Robina’s Blog

7 April, 2022

When I attended my first teachings from Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, I’d been through ten years of intense political activity, the latest iteration being radical feminism. It was a powerful identification.

So it was a revelation to hear that my mind, my consciousness, was not innately female – or male, or even human for that matter – and that I’d been any number of these shapes in past lives. 

What finally defined my mind, the lamas told me, was its potential for wisdom and goodness. 

We have a body and we have a mind. It’s clear that the body, our physical shape, is pretty superficial. But look at how we totally identify ourselves in terms of our body. We make the body the boss, as Lama Yeshe says.

Buddha’s expertise is the mind, and how, based on what goes on in our mind, we act with our body and speech and thus program our mind – or leave seeds in our mind – and, quite literally, produce our future self: human, animal, whatever. 

When we begin to take on board this view of karma, this natural law of cause and effect such that whatever we think and do and say just naturally produces who we become, we realize that there’s no one to blame – His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls karma “self-creation.”

Suffering and happiness occur, there’s no doubt, but taking this approach loosens the grip of ego, the view of the innocent victim. Yes, indeed, I have suffered as a result of being female. Karma doesn’t contradict that; it reinforces it. But it also explained why. I’d created my own reality. This includes happiness, too – but we forget that.

Of course, male, female, black, white, nonbinary, whatever form we take, have a huge relative reality. Knowing they’re not our ultimate nature doesn’t mean we dismiss them. They’re just karmic packages, but nevertheless there’s meaning to them. There’s meaning to being male. There’s meaning to being female. There’s meaning in being black or gay. There’s learning in it. 

In Buddhist cultures over the centuries, most examples are male. So if you’ve struggled as a female, you’ve been seen as nothing as a female, you’ve been abused as a female and you think you’re not worthy as a female it’s very empowering to see female examples whom we can respect. It gives us courage: “Wow, I can do it, too.” 

First we need to come to terms with who we are and that we created the cause to have that form. Then we can own it, fully becoming who we are. Being confident about our true nature allows us to wear those forms lightly. And then we can use them for the benefit of others, we can become examples for others.