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Hello I thought I would make a thread like this primarily because I don't think there has ever been one like this on TDB since its beginning. So yes I am a transgendered woman (assigned male at birth, now female). You may have known me on here previously as dmattwads. Understandably there is some confusion on here when people see old posts of mine talking about male cultivation practices. I realize that the topic of transgenderism is very poorly understood by the general public and so I decided to make a Q&A post. I will NOT however answer super personal questions about my body so its not an AMA (ask me anything). I will though be happy to answer well intentioned questions about what it means to be transgendered because there may be those out there that are questioning for themselves, know someone that is transgendered, or just want to understand this topic better. Maddie :-)

Sunrise at Rainbow Point in Bryce Canyon with my son. He'd never seen anything of it prior. Conditions were absolute perfection. North Campground still open year round. As we were driving up into the snowline in the sleet he turned and said... "well now I know where the other half of my heart has been waiting for me this life..."

Psychedelics and some legalized drugs change your internal state via biochemistry. Conversely, meditation involves directly changing one's internal state, thus causing biochemical changes in the body. Drugs are worthless in cultivation. It is similar to taking a hammer, hitting yourself in the head, and then claiming to achieve a "trance," "samadhi," or "advanced" state of meditation. While some people claim there are many benefits, like reducing stress, tension, and sporadic thoughts, many people take it as a medical prescription for certain ailments. This is only partly true. You have to realize that a multi-billion dollar business is behind this, with strong lobby funding and "positive" research. I am pretty sure cannabis is doing some permanent damage to the human brain if you take it consistently over a period of time. Now back to the change of the state of mind, "helping in meditation", or any other spiritual claim of cannabis (THC), Ayahuasca and just about any other psychedelic. They are not even 1/1000 as potent as you can get through proper training and cultivation. If only people would train properly instead of searching for cheat codes and faster/easier ways to progress. Human potential is far beyond that. But how would you know it if your Guru smokes cigars, drinks whiskey, sits with murky eyes and a massive pot belly, endlessly talking nonsense about spiritual cultivaiton?

We each experience reality from the center of our own awareness and that experience always seemingly alights in awareness as whole and complete with no holes or ommissions. Yet this does not imply that we experience the all of reality... just that our experience is whole and full for us. My gal is navigating a process by which one of her eyes has ceased to function accurately at all. She's nearly blind in one eye. The lense has become distorted and dimpled and so refracts light in myriad directions, not just a single direction (which is readily corrected for by glasses/lenses). She is amazed when looking at the same picture with each eye seperately and how vastly different they appear given how the signals are received by the conditioned perceptual system and it trying to rectify imaging through the usual process. The reality for her is that when it's not reconcilable for both eyes to contribute to a picture of the world that reconciles as complete, her brain simply shuts down the input from one eye and ignores it utterly, so as to compensate for the experience of wholeness. Yet her experience of seeing is not diminished in her experiential process at all. It still seems complete and whole, (unless she closes the dominant eye and forces the subbed eye into operation). We learned about this with our son when he was in 4th grade and one of his teachers realized his eyes were not tracking accurately. Through working with an optometrist and a set of exercises, we were able to aid him in developing more accuracy which allowed him to read and process more readily... but in the process of finding out where his alterations of perception lay... there were clear indicators of when his brain was simply shutting off input entirely from one eye, depending on conditions and fatigue, etc. It was utterly fascinating to witness first hand. And this is perhaps why Naive Realism is still so rampant among humans to this day, even though it's been summarily dismissed since the age of the Stoics. It is a compelling notion that our experience of life is whole, complete and accurate, and it's also very comforting to assume we see the world as it is, entirely accurately when it's all actually interpretation, storytelling, projective and assumption/conditioning based. At this point much of the cultivation process seems like a dance with the process of bringing awareness to the process of the Storyteller who crafts elaborate and detailed stories about the nature of reality, from the few parcels of signals that we receive from our perceptual process. It's quite disconcerting (or downright horrifying) to come face to face with the aspects of our assumptions about perception and the universe and realize they are wholly innacurate illusions. At this point for me, the realm of absolute certainty is the realm of the arrogance of ignorance. And it's entirely understandable that so many folks retreat from such processes of awakening when they get glimpses through the veil, it's quite disorienting and uncomfortable and so rather than pursue the path of truth, they dig back in deeply to the comfort of Naive Realim and the absolute certainty of former interpretation versus exploring what is... edit to add: Adyashanti has two statements that resonate on this point for me: "Most of us want to feel better, we don't actually want to see that we're misperceiving things. But that's the core of spirituality. And the only way to really wake up is to realize that the way you perceive yourself is not true." Adyashanti " Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretence. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true." Adyashanti

~~~ admin comment ~~~ I banned Yae. Standard op procedure is stepwise warning/s, suspension/s, etc before ban. I took exception in this case: straight to perma-ban. He’s not right for this community. - Trunk p.s. Thank you to member/s for reporting offending post/s. ~~~ admin out ~~~

I worked very hard and managed to become an uncommon schmuck.

