It Takes Many Lifetimes To Get
A Woman's Body

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai,
Florida, U.S.A. October 5, 1998
(Originally in English)

It takes a long time of practicing to have a woman's body. That's why men don't understand why women are sometimes so delicate and care about so many things. They don't care, and they don't understand. Some other time, they will understand.

Actually, the soul is not man or woman. In order to be feminine, it takes a long practice. People have told you women cannot become Buddha, but it's exactly the contrary. Women are nearer to Buddhahood. If you know yourself, if you use your feminine qualities for some higher purpose, you will get there quicker. You have the precision, you have the attention, the delicate feelings, and common sense, so whatever you want, you will get it. That's why men are afraid of women.

We have been trained for many lifetimes in order to get a woman's body, in order to be feminine, and to have all these loving, delicate qualities of a human being. Men are not yet so refined. They have beautiful qualities; they have different things, but they are not so refined. They have not reached the fine point and that's why there are many things they don't understand about women and about life. They are more for the general, bigger picture and women are more for details and see everything. Men can be very blind; the whole "frig" is full, but they can't find anything to eat. [Laughter]

Men are not so delicate in their feelings and in their observations about things around them; therefore, they neglect many things. That's what causes pain for the woman and for their relationship - because of their inconsideration. They just don't know. They don't mean to be rude, to be bad, to be so hard, or to be so neglectful; they just don't understand. They need a lot more training in many more lifetimes.

So, if anyone tells you women are inferior or cannot become Buddha, that's a most ignorant remark. They don't understand how the universal law works. They do not understand how many lifetimes a human being has to go through, how much training the soul has to undertake, in order to become feminine. That's why they talk like that.