Maddie

I suppose then we should define terms. What deeper level do you think exists and why? And what about the videos seems superficial and why?

You should watch the youtube video that I posted, it speaks about this. Basically gender is a mental thing. If you look at cultures throughout history and around the world how they interpret gender varies greatly. Gender is an identity. Identities are of the mind. Sex is physiological.

I think cultivation made me asexual because I was doing Buddhist mindfulness meditation with an emphasis on observing craving and how that craving led to suffering.

You have been on this forum a long time and I didn't think you were being malicious. I could see how my old posts would be confusing in the light of current events which is one reason (amongst others) that I decided to just make a post about trans stuff to clear up any confusion and maybe answer questions about the topic.

Oh well fortunately after the early awkward phase most people don't realize I am trans in public so I get treated like any other woman. My family on the other hand for the most part has disowned me.

After meditating and realizing I was trans I had a bunch of repressed memories come back from when I was little. I showed tendencies back then and then I was forced to repressive them the point that I did not even consciously realize this for a long time. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by behaviors that I see socially exactly but one thing I have noticed is the loss of male privilege. I do find that the difference of how I'm treated as a woman versus a man is pretty different sometimes for sure.

I realized I kind of glossed over this part of what you said. Something really important to understand when it comes to transgender issues is the difference between the gender and sex. Sex is a little more straightforward and it's based on physiology and genitalia. Gender is actually a cultural and psychological identification of the mind. The important thing to realize is that gender and sex are not synonymous and that the reason people who identify as a different gender than their sex transition is so that they can align their sex more correctly with the gender that they identify with. Another common misconception and important point to realize is that it's not a conscious choice just in the same way that sexual preference is not a conscious choice.

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.

Yes I realize that a lot of this is very confusing, which is why I decided to make a post like this. Two important terms are "cis" and "trans". Cis is the Latin word for "same" while trans is the Latin word for "across". The transatlantic cable goes across the Atlantic ocean. So a cis-gendered person is one that identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth, which is by far the majority. So a cis-man physiologically can not become pregnant. A cis-woman can not have prostate cancer. A pre-op (one that has had no gender affirming surgeries) trans-man can become pregnant since they were born with a vagina, uterus, and ovaries. A pre-op trans-woman can get prostate cancer. Also trans people like anyone else can be gay and straight. A trans-woman fore example can be attracted to either men, or women, or both or neither just like a cis-woman can. I hope this helps answer your question and helps to clarify some of the confusion you have on this rather confusing topic. If you have any additional questions please feel free to ask.

omg lol

I mean my theory has something to do with Germany in the 1930's and 1940's type of asshole :-(

I guess I was an asshole in a past life cause I can't think of anything I did this time around lol.

I did. I drew a tarot card and got the "wheel of fortune" aka the karma card lol. So thus I Zhunti

It is said to be one of the most powerful practices to change one's karama and fortune. I have never had as strong reactions to any mantra as this one. That can make it uncomfortable though. https://www.meditationexpert.com/meditation-techniques/m_zhunti_mantra_cultivation_technique.htm

hahaha I was actually doing that one because I really didn't want to do Zhunti again but it just wasn't doing the trick. I reflected on how anytime something good financially had happened to me I had been doing a lot of Zhunti. So back it is again.

we have not been getting enough patients so we are probably going to close soon :-(

I'm back to another Zhunti mantra experiment out of desperation to save my business. Let's see how this goes.

I never new that about Chopin, interesting. As a Buddhist my take on it was quite different though.

If becoming sex obsessed is your definition of "working" then yeah I guess lol.

Dr. Yang with YMAA talks about it a little bit.

I suppose the real question is, did Jesus actually say this or since Matthew was written decades after Jesus' death, is it something the author(s) of Matthew wrote for a specific reason? Maybe to explain why the temple was destroyed by the Romans after Jesus had originally promised to come back and establish a kingdom?

What kind of meditation are you doing?