Gender of Five Beings

Ānanda, a Monk understands: It is impossible, it cannot happen that a woman could be a Fortunate One, a Fully Perfectly Enlightened One — there is no such possibility. And he understands: It is possible that a man might be a Fortunate One, a Fully Perfectly Enlightened One — there is such a possibility.

He understands: It is impossible, it cannot happen that a woman could be a Wheel‑Turning Monarch — there is no such possibility. And he understands: It is possible that a man might be a Wheel‑Turning Monarch — there is such a possibility.

He understands: It is impossible, it cannot happen that a woman could be Sakka (Ruler of the Heavenly Beings) — there is no such possibility. And he understands: It is possible that a man might be Sakka — there is such a possibility.

He understands: It is impossible, it cannot happen that a woman could be Māra The Evil One — there is no such possibility. And he understands: It is possible that a man might be Māra — there is such a possibility.

He understands: It is impossible, it cannot happen that a woman could be Brahmā (God) — there is no such possibility. And he understands: It is possible that a man might be Brahmā (God) — there is such a possibility.

(Reference: AN 1.278-AN 1.286)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares the gender of five (5) different beings as being a male.

It is important to understand that The Buddha is not sharing that a woman "cannot" become these beings but instead, he is just sharing that these beings are of a male gender.

You might think of this as sharing that, all monkeys are male.

In fact, in nature there are animals that are exclusively just one gender.

Clownfish are all born as male.

Whiptail lizards are all female.

A great majority of tunicates, pulmonate snails, opisthobranch snails, earthworms, and slugs are hermaphrodites.

Hermaphrodites: a being having both male and female reproductive organs or other sexual characteristics, either nontypical or (in the case of some organisms) as the natural condition.

This is just the way the world is created and related to these five beings, The Buddha is explaining that, they are male.

If one’s mind has been conditioned to think about discrimination and other aspects of the world where we are told that only men can do this or only women can do that, reading something like this might invoke that type of thinking.

The Buddha is not doing that but instead, just describing the world as it is through The Natural Laws of Existence.

These beings are male and notice that he describes “Mara The Evil One” as male. That is one way that you know he is not just preserving high esteemed roles for the male gender but instead, he is even explaining this highly undesirable being as a male as well.

The Buddha is just explaining the truth of what does and does not exist. The good news is that I doubt anyone is interested in becoming any of these beings but instead would like to attain Enlightenment in this lifetime and be done with The Cycle of Rebirth having eliminated 100% of all discontentedness. That is the goal, to never be reborn to even become one of these beings - ever.

It is wonderful that the world now sees that all roles in society can be fulfilled by all genders, but these are not roles, they are beings that have specific genders.

All clownfish are born as male. It is not possible for a being that is a clownfish to be born as a female.

All whiptail lizards are female. It is not possible for a being that is a whiptail lizard to be a male.

That is just the way it is as a Natural Law of Existence.