I suspect what folks mean by enlightenment is what to me reflects our natural essence devoid of overlays, illusion, interpretation, assumption and projection. Our true nature. Impossible to know what folks really imply by the concept without being in their mind with them so in the realm of words it's all interpretive and intuiting on the part of the listener/reader. It seems equally impossible to know whether or not a lineage or any member of it is enlightened either; and when we claim another is enlightened or not, we present ourself as a qualified observer and arbiter capable of assessing such. I am grateful for each of my teachers, both the great and the janky. They all have provided grist for the mill of my process. As for transmission. Nature on the whole is the transmitter od the All in All. No thing is a seperate function. Organisms comprise the environment. It all arises tzujan. It is all 'of a thing'.

My ego wants to kick some people in the nards now and then, but I usually tell my ego "no ego lets not do that, if you're good when we get home I'll give you a cookie :-)" and then my ego is like "I really wanted to kick that person in the nards, but oh boy I do like cookies" 🍪🤤🩷

When we think of both dream and supposed waking life, we think they are completely different. However they are different in stability but in actuality they are quite similar. I think analysing dream reality and uncovering it's rules helps us better understand waking reality. Those could say that waking reality is also dream reality just more stable. When we dream our minds projects a reality. Our 5 senses still work, we have a dream body. In most cases when we dream we treat the dream as real and experience suffering due to attachment as similar in waking reality. What's interesting is within a dream, when we come to the realisation we are just dreaming and all experience is unreal/illusion, our attachment to our situation is greatly reduced including our suffering. Looking into Dzogchen togal recently I couldn't help but question the current waking reality we exist in. Maybe just like in a dream, our bodies and dream is just a projection, in waking reality maybe it is no different. We are experiencing projections of our own mind, our body and senses are also projections. Maybe reality like a dream will have less of a hold on us if we start to believe it might not be as real as it seems.

I'll let you judge for yourself. On the right was the last picture I took of myself as a guy before I started transitioning. On the left is a picture I took a couple weeks ago.

@Salvijus Eh....I think it was courageous of Maddie to start this thread, and I´m glad it gave us the chance to ask questions and voice opinions about this sometimes divisive topic. It´s gone better than I would of predicted. I think it´s one thing to comment on the science, politics, or societal implications of transgenderism; and another thing entirely to weigh in on somebody else´s personal choices. Maddie says she´s happier now that she has transitioned and I see no reason not to believe her. The way I see it, personal experience always trumps (pun very much not intended) abstract spiritual theory about chi or ghosts or Buddhist doctrine. Maddie is happy, or at least happier, and I am happy for her. What more is there to say?

which bit of wanting a penis, a beard , a low voice and no boobs led you to this conclusion?

