healthcaretaker

I know it's hard to tell and no one can be sure but hopefully I can get some sure answers to whether any of these places can be sure of NO-FLOOD ? I am sure there is a way to find our from it's geographical map, anyone ?

a) Bangkok Su Airport, its bus way to its bus terminal;

Su Airport direct bus to Pattaya, read most of the way is elevated expressway but.

c) Su Airport bus terminal,

d) Morchit bus terminal and its bus roads to Chiang Mai

Thanks.

I have a planned trip that cannot be cancelled.

Anyone know if buses to Chiang Mai are still operating ?

I went to Morchit the other day(before the flood reach BKK) and have a tough time checking from counters to counters as they don't speak much English;

a) WIN tours counters are closed and according to the bus terminal information counter, WIN tour is not willing to take the longer way so they stopped operating now, can anyone verify ?

I went to the 999 bus counters and enquired for Nov 10, the counter that showed me the schedule can't speak English and another of their counter girl who speak English told me they don't sell advance tickets due to the flood.

c) Finally, I bought from another counter(not WIN or 999 governmant bus) and the printed tickets I are all written in Thai except for NCA(i believe is the bus company name) and a "GOL". There are many phone numbers printed behind but they cannot be reached or speak no English.

Anyone know if I stand any chance of having my money refunded ? Looks like I have to cancel my bus trip and go by air.

I am now out of Thailand. Any advice or phone number or who to contact is much appreciated.

when will loy krathong be this year?

Actual day is Nov 10th this year.

Best LK celebration should be in Sukhothai and Chiang Mai but I have not attended Ayuttaya's.

Both Sukhothai & Chiang Mai will have celebrations for around 3 days and they always have their finale days differently so some people can attend both.

This year's final day will be Nov 10th for Sukhothai & Chiang Mai on Nov 11th. We will be attending both.

Hope someone can descibe Ayutthaya's LK celebrations and dates for this year and which airlines fly BKK - Sukhothai ?

I took the bus from Mo Chit to Sukothai in December of 2008. Very nice trip. About a 7 hour bus ride. The bus stopped once along the way at some rest stop sort of place. Not a great choice of Thai food there but it won't kill you. Noodle soup and one or two other things.

I tried to find some precise bus schedule information but not much luck. I would not recommend starting the trip at 1 or 2 pm. It will be dark when you get to the sukhothai bus terminal. Spend a night in BKK then get to the Mo Chit station early in the day. As I recall I left Mo Chit about 0930 AM. SUkhothail bus station is about 4 miles outside of town. Taxi drivers (kind of) take you from there to your hotel. I stayed at two places. Neither was fancy but for 400 baht a night they were OK to sleep. Found an internet cafe just around the corner from the "night market". I stayed in town 2 nights. Didn't find much to do. But the ruins are really nice. next time I plan to take more time and visit Pitsanalook and other parts of the area then continue on up to Chiang Mai.

Thanks. Read somehwre there are buses that took just 5 hours.

Which 2 places did you stay ? Can you pass me their contacts ?

I hope to stay at the old city, do you know any hotel there ?

I will arrive in Bangkok Su airport by 1115 and hope to reach Sukhothai old city before too late.

Anyone know if there is a bus between 1 pm to 2 pm from the Morchit bus terminal and how much time will the journey takes ?

Is there any bus that goes direct to the old city ?

The Marble Temple, not sure of its Thai name, might be the one mentioned by caramata. Nice surroundings and temple hall.

Wat Trimit at the beginning of Chinatown, with the large Buddha in solid gold and a standing Buddha with 3 dfferent expressions, seen from 3 different perspectives.

Obama clearly stated he does not support the independence of Tibet from China. Of course he supports that, but needs to say what he doesn't think to appease BULLY China. That's kind of sad. So Obama is brave, a little bit. Not saying it would be politically wise to push China; this just reflects the new reality in the world. The USA isn't even a paper tiger these days; it's not ANY kind of tiger.

Maybe their meeting is nothing political but personal.

With more and more Westerners keen on Buddhism knowledge the wise Obama is no exception.

Don't expect Obama to walk into a Buddhist temple or meet just any Buddhist monk.

There is no better person for him to meet other than the Dalai Lama if he wishes to learn more about Buddhism.

They have no right to stop Obama from meeting anyone, Chinese or not Chinese.

