Thank you for your advice, Kakuzen. I appreciate it. The Lama in question was Lama Shenphen, who is ordained, I believe--at least, there are pictures of his ordination on his web site at Dharmaling.net. For the most part, he seems nice and I agree with most of his posts, but with respect to the reincarnation issue, it just appeared to me he might need to work on his ego a bit, that's all--at least, that was my perception, for what it's worth.

You are so right about recognizing the truly awakened monks, however. In fact, there is one monk who recently joined the Sangha Forum, who I thought seemed so very kind, respectful and humble. Later, I saw that people were calling him "Venerable," but like you said, it was something I could recognize without knowing that beforehand. You probably know him, as I read recently that you used to be at BuddhisBoards and he was over there as well. His name is "Panyavuto" and he is with Wat Arun in Thailand. There's just no ego at all about him, he's so very kind and humble. And you're also right about his popping in and out--that's exactly what he seems to do!

A lot of the people at this Sangha Forum used to be at BuddhisBoards, so you will probably reconnect with a lot of people you know. I think "Nevermind," "Bodhimind," "Q," "Rickpa," "Imago," and "Srimala," to name but a few, were over there. I'm happy to see that Maciamo has joined as well! His question certainly seems to be a big hit over there! I think these two forums compliment each other. Maybe some of the people over there would be interested in posting here at Japan Forum as well.

Thanks again for your thoughtful advice. I really do appreciate it.

Respectfully,
Satori