So you're giving all of the money that you'd spend on a tattoo to people or you just feel you can't justify spending the money on a tattoo because it *could* be given to people to feed the or the like?

How is this different than saying, "Well, I could buy this Buddhist book but I've read plenty of books and I could give that same money to the homeless shelter"?

Thanks for posting this. I appreciate the ideas as a parent.

I'm not sure if this is really directly related to Engaged Buddhism, as a philosophy, more than just the Dharma in general. (I say this as someone who is generally turned off by the political aspects of Engaged Buddhism.)

I have refuge vows in Sanskrit on my arm.

Buddhaṃ śaraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
Dharmaṃ śaraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
Saṃghaṃ śaraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/albill/5007641236/

I recently had the blackwork done in August outlined in a red border:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/albill/5403350848/

Unfortunately, everything you say here is pretty true.

I've heard well known "Zen" teachers admit to never reading a sutra, which I find appalling.

The Japanese don't have Vinaya holding monks. Since the establishment of the Bodhisattva Vows-based ordination platform following Saicho's death more than 1,000 years ago, more and more monastics in Japan were ordained under that system until the Vinaya system died out. All the people you see in Japan are not Vinaya holders. You need to go to China, Korea (for one of the orders there), Vietnam, Thailand, etc in order to meet Vinaaya monastics.

In the West, when people speak of a Buddhist "priest," they generally mean someone who has received Bodhisattva Vow-based precepts but who is not a holder of Vinaya vows, is not required to be celibate, and may often be married. The reason to use "priest" instead of "monk" (the Japanese word used is soryo and it is used interchangeably there) is to avoid this confusion.

How is Big Mind a "dangerous spiritual practice?" Have you tried it, watched the videos about it or read their literature?

I've watched the videos but never tried it. That said, it seemed to be pretty straightforward psychotherapy (but not really Buddhist per se).

That's the kind of highbrow response I expect! Good job!

A number of us have been using technology to help connect widely separated communities of Dharma practitioners or individual practitioners without a community.

I've been a part of the Five Mountain Buddhist Seminary (http://five-mountain.org) for the last couple of years. We've set up a program to allow people to engage in the study of the Dharma as a non-denominational seminary and school. While we're a Zen organization, not everyone that is involved with us has a Zen background. To compliment the study, we have annual retreats (and are aiming for more often) where people come from across the country to practice together in person. Week to week, we meet online using open source courseware that runs on the site.

Additionally, we have a number of Dharma teachers that meet with non-local students using a combination of email, phone calls, and Skype video. We're actually looking to expand this into having large sangha meetings monthly using video conferencing technology on the Internet to facilitate group interaction and discussion in a many to many fashion (rather than everyone just watching a video feed of a teacher speaking).

Right now, if you want to learn about the Dharma, you really need to be in a major city, preferably a coastal one, if you want to work with other people. I've spoken to many people online who has no nearby sanghas or teachers because they don't live in a large city. Online learning and interaction provides opportunities that people would simply not have otherwise and I think that it is going to continue to become a larger resource in the future.

There is a simpler solution, Cat. Just convince Jason to ban Robin and it becomes a much politer and more intelligent place. He's banned plenty of other places (which is, perhaps, why he is here after all).

Besides yourself and pretending you're Michael Ford or Andrew Chumbley, what do you like, Robin?