It showed they are only guilty-concious for what they have done to the Tibetans.

Hope their meeting will bring to the world better attention of the kidnapped Panchen Lama at the age of 5, together with his parents. Its been years and no one knows if they are still alive.

These OLD Chinese government officials are great bullys and ruthless. They can kill thousands of their own people for any reasons.

What right have they got to interfere over the meeting of Obama with anyone ? They have NO rights to stop Obama from meeting another Chinese, so what a Tibetan ?

What have they got to fear for the meeting if they are not guilty concious ?

Hope their meeting will bring to light the case of the latest Panchen Lama who was kidnapped by the Chinese at the age of 5, together with his parents. Its been years now and no one knows if theyv are still alive.

I need to return to Bangkok as late as possible by bus.

Anyone what time is their late night bus ?

I can also consider heading straight to the Su airport, anyone the timings ?

Thanks.

Just because some of the things the Buddha said were wise and full of truth does not mean that he is the author of that truth. Truth just is, anyone can uncover a truth and it may be an original thought even though others have uncovered the same truth.

From a Christian perspective, Jesus is God and everything that was created, was created through Him, including Buddha.

If Jesus was simply a man who created a religion then the entirety of Christianity is baseless, except for the wisdom of right living.

But if you see Jesus as God, it becomes ridiculous to try to piece together His influences as the academics do because His influence is purely and infinitely original. Either he is or He isn't.

If you do see Jesus as simply a man, How can you explain the massive impact He has had on the world, considering He taught for only three years, mainly to twelve guys who were nobodies, and spent nearly all of this time with non influential people. And he came from a family with no influence and died at 33.

Did I mention the Buddha is the author of the "truth" or any nice things that Christianity's are similar are all authored by the Buddha ? I am saying all the similarities showed that Christianity claims MIGHT had been copied from Budhhism. How sure are you my theories cannot be true ? No, I cannot claim those are my theories, I just discovered from more and more websites about them.

Can't we all be more open-minded about it ?

In the first place Jesus, the man might not even have existed, so is the place Nazareth. Check out at www.jesusneverexisted.com I will not argue or debate with you here directly over Jesus or Christianity.

This is not the point of my OP. My points are Buddhism's link to them.

You need not be so defensive. I know it is hard for anyone to be told that what they have been believing for generations suddenly claimed to be untrue by someone.

If someday, someone can prove or give theories than can prove that Gautama never existed, I will not be defensive over it. I will be happy that some real truth are found.

I don't feel like I am being defensive, sorry if it came across that way. I am actually only mildly interested.

You were claiming that Jesus may have been influenced by Buddha Gautama, which is saying that the ideas were not from Jesus but from Buddha Gautama. How is this not claiming Buddha Gautama to be the author, unless you mean to say the Buddha also got his ideas from someone else.

Just now you used the phrase "copied from Buddhism" Which to me implies authorship.

Well, I am not a Buddhism or Christianity specialist but everything can be learnt from basics. If the basics are proven to be wrong or unreasonable, I will not believe in the rest. Just like when evolution was discovered, story of adam and eve and the theories of christian's god and heaven don't make sense, I will not believe in it, no science needed.

As for Buddhism, my knowledge is there may be more than one Buddha.

I mentioned Christianity MIGHT had copied from Buddhism. I am not 100% sure yet if Jesus even existed. I am still researching on it.

There are some possibilities:

1) Jesus MIGHT existed, have studied Buddhism and tried to start a new religion(which I mentioned in my OP above) but everything after he is dead was made up by others; or

2) Jesus was the main culprit. He started and prepared everything, got caught and punished but his followers managed to carry out the rest of the task; or

3) Jesus never even existed. Whoever started the christianity scam made it all up.

So my points are(to correct yr statement against me that I implied Jesus copied from whatever Gautama authored:

a) I don't mean that Jesus copied Gautama or Buddhism. It's more correct for me to say Christianity copied, not necessary Jesus; and

I use the word "Buddhism" theories rather than Gautama because Gautama might have learnt them from someone else, even god or a previous Buddha.

Of course, another possibility is BOTH Buddhism and Christianity teachings are similar in some ways because BOTH copied them from an older source. If this is the case, it don't make any difference on the truth(or fake) behind christianity which has claimed their god is the only god, don't you think so ?

It's always good to debate or find things out as long as there are no fights, don't you agree ?

