depicted as being his disciples and accepting his superiority. Women and gender Feminine figures and issues of gender are also an important feature of Buddhist mythology. Traditionally, women are seen as capable of achieving the highest levels of spiritual attainment. Female figures in Buddhist myth include mother figures like the Buddha's mother Queen Maya (and her virgin birth myth) and the goddess Hārītī, monastics (bhikkhunīs) like Sanghamitta and Mahapajapati Gotami and extraordinary divine figures like Tara, Guanyin, Vajrayogini and Yeshe Tsongyal. Buddhist myths and stories show an ambiguity in relation to gender. On the one hand, gender is seen as not a binary phenomenon. For example, there is fluidity in gender across lives. Frequently women are strong and capable. Gender roles are sometimes reversed, as when the bodhisattva's wife leaves him to raise the children as she becomes a nun. In some texts, gender is presented as a performance, and both men and women can engage in that performance with awareness. Transformation and escape from the traps of gender roles is made possible through a spiritual life, especially as a renunciant, and women are seen as capable of awakening just like men. Suzanne Mrozik, citing Elizabeth Grosz holds that in Indian Buddhism, bodies are "pliable" and "subject to transformation, because bodies are largely the products of our own actions.... Karma dictates the kind of body we get in any given lifetime—whether male or female, healthy or sick, beautiful or ugly, and so forth." There are also various Buddhist stories which depict a person changing genders, such as a story which depicts the Buddhist saint Asanga being changed into a woman and his use of yogic powers to transform back into a man. Another story from the Vimalakirti sutra has a goddess transform Sariputra into a woman to prove that gender is merely an empty conceptual construction with no real basis. At the same time, there are many Buddhist stories that depict women in negative terms which continue to influence modern Buddhist views. Indian Buddhist views of women's sexuality are typical of ancient India, which saw women as inherently lustful creatures of passion, and who are often depicted as seductresses who are a danger to men seeking to live the celibate religious life. These negative attitudes towards women continue to influence contemporary Buddhist cultures, where it is widely believed that birth as a woman is due to bad karma. This is