Buddhist Tattoos and Books
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Brian
Jul 9, 2009, 10:58:31 AM7/9/09
to DailyBuddhism
Buddhist Tattoos and Books
Question:
Hello Brian, Which podcast discusses books that you and others have
read? Best of luck with the new job! I miss getting semi daily tweets.
PS- what is a Buddhist opinion on tattoos? Are tattoos considered
desecrating to the human body and isn’t the body considered a temple?
Answer:
Thank you, the new job is going well, and I’ve finally managed to
shuffle things around to hopefully make time for everything. I may not
be Tweeting as much anymore, but at least the blogs and emails are
going out regularly again.
The post about books was called “Beginner’s Buddhism Books,”
and you can find it here: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1186
or listen to the podcast version here: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1191
If you or anyone else has recently found a book that you recommend,
feel free to add it to the post in a comment.
***
Tattoos? Hmmm. I don’t know of anything Buddha himself said about
tattoos. I think that the whole idea of “Your body is a temple” is
more of a Christian idea than Buddhist. Remember, Buddhists believe
that the body is just a temporary shell, to be discarded when we are
done with it.
Tattoos, and how they are looked upon, is more related to culture than
religion in my experience. In Japan, for example, no “civilized
person” shows tattoos publicly. Americans who have tattoos and visit
Japan are advised to cover them up, as only the “Japanese Mafia” wear
tattoos openly. I’m not going to say there aren’t exceptions to that,
but it seemed pretty accurate as far as I could see. I don’t have a
tattoo, but my roommate did, and he absolutely got a negative reaction
out of it. On the other hand, it’s not that unusual for children to
have tattoos in America; they’re simply everywhere.
In countries where tattooing is socially acceptable, there is a huge
variety of very beautiful tattoos of Buddhist imagery. A quick Google
of “Buddhist Tattoos” will show many examples.
Comment on this post at: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1372
Question:
Hello Brian, Which podcast discusses books that you and others have
read? Best of luck with the new job! I miss getting semi daily tweets.
PS- what is a Buddhist opinion on tattoos? Are tattoos considered
desecrating to the human body and isn’t the body considered a temple?
Answer:
Thank you, the new job is going well, and I’ve finally managed to
shuffle things around to hopefully make time for everything. I may not
be Tweeting as much anymore, but at least the blogs and emails are
going out regularly again.
The post about books was called “Beginner’s Buddhism Books,”
and you can find it here: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1186
or listen to the podcast version here: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1191
If you or anyone else has recently found a book that you recommend,
feel free to add it to the post in a comment.
***
Tattoos? Hmmm. I don’t know of anything Buddha himself said about
tattoos. I think that the whole idea of “Your body is a temple” is
more of a Christian idea than Buddhist. Remember, Buddhists believe
that the body is just a temporary shell, to be discarded when we are
done with it.
Tattoos, and how they are looked upon, is more related to culture than
religion in my experience. In Japan, for example, no “civilized
person” shows tattoos publicly. Americans who have tattoos and visit
Japan are advised to cover them up, as only the “Japanese Mafia” wear
tattoos openly. I’m not going to say there aren’t exceptions to that,
but it seemed pretty accurate as far as I could see. I don’t have a
tattoo, but my roommate did, and he absolutely got a negative reaction
out of it. On the other hand, it’s not that unusual for children to
have tattoos in America; they’re simply everywhere.
In countries where tattooing is socially acceptable, there is a huge
variety of very beautiful tattoos of Buddhist imagery. A quick Google
of “Buddhist Tattoos” will show many examples.
Comment on this post at: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1372
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