I think this thread has been productive so far. There is a lot of misunderstanding about being trans as well as LGBTQ+ issues as well. Education is the answer! :-)

I do not know why a minority of people does not feel at home in their bodies, but it is a deep-rooted feeling. And not, what is often thought, a psychological or psychiatric phenomena. Although I guess that currently with all the eyes that are on the alphabet people, some nutty people have gathered under that flag that are mislead ( or worse, misusing it). I would also not rule out that currently some youngsters walk that path just because they can. But at its core these people exist and are now in a same sort of "societal transition-time" as I have seen gays and lesbians go through. Not being pushed into shame and unfit for society, but simply being accepted for having a different sexual attraction then the majority, not a psychiatric condition, no need to "cure" with conversion therapy, just accept us, as we are. I think that there are differences in the fleshbody to be found, but not yet looked for. looking at my own body as a young woman: hands and feet to big ( those feet have never fitted in girl or ladies shoes) too much musclemass ( and a joy to train) brain too analytical, all very unladylike and never have wanted to be that either. ( also hormone levels not fitting into the accepted levels for a female, allergic reaction to estrogens) One day medical people will find physical differences between cis and trans people and as such, when you do want to make groups I guess we will fit in much better with intersex people. here in western society we've tended to make intersex people confirm to being male or female as babies. So as to let them fit in with society. So it is society that cuts humans in 2 different halves and you're not allowed to be different from the norm. But older societies could not do that and have different ways of looking at and integrating ( or not) people diverging from the norm. the first part of my life I lived/masked as a boy/young man. During high-school that was problematic, but after that I became a mechanic and found the same sense of friendship and camaraderie I had with boys when still a child. Oh, they all knew I was a woman, but I was accepted as one of the guys, doing the same chores, and having the same joys. the second part I have tried to live as a woman, it was not successful and it has made me unhappy, the best choice i have ever made was divorce after the kid was of age. That kid interestingly, much later told me: mom, when I was a kid you really were more of a dad then a mom. I never had easy contact with girls, their interests were not mine and it was only deep into my forties that friendships with women developed. I clearly remember the moment when a female friend had to have surgery because of a very high risk on hereditary breast-cancer, a double mastectomy, she told me it hurt her so much as her breasts were part of her female identity just like with all women. I never told her, but at that moment i found myself thinking. Having no breasts would make me happy. Now during the third and last part of my life I am just human, the whole idea of man or woman, one way or the other, has left me. ----- Obviously this whole subject has had my interest for a very long time, I know several trans-people that you would not be able to spot, as they blend so well in the picture we expect with a certain gender. I guess most of us are just trying to blend in were we feel we belong and the portrayal of trans-people as pink and rainbowy dressed up people is cringy to me. there is grumbling about the prides too, too much rainbows and things. but I guess in essence what a pride is...the reversal of shame, I should be ashamed I do not fit in societal norms of what a girl should be, just as back in the days, gays should be ashamed to be attracted to a male, "that's unnatural" I will never forget the teacher that left my primary school because he was a homosexual. Although it was never said out loud by the grownups, all the kids were blabbing about it. Looking back, he was a very feminine man for sure. That was in the sixties lets not repeat such things.

Yin/Yang indeed lol. There have actually been a number of psychological changes that have occurred since I began transitioning. When I began my medical transition I was put on a combination of testosterone blockers and estrogen pills. This completely changed my body chemistry from male to female. This had a dramatic effect on my emotional life and perceptions. For one thing I cry much easier. Before as a man I would rarely cry, maybe once every few years. It wasn't that I was not trying to, it just didn't happen. Now I cry easily several times a week, and often for not obvious reason. This was one of the first changes I noticed. My sense of smell has become more sensitive as well. While many years of cultivation has made me sexually indifferent I perceive men differently than I used to. I used to be completely indifferent to a man's appearance aside from the obvious of realizing a well groomed in shape man was better looking than an unwashed bum (no offense Dao Bums). Now I find attractive men catching my eye in a way that they had not before. I am still not sexually attracted to them (nor am I to women) but I find them more aesthetically pleasing. Now here's one that I don't care for but you take the bad with the good. I have lost significant amounts of muscle strength, especially upper body strength. When I was in college I did jujitsu and did not find sparing with men to be difficult on a strength level, but now I am significantly overpowered when sparring with men. I guess the plus side is this forces me to rely on technique more, which is how its supposed to be in jujitsu lol. Those are a few of the more obvious changes that I was able to think of off the top of my head.

I'm more interested in seeing the advanced students rather than the master. They show if the system is learnable. Same with the martial arts, it's not the sensei you'll become, if you're diligent, it's the senior students under them. Are they talented, are they balanced? Or in the case of this thread, do they have similar 'powers'? The masters have given their whole life to the system, huge sacrifice. Top students give a few hours a day, everyday for decades.

