Transcending Gender (AN 7.51) with Ayya Soma

Transcending gender: AN 7.51 with gender nonbinary American nun Ayya Soma

(Buddhist Insights) In this sutra the Buddha addresses how gender identities are reinforced or transcended. Through a great deal of uncomfortable laughter bisexual Ayya Soma (co-creator of Buddhist Insights),  a gender-nonconforming (LGBTQI+?) Italian monastic, discusses her interpretation, claiming that "nobody is normal" and thinking we are is a danger. She is helped along by a seemingly gay fellow American monk. Find the text of the Buddhist discourse below (suttacentral.net/an7.51). To support the monastics and Empty Cloud Monastery, please visit buddhistinsights.org/donate.

SUTRA: "Bound and Unbound"

Ven. Sujato (trans.), SuttaCentral.net, Numerical Discourses (Anguttara Nikaya or AN 7.51, Chapter 5. A Great Sacrifice, Discourse 51, Sahṁyoga Sutta) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha was not addressing monks and males, but the grammar makes it seem so by being male gender inclusive. As in Italian, Ayya Soma points out, there is no way to say "siblings," but rather "my brothers" is inclusive of male and female siblings and understood as such, as it was in the Buddha's time in proto-India (Magadha and Gandhara).

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How are beings bound and unbound?

“Mendicants, I will teach an exposition of the teaching on the bound and the unbound. Listen and pay close attention and I will speak.…

“And what is the exposition of the teaching on the bound and the unbound?

Women

“A woman focuses on her own femininity: her feminine moves, feminine appearance, feminine ways, feminine desires, feminine voice, and feminine adornment.

“She’s stimulated by this and takes pleasure in it. So she focuses on the masculinity of others: masculine moves, masculine appearance, masculine ways, masculine desires, masculine voice, and masculine adornment.

“She’s stimulated by this and takes pleasure in it. So she desires to bond with another. And she desires the pleasure and happiness that comes from such a bond.

“Sentient beings who are attached to their femininity are bound to men. This is how a woman does not transcend her femininity.

Men

“A man focuses on his own masculinity: his masculine moves, masculine appearance, masculine ways, masculine desires, masculine voice, and masculine adornment.

“He’s stimulated by this and takes pleasure in it. So he focuses on the femininity of others: feminine moves, feminine appearance, feminine ways, feminine desires, feminine voice, and feminine adornment.

“He’s stimulated by this and takes pleasure in it. So he desires to bond with another. And he desires the pleasure and happiness that comes from such a bond. Sentient beings who are attached to their masculinity are bound to women.

“This is how a man does not transcend his masculinity. This is how one is bound.

Women Unbound

Buddhism Beyond Gender

“And how does one become unbound? A woman does not focus on her own femininity: her feminine moves, feminine appearance, feminine ways, feminine desires, feminine voice, and feminine adornment.

“She is not stimulated by this and takes no pleasure in it. So she does not focus on the masculinity of others: masculine moves, masculine appearance, masculine ways, masculine desires, masculine voice, and masculine adornment.

“She is not stimulated by this and takes no pleasure in it. So she does not desire to bond with another. Nor does she desire the pleasure and happiness that comes from such a bond.

“Sentient beings who are not attached to their femininity are not bound to men. This is how a woman transcends her femininity.

Men Unbound

What are women but foul flesh and guts?

“A man does not focus on his own masculinity: masculine moves, masculine appearance, masculine ways, masculine desires, masculine voice, and masculine adornment.

“He is not stimulated by this and takes no pleasure in it. So he does not focus on the femininity of others: feminine moves, feminine appearance, feminine ways, feminine desires, feminine voice, and feminine adornment.

“He is not stimulated by this and takes no pleasure in it. So he does not desire to bond with another. Nor does he desire the pleasure and happiness that comes from such a bond.

“Sentient beings who are not attached to their masculinity are not bound to women. This is how a man transcends his masculinity.

“This is how one is unbound. This is the exposition of the teaching on the bound and the unbound.”

We are not this body or gender

Ven. Nyanatiloka (Anton Gueth), Buddhist Dictionary, edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Am I male or female...or neither?

Jīva: Life principle, vitality, individual "soul" (self, personality, ego).

"Soul [life] and body are identical"  is a wrong view. And "Soul and body are different" is a wrong view.

These wrong views fall under the two kinds of "personality-belief" (sakkāya-ditthi, see ditthi). Whereas the first one falls under the category of "annihilation-belief" (uccheda-ditthi), the second falls under the  category of "eternity-belief" (sassata-ditthi).

"In truth, if one holds the [wrong] view that the soul/self is identical with the body, in that case the supreme life [of a Buddhist monastic that leads to enlightenment and nirvana, awakening and liberation] is impossible.

"Or if one holds the [wrong] view that the soul/self is something quite different, also in that case the supreme life is impossible.

Buddhism on sex and gender

"Both of these extremes the Awakened One has avoided and instead revealed the Middle Way, which says, 'On ignorance depend the karma-formations, on the karma-formations depends consciousness,' and so on [through the 12 causal links of Dependent Origination]" (S. XII. 35).

EDITORIAL NOTE: That is to say, the Buddha explains the origination of this being, life, rebirth, self, existence as all depending on the process of Dependent Origination. Things originate depending on necessary and sufficient conditions and not without them. A "thing" does not arise from nothing. Illusion arises, ignorance arises, and that is what passes away. Things (or the illusion of there being independent/separate things) arise dependent on impersonal, impermanent, and disappointing (unsatisfactory, unable to fulfill) factors. Everything is composed of constituents with no existence apart from them. Though this is true of all things (with the sole exception of nirvana, the unconditioned element, which is not a composite "thing"), it is most important to understand that it is true of the "self," "soul," "personality," "ego." In that sense, there is no self, but there is something.