![]() ![]() I once asked my teacher what he thought of so-called “Buddhist tattoos.” He furrowed his brow disdainfully (or so it seemed to me) and said, “What about invoking Bodhi-mind?” Well, that stopped the conversation before it even began. Several of my tattoos are what you’d call “Buddhist tattoos,” though I get the impression that tattoos are generally frowned upon in Zen. Being tattooed is certainly not the only way I truly inhabit my body Zen Buddhist practice - especially zazen - and yoga, certainly help me in this regard. It no longer belongs to those who abused me or to the doctors and surgeons. Being tattooed has helped bring me back to my body: to quite literally mark it as my own and take ownership of it. These factors, particularly the abuse and the cancer treatments, caused me to feel that my body was not my own. It would take hours to go into these, but to summarize, I was subjected to various forms of abuse as a child, was bullied in junior high school, survived cancer with two surgeries and six months of chemotherapy and struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for many years. I later discovered, in the course of my own personal psychotherapy and introspection, that there were reasons why I modifying my body to such an extreme. All of them have been done by Tex at Authentic Tattoo in San Francisco. When I was first tattooed, they were not so trendy and I guess I was trying to look like a “bad ass.” Some of my tattoos have deep personal meaning and some are meant to be funny or merely decorative. I liked how they looked I actually liked the pain and the feeling of being tattooed. For many years, I was not conscious of any particular reason for being continually tattooed. He said, “I want to give you something that you can never get rid of!” I continued to get tattoos regularly, a couple times a year and at one point every six weeks. I started out with a small tattoo paid for by my best friend as a 25th birthday present. I have also been branded and pierced in various locations on my body. I have 40 tattoos, including one that covers my entire back. People often ask me why I get tattooed and why I have so many. Play or download free MP3 meditation timers.Being here: A Buddhist approach to pain.Some specific tools for dealing with depression. ![]()
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