Gohonzon

does anyone here have any thoughts or comments on how buddhism affects the conscience?

I always liken having a bad conscience to that of karma.Sometimes when we remember past deeds,at no defined time, the memory can hurt us emotionally .Karma operates in much the same way.We cannot escape the consequences of our actions -whether for good or ill.At some time the inherent causes that we have made will reach fruition and be manifested in our lives.

The thing is ,of course, to realise that we can change our karma at any given moment.Karma is not fatalistic-it is an active phenomena.I forget who said-perhaps the Buddha himself-'that if we wish to understand our present,then we need to look at the causes that we made in the past: If we wish to know our future,then we should be aware of the causes that we make in the present'.

As Dharma practioners we naturally develop Wisdom.That is,the Wisdom to act for our own karmic benefit and for the benefit for others.We thus create good effects for ourselves that also profoundly affect our environment.A good and clear conscience,based upon our actions, is the most condusive (Wisdom borne) entity to peace within.

As a practioner of the Dharma taught in the Lotus Sutra, my own experience is that when I chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo good karma begins to work on my behalf.

Kind regards.

A bloke walks in to a sex shop and asks the assistant for a blow up doll.The assistant asks the man whether he would like a Christian or a Moslem doll? The man asks the assistant what the difference is between them, to which the assistant replies:

"The Moslem ones normally blow themselves up".

I can't see that your son will remain shy after visiting Pattaya.It's all a little 'in your face' as they say.

But if you're going to stay in Hua Hin,then just down the road Cha-Am is a gentle alternative to Bangkok and Pattaya: Best go mid-week though, as half of the entire population of Bangkok seem to descend on the ever popular resort at weekends and public holidays.

Etihad Air are cheap but good apparently.See my thread on Page 2

Also try

http://www.westeasttravel.com/user/default.asp

And while I am asking, what does Sunday mean?

Wan ahtit ,is the Thai name for Sunday.Ahtit being the Sun;and the Sanskrit origin is 'aditya war'-war ('a' being pronounced the same as in the English 'jar') is the Sanskrit for day.Sunday being the same as in European languages.

For further references to the Thai system of astrology-amongst other things-a good starting point may be: Thai Ways~Denis Segaller. I know that this book has a section on the comparisons between Thai and Western astrology.

...a struggling Hollywood producer who rents a Buddha statue at the behest of a Buddhist friend who believes it will bring him luck

Sounds pretty much in tune with Thai beliefs to me

Is there any agreement on the origin and authenticity of the Lotus Sutra?

Firstly,I don't really want to get involved with the question of 'authenticity' of the Lotus Sutra (LS) based on where it may,or may not have been discovered.If only becuase I don't know the answer to that question-and (with respect ) think find it slightly irrelevant.

The opening line of the sutra opens with: "Thus I have heard",or "I have heard thus".This 'I' represents the disciple who originally heard this sutra.Most sutras that begin with the same opening line would have been recited by Buddha Shakyamuni's cousin and closest disciple Ananda,who memorized all the teachings and and recited them verbatim.

It is widely hels that the LS contains the authentic teaching of the Buddha on the Dharma.That is,the law that underlies all other laws.Before the LS a variety of sutras were expounded upon as means or expedients to lead living beings to enlightenment.The significance of the LS is in the Budddha wanting to unify the three vehicles,Sravaka (direct hearer)-Pratyekabuddha (seeker of enlightenment by and for himself,a 'private Buddha) and the Boddhisattvas of the Greater Vehicle-those hearing the Buddha's ideal of working in the world for the salvation of others.The Great Vehicle teaches us that there is only on true and perfect enlightenment ,that of the Buddha.Anyone, without exception, can attain Buddhahood.Buddhahood is not confined to those who practice away from the rest of the world.There are not two worlds-the everyday world and the world of spirit-but the one.The Boddhisattva ideal is to realize enlightenment in the everyday world ,and its mission is to deliver people from suffering.

Amongst the praises offered to the Buddha in ch.7 of the LS are the oft quoted words:

'May the merits we have accumulated by this offering be distributed among all living beings,and may we and all living beings together attain the enlightenment of the Buddha'.

Needless to say that The Great Vehicle teaches not enlightenment for self alone ,but for the salvation of all beings without exception!

Without getting into doctrinal disputes,it is worth noting that the Buddha says in, the LS ,that the 'hearers' are really Boddhisattvas.The LS is very liberal (less critical of the Lesser Vehicle) compared to other Mahayana texts in that it says, that those performing practices derived from the Lesser Vehicle are assured of future Buddhahood.

