CharlesHH

The freezing must be at VERY low temps, way below your kitchen freezer.

The sperm is supposed to recover ok and be ready to father.

However, some facts within the wool blankets of stupid remarks.........

-artificial insemination does not work the first time all the time, nor the fifteenth time.

-the woman has to have a dozen injections to increase fertilization and they hurt every time.

-young man's sperm is more plentiful in the ejaculate and more motile, meaning better, but only for regular fertilization the old fashioned way.

-old men's only problem is FEWER sperm being produced overall, less motile, but it only takes one good one which is possible to find.

Saving one's sperm makes little sense except if one predicts he will lose all fertility, not easy to do in normal life.

Phoenix, the more positive your comment on ThaiVisa, the more denigrating and insulting comments you will get.

I got burned just like you with an honest statement of fact, yours being more of an opinion, but nevertheless, snide ThaiVista comments come right away, mainly in British English slang.

I can help you help yourself............ Look outside and it sky is overcast, likely rain will come; if black clouds, rain is coming very fast. If sky is clear blue, likely you will have sun for a while.

Ok, let me be "helpful" as moderators want.......... Google "Thailand weather radar" and get this for example, and several other sites....... http://www.accuweather.com/en/th/national/satellite

That will be current weather, but a prediction can be done by YOU just by looking where the weather cells are and which way moving, looking at the isobars and pressure gradients, and with a close up on your area, a good guess about what is coming in some hours from the present. Otherwise, longer term exact forecasts are wild guesses.

Wonderful ! Read this often.

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm

From interviewing men who took off their robes to fight the Red Chinese and their sons and daughters, I can say that those men

did not fight as Buddhists,

did not fight to spread Buddhism nor force it on anyone, and

did not seek to kill people of other religions, and to put their Buddhist beliefs into place instead.

Those fighters are typical of all situations where Buddhists were involved over all of history.

These three FACTS negate any situation where one could call Buddhists acting AS BUDDHISTS and engaged in a holy war.

Please name one Buddhist "holy war."

Not only that some Buddhists have their own holy wars, but in America some people seem to think that you can use Buddhist practices to make better soldiers:

I read somewhere that the American army want to use meditation as a means to make the soldiers more able to handle the stresses of warfare.

I fear there may be some unexpected side effects when the soldiers in their foxholes start losing their hate for the enemy and begin to see more clearly what a madness the whole thing is.

I suggest you (re?)read the article and also the links it gives:

http://www.tricycle.com/blog/killing-name

http://www.tricycle.com/blog/nirvanaless-asian-buddhism-growing-fundamentalist-streak

http://www.tricycle.com/feature/buddhist-nationalism-burma

We can argue about the question how to define “holy war” or war in the name of buddhism, but that will imo be a rather futile exercise.

Actually by calling yourself a buddhist, or any other kind of “-ism”, you have already separated yourself from the rest of humanity, who don't label themselves buddhist (or label themselves under some other religious or nationalistic banner). With this labelling, and the identification with a specific group, the seed of a (holy) war is already there (to stay in the buddhist terminology). Whether it will grow into a full tree, or an actual war, is dependent on many circumstances.

It is always good to make a clear distinction between the enlightened founders of a religion and the often not so enlightened followers. Jezus taught according to the scriptures to offer the other cheek when hit on the one; what some christians have done in his name I don't have to tell you. Compared with christianity and islam I think buddhism is more tolerant towards other people and their believes, but that does not mean that all buddhists are saints and pacifists.

There are thousands. Likely the world's best repository of Buddhist and esoteric lore burned to the ground last year, the Pilgirms Bookland in Kathmandu. Word is they are rebuilding, but in this subject area, that loss was like the burning of the library at Alexandria.

Try "Fundamentals of Tibetan Buddhism" by Rebecca McClen Novick with good bibliography, great dictionary of terms, and condensed packed text. But there are so many (but not a Buddhist bible, no not at all).

