Maddie

I was about to say and then forgot I think the "pregnant" thing is actually more of a GOP strawman than a real issues trans people are actually concerned with. It's important to remember that with the far right loosing their minds over the trans issue, that there are a lot of strawmen out there right now.

Liking who you like does not make you transphobic, people are allowed to have preferences :-).

Of course not. Most of Buddhism deals with the subconscious.

I have been doing Zhunti consistently for a week this time around. Interestingly I have not experienced the usual side effects so far.

true. I suppose from a Buddhist point of view it challenges the notion of the self which according to the Buddha is one of the things that we cling to the strongest.

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.

Here's another perspective to consider when it comes to hormones and surgery. I mean obviously I want my physical body to match up with my gender for my own peace of mind, but there's also practical safety issues as well. I live in Texas it's a very religious and conservative state and I don't really have any problems because thanks to hormones and such I basically look like any other woman. On the other hand however if I looked like some kind of in between anomaly there's actually people who would be inclined to potentially hurt me. So aside from the psychological benefits I get from causing my body to match my gender there's also practical and safety issues.

With the recent topic being about being responsible in vetting trans people before transitioning I absolutely think that kids should see a therapist and a doctor to make sure that it's a legitimate thing. I'm pretty sure it's a good idea for adults as well. I will say that since I began transitioning (although I can't say for sure) I feel like I have come across people who don't understand what it means to be trans and are transitioning any way. What I mean by this is I feel like to some people it's a fetish and the reason I say this is because they never talk about being trans without it being in a completely hypersexual context. And it causes me to think that there's a small percentage of people that basically just want to live a sexual fantasy but they don't actually identify as a different gender. Granted I'm not a mental health expert but if you spend time at the trans community I have a feeling you would know what I'm talking about. I've even had a couple of these ask me when I say that I am asexual, "then what's the point of transitioning if you're not interested in sex?" Yes I have a literally been asked to this by so-called trans people and it leads me to think that it's just a fetish for them. This is why I think a responsible vetting process is vital before people transition.

I'm actually an acupuncturist LOL. We treat people according to pattern differentiation.

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.

In regards to the topic of transgender children I thought this video might be interesting. I'm in Texas btw.

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.

No chromosomes stay the same.

Absolutely

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 think I understand what you're trying to say, its just that when one goes to a therapist or a doctor for these kinds of issues the consensus is, is that is harmful to try to change the mind, and that the best course of action is to transition (aka change the body)

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.

This is interesting because for several years after I started meditating and these thoughts and feelings started to come up I thought something was both wrong with me and meditation so I fought it, and I fought it hard. Some of the exact same points that other people in this chat have brought up were thought by me, such as why would the outward expression of my body even matter. Can't I just be "spiritual" enough so that its irrelevant. But what I realize was that fighting myself was a type of repression and that the point of meditation was to know the mind. I was instead trying to control the mind which is the opposite of knowing. When I came to this realization that control was the opposite of knowing and that point of meditation was to know was when I stopped fighting what my mind and body were trying to tell me and instead let go of the control and embraced the knowing and therefore the acceptance.

If you watch that first youtube video I posted they show some interesting studies where they studied the brains of transgendered people and found that their actual brain composition was different than the same brains for cis people of the same sex. Luke you are like the least offensive and most sensitive person on here lol. Not understanding something is not offensive. Not wanting to understand and instead judging is.

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.

The body and the "spirit" if you want to call it that are connected though. To suppress what the mind is actually doing in order to appear "spiritual" is actually a form of denial. Ask me how I know lol ;-)

I don't know because I have definitely worked on my mind a lot. But then again I'm on a forum that is about such things.

Meditation is a very ambiguous word. The Buddha himself did many types of meditation before he sat beneath the tree and did the sort of meditation that caused him to become enlightened. I did Buddhist mindfulness meditation with a focus on how desire causes suffering. This is what changed things for me.

karma and the inclination of the mind affects our rebirth according to the Buddhist sutras, therefore if you feel that way, that is what would bring you back.