The Tattooed Buddha

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While we usually have guests on, for this podcast we decided just to have a team discussion on the 2025 year. We discussed what challenged us, what we learned from, what we hope to see in 2026. We talked about grief, recovery, dogs, family, changes, the changing landscape of our nation and our world. 

We hope you enjoy this different take on our podcast!

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From journalist and internationally recognized author Lee Carlson comes a life-changing memoir about our journey to seek meaning and the personal relationships we build along the way.

A Single Excellent Night weaves together awakening experiences and pivotal realizations from the first four years of a 15-year apprenticeship Lee Carlson spent with Peter Matthiessen. The relationship between these two men, Zen teacher/student, writer mentor/mentee, trusted confidants and friends, unfolds in beautiful stories as Carlson goes on a quest to the furthest limits of human understanding and mindfulness...

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*trigger warning: Suicide

Jaqui was a young, 22 year old free-spirited young woman who loved to plant trees and was a part of a tree-planting community. 

She was an artist, a tattoo artist and an adventurer. Her dad had no longer needed a contractor van so she renovated it into a traveling van and went exploring. 

Jaqui loved meditating and had been trying to get into a 10 day Goenka meditation retreat for awhile and when her name came up on the list to be able to...

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Kellie Schorr has not only written for The Tattooed Buddha since 2018, she has been publishing as a ghost writer for the romantic suspense genre for several years penning commissioned novels. 

She is a Buddhist yogi in the Tibetan tradition and worked as a prevention specialist in the field of HIV and AIDS. She said she has always been a writer. She talks about her journey as a professional writer and how it can take many, many submissions to get published. We also talk about how she found The Tattooed Buddha and b...

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Today we had a long term friend and former TTB board member, Daniel Scharpenburg on our podcast!

Daniel has written a lot for The Tattooed Buddha as well as many other Buddhist magazines. He has worked for the IRS for 16 years now and he became a Union Steward in 2018 and during the COVID pandemic in 2020 he was elected as the first Vice President of his union.

He has really enjoyed being a leader and activist during this time and is taking those leadership skills as first...

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Do Not Try to Become a Buddha is a collection of short essays, Irish Soto Zen priest Myozan Ian Kilroy describes how he came to practice Zen, introduces some basics of Zen philosophy, and recalls the challenges of establishing a Zen Buddhist community in Catholic-dominated Ireland. 

A former journalist, Rev. Myozan’s clear yet entertaining storytelling style paints a clear picture of how Zen has adapted to the culture and traditions of Ireland. Rev. Myozan describes how he came to practice Zen, introduces the basics of Zen philosophy, and recalls the cha...

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Ethan Nichtern is the author of Confidence: Holding Your Seat through Life’s Eight Worldly Winds and several other titles, including the widely acclaimed The Road Home. A renowned contemporary Buddhist teacher and the host of The Road Home Podcast, Ethan teaches meditation and Buddhist psychology classes and retreats online via Dharma Moon and around the US.

Kellie Schorr and Claire Parsons talk with Ethan about his new book and the concept of confidence and the idea of it being a practice. We also discuss how fear can pl...

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If you meditate, chances are you may have heard of or have used Insight Timer.

This app was brought to my attention because it wasn’t just a timer—it has classes, courses, talks and most especially it has a community. Our culture and society has become more and more digitalized. Socializing is done via messaging, texting and by using likes, dislikes and emojis. We meme, we snap, we gif, along with many other nouns that we now verb—all from our phones. It’s amazing and has connected us from one side...

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Claire Parsons started writing for us here at The Tattooed Buddha with a column titled: The Bodhisattva of Power Suits, but she is not new to writing. She started her own blog called Brilliant Legal Mind and has also written two books: How to Be a Badass Lawyer, and Mommy Needs a Minute.

Claire E. Parsons is a practicing lawyer in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, and the mom of two girls. She started meditating to manage stress and curb overthinking, but the practice changed her life. Over time, she got training...

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In this podcast, we talk about how Rod found the Dharma, his journey to writing and eventually editing for both Wisdom Publications and then later, Lion's Roar.

The post Talking with Guest Rod Meade Sperry, Editor of Buddhadharma at Lion’s Roar appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

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Rod and I have been friends on social media for awhile now but we have never interacted (as what happens often with social media and networking).

