Bakuteh

Very strange to see how Farangs, outside their home country are narrow-minded and against democracy.

The results are what they are. No need to cry, lament or cheer. Just accept.

Absolutely agree. Most farangs seem to exhibit a holier than thou attitude, seeming to know better than the locals. It's a shame that they still behave like missionaries. Two bloody world wars and they have not got this antagonism out of their system. There are however many exceptions and they are doing something good for Thailand without being pompous. I guess action speak louder than words.

Another practical suggestion would be to sell Chiang Mai to all your friends, family and acquaintances overseas and encourage them to visit CM and Thailand. Making this effort will alleviate the lack of income faced by our Thai friends and residents. What better time for the tourists to arrive with lower prices and friendly service, notwithstanding the wet weather.

Being helpful and compassionate is definitely better than being mean and bitter. Sawadee karp.

Following the demonstrations in Bangkok and the broadcasting of the events world-wide, Chiang Mai is almost devoid of  tourists. Hotels are practically empty, the Night Bazaar, bars and restaurants are deserted and many locals are suffering.  I've heard tales of hotels possibly closing for a month and staff being laid off or offered a reduced salary.

Under these circumstances, I'm sure there are plenty of people wondering how they can help. Here's the answer, and it is relevant to one of the other topics raised on this forum.

Pay more.

As some people here are aware, some richer, kinder Thais pay more for goods and services than poorer Thais, as this is part of their way of helping those less fortunate. Therefore, maybe now is the time for some of us to be a bit less fanatic in haggling away the last few baht of profit when shopping and to be a bit more generous in our tips when we eat or drink out. The traders are certainly going to have to sell at any price just to get some sort of profit, so their mark-ups are going to be very low, but we can show some kindness by being a bit more generous and not bargaining as much.  Also, for many in the bar/restaurant business, tips are a significant part of their income, so leaving a larger tip will surely be helping them out now that they have fewer customers. Give it a try,  I'm sure it will be appreciated, and it will make you feel good.

Rather look for a room in Chiang Saen town, about 8 km from the Triangle.

Among the better ones and the longest running, is Chiang Saen River Hill Hotel. The link below gives prices and location.

http://www.hoteltravel.com/thailand/chiang.../river_hill.htm

The remark "Distance from airport: 40 minutes drive" is not correct, it should be more than one hour.

There are some very nice bungalow resorts in Chiang Saen as well.

Thanks for the advice. It's a pity that Chiang Saen town suffers from a lack of good mid-priced accomodation. The last time I passed by two years ago, it looked such a nice cosy town.

Will be visiting Chiang Saen and surrounding area November 14. Having problems booking suitable accomodation. Anyone can suggest a clean hostel/hotel not costing more than B1,500 a room during that period? Anantara looks gorgeous but out of reach budget-wise and Riverview Inn seems to attract average ratings. Will be grateful for just any advice from anyone. Thanks.

Saturday 25th it is on. Confirmed.

Confirmed how?? I just drove by there to check it out and my Thai GF says the signs say November 24th, starting at 5:00PM. Advertising "5,000 Lanterns". We drove around a couple times and I asked "are sure?" enough to aggravate her (wouldn't be the first time she was wrong).

I think we need another look/confirmation.

Will be grateful if you can give clear directions to the celebrations site at Maejo University, say from Huay Kaew Road. Will be in town during this period and would like to join in the festivities. Thanks in advance.

Hi, my wife and I are planning a vacation and bringing her parents along, but my wife insists we save some money and have her parents fly Air Asia. They will depart from BKK on Air Asia and arrive at the KLIA LCC and then get on another international Air Asia flight. Has anyone done this transit, and do you need to go through immigration or does Air Asia have check-in facilities whereby you don't need to clear immigration? They can probably just travel with carry-on baggage if that helps any. If you clear immigration, is there any fee for getting a visa-on-arrival for Thai nationals? Or can they get a transit visa and is there a fee for that? Thanks for your help.

To add on to Boca's excellent advice, you might want do consider doing the following:

(1) When booking tickets for your in-laws online at Airasia.com, you can opt to purchase travel insurance from Air Asia when you are on their website so that in the event there is a delay on AirAsia's part, the costs caused by any missed connections will be covered by insurance;

(2) If there is a long interval before the onward Air Asia flight at KL LCC terminal, it might be a good idea to check in for the onward flight and then take a coach which connects the LCCT to the KLIA main terminal to while away the time although there isn't much to see or do there other than a better choice of food outlets, check out the perfume/fragrance store and pay for a quick massage on the pre-programmed chair.

Hope you and your folks have a pleasant trip.

Famous for his spiritual how-to books, Deepak Chopra turns to fiction with a novelization of the life of the Buddha

May 26, 2007

Stuart Laidlaw

Toronto Star

Deepak Chopra doesn't shy away from the big subjects. Buddha this year, Jesus next.

"I like to take on big topics," he says.

The prolific author and New Age guru, who swings through Toronto this weekend as part of his seemingly never-ending speaking tour, has just released Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment, a novelization of the life of the Buddha that was two years in the making.

By the end of this month, he is to submit to his publisher a book – this one 10 years in the making – encapsulating his thoughts on the importance of Jesus Christ by examining the meaning behind 100 of Christ's sayings.

For Chopra, jumping between Buddha and Jesus is perfectly reasonable. The two, he says, have much in common.

"They are both young redeemers," Chopra tells the Star in a telephone interview.

"Redemption is the key, and redemption is within you."

