Neither one nor many "neither one nor many" more intensively (throughout sixty-two of its ninety-seven stanzas) than any other text in Buddhist literature. This argument is one of a series of proofs used to demonstrate that phenomena are without real existence. Neither one nor many The 'neither one nor many' argument (Wylie: gcig du 'bral ba'i gtan tshigs) is an argument employed by different philosophers and spiritual traditions for various reasons. The argument and its permutations and antecedents, particularly the "problem of the One and the Many" as charted by McEvilley (2002: pp. 23–66) in his "magnum opus", has an ancient pedigree in the
Halfway Human of gender and sexuality, and particularly her attempt to create a character that exhibits neither male nor female characteristics, to Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. Wheeler mentions that many criticized Le Guin for ultimately failing to create characters that did not exhibit gendered traits, and suggests that this failure could possibly be evident in Halfway Human as well, depending on how the reader chooses to imagine Tedla. Wheeler wonders "Is it possible to see it [Tedla] as completely without gender attributes?" Wheeler remarks on Gilman's use of the juxtaposition of Capellan and Gammadian societies in her story