In this podcast, we talk about how Rod found the Dharma, his journey to writing and eventually editing for both Wisdom Publications and then later, Lion’s Roar. Rod started his own independent magazine (zine) originally to highlight how Buddhism shows up in different areas of our culture.

We talk about Canadian winters, mindfulness and anxiety, how digital publishing is changing the way we...

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Gary walks us through some of the aspects of this process, such as wearing robes all of the time (including while he slept), eating only two meals a day and shaving his cherished beard.

The post Gary Sanders Ordains as a Temporary Monk {Podcast} appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

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A few weeks ago Gary Sanders went on retreat and took temporary vows to be a monk.

Gary walks us through some of the aspects of this process, such as wearing robes all of the time (including while he slept), eating only two meals a day, no dancing and singing and shaving his cherished beard. He explains why he chose to temporarily ordain, his experiences with retreats in the past and the fact that he likes to push himself. We discuss the concept of how retreats can be for...

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We discuss the trauma as a result, the aspects of shunning as control and being disfellowshipped, the use of fear to control, and how Buddhism and mindfulness became a path toward healing.

The post Escaping from Jehovah’s Witnesses through a Buddhist Path appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

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Today we talk to Gary Sanders, Rebekah Reineke and David Jones about their experiences in the Jehovah's Witness community. While Gary and Rebekah grew up within the religion, David entered (and bowed out) later on in life. We discuss the framework behind the cult, the control tactics and how they have moved on a healed.

Have you been in a similar situation and need someone to talk to? Here are a few resources:

Talk Space
Cult Escape
Leaving the Witness
Leaving the Fold: A Guide for...

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We meet with Holly Herring---one of our columnists for The Tattooed Buddha. We chat about Holly's work with those that are homeless, her journey to being a writer and the process of writing. We also learn about how Holly and Michelleanne Bradley met and became friends, which in turn led her to write for The Tattooed Buddha!

The post Getting to Know Holly Herring appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram! Interested in being a guest on our podcast? Contact us at editor@thetattooedbuddha...

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We meet with Holly Herring---one of our columnists for The Tattooed Buddha. We chat about Holly's work with those that are homeless, her journey to being a writer and the process of writing. We also learn about how Holly and Michelleanne Bradley met and became friends, which in turn led her to write for The Tattooed Buddha!

Sit back and hear more about Holly and some of her stories.

Beggars: The Right and Need to Choose
There is Compassion in Harm Reduction {Trigger Warning}

Want to...

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We discuss meditation, neurolinguistic programming and how it can help us achieve the goals we wish toward and physical forms of meditation like yoga, Tai Chi and boxing.

The post We Meet Boyan: Mindfulness Teacher appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

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,Rebekah Reineke introduced us to Boyan, a mindfulness teacher originally from Bulgaria and currently living in London, UK.

Boyan's website highlights various tools that aid in calming the mind and working toward practical applications of these tools. We discuss meditation, neurolinguistic programming and how it can help us achieve the goals we wish toward and physical forms of meditation like yoga, Tai Chi and boxing.

Check out Boyan's website here and listen as we get to know him better!

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We hope you enjoy listening to our dialogue with John and please check out his latest book, Dharma Talk published by Wisdom Publications!

The post Dharma Talk: Talking with John Brehm about His Latest Poetry Book {Podcast} appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

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We had the opportunity to speak with John Brehm on our podcast awhile back and it was such a pleasure to have him as our guest again. John is an amazingly talented poet and has written and edited books on poetry in the past.

We hope you enjoy listening to our dialogue with John and please check out his latest book, Dharma Talk published by Wisdom Publications!

Other books by John Brehm: The Dharma of Poetry, The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness and Joy, No Day at the Beach, Help...

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Michelleanne Bradley talks about feeling the anxiety of traveling. Seeing people rush around the airport and the feelings that accompany that, she discusses how realizing the need to face people with kindness and compassion. This translates to everyday life, not only travel. What if we not only take care of others with this compassion and […]

The post Meeting Others (and Myself) with Compassion {Dharma Talk} appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

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Michelleanne Bradley talks about feeling the anxiety of traveling. Seeing people rush around the airport and the feelings that accompany that, she discusses how realizing the need to face people with kindness and compassion. This translates to everyday life, not only travel. 

What if we not only take care of others with this compassion and grace, but what if we also take care of ourselves with that same grace?

