Sex

The universe is a living body, unified, in which every object seems to have a hidden vitality within it, whether it is organic or inorganic matter. Even the bursting of a star is only a stage for the subsequent transformations of the universe. Even a falling yellow leaf is not outside the living process of all things. Everything lives, everything transforms endlessly.

However, life is most clearly manifested in the life of living creatures through the process in which male and female gametes unite to bring forth offspring that continue the species. The male gamete has the task of providing the conditions for the female gamete to nourish and develop the embryo as it grows.

It seems that the female bears the greatest responsibility in producing offspring. The male has only the task of initial support through mating, sometimes only to seek pleasure for instinct's sake. Some males help to feed their mates during pregnancy. Others only supply sperm and then slip away, without a moment's concern for duty.

It is the same with humans: love and sexual desire bring men and women close to one another to continue the species. The mother carries the child with heaviness and gives birth in pain. The father works to provide. That is the normal pattern of the family in society.

But the difference in roles, abilities and rights between men and women has been a matter of great significance. Some peoples respect women and others do the opposite. Even now, in one rural area of Asia, if people learn that the child to be born is a girl, they will abort it. In the Amitābha Sutra of Northern Buddhism, the image of the ideal world is a world "without women and without evil paths". The view that values men over women became widespread across the continents from the Middle East through Asia. This can be explained by the law of supply and demand. It seems that the proportion of females is always higher than that of males in the mechanism of chromosomes at fertilisation. The proportion of Y-shaped chromosomes that form a male embryo is always low. Moreover, men, because they are strong, must always take part in wars and cannot avoid dying. This unbalances the ratio of men to women still more. When women are many and men few, discrimination is an inevitable consequence that is bound to occur. The value of women becomes lower than that of men.

People have established Women's Day on 8 March, people struggle to demand equal rights for women... All this further shows that women really have been mistreated.

Besides the law of supply and demand to explain discrimination between men and women, people also put forward some reasons of temperament. Women are regarded as weak, selfish, deceitful, scheming... so much so that the Chinese character for "treacherous" (奸) is made by putting three characters for "woman" (女) together. The philosopher Schopenhauer was bitterly hostile to women beyond measure. He held that:

"Only a man whose mind is clouded by the drive of the flesh could give the name of the fair sex to that undersized, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, short-legged race, for the whole of this race's beauty is always closely bound to the sexual instinct. Instead of calling them the fair sex, it would be safer to describe women as the race lacking in aesthetic sense..." (On Women)

Only the law of karma, impartial and fair, stands outside human prejudices. In one place a woman must submit to a man, while in another place the woman is a queen. In one place a woman must humour her husband, while elsewhere a woman is treated with the utmost gallantry. There are men who must go begging while the one who gives alms is a rich, elegant woman. So many male students must silently listen to the profound lectures of a woman university professor. So many wise decisions of a leader come from the suggestion of the lady behind him.

To rely on some standard to judge who is worth more or less between man and woman is biased and unjust. In any field, women as much as men have the ability to achieve the same. Although the rate of success of men is much higher than that of women. The number of male leaders, male scholars and male artists is always larger than that of women. One very simple reason is that men are not interrupted by the process of pregnancy and childbirth. The time of carrying a child and caring for children interrupts women's careers, so that they cannot succeed as men do. Many works in progress have to be left unfinished. Many courses of study have to be dropped halfway; women have humbly taken on the responsibility of raising the children so that men may continue without interruption in building their careers. Men's success is the visible part of the iceberg, easy to see, while the submerged part below is women's labour.

The Buddha himself, in an Indian society that valued men over women, also said:

"There are many women who are even better than men."

Even so, the following basic differences remain the usual standards between men and women.

First, strength. On average men's strength exceeds women's. So the standards for women in sporting contests are always set lower than for men.

Second, build. On average women's build is smaller than men's. If we go deeply into anatomical analysis there are many more differences; besides physique, women's voices also differ from men's.

Third, psychology. The characteristic traits of women are being reserved, shy, patient, easily moved, sentimental, light on reason, strong in intuition. Sometimes people also attribute selfishness and narrow-mindedness to women.

Fourth, physiology. Between women and men there are many differences of physiology so that each side can carry out its own function. Hormones, menstrual periods, brain structure, reproductive organs and so on clearly distinguish the two sexes.

But apart from physiological make-up, the other standards are by no means fixed. There are men who have many characteristics of women, and conversely there are women who have characteristics of men. There are men who are weak, shy and selfish, and there are women who are bold, showy and generous.

It is very easy for a person to change sex on being born into a new life.

If a man has thoughts of contempt for women and acts to lower women's dignity, in the next life he will be born as a woman in a society with a tradition of valuing men over women, to endure again the sufferings he once caused women.

Or a passionate young man who, all his life, trampled on who knows how many women's lives will also become a woman in the next life, to endure other people's faithlessness.

Even a good husband, faithful to his wife, who caused his wife to bear too many children, may in the next life return as a woman to endure the heavy, painful and meaningful state of carrying and bearing a child.

Usually, a man who changes his body into a woman's still retains many male characteristics such as firmness, boldness and energy. Sometimes they feel irritated by their own female body.

Conversely, there are women who are enthusiastic in social charity work, who rush into dangerous places to rescue victims, and who in their hearts would like to be men so as to do good more conveniently. In the next life they will change to a male body to do good more conveniently, but will still keep traces of some female characteristics such as a soft gait and a clear, light voice.

Some people change sex even in the present life. Being men, suddenly they gradually develop female characteristics such as a changed voice, a larger chest and hips, and smaller shoulders and waist. Or some people undergo no change of physique but always hold a strong thought that they are women, and fall in love with men (the phenomenon called pédé).

This change of sex always has a cause from the past. Either they have conditions enough to become female, so that karma drives psychology and physiology (the endocrine glands), or surgery, to bring them to the female sex in this very life. Or teasing those who are neither clearly male nor female also creates the karmic result of an unclear dual sex in a person.

Normally women are more emotional than men, and so it seems that a mother loves her children more than a father does. A mother's love is a beautiful image that humankind has praised through the ages. It is precisely the deep love of a mother for her children that gives her very much merit, which a father sometimes cannot equal. That is said within the scope of the family. But when we step into the social sphere, men, with their generosity, courage, energy and so on, have the advantage and have contributed more effort than women, and so their merit is greater too.