Misunderstandings of the dzogchen and nondual teachings are often related to conflating the characteristics of the natural state with the characteristics of the practitioner. The natural state has no likes or dislikes but people do. We can approach wisdom in our lives but as long as we have a mind and body we are living in samsara and collecting karma and we will have likes and dislikes. I think this quote is potentially misleading, at least in my limited experience and understanding. In receiving and studying dzogchen teachings, I've never encountered the advice to 'reject the distinction between good and bad in the sphere of my own mind' [sic]. Furthermore, we don't generally deal with thoughts in one way and actions in another. What the teachings are saying to me is that distinctions between good and bad exist in the mind and only in the mind. Such distinctions do not exist in the nature of mind which is free of all partiality. We cannot free ourselves of such distinctions through rejection or denial. As practitioners, we are naturally subject to partiality and we need to be honest with ourselves about that. On the dzogchen path, nothing is rejected and all experiences are taken onto the path. When we get a taste of the nature of mind through our practice we can get a sense of what it is like to be free of judgements and distinctions but that is not our ongoing condition with very rare exceptions. To the extent that we are able to allow the activity and reactivity of the mind to liberate spontaneously, we create no karmic traces and experience no distinction between good and bad. For most of us, this is not a continuous flow of self-liberation so we need to deal with the good, the bad, and the ugly in one way or another. With regards to engaging in harmful or negative actions due to a misinterpretation of these teachings it is said that the dzogchen view should be as boundless as the sky and actions should be as fine as tsampa. This means in the state of the enlightened view (that is, the nature of mind) there is no distinction between good and bad but in the actions there is only the direct manifestation of enlightened activity defined and informed by the four immeasurables - joy, compassion, unconditional love, and equanimity.

That´s good to know -- thanks! Part of the trouble with this kind of law is that people aren´t clear about where the boundaries are and will likely self-censor to keep themselves safe. Even if nobody actually goes to prison, the threat of legal action throws a pall over free speech. J. K. Rowling´s celebrity may be protective; the authorities know that imprisoning her would cause a huge stir. I suspect ordinary people will be more vulnerable. (Oops -- I´m current eventing again. @steve Just a heads up in case you feel this discussion should be moved.)

I find turning my thoughts from what I don't want to what I do want shifts the gear from becoming drained to feeling wholesome. It's not always as easy as said, but a good place to start

... everyone.

@Taomeow your last post brought to mind that growing up in England in the 1950's (yes I really am that old) the fruit and vegetables we could buy were all seasonal. You could only get strawberries, cherries, bananas and so on at certain times. Also the vegetables were very varied and mostly locally produced. They varied in size, shape and quality. There was still some rationing from the war and even oranges were a rarity (we had bottles of condensed orange juice). But it was quite natural and unaffected by sprays of chemicals and wotnot. We always hated having salad for school dinners because the lettuce invariably had bugs in it - and we got the large outer leaves which tasted bitter. This was all made worse by the fact that I had spent some of my childhood in the USA (North Carolina and Cali.) and could remember all the tomatoes and oranges. Anyway later, particularly in the 80's and 90's they invented large supermarket chains (replacing the green grocers and grocers I was used to) and they increasingly supplied carrots, tomatoes, apples and so on which were uniform and identical. I don't think taste was the priority just appearance. In fact I think they prioritised blandness When I started to visit Portugal about 20 years ago it was a revelation because all the food was locally sourced - and I experienced again the strange sight of oddly shaped carrots and turnips. But the taste was wonderful. I rediscovered peaches and plums which had actual taste - in the case of ripe peaches and melons so strong and juicy it was beyond imagination. I think the Dao likes variety as per the 10,000 things - if I may be so bold as to attribute like and dislike to the way. I think that although we were once more the same as you say - the layers of difference we have accumulated over the years - the actions, interactions, combinations and permutations might actually be the point of it all. So when we bite the apple we don't know if it is going to be joy or disappointment. We can then rejoice in the changes.

We were supposed to be equal. I remember a taoist source (but forget which) that asserted "people of old" were much more similar to each other than they are today. (Keep in mind that the source's "today" was taking place some 2000 years earlier than our "today.") The analogy was given -- if you plant some seeds (forget which, let's say cabbage), under normal conditions all of them will have the same soil to germinate in, the same amount of it to spread out in, access to equal amounts of sunlight, water, and care. After a while, they will all sprout on the same day, grow at the same rate, have the same level of health and resilience, look pretty much the same, mature at the same time, flower and bear fruit together (unless harvested, in which case they will all taste the same), and so on. But if different parts of your plot are uneven in quality, you will find that you plant some of the same seeds in fertile black soil, some on rocky terrain, some on a sandy patch in full sun, some on a muddy one in the shade of large trees, and so on. Try planting some seeds so close to each other that they have to compete for space. Then try watering some but not others, overwatering still others, pulling weeds around some but not others, and so on. You will soon see vastly different plants that do not germinate or grow simultaneously, don't mature in unison, some will shoot up and others will wilt, some will be healthy and some, sickly, the development of some will be stunted while their peers will thrive, and so on. The source asserted humans are only very different from each other for exactly the same reasons. I'd add, thousands of reasons, thousands of factors. Sometimes it's blatant -- you can tell how someone came to be the way they came to be -- but more often it's impossible to know. Which nutrients were missing from that particular patch of the soil? Which poisons present? Who knows...