In Buddhism, one of the first lesson thought is to teach anyone NOT to simply believe in what others say or teach just because it has a long history or followings, especially from traditions.

If I can contribute just a little to help christianity prove that their religion had been fake or a scam, I am sure the "understanding people", whether christians or not should be happy with what I have done; or at least for my efforts.:jap:

Just because some of the things the Buddha said were wise and full of truth does not mean that he is the author of that truth. Truth just is, anyone can uncover a truth and it may be an original thought even though others have uncovered the same truth.

From a Christian perspective, Jesus is God and everything that was created, was created through Him, including Buddha.

If Jesus was simply a man who created a religion then the entirety of Christianity is baseless, except for the wisdom of right living.

But if you see Jesus as God, it becomes ridiculous to try to piece together His influences as the academics do because His influence is purely and infinitely original. Either he is or He isn't.

If you do see Jesus as simply a man, How can you explain the massive impact He has had on the world, considering He taught for only three years, mainly to twelve guys who were nobodies, and spent nearly all of this time with non influential people. And he came from a family with no influence and died at 33.

Did I mention the Buddha is the author of the "truth" or any nice things that Christianity's are similar are all authored by the Buddha ? I am saying all the similarities showed that Christianity claims MIGHT had been copied from Budhhism. How sure are you my theories cannot be true ? No, I cannot claim those are my theories, I just discovered from more and more websites about them.

Can't we all be more open-minded about it ?

In the first place Jesus, the man might not even have existed, so is the place Nazareth. Check out at www.jesusneverexisted.com I will not argue or debate with you here directly over Jesus or Christianity.

This is not the point of my OP. My points are Buddhism's link to them.

You need not be so defensive. I know it is hard for anyone to be told that what they have been believing for generations suddenly claimed to be untrue by someone.

If someday, someone can prove or give theories than can prove that Gautama never existed, I will not be defensive over it. I will be happy that some real truth are found.

This seems to be an interesting thread.

However, I would like clarification on times and dates etc.

My understanding is that Hinduism was the dominant religion for many years before Buddhism gradually supplanted it.

So my question is, which came first, Buddhism or Christianity ??

A bit off-topic but doesn't matter

Hinduism came before Buddhism, Buddhism came before Christianity(by around 500 years) and Islam came after Christianity by a few hundred years. Islam copied Christianity but "created" some older stories supposedly happened before Christ and add some stronger regulations and practices. That really pissed the christians as they cannot claim anything in the quran to be untrue. That is why christians and muslims are always at loggerheads.

Can Buddhism cure depression? No. Can psychotherapy cure depression? No. Can medication cure depression? No. Real depression results from an internal "short circuit" of the electrical signals within the brain. The key is acknowledging that malfunction and understanding that it is physiological rather than psychological. I have suffered from chemical depression since childhood but once I realized that it was only an imbalance, it was easier to deal with. For some reason, in our culture having a physical disorder is acceptable but having a mental one is not. Situational depression is caused by external events so can be dealt with acceptance of what has happened and understanding the teachings on karma and reincarnation. Once I began to take Buddhist teachings and learned to meditate, my ability to deal with the depression became better as I could see some of the causation. I will be the first to admit that losing everything to the tsunami and subsequent malfeasance left me seriously depressed even with my thirty years of Buddhist teachings and meditation. I believe that analytical meditation can give anyone the "wisdom" and strength to live with depression which results from bad things in his or her life. It is being able to calm the mind sufficiently to look at the problems objectively that can get us through the worst times and keep chronic depression from ruining our lives.

Everything starts from the smaller scale. In any form of depression, it's the psychological that caused the physiological. In all depression cases, the patient have something "unhappy" in their mind that started the problem, thus "mindfulness" is the only effective way to cure it. The "electrical signals " and "short circuit" part is a result of ther problem, not the actual cause.

I have "cured" some depression patients by "correcting" their mindset and thinkings and help them get rid of the unhappy thoughts.. Of course, meditation is a very supportive way to help the patient to have a good mind to "correct his thinking and erase the unhappy thoughts" beside allowing them to occupy their mind in a healthy way; making it no room for depression.

