A friend of mine recently posted something on Facebook that I found quite funny:

"Man tattoos Leviticus 18:22 that forbids homosexuality on his arm "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.." Apparently unaware that Leviticus 19:28 forbids tattoos. "You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD.""

Thank you, James!

My pleasure, Rod! Thanks for helping me share. From a meditation perspective, I was actually surprised at how uplifting and peace-inducing this whole play session was for me. I've always respected dharma arts and art as an expression of and potential gateway to meditation, but that respect was just refreshed and boosted a little! best wishes, Tyler.

Oh, I see: I missed your "what now appears here as the second paragraph." Gotcha.

Rod, thanks for the clarification, but, for those of us just joining the conversation, could you let us know how the text would have been different, or highlight the fixed parts in the main post (if they have been fixed)?

This interview is freaking iconic! I would type onomatopoetic cheering noises in praise of Rev. Danny Fisher, but I don't want to spend the rest of my morning doing MBSR on my feelings of embarrassment. So I'll just say, that rocked, Messieurs Zinn and Fisher. Some truly dharmic content that encourages deepening. Thank you!

Thank you, Elephant Journal and Rev. Danny Fisher, for posting the Karmapa's TED talk. It was a great honor for me to be able to serve as the Karmapa's translator, and I certainly hope we will see him visit and teach in Western countries soon! I think he has a lot to offer the world, in very practical and insightful ways.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness and eloquence, Dennis. One of the most beautiful pieces of writing I have ever encountered on this topic (aside from the thoroughly enjoyable offering made here) is by Norman Fischer, in the Introduction to his "Opening to You: Zen-Inspired Translations of the Psalms."

The shorter longevity prayer, the Tibetan of which almost all Tibetans know by heart, is as follows:

གངས་རི་རྭ་བས་བསྐོར་བའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ། །
ཕན་དང་བདེ་བ་མ་ལུས་འབྱུང་བའི་གནས། །
སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཡི། །
ཞབས་པད་སྲིད་མཐའི་བར་དུ་བརྟན་གྱུར་ཅིག །

Unauthorized translation:

From the pure realm encircled by snow mountains,
Source of all benefit and happiness,
Avalokiteshvara, Tenzin Gyatso,
May you remain firmly with us forever.

Hello Rinpoche and Elephant Journal,

Happy Canada Day! I am proud to share a common trait with my teacher: we're both first-generation Canadian immigrants to the United States! :)

May I and a whole bunch of my friends
Bringing healing to the mind that thinks about the self,
Spacious insight into how the self isn't there at the end of the day,
And relaxation free from doctrines about whether it's there or it is not.

love and respect,

Tyler