long ago I read a piece of research, most research into behavioral problems looks into riskfactors, this one looked into protective factors. Envision a bad neighborhood were the majority of the girls end up prostituting themselves and the boys going criminal. But some of the children manage to free themselves of their background, now what enabled them to do so? 30 years later the answer was clear, those kids that grew up to live outside the dangerous and constrictive neighborhood they grew up in, who had jobs, stable relationship. these kids had one factor in common. In their childhood and youth there was 1 person that genuinely cared for them, a person they could go to when they had no other place to go. Could be a grandparent or an uncle/aunt. Or a neighbor, a former teacher. The relationship to the child did not matter, as long as they were genuinely interested and were listening to the subjects lifestories. to be sure, those kids did not grow up to be absolute success stories whit good jobs, lotsa money etc. But the managed to get into normal society. and that is the important step to be judged "good" by your companions. They broke the inter-generational component that keeps people in the same rut as their (grand)parents walked. The only thing needed to realize that was one caring person. one person can make the change between hopeless and hope, between being criminal or earning wages. Between "bad" and "good" I've read mountains of research, but this one stood out. Seeing all the horrible things that happen, torture, rape, murder. The razing to the ground of villages and cities, the fleeing people, the mutilated persons as a result of this. It's too horrible to even think of, yet people , right now, live under circumstance, not knowing whether they, or their beloved will live or be whole of body the next hour. I do wonder yes, its bad and it can make me anxious, and angry and grateful it's not were I live. But all these people who are part of it. are they all bad? Should I judge them harshly? I do judge, something in me wants them all locked up for life, with the key thrown away, but deep down something says: do not judge them, for what behavior would you have done when in that situation. What chances did they have without one trusted person, growing up in a neighborhood full of hate. with deep inter-generational trauma gnawing at their sanity

Intrude all you like, Apech. I get what you´re saying, I do. You have a point as does Old3Bob and now silent thunder. And yet something in me continues to believe it´s also true that we are all equal. If I´m not entirely cuckoo, we´re in the realm of paradox and contradiction, a place beyond logical understanding. Might a better philosopher than I be able to untangle this mess, squaring our arguments against each other so that both might stand in their appropriate places? I like to think so. In case anyone is interested in my personal process, I´ll say that I came to my thoughts about universal equality out of deep personal need. I´m someone who judges, a lot. I judge myself and, like all self-judgers, I judge others. All of this judging is uncomfortable and sometimes painful. So a few days ago I was writing in my journal and finally came upon the idea of giving it all up. I decided that I would no longer consider myself inferior or superior to anybody else. (Which is not to say that I´m unaware of my strengths and weaknesses; I won´t be auditioning for American Idol anytime soon.) Of course that is easier said than done, but just coming up with the plan felt like an act of self-compassion, like a relief. I find my belief psychologically useful. If others find it philosophically dubious, I´ll just have to be OK with that.

