Bhikshuni Soma: Neither Male Nor Female

He said:

How could a woman who knows no more than how to cook, clean, and make babies, possibly reach the further shore, on the way to which so many good men have drowned or turned back?

I said:

The mind is neither male nor female.

When directed toward the arising and passing away of all things, it easily penetrates this mass of darkness.

Be serious. What’s a few inches of meat, compared to the immeasurable reaches of the liberated mind?

This verse is from the Therigatha, a Buddhist text consisting of a collection of 73 short poems of women who were senior nuns. The poems date from a three hundred year period, starting in the late 6th century BCE. It is the companion text to the Theragatha, verses attributed to senior monks. It is the earliest known collection of women’s literature composed in India.

Source: Great Middle Way