tycann

At the time I was living (for 2 years) at a treatment facility for alcohol and drug abuse (booze, crack, heroin, pills, etc.).

Congratulations on being clean man... I've also had severe drug and alcohol problems in the past (no heroin but everything else you mentioned above). Nobody who hasn't can't possibly understand that it's about so much more than 'learning how not to get high.'

The meditation complemented my recovery marvelously as I also suffered from social phobia and panic attacks.

Me, too. Still do. Meditation is great, but still hasn't taken the place of a hefty daily dose of Zoloft for me.

The twenty-ninth was a half-moon (relatively unimpotant) Wan Phra... I don't see any reason she would have not been able to talk to you... unless she is extremely devout or something... all the monks I know pretty much go on about their business when the chanting is done with. Definately no reason for a party. Of course, I don't know about Isan.

Yes, that's it.

I would second the above recommendation for Mahamakut's bookstore-- no farang pricing!! Kinokuniya is great but expensive. Another expensive, though excellent store, is on the 4th or 5th floor of Silom Complex, next to Sala Daeng station. Sorry, I forget the name, but it's an all English bookstore that's not easy to miss. It's independent so I like to support it.

Toronto?

Bad Santa

No prob dood.

It's cool that you've been to Macleaod Ganj. I'd love to make my way up there, but there are things to do, bills to pay... you know how it is. It would be a great stop on my dream vacation to Bhutan, but I can't go there until I have the money for the unbelievably pricy visa.

Good point rikpa. I was talking about the very same idea with a gtoup of Mahayana guys the other day. We concluded that it was not possible to pinpoint an exact definition of the bodhisattva in Mahayana. As you pointed out, a bodhisattva may be one who has merely taken (and practiced) the bodhisattva vow, or a realized being. One could add that there is a third class of bodhisattva in Mahayana-- the archetypal bodhisattva, who is not meant to necessarily represent a historical person but rather serve as the embodiment of a characteristic (Avaloketishvara, etc.) When we discussed the enlightenment of the 2nd type mentioned above, there is a bit of confusion.

Most Mahayanists will assert the bodhisattva is 'fully enlightened,' but this may not be representative of the original ideas. As all outgrowths of Buddhism have their original base in Pali, any ambiguity in Pali terms could be purportred to extend thereto. Parinibbana, when in the form of the past participle is parinibbuta, which is seen in the Tipitaka to refer to a broad range of things-- from the enlightenment of the Arahant or Buddha, to a more common meaning of tranquility, or even to the taming of a horse. Additionally, the term 'satta' in Pali has 3 possible analogs in Mahayanist Sanskrit (due to the larger alphabet of Sanskrit)-- it can mean 'seven', 'aspiring to', or 'being.' Depending on the translation to Sanskrit, a bodhisattva can thus be one who is 'being/having bodhi', or one who is 'aspiring to bodhi'-- hence we see two interperetations existing side by side in Mahayana. Of course, I guess he could also be 'bodhi 7' but that doesn't really work, unless its like a superhero team or something.

Yes, I have several sources indicating such. There is no outright quote from the Dalai Lama proclaiming Asahara's bodhisattva-hood, but enough to support that at the very least he respected and praised Asahara's meditative attainments. These sources follow below.

Neeranam, as I respect you and your ideas, I was a little hurt to see your 'Nonsense' reply. I would imagine you to be one who would not dismiss something without properly investigating it first. I am not a Dalai Lama basher by any stretch of the imagination-- I'm just saying he made a simple mistake. A mistake which he himself admitted to, with levity, in the 3rd quote below.

Some quotes are as follows:

The Dalai Lama is purported to have said "You can do that well, because you have the mind of a Buddha. If you do so, I shall be very pleased. It will help me with my mission”

-Kaplan, David E., and Marshall, Andrew, The Cult at the End of the World, New York 1996.

"The Dalai Lama recalled that when he

first met the secretive cult's leader Shoko Asahara he was

impressed by what appeared to he Asahara's seriousness and

spirituality."

-World Tibet Network News

Friday, April 7, 1995

"But to endorse Asahara, as he did, was, the Dalai Lama quickly says, 'a mistake. Due to ignorance! So, this proves"—and breaks into his full-throated laugh--"I am not a `Living Buddha'!'"

-Office of Tibet New York > www.tibetoffice.org/en

"...Asahara himself and even, it would seem, by the Dalai Lama, who at one point offered his encouragement to Asahara as a potential renewer of Japanese Buddhism."

- MARBURG JOURNAL OF RELIGION

Volume 3, No.1 (March 1998)

Only after the subway attacks did HH revise his position, and then not radically so: "His Holiness still called the guru a 'friend, although not necessarily a perfect one'” (Stern 36/95, p. 126)

The two met no less than five times, due to the fact that Asahara was a major financial contributor to the Dalai Lama's cause. Here is a picture of the two:

In the time of the Buddha, it seems that you couldn't walk down the street without running into an Arahant, but it doesn't seem like there are so many around now. I've asked one monk who I respect very much about this question in the past. He linked the decline in Arahantship to the complexity of modern life, along with the deterioration of the dhamma's potency throughout time. According to the Buddha, the dhamma should heve already disappeared from the world-- it was only foretold to remain for 500 years.

Additionally, there have been some dubious claims of Arahantship/enlightenment in the past. Perhaps the most shocking example is that the Dalai Lama proclaimed Soko Asahara as a bodhisattva. You may now know Mr. Asahara better as the leader of Aum Shinrikyo, and the mastermind of the Tokyo Subway nerve gas attacks.

Thanks!

Hi everyone. I've entered and exited Thailand 2 times in the last three months (and once more a year ago), and I have to visit Thailand again this month. I've previously entered on a regular, automatic tourist visa (I'm from the USA.) Is there a limit on the number of times I can do this within a short period of time? This might seem like a stupid question, but my contact in Thailand just told me that it might be difficult for me to enter Thailand this time around because I have visited so frequently. It's also quite urgent! I have a very important meeting there and I have to leave very soon! Thanks!