ESOTERIC THOUGHT
Gender Fluidity... ...continued from page 25
suggests that the self is not a fixed entity, but rather a dynamic process shaped by the law of conditionality. Notably, the lack of inherent sta- bility in identity finds its most rigorous philosophical articulation in the Buddhist concept of emptiness. Nāgārjuna, a 3rd-century Indian philosopher and Mahāyāna Bud - dhist monk of the Madhyamaka school, presented a nuanced under - standing of Śūnyatā — emptiness, voidness, or vacuity. He postulated that all phenomena depend on conditions and causes to arise, meaning nothing exists independently. In his treatises, he argued that things do not possess an intrinsic essence; their existence is contingent upon various causes and contexts, leading to the conclusion that all things are empty of inherent nature. If all phenomena lack inherent essence, then so, too, do the categories we use to define ourselves, including gender and sexual identity. What appears fixed in conventional truth (the way things appear) reveals itself as equally contingent under ul - timate truth (an underlying reality all phenomena are empty). Just as objects arise only through conditions, identity emerges from cultur- al and social contexts rather than any intrinsic core. An androgynous cosmic being, then, becomes less a fantasy and more of a mirror re- flecting the fundamental insubstantiality of all constructed identities — including the “self” that claims to inhabit them. Moving from the abstract ontology of emptiness and genderless - ness to concrete textual interpretation, modern scholars have begun to question and interpret how these principles of non-substantiality were historically understood in relation to sexual diversity. In his 1993 article, “Homosexuality and Buddhism”, José Ignacio Cabezón, PhD, (from Homosexuality and World Religions, pg 81, by Arlene Swidler) the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Buddhism and Dalai Lama Professor Emeritus at University of California, Santa Barbara writes of one of the Jataka tales of early Indian Buddhism: The Buddha and Ānanda are depicted as two deer who ‘always went about together, ruminating and cuddling together, very happy, head to head, nozzle to nozzle, horn to horn.’ In another tale, they are two handsome young sons of Brahmin parents who refuse to marry so that they may remain with each other. While this interpretation is countered by the writings of Buddhag - hosa, a 5th-century Sinhalese Theravādin Buddhist commentator, highlighting the fact that both same-sex intimacy and transgenderism were condemned in early Indian Buddhism, it still shows that there are grey areas and blurred optics within the philosophy, and how the idea of non-self is comprehended by modern scholars and poets alike. John Giorno (1936-2019) was an American poet and performance artist who was associated with the Beat Poets and numerous artists, including William S. Burroughs, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Giorno was also a Buddhist practi - tioner and one of the earliest Western students of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly the Nyingma tradition. In the 1970s, Giorno’s teacher was Dudjom Rinpoche (1904-1987), a Tulku (a recognized, reincarnated spiritual leader) from the lineage of Terton Dudul Dorje (1615–1672). When Giorno was questioned in a 1974 interview about how Buddhism had affected his own sexuality he said, “I’ve become like a rose… it has to do with openness, surrendering to the space around you… making love is meditation. It’s surrendering… It seems to me gayness is just two people who are Buddhas… If you’re making love properly there’s no two guys… there is nothing there and it is blissful.” The Eternal Flux of Identity Ultimately, identity is not a stone fortress, but a river of light within a sublime continuum. Whether framed through the Buddhist or Hin - du lens of scripture, the core truth resonates the same throughout. The categories we clutch to — gender, species, the very “self” — are
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66—PATHWAYS—Summer 26
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