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TGBUDDHIST.NET: "What was the Buddha’s stance on transsexuals, transitioning and 'changing your sex.'”

BHANTE RAHULA BASNAGODA, PhD: "The Vinaya Pitaka, the ancient Buddhist texts that define the rules for Buddhist monks and nuns, record two incidences of sex change that a monk and a nun had gone through. A group of monks and nuns bring the two incidences to the Buddha’s notice. The Buddha accepts their changed status. He allows the former male disciple who became a female to live with female disciples, and the former female disciple to live with males.

These episodes indicate the Buddha’s open-mindedness toward transsexual persons. He accepted their bodily changes even though some in his society attributed such changes to the influence of bad Karmas. Some of the sections in the Vinaya Pitaka are obviously later additions, which do not represent the Buddha’s true voice. There is every reason to believe that the Buddha accepted all kinds of people irrespective of any differences they had undergone.

The Buddha’s statement that one becomes a noble person not by birth but by one’s behavior confirms this conclusion. “Birth” means wealth, social status, and physical appearance including the gender of a particular person. Change of a certain person’s gender has no connection to the evaluation of that person. Only wholesome behavior—wholesome words, actions, and thoughts—makes a person noble. "

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Born in Sri Lanka, Bhikkhu Basnagoda Rahula became, during his childhood, a novice monk at Attanagalla Royal Temple in his native country. After receiving Higher Ordination and a bachelor's degree in Buddhist philosophy, he emigrated to the United States in 1990.

Bhikkhu Rahula earned his M.A. in literature from University of Houston-Clear Lake and his Ph.D. in English from Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Currently he serves the congregation of the Houston Buddhist Vihara and teaches English at the University of Houston-Downtown.

[eratoclio]

Hello,

Thank you for this informative article.

I am interested in the exact citation/location within the Vinaya Pitaka in which this record is located. I would like to check it out for myself.


Thank you,
eratoclio

[eratoclio]

This is a very interesting article titled: "Male Homosexuality and Transgenderism in the Thai Buddhist Tradition," by Peter A. Jackson:

Click Here

I would like to know peoples' reactions to it.

Thanks.

[Loki]

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