Could you guys suggest me any books to go deeper in the budda teachings... It would be very much appreciate
Thx


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

I was a professor for six years at the U. which rivals Chula. I can tell you that the problems of raising the standards there are monumental, and elsewhere because that one just has to be typical and not unusual, . The problems are across the board.... top leadership, mid level admin, about half of the faculty, and students who know they do not have to try much to get the degree.

The clean-out would be extremely painful. Start by demanding real achievement from students for higher grades will buck up against parents who just want "babies" to have a degree and the student themselves who have to ask, why work harder? If they are not rich, where they have a family "job," they look at about 30000/mo salary for a MBA. The middle class does seem to value education but is realistic and not idealistic like India parents or Japanese who demand top performance by their children.

Lifting up a nation's education has to start with the real universities....... these turn out real teachers at all levels and up go the standards as more is asked of students. It is no accident that any medical doctor you want to go to has course work and practice in, usually, America that is well beyond Thailand training. Oh, help me shut up because, even if I know the problems from the inside, I have no way to do anything about it. This job is for Thai.

But "gods" and nothing like the Christian God.

6. The Buddha was human and Buddhism has no place for the worship of gods

"Buddhism is famous in the West as an “atheistic religion,” in the sense that, unlike the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, it does not recognize a single creator deity. However, one should not assume from this that Buddhism has no gods. It has not one, but many."

"Tricycle" is oriented more toward Tibetan Buddhism and thus Vajrayana and Mahāyāna and less on Hinayana..... and less on Theravada. But I think the magazine wants to be more universal. BTW, there are no "denominations" of Buddhism.

What form of Buddhism is this thread about?

Being Thai we are mainly about Theravada as practiced in Thailand.. but the Tricycle magazine is supposed to be all denominations of Buddhism.

Please name one Buddhist "holy war."

Not only that some Buddhists have their own holy wars, but in America some people seem to think that you can use Buddhist practices to make better soldiers:

I read somewhere that the American army want to use meditation as a means to make the soldiers more able to handle the stresses of warfare.

I fear there may be some unexpected side effects when the soldiers in their foxholes start losing their hate for the enemy and begin to see more clearly what a madness the whole thing is.

Some people will do anything, but the idea of Buddhism is NOT to worship the statues.

Why do buddhists worship images of the buddha when he himself instructed people not to?

Cat.... you type a Christian-ized take on Buddhists and Buddhism. Under your comments you are asserting guilt and sin, absent from Buddhism. Not all Thailand monks are true to the precepts and not all typists on this venue know anything about what they type. All... I wish you would tell me where is the "Buddhist bible" because there is none. Too, you mistake that people are bowing to THE MAN but really to the ideals he represents. (Westerners are really freaked out about bowing.) There is no worshiping of idols.

There is so much kneejerk misunderstanding in the comments attached to this specific posting.

Why do buddhists worship images of the buddha when he himself instructed people not to?

Do any of the so-called "Buddhists" follow through with any of the instructions given anyway? In Thailand I haven't seen one, especially the monks seem to have a hidden agenda that instructs them to do exactly the opposite of what they teach. Time for reform and time for "believers" to wake up and stop bowing in front of persons who are nothing but a pretender in a colored robe, same goes for worshipping of idols, etc...

After all what I have learned here in my 20+ years in LOS, it appears that some of the biggest crooks take refuge in temples to either hide or try to wash themselves clean of their sins by doing a few years in a temple instead of a prison. Look into their eyes and be amazed of the filth hiding behind them.

So far we had Thai abbots collecting Mercedes limousines, travelling first class by air, owning thousands of Rai of land, abbots with huge bank accounts, gold, jewelry and other luxurious items stacked up to the roof, all paid with "alms", we had abbots and monks raping dogs (no joke!) and children, performing sodomy, sleeping with massage and bar girls, monks betting, gambling, bribing, even killing and robbing people... But still Thai people believe that this exact monk there, standing with his alm bowl in front of them in the morning is one of the good guys, someone to look up to, someone above them... It makes me sick at times, especially when I think about what a truly amazing life philosophy the true Buddhism really is.