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram! Interested in being a guest on our podcast? Contact us at editor@thetattooedbuddha.com. Duration: 00:09:42

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  Today we have some guests on our podcast to discuss the role of women in Buddhism. Dana and Michelleanne talk with Mary Stancavage, Holly Herring and Ayya Yeshe. We share how we all came to practice, our history with this practice and belief in God, the types of Buddhism we all practice. Women play […]

The post Women in Buddhism {Part I} appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram! Interested in being a guest on our podcast? Contact us at editor@thetattooedbuddha.com.

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Today we have some guests on our podcast to discuss the role of women in Buddhism. Dana and Michelleanne talk with Mary Stancavage, Holly Herring and Ayya Yeshe. We share how we all came to practice, our history with this practice and belief in God, the types of Buddhism we all practice. Women play an integral role in Buddhism and we discuss this and the lack of teachings and access that nuns and lay women can face.

More about Mary Stancavage here: https://marystancavage.org/about-mary-stancavage/
Find Holly Herring's writings...

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  What exactly is a mental fitness trainer? Author Mark Van Buren explains how he came to this point in his life to become a mindfulness instructor and what led him to writing A Fool’s Guide to Actual Happiness and Your Life is Meditation (Wisdom Publications). We talk about the difference between “fluff” and real mindfulness in […]

The post Mark Van Buren: The Mental Fitness Trainer appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

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What exactly is a mental fitness trainer? Author Mark Van Buren explains how he came to this point in his life to become a mindfulness instructor and what led him to writing A Fool's Guide to Actual Happiness and Your Life is Meditation (Wisdom Publications). We talk about the difference between "fluff" and real mindfulness in everyday life and applying it, what to do when you f*ck up and how to get back on the cushion again.

Mark tells us about working an every day job and how a mindfulness p...

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Dr. Jon Kolkin is an internationally recognized artist with a lifetime of experience pursuing his passions while simultaneously maintaining a healthy balance between his personal and professional life. His unique strategies have allowed him to achieve a high level of success as a professional fine art photographer, physician, educator, global humanitarian, and international speaker. He […]

The post A Conversation with Dr. Jon Kolkin, Photographer and Creator of the Book Inner Harmony {Podcast} appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

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Dr. Jon Kolkin is an internationally recognized artist with a lifetime of experience pursuing his passions while simultaneously maintaining a healthy balance between his personal and professional life.  His unique strategies have allowed him to achieve a high level of success as a professional fine art photographer, physician, educator, global humanitarian, and international speaker.

He created the series Inner Harmony, which is a compilation of photos taken while immersed in Buddhist communities across Asia working primarily as a medical volunteer in under-resourced communities. For over a decade he photographed everyday life o...

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Tyler Lewke is a realtor, a meditation instructor, and is president of The Blue Lotus Temple and Meditation Center. He recently opened up a retreat center with Grant Goehler: the Hackmatack Retreat. The mission of Hackmatack Retreat is to provide an accessible space that becomes the physical container for deep wisdom teachings and heart-centered, transformative work. Located in Richmond, Illinois it sits on almost 30 acres of protected land in the Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge in the heart of the Midwest. The land is native prairie with a winding slow river, ponds, 200+-year-old oaks...

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We finally got a chance to talk to Gary Sanders! Gary is a Buddhist teacher in the Insight Tradition and has a history working with people in Buddhism and recovery. He helped found Refuge Recovery, a Buddhist-based practice for people struggling with addictions. Gary lives in Portland, Oregon and is originally from the Los Angeles area. 

We talk about grief, recovery, equanimity in daily life, and Buddhism in the West. 

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John Brehm is the author of three full-length books of poetry, Sea of Faith, Help Is on the Way, and No Day at the Beach, all from the University of Wisconsin Press, and a chapbook, The Way Water Moves, from Flume Press. His collection of essays, The Dharma of Poetry, was recently released by Wisdom Publications and is a companion to his acclaimed anthology, The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy, also from Wisdom Publications. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The Gettysburg Review, The Sun, The Southern Review, Plume, Gulf Coast, The...

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We had the opportunity to talk with Brad Wiscons. Brad has worked in physical and mental health for most of his professional career, with an emphasis on promoting safe, healthy, and engaged youth.  He has worked in a diverse set of settings including community organizing, domestic violence and child abuse prevention and treatment, hospital-based health education, and inpatient treatment of youth. 