It is not that the LS can be held to be apart from all of the the other Sutras-this is a grave error and misconception based on poor understanding-but can only be read as being part of the continuum of all other sutras,that is, until the Buddha sheds off expediency and reveals his true enlightenment ,his compasionate desire for all beings to be enlightened in this world and the Tathagata's true and eternal being.

cf. LS chapter XV1

In essence.this precious gem is the treasure tower of all sutras and needs to be read/studied for oneself to gain the benefits from so doing (to help navigate the LS's more difficult aspects ,parables and applicability I have recommended elsewhere,and cite again [below] an excellent introduction.)

Although ultimately it a question of having faith borne from encountering the absolute Buddha.

'This does not mean that we should believe blindly.But a faith ,not only inspired by the experience of something beyond our ordinary capacities.We can evaluate it by means of our intellect and reason,and form our own mental attitudes...Mental attitudes can be right or wrong ,they can be noble or base.Faith that is formed through wrong mental attitudes in nothing more than superstition.Of course there can be no errors in Sakyamuni's(sic) teaching.'

Introduction To The Lotus Sutra~Shingo Suguro.

"I am always thinking:

How I can cause all living beings

To enter the supreme way

And quickly become Budhas"

LS,ch.XV1

"Because I have great compassion,I do not begrudge anything.I am fearless.I wish to give the wisdom of the Buddha to all people.I am the great alms giver to all living beings.Follow me ,and study my teachings.When you see good men,or women,who believe in the Wisdom of the Buddha,you should teach them the Lotus Sutra"

LS,ch.XX11

"If one is going to take faith at all, then among all the various teachings of the Mahayana and the Hinayana, provisional and true doctrines, one should believe in the one vehicle, the true purpose for which the Buddhas come into the world and the direct path to attaining enlightenment for all living beings."

~Collected Works of Nichiren Daishonin.

"No other doctrine can surpass the Lotus Sutra, a great lantern that illuminates the long night of the sufferings of birth and death, a sharp sword that can sever the fundamental darkness inherent in life."

(ibid)

Nam-myho-renge-kyo.

IMHO,he best two books written* on Thai ceremonies,festivals,beliefs and other insights into Thai culture and its people are:

Thai Ways~Dennis Segaller

More Thai Ways,by the same author.

*Actually a collection of his writings that appeared in his weekly column from the no longer available 'Bangkok World' (1975-1985) .The articles were updated in the 1998 editions that I own.

I don't know anything of this hotel.But I've had experience of hotels that have quite a few Chinese people staying,and can concur that they are a little on the exuberant/loud side for some peoples taste.

American Intelligence

G.W. Bush

1.Two Aerials meet on a roof - fall in love - get married The

ceremony was rubbish but the reception was brilliant.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Man goes to the doc, with a strawberry growing out of his head.

Doc says "I'll give you some cream to put on it."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

3. "Doc, I can't stop singing the green green grass of home."

"That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome. "

"Is it common?"

"It's not unusual."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

4. A guy walks into the psychiatrist wearing only clingfilm for

shorts.

The shrink says, "Well, I can clearly see you're nuts."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

5. A man takes his Rottweiler to the vet.

"My dog's cross-eyed, is there anything you can do for him? "

"Well," says the vet, "let's have a look at him"

So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then checks his teeth.

Finally, he says "I'm going to have to put him down."

"What? Because he's cross-eyed? "

"No, because he's really heavy"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

6. Guy goes into the doctor's.

"Doc, I've got a cricket ball stuck up my backside."

"How's that?"

"Don't you start"

--------------------------------------------------------------------

7. "Doctor, I can't pronounce my F's, T's and H's."

"Well you can't say fairer than that then"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

8. What do you call a fish with no eyes?

A fsh.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

9. So I went to the dentist.

He said "Say Aaah."

I said "Why?"

He said "My dog's died."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

10. A neutron walks into a bar. "I'd like a beer" he says.

The bartender promptly serves up a beer.

"How much will that be?" asks the neutron.

"For you?" replies the bartender, "no charge."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

11. Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar.

One says, 'I think I've lost an electron.'

The other says 'Are you sure?'

The first says, 'Yes, I'm positive... '

---------------------------------------------------------------------

12. "So I rang up my local swimming baths. I said 'Is that the local

swimming baths?' He said 'It depends where you're calling from.'"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

13. "So I rang up a local building firm, I said 'I want a skip

outside my house.'

He said 'I'm not stopping you.'

---------------------------------------------------------------------

14. Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese.

And there are 5 people in my family, so it must be one of them.

It's either my mum or my dad. Or my older brother Colin.

Or my younger brother Ho-Cha-Chu. But I think it's Colin.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

15. So I was getting into my car, and this bloke says to me "Can you

give me a lift?"