Good question by the way! Let's disassemble the myth of Buddhism...

I also have 20+years experience with Thailand and I would have to say after having read the Buddhist bible and then see how Thais practice their faith, my personal observation is that Thais have no real understanding of Buddhism.

The five precepts to be the most basic of Buddhist

1. Don't Kill

2. Don't steal

3. No Alcohol or drugs

4. No Adultery

5. Don't lie or speak ill of others

I have never seen anyone that calls themselves Buddhist in Thailand able to stick to all of these five most basic precepts.

and its a shame because they are such easy precepts to follow and the ideas and philosophy of Buddhism are fantastic.

The Tibetan Buddhist monks who fought the Red Chinese invasion TOOK OFF their robes first before fighting. This was a very painful and significant step because, once off, the robe could not be taken on again. Many died in those battles and many others were tortured to death by Red Chinese but most had de-frocked themselves by then. In more recent times Red China forcibly take off the robes which ruins that person's life because they can not put back on. There is more horror to this story, still going on now.

4. All Buddhists are pacifists

One sometimes hears people say, “A war has never been fought in the name of Buddhism.” Exactly what “in the name of Buddhism” means is debatable. Not debatable is that Buddhists over the centuries have engaged in violent acts, including warfare, and have also condoned such acts.

This whole thread is remarkably interesting, thank you 'camerata' for bringing the material and for your wise comments as well.

Many things come to mind when reading your post and the subsequent replies. Point #4 is particularly challenging, in general but also in the light of recent events (Buddhist monks resorting to violence in Tibet, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and here in Thailand a robed 'monk' heading a group of super violent men).

Would you agree that the tendency to condone violence in most religions is intricately connected with the notion of Truth with a capital T ?

Once a man thinks he has 'found the Truth', the almost inevitable consequences are :

- an understandable (if not exactly legitimate) urge to convince/convert others so that they too can bask in the ineffable Light

- a tendency from then on to divide the world into two categories, those who share his faith and those who don't

- an assumption that all those 'others' are necessarily 'in the wrong'

These three factors themselves may remain relatively inocuous, but are more likely to cristallize into dogmatic thinking which in turn inevitably leads to violent action, especially when faith merges with secular power.

We have innumerable illustrations of this pattern in the history of humanity (from the Crusades to 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Iraq). The clerics decide what is 'right' and 'wrong' and the 'soldiers of God' translate it into military action.

In this field the specifity of Buddhism, because of its emphasis on impermanence and illusion, tends to 'nip the disease in the bud'. By teaching that there is no truth with a big T, it adresses the root of the problem. This fact would also explain why many won't call it a 'religion' and prefer the term 'philosophy' or 'ethics' or even 'lifestyle'.

But this, as you so rightly point out, doesn't stop human beings from being who they are and indeed Buddhists in the course of history have repeatedly engaged in violent action. However, and correct me if I'm wrong, they were/are not chanting 'we're doing this in the name of our faith and our God', unlike the Crusaders, the Jihadists ... and Georges W. Bush.

People may do anything but the common uses of Buddha images, statues, paintings, amulets etc is as a reminder of Buddhist ideas and as a way to help the mind focus on them. Some people use a candle flame to concentrate on. Walking meditation provides another way. Many ignorant of Buddhism think the Buddhists are praying to a statue when the correct mind set is not doing that at all.

Why do buddhists worship images of the buddha when he himself instructed people not to?

Common American take on this is that a religion requires a deity; Buddhism has none and is thus not a religion.

5. Buddhism is a philosophy and not a religion

Separating philosophy from religion does not work well in the case of Buddhism. Trying to tease apart these two strands of the dispensation would have seemed a futile endeavor to most Buddhists over the long history of the tradition. We in the West need to get over this false dichotomy, which has no significance in speaking about Buddhism or other Asian religions.

