The transsexual Buddhist Soreyya

Bhikkhu Bodhi (USA), Maha Kaccana: Master of Doctrinal Exposition (BPS, Wheel #405/406); Monty Python (Life of Brian); CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

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This a true story? I thought it was a legend.

The commentaries record [an incident] which stemmed from the impression that the enlightened monk’s golden physical form made on the minds of others.

One of these, reported in the Commentary to the  Dhammapada (Dhp-a to v.43, Buddhist Legends, 2:23–28) involved a straight young man named Soreyya, who was the son of the treasurer in the city of the same name.

One day the youth Soreyya was driving out of the city in a carriage, on route to a bathing spot together with an close friend and a merry band of companions.

Just as they were leaving the city, the enlightened chief disciple Venerable Mahā Kaccāna ("Great Golden") was standing at the city gate, putting on his outer robe before entering to walk on alms round.

When the married youth Soreyya beheld the golden-hued body of the elder [thera, "senior monk"], he thought to himself: “Oh, that this elder might become my wife! Or may the hue of my wife’s body become like the hue of his body!”

Karma mixed with iddhi is very strange.

At the very moment this wanton thought passed through his mind, Soreyya was instantly transformed from a man into a woman.

Startled by this inexplicable change of sex, he jumped out of the carriage and fled before the others could notice what had occurred. Gradually he made his way to the city of Takkasilā [the capital of Gandhara, modern Taxila].

His companions searched for him in vain then reported his strange disappearance to his parents. When all attempts to trace him proved futile, his parents concluded that he had died, and they had the funeral rites performed.

Golden sheen of Gandharans like the Buddha

Meanwhile the [transsexual] woman Soreyyā, on reaching Takkasilā, met the son of the city’s treasurer, who fell in love with her and took her as his wife.

In the first years of their marriage, she gave birth to two sons. Previously, while still a man, Soreyya had fathered two sons with his wife in his native city. So he was now the parent of four children, two as a father and two as a mother.

One day the formerly close friend of Mr. Soreyya came to Takkasilā on some personal business. Mrs. Soreyyā saw him in the street and called him into her house, revealing the secret of her mysterious metamorphosis from a man to a woman.

Walk this way. But very be careful.

The friend compassionately proposed that Soreyyā should offer alms to Ven. Mahā Kaccāna, who was living close by, and then beg pardon from him for [the mental karma of] having given rise to such a lewd thought.

The friend then went to the enlightened elder and invited him to come to the lady’s house for alms on the following day. When Ven. Mahā Kaccāna arrived, the friend brought Lady Soreyyā into his presence, informed him of what had long ago happened, and asked him to pardon her for that transgression.

A walk on the other side then a walk back

As soon as the elder uttered the words “I pardon you,” Lady Soreyyā was transformed back into a man.

Shaken out of all worldly complacency by this double metamorphosis, Soreyya determined that he could never again lead the household life [the life of an ordinary uninstructed worldling wandering on through samsara, the unsatisfactory cycle of rebirth].

Bhikkhu Bodhi (BPS, Wheel #405/406)

So he ordained as a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu) under Mahā Kaccāna, and after a short time s/he attained full enlightenment (arahantship) together with the supernormal powers (siddhis). More

• Dictionary of Pali Proper Names Soreyya...confessed his fault, and asked for forgiveness. When Maha Kaccana pardoned her, she once more became a man. He became a monk under Maha Kaccana and went with him to Sāvatthi. People who heard his/her story worried him with questions. So he retired to solitude and, developing insight, became fully enlightened. Before that, when people asked him which of his children he loved best, he would say: "The ones I gave birth to as a woman." After attaining full enlightenment he would say: "My affections [clinging, attachments] are set on no one" (DhA.i.324ff).

Discussion: How?

Shapeshifting is all well and good for sylphs (devas) to do, but as for humans?

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Maybe because I had practiced magic?

In an interesting side note, it is said that for the rest of his life, whenever anyone met Ven. Soreyya, they asked him the same sort of question:

"You had children as their father, and you had children as their mother; which children did you love more?" The answer, it is said, was always the same: "The children I had as a mother, of course."

This may tell us more about biological gender differences than the whole rest of the story. How could a body change sex if it gets its sex due to past life karma? This was magical "transformation" (shape-shifting), as we find in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream when the character Bottom is transmogrified becoming an ass.

Fairy (deva) transforms Bottom.

What gives us sex, and how could it change? This is explained based on Buddhist biology as found in the Abhidharma. Transformation is a supernormal power, which Soreyya had likely developed in past lives, as suggested by the fact that when he became enlightened he suddenly possessed those powers. Most people on becoming enlightened do not suddenly gain them.

Each particle (kalapa) has inherent characteristics like biological sex, much as we are taught that every cell has DNA with XX or XY chromosomes giving the body its sex.

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