ESOTERIC THOUGHT Gender Fluidity in Buddhism and Hinduism: A Perspective of Transformative Magic
ophies reveal deep insights into the nature of identity, reality and the cosmos through various teachings and examples. The Liminal Void: Navigating Non-Self, Buddha-Nature, and Fluid Identity Being completely outside of one’s body detached from the so-called Astral Plain, as real or unreal as this may seem, was initially very frightening. The loss of one’s sense of being, drifting outside of oneself in a non-substantiated form within liminal space — a non-identity or “non-self” — can be either enormously liberating or re-traumatising in equal measure, depending on the level of your attachment to your own body and identity. No-self, or more accurately non-self and the Buddhist doctrine of anattā — a strategy to obtain non-attachment by seeing all things as impermanent — is a complex subject that has been explored across time and philosophies. What is identified as self and what is not-self changes depending on our desires and what makes us happy. The idea proposes that the self is very much an illusion, and that true under- standing comes from recognizing and comprehending this. Thanissa- ro Bhikkhu, an American monk and author, neatly teaches us that, “It’s as if you have a committee inside the mind, and the committee is rarely in order… The Buddha’s purpose in having us master percep - tions of self and not-self is to bring some clarity, honesty, and order to the committee.” Conversely, Buddha-nature, or the Mahāyāna term tathāgatagar - bha is the potential for sentient beings to become a Buddha, or that all sentient beings already have a pure Buddha-essence within them - selves. Hinduism, however, asserts that the existence of Ātman — es- sence, entity or self of a living being as eternal and unchanging — is a form of pure awareness or witness-consciousness, the consciousness being the eternal unchanging self despite deities having countless identities. If deities can hold countless identities within an eternal conscious- continued on page 24
BY SHEER ZED
Everything is such, not such, both such and not such, and neither such and not such: this is the Buddha’s admonition. — The Mūlamadhyamakakārikā of Nāgārjuna Through the rainbowed prism of transformative magic, both Bud - dhism and Hinduism offer a cornucopia of narratives and teachings that reflect the fluidity of gender and, ultimately, genderlessness sur - rounding the ideas of illusory nature of “self” and “no-self.” In these profound and ancient traditions, the very idea of definitions, roles and fixed gender assignments evolve, dissolve and are rigorously chal - lenged in the kaleidoscopic realms of identity and sexuality. My fascination with this area of study stems from personal inter - ests. I experienced out of body phenomena as a child, which in some medical quarters signifies a possible symptom of depersonalisation resulting from traumatic episodes. This led me (whatever the idea of me may or may not be) to acquiring a small but important glimpse of the idea of no-self in the Buddhist concept of emptiness, which was still unknown to and unidentified for me. Two near death experienc - es, which occurred before these episodes, re-enforced my relationship with otherness. My integration of these past instances with personal reflective daily practice ultimately induced me to seek out more mean - ingful spiritual experiences, thereby cultivating my ongoing spiritual development. Walking the path, picking up the odd occasional spiritual bread- crumb here and there, and examining these inexplicable and seem- ingly random clues helped me progressively strengthen my Bhāvanā (“development” or “spiritual cultivation”). In later life these peculiar breadcrumbs intuitively moved me towards studying emptiness and the various incidents within both Buddhist and Hindu scripture that relate directly to individuals, deities and figures exhibiting forms of personal transformational magic. Here, I’ll discuss how these philos -
Three standing Buddhas at Wat San Pa Yang Luang, Lamphun, Thailand. Photo by Sheer Zed (2023)
PATHWAYS—Summer 26—23
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