.

I've attended four different Buddhist sanghas since going full-time last year, and have had no hint of an issue with my gender at any of them. Three of those are Zen Buddhist - where I dress in black, use bareley any makeup, tiny black earrings - It's not about passing when I go there. Buddhists are focused on their practice, not what people look like - I just never worried about acceptance.

Yes, we all have Buddha Nature - what a wonderful, simple way to describe it!

Love, Megan

[Guest Juniper Blue]

Hugs to you Charlie and Megan! Yay for places liek this where we can be ourselves, express our true nature,and where our hearts and practice are the focus.

[Guest tolachi]

Interesting thread

I am not of any religion but i am very spiritual. I tend to believe spiritualism and the fact that I have a soul. I believe in reincarnation. I also love the Buddhist way of life.

I have visited the Samye Ling Buddhist centre in Eskdale muir, south West Scotland, many times and I've got to say it is one of the most spiritual, beautiful and peaceful places that I've ever been. The temple is awesome and the whole centre is very uplifting and calming. There is a wishing tree in the gardens and I've tied quite a few ribbons to its branches over the years.

[Guest Jaques]

With buddhist nuns and monks, their gender and sexuality is of no consequence to them, did you ever read a book by Tenzin Palmo called "Cave in the Snow" - an autobiography of an English woman who at a young age became a buddhist nun and spent l2 years meditating in a cave - its an amazing and very inspirational read.

If you google Tenzin palmo, you will be able to see the work she is doing now.............

[Guest tolachi]

Thank you for the information Jaques. I will research the book. Sounds really interesting!

[Guest Jaques]

I read that book when she lst wrote it, then the "Meditations on a Mountain Stream" and I have just bought this...........

[Charlize]

I just ordered the fist of these books. It has been such a long time since i sat Zen but the experience lives within me and this might be the spark i need to seek out a zendo.

Hugs,

Charlie

[Guest Jaques]

when i was going through my "what am i" stage, i went to a buddhist monastery on a fairly regular basis, looking as i was, a female bodied person, i meditated with the nuns and also sat in on discussions with the "monk in duty" - i have learnt over the years that even the Buddhist organisations are very male orientated. Tenzin Palmo has challenged this of course - the Buddha was a man of his time, as was Christ Jesus - they both lived in a period where women were considered the weaker sex, the Buddha therefore decided, as did Christ, that a woman couldnt roam the countryside and live rough as they did, as men. Still in the Christian church and Buddhist organisations, women are very much in the background..........Buddhist nuns are most often found sitting behind monks and serving them..............time of course will change that. I still find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that in Buddhism, gender has no real place yet it is so obvious that the male of the species is considered more dominant...............but when i think about the message of the Buddha - which is that nothing remains the same - he really hit the nail on the head - so nor will it!