In a nutshell, the best way to cure depression is to make the patient understand the cause of his problem and then help them to get rid of them by making them understand more about life, mind and thoughts. Thus, Buddhism teachings can come in better and more useful than just meditation. For eg, in the case of someone who lost someone dear and close, for instance her husband. I will tell her what good will she get by feeling unhappy ? Can your unhappiness bring him back ? Do you believe he like to see you being unhappy and eventually get into serious depression ? Will his soul(or whatever) rest in peace if he knows that you are still unhappy ? Do you know why the Japanese never weep in a funeral ? These last 2 always work.

If necessary, I will bring in religion. If she is a christian, I will tell her that she should put the blame on her god or accept her god's wish for the husband's death. If she accept that it's god's wish and happy about it, fine. If not, change religion ! If she is a buddhist, I will check how much she understand and use some buddhism theories.

I think somebody missed the point or prefer to face the truth and prefer to live in the past; or rather in the dark.

First of all, why consider my OP as an act of hostility to christianity ? Take this for example; if I happen to be a judge and need to sentence my own father for a murder, will you consider it as an act of hostility to my father ? Do you mean that I should free him even if I know he is guilty ?

Don't we all hope that the world will unite and all religions will become one or even no religions required when the truth is found ?

Back to my OP, I hope some of you do not give unappropriate comments before you do a search and read the websites first.

Yes, I know it is a very controversial issue. I have asked some christian friends to ask their head of church or priest about it but the answer I received from them is simply they don't believe it so they don't ask or they are told NOT to believe in it.

Such replies made me more curious. If the church have some answers, why should they avoid it ? Their atitude gave the impressions that they actually believe the claims too or they have no reasons or answers to rebutt them, don't you think so ?

Before I explain further, just consider this:

How could there be so MANY similarities in Christianity teachings compared to Buddhism ?

Some of them are simply NOT coincidental. For eg, both Jesus and Buddha was born by a virgin mother. There are so many others, read them yourselves. If you cannot find the websites, come back and ask, I will provide the links.

If wikipedia and the www allows it, why shouldn't we discuss it here ?

We cannot avoid or pretend not to understand this simple logic. It's either:

a) Christianity copied ideas directly from Buddhism(If this is the case, you can figure out all the rest of the stories in the bible); or

both Buddhism and Christianity are not original, they have copied ideas from the same source(which is less believable)

This is nothing scientific.

canuckamuck,

I have all the answers to your questions. I will post them later.(if the moderators don't close this thread)

Spainel,

Buddhism & Christianity are entirely 2 different concepts.

You need to "understand" in Buddhism while you need to "believe" in Christianity.

Buddhism is simply understanding life; based on logic, reasons, understandings and even scientific to some extend, although it was taught since pre-science time.

Just like you don't call yourself a scientist if you understand or have some science knowledge or you don't call yourself a Mathematician if you know how to calculate.

So you need not be a buddhist to practice buddhism.

Unlike Christianity, which is purely built on some myths and stories without logic or reasonings, not to mention even science.

I believe Science will very soon able to prove it; based on the theory that energy can neither be created or destroyed but can be transformed.

Isn't that what is life and rebirth about ?

Earlier, I have discussed about Buddhism & Science.

Now I wish to discuss about Buddism, Jesus & Christianity. Probably many already knew.

There are found to have so much similarity between Buddhism & Christianity that there is a possibility that claims of Jesus being in India during his "missing years in the bible" carried more weight than myth.

I wonder what the others think ?

IF(a very big if here) it was true that Jesus studied Buddhism, he MIGHT have tried to start a new religion using his knowledge of Buddhism and the ancient belief opf GOD, simplified it to "believe in God & you go to heaven" to influence followers in a easier manner, add in the donations concept, you get a NEW & RICH religion. The Romans don't like it and take it as a SCAM and had him sentenced to death by crucification. Few days later, he woke up and ran back to India, and his followers take the opportunity to claim of his coming back to life and continued the religion to greater and stronger beliefs and followings. Thus, the bible was written; at a time when they don't expect science will discover the evolution theory or even the real shape of the earth many years later.

Oh....I forget to explain earlier that IF Jesus had been so capable of learning so much in Buddhism to start his own teachings; it will be no surprise that he had mastered the art of meditation well, survived on energy alone and escaped death. After all, none of his vital organs was stabbed.

Given a choice, obviously on top and not at the bottom.

All the Buddhist Monasteries in Ladakh are on hill-tops or higher grounds except for one.

The same applies to palaces, castles and even a throne, it's always higher than the floor.

