We have many women Buddhas also. In my group, there were at least two residents, nuns, who had reached Buddhahood. They passed away already. And we have their photographs in our New Land Ashram, so some people can have that, can see it, to remind themselves that women can also become Buddha if you have the right method of practicing spiritually. Because if you don’t have a right method spiritually, then it’s like the Chinese Zen Master (Nanyue Huairang) said, “You cannot polish a brick to make it into a mirror.” And He said that to a group of monks, male beings, male humans, not women. At that time and nowadays even, to be a nun, a real nun, is also difficult, not to talk about reaching Buddhahood if you don’t have a real method. Also, you have to have the agreement from your families, your husband, or even your sons.
So being a woman in this world is not all advantageous. In some of the smaller societies or tribals, or small Indigenous societies, we do have a matriarchal system with women as the chief of the house, or the chief of many things in the society. And nowadays, women can have many high positions luckily, even president, prime minister, or minister of many departments – foreign minister, interior minister, etc., etc., or CEO of a big company. Or famous artists, famous scientists, famous doctors, famous many things, many kinds. Thank God that we as humans evolved and our societies also evolved and recognized women as very, very respectable beings on the planet. Thank God for that.
And now I come back to assure you that women can become Buddha – I told you that I have been Quan Yin Bodhisattva as a female quite many times. And in Buddhism, like Bhaddā, the wife of Mahākāśyapa, She also became an Arhat. And Đại Thế Chí Bồ Tát is also a female. They’re still in Amitābha Buddha’s Land. They just retain the female kind of an essence, but They don’t have to be a female or a male. They can be anything they want to. They are Buddhas. And many of the females nowadays, they became Masters/Gurus also. Either the Hugging Mother, the Hugging Saint in India; many of them.
And Paramahamsa Yogananda had even visited a Saint, an ordinary woman, like all of the women, but She is a Saint. Her name is Therese Neumann. Every Friday, She bled from the wounds of the hands and the feet, like Lord Jesus. She reenacted, relived the scene of Lord Jesus when He was harassed, killed or nailed on the cross. Poor Lord Jesus. Whenever I think of that, my heart just feels so much pain. Oh God, and so many Masters have been also tortured like that, and worse. Oh, let’s not talk about that.
So even being a Buddha already, Shakyamuni Buddha also faced assassination attempts, quite a few times. And one time, He even cut His toe from the boulder because of Devadatta, His cousin even, and a monk! Devadatta was a monk, and he even enforced stricter rules for monks, more than the Buddha! Like, Shakyamuni Buddha allowed His monks to drink juice in the afternoon. Normally, they ate only at lunchtime. But afterward, the Buddha allowed His monks to drink juice also in the afternoon, if there was juice available. And He also allowed His monks to eat at any time when the monks were on the road, because they don’t know when they will have a meal again. It’s not like they’re in a settled area and then they go out on time, eat on time and come back on time. So Buddha was very liberal. The reason they ate only one time was because they could not go on begging the whole day.
But it doesn’t mean that if you eat one time a day, then you’ll become Buddha. It’s not like that. So this is also one of the wrong concepts. So if some people see a monk is a little bit fat and round and well-fed, and they think this monk is “not practicing well,” it’s not like that. And if a monk who eats only once a day looks like a skeleton, then he must be “very holy” – it’s not like that. It’s not like that. Of course, if you don’t become too greedy with food and all that, then it’s very good to have some discipline. But it’s not because of that you become Buddha! No, no.
You remember in Buddhism, one time, and still now, they made the statue of Maitreya Buddha very fat, with a big stomach and a big bag next to Him. And the bag is full of maybe some children’s toys and some goodies to give away to the children, I guess. But He is Maitreya Buddha reincarnated. And He knows that people do not believe that He’s the Maitreya Buddha, so He never told until when He was ascending to Nirvana. Before that, He wrote a poem telling people, “Really, I am Maitreya Buddha.” To tell the world’s people that you are a Buddha or you are Christ is as if you’re inviting trouble... or the cross. All the lives of the Masters are made up of hardship, suffering, and sometimes losing Their life as well.
The Buddhas can be men or women, it depends. If the Buddha came from a higher level, They can sometimes change Themselves into men or women, it depends. Just like Quan Yin Bodhisattva. Even the Buddha said that She can manifest into a female form or male form or different kinds of titles or positions to help the world.
“The Buddha said to Bodhisattva Akṣayamati: ‘O son of a virtuous family! If there is any land where sentient beings are to be saved by the form of a Buddha, Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara teaches the Dharma by changing Himself into the form of a Buddha. [...] To those who are to be saved by the form of a householder, He teaches the Dharma by changing Himself into the form of a householder. To those who are to be saved by the form of a state official, He teaches the Dharma by changing Himself into the form of a state official. To those who are to be saved by the form of a brahman, He teaches the Dharma by changing Himself into the form of a brahman. To those who are to be saved by the form of a monk, nun, layman, or laywoman, He teaches the Dharma by changing Himself into the form of a monk, nun, layman, or laywoman. To those who are to be saved by the form of a wife of either a wealthy man, a householder, a state official, or a brahman, He teaches the Dharma by changing Himself into the form of such a wife. To those who are to be saved by the form of a boy or a girl, He teaches the Dharma by changing Himself into the form of a boy or a girl.’” ~ Excerpts from the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 25
And to have even one meal a day doesn’t mean that you’ll become a Buddha because of that. If it’s like that, then many hungry people would have become even higher than Buddha. You must be pure, sincere in the heart. And if You are a Buddha already since thousands, billions, trillions, or countless eons of time, then sometimes You can manifest Yourself as a lady, or as a gentleman, as a monk, or as a nun, or as just a normal person, or a businessman, businesswoman, and many other positions. So it doesn’t matter if you’re a woman, you still can be a Buddha.
I assure you that. Because quite a few of my so-called disciples, God’s disciples, in my group, they have become Buddhas. Some are still alive. The people who are alive, I do not want to mention because they might be ruined by other people who come around and blow up their ego and make them fall. It’s easy. It’s easy in this world to fall.
Even… Remember the story of the monk Guang Qin. He came directly from Amitabha Buddha’s Land for 600 lifetimes before His last reincarnation on the planet. He still made many mistakes. He could see it after He came back from the Amitabha Buddha’s Land. He told people about His mistakes, His wrongdoings, all these lifetimes of the 600 lifetimes that He had sojourned on this planet as a human, and the last time he was a monk.
It’s so easy to fall, because nobody’s around you to tell you what’s right, what’s wrong. Because the whole society, according to Taoism, is a big dyeing tub. So everybody jumps into the dyeing tub. Like, if our world is a dyeing tub, then we’ll be also dyed similar colors. It’s very difficult for you, growing up as a kid and then as a teenager, adolescent, and then becoming a man and older man. We so easily make mistakes, commit wrongs all the time, all the time. Only the lucky one, maybe from a young age already, encounters a good Master, teaching him to be good and watching over him and telling him, continuing to remind him to be good – or her, also. Then that person probably could stay steady and stable in this society, in this world, to continue to stay good and do good, and then spiritually practice until they reach Buddhahood.
Photo Caption: Freshness, Stability, Space of Freedom, Treasured!
