Our ideas about what it means to be a woman or a man – that is, our gender constructs – are given meaning and importance in our day-to-day reality. Gender identities permeate so much of our experience that it is easy to forget that they are just ideas – ideas created to categorize human beings. Nevertheless, the categories of masculine and feminine are often treated as if they were eternal truths. But they are not. They have no objective reality. Because gender is a concept, it is a product of our mind – and has no absolute existence that is separate from the mind that conceives of it. Gender categories are not inherently real in and of themselves.
17th Karmapa
from the book The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out
Read a random quote or see all quotes by the 17th Karmapa.
Further quotes from the book The Heart Is Noble:
- Facing Impermanence Wisely
- Greed is a recipe for dissatisfaction
- Balanced Life
- The intention to work for others
- True Wealth
- Life in Balance
- Expanding our sense of ourselves
- The Wealth of Contentment
- Reality is your teacher
- Protective Inner Wisdom
- Authentic love toward others
- Healthy relationships
- There are no fixed starting points
- A noble vision
- Open-minded
- Capacity for Change
- Finding our nobility of heart
- Taking delight in your inner nature
- Difference without Division
- My trust is a gift