soalbundy

Did any luggage go missing? otherwise not a problem.

She seems to be bra-less and ready for some interesting philosophical conversation.

Why indeed, I fear we shall never know ????

No, it seems to have reverted back to its origins in non tourist areas. In my village family groups including those who had traveled back home from Bangkok, gathered outside their houses feasting and the young revered the old by pouring water over their hands. Since the death of my wife's father I am now the oldest and so had to endure about 20 members of the wife's family sitting me on a raised chair and after standing in line they poured water into my cupped hands while reciting Buddhist prayers and since this was an honour I couldn't be so churlish and refuse to go to the temple for the Buddhist service, I would have preferred some water fights, in fact the next day I drove to the market town gleefully expecting mayhem but it was just a normal day.

In my village it's banned and several others as well, even in the market town 17 km away there was nothing going on.

It's just a phase he's going through. Seriously though, it must be devastating if your own flesh and blood does this to you, especially for an Indian who generally have strong family ties. His son obviously isn't a Mensa candidate as the police obviously know who he is unless patricide was intended.

Sad. Where was the mother, divorced isn't dead. The poor little kid has had life's troubles thrust on him at an early stage, an intelligent, independent soul by all accounts.

Complaining about corrupt politicians anywhere in the world is like complaining about birds flying or that rain is wet. The special hallmark of Thai corruption however is that it is a pursuit without shame and almost no consequences. Mark Twain said that mankind is the only animal that blushes....or needs to, the Thais have set themselves in their own ball park on that one, they see no need to.

Attempted murder was too complicated.

Come election time they will all be singing 'I vow to thee my country...........'

Pedantic, as someone once said, 'accuracy is the priority of the firing squad', Sheldon could kill any remark made in jest by disassembling its entirety for the sake of an accurate representation of its component parts. Woof999 was of course correct in his appraisal of my jocular remarks on the health of the driver and the resultant consequences should he have really suffered a seizure ????

You sound like Sheldon from 'The Big Bang Theory'

Depends on whether he needs any help or not

A seizure, I like it, it's better than the failed brakes excuse and nobody can prove him wrong.

A friend of mine would also like to know some details of how this is done.

$52 million, obviously a man with ambition but he couldn't find a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the USA? A serious lack of planing. The FBI found him, not the the RTP, they were just the collectors.

She definitely deserves a helmet.

It is understandable, in the countryside where I live nobody is alone because the village takes care of its own but in the cities life is different. The young are working and raising their own families trying to make ends meet, looking after an elderly relative, usually 100+ Km away just isn't possible.

I can agree with that.......obviously it's all about experience but on the other hand the experience pales after an hour and after a day it's as if it never happened, joy from outside of the true self 'atman' (not the 'me') needs constant replenishment, atman is the pure joy of being, synonymous with Brahman, when not smothered by the 'me' and its constant need for labels of identification and its search for meaning in pleasure. Even in Christianity (and all major religions) there are hints of this, in the bible when God/Brahman/consciousness was asked for his name the answer, "I am that I am" was given, nothing else was needed, no labels, no reasons, atman is attributeless, self- illuminating, unrelated, omnipresent but it apparently needs the illusion of Maya to be aware of itself. Death of the 'me' is release and freedom for the atman (poorly translated as the soul, atman is Brahman/God/consciousness, there is only one absolute.

Although counter intuitive the point was, there is no reality to existence, everything is a manifestation, nothing exists in and of itself. The Rishi sages whose meditative experiences 4,000 years ago lay the foundations of Hinduism said that only Brahman (we would say consciousness) is real, all else is Maya, an illusory 'reality'. Quantum theory (which nobody really understands as it too is counter intuitive) says all 'particles' (which are really vibrations) only come into apparent existence when the particle wave function collapses due to observation, until then it is only a probability and is spread out in the whole universe. Experiments in quantum mechanics have also shown that the future affects the past which lends credence to spiritual thinking that neither are 'real' and only the present moment 'exists' (although not really). It's a paradox of understanding of that which isn't but is never the less experiential.

I'll be 75 this year, my son will be 16. I want to see him finish a higher education at 20 or so, he is intelligent and has shown that he is willing and capable of having an academic future. Whether I live that long I shall leave it up to causality. I am still fit, clamber about on the roof cleaning the rain gutters, cut down the odd tree in the garden etc. just a matter of genetics. Filling ones life with activities and bucket lists isn't a source of happiness, fleeting enjoyment is just distraction but that is just my opinion. Many can't bear silence and solitude because then something unknown starts nudging their consciousness and wants to shine through the baggage of 'me'. Hinduism, Buddhism and quantum theory seem to agree that your manifestation is illusory and some westerners have had a spontaneous flash of realization, Tony Parsons was one such man, an Englishman walking through a London park had to sit down on the ground in shock seeing that he was the grass, the trees, the dog and that his 'me' had disappeared. Here an extract from his small book 'The open secret'. There is no me or you, no seeker, no enlightenment, no disciple and no guru. There is no better or worse, no path or purpose, and nothing that has to be achieved. All appearance is source. All that apparently manifests in the hypnotic dream of separation – the world, the life story, the search for home, is one appearing as two, the nothing appearing as everything, the absolute appearing as the particular. There is no separate intelligence weaving a destiny and no choice functioning at any level. Nothing is happening but this, as it is, invites the apparent seeker to rediscover that which is . . . the abiding, uncaused, unchanging, impersonal silence from which unconditional love overflows and celebrates. It is the wonderful mystery.

Or she was having a secret lesbian session with the doll.

It could be a brilliant Sonkran then.

I can agree with you only to a certain extent because corruption in Thailand is almost innocent in its openness, as you say, everyone is at it, it's like a national sport. Of course it is harmful to society as a whole but in most cases it isn't done to crush and harm, in 90% of cases the harm done isn't excessive compared to the overall sum involved. It even has a certain charm about it, the official may open his left hand for the tea money and then open is right hand with an engaging smile as if to say, "OK that was the bribe but what about the Bakschisch". The government purse is, like everywhere else, normally the target. I used to live in Bavaria, Germany, the minister president of the state/county was Franz Joseph Strauss, a firebrand of a businessman/politician who was regarded as a bit of a scoundrel on the quiet. He once said that a little alcohol (what he meant was corruption) kept the wheels of industry turning, he turned the state of Bavaria from an agricultural economy to the richest industrial area of Germany, when he died he was given what looked like a princely state funeral. Thailand, compared to its immediate neighbours, is doing rather well, the people are generally happy and one doesn't see abject poverty, there is no state terror as in Mayanmar, things roll along with slow progress despite hypocrisy and corruption, they have arranged themselves with the middle way, not too white and not too black, I rather like it the way it is.

Perhaps he's from Barcelona.