Brad is the father of three brilliant children and the husband of 30 years to his dear wife, Brenda.  Brad was ordained as a Buddhist Minister in the Order of Interbeing by...

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Jack Huynh  is a first generation immigrant from Vietnam. Both of his parents are committed Buddhist practitioners and while he grew up around Buddhism, he did not find his own path until his early 20's.

While pursuing the American dream, he first become a software engineer during the to dot com boom. After the crash in 2001, he pivoted into becoming a photographer and never looked back.

Combining his desire to integrate his professional life with his spiritual values along with his own struggle with finding the dharma, he started a...

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This podcast went longer than most of our podcasts because we just couldn't stop asking Guo Gu questions. He recently published Silent Illumination: A Chan Buddhist Path to Natural Awakening by Shambhala Publications. We talk about meditation methods,  his life and how he began meditating at such a young age. We discuss his teenage years (his mother took him to a Zen master and asked him how to make him "more Buddhist") and his stint as a bassist in a 1980s hardcore punk band.

Find Guo Gu's book Silent Illumination: A C...

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Dave Smith is an internationally recognized Buddhist meditation teacher, addiction treatment specialist, and published author. His background is rooted in the Insight Meditation tradition and he was empowered to teach through the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. He has extensive experience bringing meditative interventions into jails, prisons, youth detention centers and addiction treatment facilities. Dave teaches residential meditation retreats and classes, provides trainings and consulting in both secular and Buddhist contexts, and works with students through his meditation mentoring program. He recently founded the Secular Dharma Foundation and lives in Paonia, Colorado.<...

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David Hinton is not only a poet and researcher of Buddhism and the Chinese language, he also translates Chinese poetry, earned a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as fellowships from N.E.A. and N.E.H, the Landon Translation Award, the PEN American Translation Award, and a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He recently wrote and published China Root: Taosim, Ch'an and Original Zen (Shambhala Publications) which explains that Ch'an was a Buddhist-influenced extension of Taoism, China’s native system of spiritual philosophy that was gr...

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We have chatted with Alex Kakuyo a few times on our podcasts and Alex also writes for TTB as well as many other publications...including his own blog, The Same Old Zen. Recently Alex published a book, Perfectly Ordinary: Buddhist Teachings for Everyday Life so we asked him if he would chat with us again. 

Alex tells us his feelings on Buddhism, how he was drawn to it, how he once gave up all of his possessions and worked on a farm for awhile, and what it's like being perfectly ordinary a...

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Deborah Eden Tull is a Zen meditation and mindfulness teacher, author, activist, and sustainability educator.

Brent and Dana sat down remotely from each other's homes with Eden in the midst of the pandemic to talk about her seven years training as a Buddhist monk at a silent Zen monastery at the age of 26, and some of her experience teaching mindfulness and the dharma for 19 years. Eden has also been living in, and teaching about, sustainable communities for over 25 years.

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Are you vegan...enough? For some veganism can seem like an extreme lifestyle, yet more and more people are turning to a plant-based lifestyle after seeing some of the information that has come out about the health benefits such as the documentaries, Game Changers and Forks Over Knives. On top of that, the understanding and reality of factory farming, the mistreatment of animals and abuse, has also caused a compassionate change in many. But what about the stereotypes vegans have to deal with? (How do you know someone is vegan? Just way five...

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In 2018, a woman known as Andrea Winn blew the whistle on Mipham Rinpoche, also known as the Sakyong.

The project began in 2017 as Project Sunshine, which was an effort to collect the stories and evidence of abuse in he Shambhala community. Her work became the catalyst toward an inquiry which was conducted by Carol Merchasin, a lawyer and sexual misconduct investigator, and also the lead investigator for Project Sunshine.

It seemed like that was it; the Sakyong stepped away and secluded himself and many Shambhala teachers left...

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In this episode, we talked about the relationship between Buddhism and psychotherapy. Do they compliment each other? Is meditation a replacement for therapy? We invite guests Sensei Alex Kakuyo, Barry Magid and Gesshin Claire Greenwood to chat with us on how Buddhism fits into psychotherapy, both in the mental health setting as well in self help formats. Feel free to join the dialogue by tuning in.

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The post Journey Meditation: Stephen Sokoler Talks to Us about Bridging the Technology and Mindfulness Gap appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

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The post We Talk to The Odd Monk {Podcast} appeared first on The Tattooed Buddha.

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