If you look at the number of spiritual practitioners in the history of our world and the number of verified enlightened human beings, living or "dead," I think it is equally true to say "the probability of attaining enlightenment WITH the help of an enlightened master is near zero." This might belong in the Unpopular Opinions threads but it seems relevant here - Enlightenment does not exist outside of the mind. It is a wonderful and exciting idea that is easy to conceptualize. It can be great for motivation, for finding security, and for defining our personal metaphysics. There are many of us who have experiences of freedom, clarity, and opening of the heart/mind to varying degrees, and these experiences can be unbelievably profound and transformative, but it is the mind that creates and grasps at a condition or ideal of human or spiritual perfection. While we may point to this or that person, historical or living, and claim they are evidence of our idea of enlightenment, no one can know the level of attainment, or lack thereof, for anyone other than themselves. I don't exclude the possibility that a condition, or the unconditioned, exists that may align with how some of us conceptualize "enlightenment" but I question how useful it is to objectify and grasp at such an idea as an objective or support. In the Bön dzogchen teachings, enlightenment is considered a dissolution of body, speech, and mind into the 5 elemental lights. How useful is it for me to focus on dissolving into light? So far for me, not very. While it is good to have some idea of the big picture relating to my spiritual practice, I find it far more supportive to look at my own personal condition and how that is affected by my choices and practices on a day to day basis. Whatever "enlightenment" may be, I do not believe that anyone or any tradition has the key, has cheat codes, or a monopoly anymore than I believe that any one of the ~ 3,000 religions of the world have had the one precise and correct concept of "god" and how to approach and commune with Her. Consequently, while teachers, teachings, and transmissions may be helpful for many, they are not exclusive, only supportive. If we choose to follow a particular tradition, I do think a personal relationship with someone experienced in the paradigm and methods is better than trying to figure it out on our own through books. We each need to find our own path in this life and I think it is useful to keep an open mind and heart and to begin to trust in the subtle inner knowledge that only comes to light when we are still, quiet, and open enough.

Fair enough. I once got an energy reading from african shaman Malidoma Some. He threw some cowry shells on my behalf and analyzed how they landed. The upshot was that I had a spirit hanging around me and needed to do a ritual that involved climbing a mountain (well, large hill really), making a circle of ash and then talking to the spirit. Something like that. It was a long time ago and my memory is hazy. Anyway, like a doofus I decided to talk to the spirit before going to bed that night without bothering about the mountain or the ash. In the middle of the night, my stereo turned on full blast all by itself. Very spooky.

No need to wish! Sitting in open awareness and allowing the mind to become still is all that is required. Most people can begin to have glimpses of resting in awareness in a week or so, all it takes is your sincere wish to end suffering, or understand the nature of mind. This is a nice primer on what you are trying to accomplish and how to start by a lovely, lovely being: https://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-meditate-dzogchen-ponlop-rinpoche-on-mahamudra/

Oh I do that too. Shall we play a bit of Where's Waldo? or in this case mischievous Maddie.

I find myself in need of an attitude adjustment. It no longer works for me to think of people as good or bad. For sure there are people who are better than others at particular tasks. Some of us are stronger or smarter or more beautiful than our peers. But I´m not sure that any of that makes anybody better, more worthy of drawing breath. What if everybody is equal? What if I stopped seeking praise or fearing judgment? Just stopped. This morning I´m wondering how my life would change if I just dropped this whole business of ranking the value of people (including, most especially, myself) altogether.

Judith Butler is the name I associate with your question. It might be, that there has been someone before, who proposed that conceptual change and also the linguistic turn, but she made the most noise. So it seems to rely on the concept of a performative model of gender, e.g. it relies on language theory (‚performative‘), which originated in the wake of Austin, Searle etc. An act of speaking is conceptually separated into several sub acts, where one of them is ‚illocutionary‘, e.g. creates a reality of itself through speaking, as empirical sense data is frowned upon as a reliable source for observation, language instead is used as the source. Or so I understood it.

To me it means just being myself and not having to act like a man :-)

I was listening to Nonduality by David Loy and this interesting passage from the Zhuangzi popped out:

Thought I would share another thought I have. To me what is interesting/baffling about the transgender issue is the strong reactions and feelings it brings out in people. I don't really understand it.

I agree that the Buddha taught that identification with any of the aggregates led to suffering and yes I did think about this as I fought this. It's important to remember that the letting go process is a process and we can't consciously choose to let go of suffering because there's isn't a self to do the letting go. That being the case sometimes we have to realize where we are in the present and try to make the best of our situation. I tried to let go of this identification but apparently there was too much clinging and the suffering was too much. It's important to remember that we let go by knowing the mind, not through controlling it. Therefore I continue the process of mindfulness but am suffering significantly less in the mean time.

I think before things get to sidetracked and go down the rabbit hole of conspiracy or whatever else I want to redirect to what the actual issue is. A transgender person is born with a brain that is one gender and a body that is another sex. This isn't just speculation MRI scans show that the brain is actually different in transgender people. That being the case what doctors and psychologists say is the best and the only solution to what is called gender dysphoria is to transition one's body. I can attest that this is correct due to my personal experience. I tried to fight it over a long time by working on my mind and that did not work in fact it made my anxiety and depression much worse. Almost as soon as I acknowledged that I was transgendered and began hormone therapy and came out to live as I truly am this anxiety and depression ended immediately and I'm a much happier person in spite of all of the friction I get from society and my family. This is why people transition.