I said "Sure, you look great, the world's your oyster, go for it."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

16. Two cannibals eating a clown. One says to the other "Does this

taste funny to you?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

17. Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery

acid, the other was eating fireworks.

They charged one and let the other one off.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

18. "You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving

today.

They left a little note on the windscreen, it said 'Parking Fine.'

So that was nice."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

19. A man walked into the doctors, The doctor said " I haven't seen

you in a long time "

The man replied "I know I've been ill"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

20. A man walked into the doctors, he said "I've hurt my arm in

several places"

The doctor said "well don't go there any more"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

21. I had a ploughman's lunch the other day.

He wasn't very happy.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

22. You know those Mange-tout?

They're really nice but I couldn't eat a whole one

---------------------------------------------------------------------

23. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I

couldn't find any.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

24. I bought some HP sauce the other day. It's costing me 6p a month

for the next 2 years.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

25. I went to the butchers the other day and I bet him 50 quid that

he couldn't reach the meat off the top shelf. And he said, 'no, the steaks are too high.'

"Greater vehicle, lesser vehicle, all vehicles will be towed at the owner's expense."

--Kenneth Patchen

The Buddha Big Bus

1. Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria.

I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was

amazing."

2. Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I

speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."

3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my

mother and father."

4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries, and even some

deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious."

5. Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think

we can expect the same thing again."

6. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition

doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."

7. At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife

of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."

8. Football commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like

they've got eleven Dicks on the field."

9. Tennis commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so

well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his

balls and kisses them...

Oh

my God, what have I just said?"

Thanks for that information meadish_sweetball.I wasn't actually planning on going to Koh Chang-and now probably never will. But I still found your review and experiences informative.And who knows if I may be asked about the island in the future? Cheers.

Realise ourselves

Realise our true natures

Realise our real needs and goals

Realise the importance of the present moment

Realise the importance of health

Realise the impermanace of afflictions

Realise the love within us

Realise how blissful we are

Yang Chieh in Tainan

Hungry Ghost Festival

Which is both interesting and shows the strong links with Chinese culture-particularly in the North (Chiang Mai) and of course -Bangkok.

The interesting thing is that ancestoral worship has, if anything,taken roots both in China and Japan.Both of which are predominantly Mahayana Buddhist countries.Admittedly that neither country would actually profess to being predominantly Buddhist countries:Buddhism,I think that I'm right in saying, being further down the list than say secularism and Shintoism respectively.References traced back to Confusianism should not be overlooked here.

Nevertheless,in the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin(Jpn.) which in turn has its roots in T'ien-Tai (Ch) the Hungry Ghosts are acknowleged:

[Hence the (Lotus) sutra states: "If there are good men or good women who . . . believe and revere it with pure hearts and harbour no doubts or perplexities, they will never fall into h ell or the realm of hungry spirits or of beasts, but will be born in the presence of the Buddhas of the ten directions."] Collected Works

The world of Hunger though,is more importantly one of the Ten Worlds that a human can inhabit at any time-or life moment- in the present,and does not usually denote physical hunger.The others being The Worlds of H ell.Animality,Anger,Tranquility,Rapture,Learning and Realization.Bodhisattva and Buddhahood itself.

I think that I'm correct in saying, that also in Tibetan Buddhism,Hungry Spirits are also both acknowleged and respected-with food being offered to them as means to placate their needs.However,as in much of Tibetan Mahayana this may be symbolic?

In Thailand, there is also an insult that can be levelled to someone by reference to a hungry spirit,tall as a mountain but with the smallest of mouths (small as a pin.) This is the spirit,or ghost of someone who committed exceptionally bad deeds whilst alive.The symbolism of the mouth being so tiny lays in its inability to eat enough to ever be satisfied. Naturally,the name escapes me when I need it,sorry.

Again notice the similarities with Mahayana Buddhism:

'As a result of a killing of the lower degree, one will fall into the realms of h ell, hungry spirits, and animals, and will suffer all the pains appropriate to a killing of the lower degree.' (ibid)

Of course,in Amazing Thailand things like take on a unique 'Thai-ness' that we all know and love.Why of course the motor car

by the way, it is not the car but the spirit that lives in the car that they we celebrating, whether that means anything else or not I do not know.

I realise that there's a lot of animism attached to Thai Buddhism-if that involves spirit worship\superstition as well?

So I guess that it follows that attempting to placate\please spirits -possibly believed to inhabit motorcars at certain times -would be a logical extension of that.A kind of mobile spirit house maybe?

Although I don't claim to be an authority on the subject,I'm pretty sure,however, that this hasn't anything to do with any practice within Theravada Buddhism itself: more akin to old traditions and beliefs that have somehow clung-on to,and to a very large extent been tolerated, in mainstream Thai Buddhism-a sort of hypothesis waiting to be disproved.