Pardon but I do not know how to start a new or newish thread .... so..............

Question... For American citizen full time living in Thailand, does a saving account in Bangkok Bank eliminate that person from filing a FATCA......... because Bangkok Bank has a real office in New York City.

FATCA regulations say that such a person having an account in a bank with a branch in Thailand or a Thailand bank with a branch in USA do not have to file the FATCA paperwork.

So, does Bangkok Bank satisfy this requirement??

Financial account held at a U.S. branch of a foreign financial institution or reverse?

FATCA kicks in at level of six figures, different for several categories of people.  Web has all info.

Any massage therapy place that does not offer happy endings is likely to give real therapeutic massage, but of course some are more medical than others. Trial and error.

Like the Cambodian exodus, likely this is a response to the media created attention to undocumented workers and those held to work seeming against their wills. Thailand has for decades been vilified in international media for these matters and the go go bars. There is a cycle to these things, and we are in that part of that cycle nowdays.

But, I also say....... Go Army! Clean out the Man In Dubai cronies.

added.......... only if you have lived in Thailand as an illiterate and with a Thai wife could you know that I do not know what that "white powder" is ... nor will I ever know, so don't ask.

First part cut off.......... I have a rat, not the same one, sometimes in the space between my room ceiling and the roof, the space called the attic. It is good for rats because SOMEHOW they come and go to outside and then inside up there too. You can seal all openings, you think, and still they get in.

"The boy" climbed up thru the ceiling hatch into the attic and put out a catch-alive trap. Next day, rat inside and released a few towns away. Next rat, months later, or same rat returning like a dog can?, would not enter the cage so "the boy" got him with the sticky pad that is sold for that purpose. Smaller rats will get stuck with only one step on that; bigger rats eat it and spit out the chewed parts.

This rat got caught on the sticky pad; "the boy" was not available to check daily, so this rat died there and began to smell so bad my eyes burned and nose ran. NOTHING would cover the smell, and even when "the boy" did finally go up there and bring the shrunken rotted body of the rat down and out from the attic, the rat juices had soaked into the ceiling material, so the smell stayed for couple months.

Once that smell gets into your nose, you think the smell is on everything, your clothes, your food, etc.

This week, another rat (for sure a different one this time) just died in the attic, but this one expired directly over my bed ceiling. Same smell. Then, my Thai wife bought some "white powder" for that purpose in Samut Sakhon and "the boy" went up into the attic and spread the white powder around and over the rat but could not reach the carcass to bring it down.

Somehow, the white powder killed the stench immediately. Now breathing easier, happy to report.

You do have lots to think about and also research. Like these items...

-getting a work permit and having your wife's company comply with the rules that allow hiring a foreigner, doing the paper to justify you, and then you leaving to other nation to get changed visa, too.

-dealing with the green card. If your wife's passport shows her out of usa continuously for more than a year, she will need to ask permission, parole, to use that card to gain re-entry AND is she is out more than two continuous years, it is very likely she will be refused parole, not allowed to enter usa on that card. Over two years or so, NO use to have the green card because you will not be allowed to enter on it. This info is from Homeland Security usa four days ago in BKK office.

-If she goes back to usa for a few months or less, she could also lose the green card re entry permission. The green card is for allowing foreigners to LIVE IN USA and also to work, but the former reason is most important, so if there is evidence to conclude that she is just visiting the usa for short times (whatever HS decides) they will just refuse to allow the green card to get her in and out at will.

-The BKK Homeland Security official stared at my daughter's green card with four years still good on it and admitted that with three years absence from usa, the card is worthless for re entry regardless of the expiration date on it.

-If you get into this same situation, just surrender the green card which will open her to allow her to apply for a ten year usa visa based on your citizenship, etc. If you keep the card, then no visitor visa.

Others show that this is not nearly all the matters you must get firmly understood. It is just not at all easy and then there is the problem of trying to make money from a restaurant.