I've gotten some fantastic results, can't complain. People in my life have made comments that I look like I'm in my early twenties(I'm turning 30 in a few days). I've had hair regrowth, wirnkles disappearing, organ function restored where I previously had lab work showing abnormal enzymes and biomarkers indicating disease. No, I'm not a Xian but the results have far surpassed any Taiji or qigong I've learnt in the past. And I am not a southern school Disciple but I have learnt the first method of the southern void school. I primarily practice the ancient northern method along with the organ sets from YXP and a little sitting meditation as well.

I tried the changing my mind route first. I fought and fought these thoughts and feelings and spent years trying to "meditate the trans away". What I found was that the more I tried this the worse things got and then that is when I had the epiphany that I mentioned previously about meditation being about knowing the mind as opposed to controlling it. When I let go of trying to control I had peace of mind.

I think the reason the topic of transgenderism brings out so many feelings in people is because it gets into the question of "what am I actually" which is relevant to everyone.

I get the impression that half of the problem is people getting their categorisation systems challenged and not being able to work that through. We've tended to think in simple binaries which suit majority experience but don't adequately describe the whole data set at a certain level of detail. I don't think about sex or gender much unless I'm forced to (working in Higher Ed makes it inevitable sometimes). Personally, I prefer an analogue model: sex and gender as a couple of sliders that can be at any point along a range and can change over time.

I so rarely find myself vibing with any of your opinions on social issues, but reading the post above I feel like sitting next to you on a park bench and being old foggies together. Lets get Apech. I´ll buy birdseed to feed the pigeons. (To be honest, I enjoy sexually themed shows. I liked Transparent. Back in the day, my best friend used to throw weekly Queer as Folk parties; we´d all huddle around the TV, eager to watch a sexy soap featuring gays like us. That was fun. But I do wonder if as a culture we´re overdoing the identity thing; are we a bit too quick to put ourselves and others into various ideologically bogged-down boxes? Let´s have (consensual, ethical) sex with who we want to have sex with. Let´s dress up in gowns or jeans or leather panties. Whatever. But do we have to make such a big deal about the name we give ourselves? Maybe our labels aren´t so important.)

Respect for reaching out Maddie and offering to enlighten folks, I hope those who will benefit most will be receptive. My boss and dear friend of 20 years started her transition 2 years ago in her mid 50's. Seeing her unfold into her whole self has been such a gift and awakening for me to witness. We're blessed to work in an industry that is more aware than most so it's been a blessing for her. Peace!

I second that my friend.

Ignorance is in the mind, enlightenment is also in the mind. The Self was, is, and will forever be free.

I don't think it means this. Any more than we can recall the past with 100% accuracy. If you're speaking of predicting the future, there is no future. It is now. We're watching it unfold now. This is what enlightenment offers. You become infused with a greater essence; it seems that it is infused from elsewhere, but it isn't. It's infused from the god-mind inside you. We become the god-mind, there is the enlightenment. There is no need to refer to websites any longer, your information is directly from the source. The god-mind only needs to be open to the answers to receive them. It does appear that time, our lives, are stretched out like a Slinky. In reality, time and space are the very same thing, and time and space is how our god-mind expresses itself. It's not really stretched out. Both metaphysical reading (metaphysics = the true dynamics that are shared by all viable religions) and having a light understanding of quantum physics, together, will explain the disparity between what appears to be true (slinky time and distant space), and the real Original Intent., The metaphysics are not found within a religious structure.) We ARE time and space.

I am a little mercurial but I do appreciate your ideas. I think at one time I would easily agreed with you - but maybe it’s my age but now I am quite conscious of the bad in the world (not just extremes but the general degeneration of order) and have found increasingly that battling against it is important for us.

I assume if you searched her posts you'd find she was sending curses left and right. Odds are they're a nasty ignorant person looking for attention. That kind of threat only comes from an insecure immature person. Studying a real art means discipline and maturity. In other words imo, you have nothing to worry about.

Mine. and if you want to be included it will cost you plenty.