The honouring of ones ancesters is an integral part of some schools of Mahayana Buddhism,but stops short of superstitions,especially some of those that can be found within Thailand.Also in other parts of Buddhist SE Asia I think .

I remember some time ago,when first visiting Thailand, asking a head monk in Sukothai why it was that so many 'wats' have astrologers and all kinds of soothsayers,charm pedlars and the suchlike,within the inside surrounds of temples.He told me -quoting someone else I believe- that it was all OK because; " they have the weak beer,but we've got the whisky." Back then I thought him to be offering a spiritual metaphor in justification.However,some years later, and upon reflection. . .

Nevertheless,I feel sure that others will be able to elaberate on these non-Buddhist practices (and their raisons d'etre) in Thailand for you.

Regards

why do you think mumbo jumbo gohonzon?

I have nothing against Thai traditions whatsoever.Loi Krathong is one of the most beautiful festivals that I've ever encountered.

But perhaps you'd care to enlighten me as to just what wai-ing to a motor car has to do with Buddhism-Thai,or otherwise.That's all I was questioning.

And o the price £319

Was this a student fare.If not,who did you book it with?

Cheers.

I am moving this topic to the buddhism forum now...

Why?

Oh well, given some of the other highly questionable mumbo-jumbo attached to Thai Buddhism,adding yet another won't do much harm I suppose.

Great deal. But there is probably a reason.

My friend was supposed to leave Bangkok on Saturday night. But they overbooked. So, he is now stuck in Bangkok while Phuket Airlines are trying to get him on stanby for British Airways and Qantas.

His brother flew with Phuket Airlines once in July. His trip back to the UK was also eventful. Divert to Dubit and the plane broke down. Their staff was no where to be seen while 250 passengers were waiting for 7 hours. Until one of the passengers got the flight list and got seats for everyone on the Emirates.

Before anyone asks.. my friend had booked his flight before his brother's journey. So, that's why he is still now in Bangkok.

ooo,err

Introduction To The Lotus Sutra~Shinjo Suguro.

For many Buddhists-particularly in the Mahayana tradition-The Lotus Sutra is one of the most important, if not the most important, of sutras in the Buddhist canon. To the beginning student of Buddhism, however, The Lotus Sutra itself often presents a difficult challenge. A guide through the sutra's three component parts is,therefore,particularly welcome.

Offering as it does,a literary analysis with a little of the historical background, this 'introduction' coveys the essence of the sutra in a way that cannot fail but to inspire the reader.It will also deepen ones understanding of Buddha Shakyamuni's compassion and desire to lead all people to enlightenment.

Highly recommended.

Gautama Buddha (approximately 563 BC - 483 BC) was born Siddhartha Gautama (Sanskrit form, or Siddhatta Gotama, Prakrit form); the title Buddha (enlightened one) was later bestowed upon him by his followers. He is also commonly known as Shakyamuni (or Sakyamuni), "The sage of the Shakya/Sakya clan", and as the Tathagata (untranslatable: roughly, "The thus-come one" or "The thus-gone one", emphasizing the nature of a Buddha to go about in the world without adding or subtracting anything from his experience.)

So usually Buddha is referred to by this name rather than Gautama.On the other hand if one accepts that there have been countless Buddhas throuhout 'incaculable aeons',then Buddha Shakymuni can be used to specify He that gained enlightenment unerneath the Bhodi-tree and subsequently taught/preached Dharma (law,truth).Although it's true to say that the name Buddha Shakymuni-likewise Gautama-is rarely used by Thai people.

Given that most Thai's understanding of Buddhism is generally quite basic-the more precise nuances are something that they may well be either unfamiliar with,or are unimportant to them:In which case the name Buddha suffices perfectly and without detraction.It's much in the same way that if you were to ask someone from a Christian background and/or culture why the name Jesus,for instance, was used and not the Messiah; I think the probability is that you'd be answered with something like: "Dunno,we just do."

I hope that this helps

Indeed,an amazingly good deal.

Anyone know who they can be booked with back in the UK.Or whether the price is comparable going out from LGW?

Their search engine produces fares for which there is no seat availabity on your specified dates.

This statement is true.Their website is only a scam to get you to ring them.

Having said that, I've used dialaflight quite a lot in the past and have got as good a deals as anywhere else-even on a high season urgent flight-and have never been pushed onto a date that I didn't specify.But there again I usually travel in the low season.

I'll be hunting around more next time though,e.g. westeasttravel.

Getting back to dialaflight.I'm not sure if this is good or bad.But they say that they won' book you on any airline that has anything nearing dodgey track record.