For layman's explaination, one always feel better at the top.

If I use my science and energy-related theory to explain, most of you will not agree and some may challenge me by asking which website or where I find it. You may not get to see them in this life time.

How it affects the mind ? Experience yourself :jap:

Khwan comes from Tai animistic beliefs that pre-date Buddhism. For some Tai groups, including Lao and Northern Thai, there are 32 separate khwan present in your body, each with a separate function in overseeing organs and physical capacities.

This interests me.

The brain is the headquarter of our nerve system that controls our organs and physical capacities too & Buddhism believed in meditation and its usefulness which works on the mind.

Isn't this something that showed the coherence between science & Buddhism

Looks like Buddhism is very science-based although it's long before science discovered it.

A good day, my wife starts to be maechi (nun) for one month,

everyone asks me (thai people) why you as husband allow it?

She is a free woman and me a free man. We understand. Enough.

Sorry I don't get it. Since you mentioned, may I ask which of you is Thai and which is non-Thai ? Or both are non-Thai ?

Is common sense compatible with people who believe religion or a philosophy like christianism or buddhism ?

Just live in peace with any other people around you and you'll be fine with the ticket to the nirvana.

BTW, I'm an atheist.

You are atheist like me and you understand the basic Teaching of the Buddha.

But common sense can be a trap too.

Many people with "common sense" are advocates of the Death Penalty.

What is Death Penalty ?

he simply asked you to explain how a 3 year old is in a state of nibbana. you didnt do it

He kept claiming he is here to ask questions about Buddhism but I see none of the answers provided by others is agrreable to him.

I could have explained to him easily that a 3 years old is near naive, innocent & ignorant but an adult is not, thus the need to seek for nibbana. I know he will not agree too and will use words like "awareness" and "concepts" to camourflage it..

But Christianity is firm on salvation through faith/belief

But it lacks logic and reasonings, in order to justify and complete your statement.

Let me elaborate in simple layman's way(most of the members here are too Buddhistic in their words, making them very difficult for non-Buddhist or the ordinary people to understand :

Christianity is taught to make people think that whatever wrongs he did in a lifetime, as long as he believe in "their" god and pray to him, he will be forgiven and heaven reached after death OR a christian can be bad for 6 days every week, go for confession on sunday, 6 days' sins forgiven. Then start again next week. It lacks logic and very unconvincing, isn't it ? Now in my country, many people are starting to realise the unreasonability of christian beliefs. On the other hand, "bad" people will like it. They need not fear being sent to hell after death, It will also be easier and simpler to accept for the more simple-minded people.

Buddhism is different. Karma is accumulative and not one time off. One may do a lot of good deeds in a lifetime but if he did something very bad near the end(murdering a good person out of greed, for example) he may still be punished in his next life. This way of rebitrth and punishments or rewards difinitely is more reasonable and sensibleb than christianity beliefs.

While both may just be beliefs and not true, at least the Buddhism way is fair and able to create a better society. The christianity way is certainly less likely to be true because GOD(if exists) sure cannot be so unreasonable and unfair. I will not need to mention about the 7 days creation or adam and eve stories which are all proven to be untrue by science. My views are: if the most important parts are found untrue or wrong, why should I believe the rest of it ? They may be some motives behind its creation which we don't know yet.

On the other hand, the Buddhism theory, as many see it, is very coherent with scientific laws of the energy formula(energy cannot be destroyed but can be transformed, so rebirth) as well as the law of relativity(similar to karma). I strongly believe that in times to come, science will eventually prove them right. This deserves a different topic thread.

Don't bother trying to steer the topic to your favourite subject of "awareness." The topic is simple enough. Everyone can answer according to their current understanding of both religions.

Indeed, it's not a matter of awareness it's a matter of relevance. It's relevant for people who have roots in both practises, or a history with both practises, or family and friends in one practise while you're trying to practise the other, or for people who can't make up their mind or want to hedge their bets.

Otherwise I don't see the question as relevant, the stated aims of both practises are very different (though some schools of each are much closer to each other than to the rest of their own religion).

However wisdom is wisdom no matter where it comes from, I think there are some very evolved people who got that way practising another religion besides Buddhism. Buddhist practise is not the only way to attain wisdom though I suspect it's the only way to perfect it.

Why don't you start a new thread if you have so much to say that is not directly related to the OP ? ( I am learning much more than Buddhism here)