Growing up in India, where Buddhism was born, Chopra has long known the facts of the Buddha story – of Prince Siddhartha, raised to be a warrior king, who turned his back on privilege and family to seek enlightenment.

Like the Jesus story, there are tales of healing the sick along the way, of battling demons and even resurrection in the form of the prince, by now a monk, becoming the Buddha (or Enlightened One) nearing death and achieving enlightenment under a fig tree in just one night.

Chopra is certainly not the first to draw parallels between Jesus and Buddha. Canadian author and former Anglican minister Tom Harpur has long made the comparison, including in his recently released book Water into Wine, in which he points out similarities in the two men's lives and legends.

But Chopra hoped to do something different.

He did not want to retell simply the events of the Buddha's life, but to explore the personal struggle he must have gone through on the road to enlightenment.

To do that, he decided, he needed to approach the story as a work of fiction, since this would give him the freedom to imagine the Buddha's inner thoughts.

"The tough part was what going on in his head," says Chopra.

The approach is perhaps key to understanding Buddhism, a non-theistic faith that does not assert a deity, but instead stresses personal enlightenment through trials, reflection and meditation.

As such, Chopra says he wanted to explore Buddha's personal struggles as a guide for others.

"It's every man's struggle," Chopra says.

Along the path to enlightenment, Chopra says, the Buddha struggles with the kinds of things all people face: questions about the meaning of life, of death, of life after death and a constant struggle to vanquish inner demons in hopes of becoming better people.

In the Buddha story, these demons are represented by Mara, king of the demons.

The Buddha's victory over Mara comes only when he realizes that Mara is not the external demon he believed him to be, says Chopra, but something more.

"In the end, he realizes that Mara is his own self," says Chopra. "He is struggling with his own shadows."

Liberal interpretations of the New Testament story of Jesus's confrontation with the devil have presented it as a similar vanquishing of inner demons by Christ, and not a literal battle between the son of God and Satan.

In his Jesus book, to be titled The Third Jesus, Chopra hopes to present Christ as a figure of inspiration to believers and non-believers alike.

The first Jesus, he says, was the historic figure, while the second was theological.

The third Jesus to be explored in his book, Chopra says, is more a "state of consciousness" who is best understood through the things he said and the wisdom he passed on.

"If we really understand them at a deep level, we would have a transformation," he says.

In the same vein as Chopra's historical fiction on the Buddha, it is difficult to beat Herman Hesse's book "Siddhartha" for atmosphere and emotional impact. Will look forward to read what Chopra has conjured about the Buddha.

This book has been around for some time, in fact it was first published in 1997. The author, Brian Victoria is a Soto Zen priest and a farang and the book mentions that he was teaching at the University of Auckland at the time he wrote the book.

Brian Victoria has overcome the objections of many people including his own self-doubt to write this book about a dark side of modern Buddhist history. For this he should be commended and indeed emulated for as he writes, "truth can never be slander".

Although during the 2nd World War, the leaders of Japanese Buddhism, almost to a man, unconditionally pledged their support for Japanese militarism which perpetuated excesses of war such as the Nanjing massacre, there were a small minority of Japanese Buddhists who refused to support the war effort and were actively involved in social action. Brian Victoria mentions a group, the Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism (Shinko Bukkyo Seinen Domei) formed in April 1931 who were against anti-foreign, militarist and nationalist ideologies of the Japanese Buddhist establishment. Not surprisingly, the members of the Youth League were suppressed, harassed, physically beaten and imprisoned but they bravely continued to "carry the Buddha out into the street".

The Leader of the Youth League, Seno Giro, was imprisoned three times by the Japanese police and the last time which was in in December 1936, he was tortured over a five month period, broke down and confessed to the trumped up charge of treason and sentenced to 5 years in prison. There ended any organized resistance by the Buddhist laity to Japanese militarism during the war.

The book is well worth buying, it gives the reader, apart from the historical perspective of Japanese Buddhism's support for the Japanese war effort, the sense that in subscribing to a religion or religious sect one should be better informed about its background. Blind subservience to the religion/sect's theology is not skillful from the Buddhist perspective and if a wrong has been committed it is better to admit it and ensure it is not repeated. The book contains also the thoughts of the postwar Japanese Zen and Buddhist leaders who addressed the issue of Japanese Buddhism's war complicity and some of them as recounted by the author do not make for pretty reading. In fact it is rather sad to read their responses which in the main, sought to justify their actions and those of their sects during he war.

The book is available at amazon.com, ISBN 0834804050 priced at USD19.95 without postage and packing.

The following review and interview with the book's author was posted on the net under the Atheism/Agnosticism section of the About.com website:

The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition

Reviewed by Austin Cline (http://atheism.about.com/od/bookreviews/fr/NewBuddhism.htm)

Buddhism has become very popular in the West over the past couple of decades, but to what degree has Buddhism been changing the West, and to what degree has Buddhism itself undergone change? According to William Coleman, Buddhism has changed a lot, yet nevertheless, it is fundamentally the same as it has always been. But how can this be?

Summary

Title: The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition

Author: James William Coleman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 0195152417

Book Review

Coleman, a practicing Buddhist for 15 years, has created an interesting and informative review of the nature of Buddhism in the West (meaning England and the United States). He bases his work on a wide study of research on modern Buddhism, structured interviews with Buddhist teachers and students, and surveys sent to seven Buddhist centers in North America (which together represent the three major traditions — Zen, Vipassana, and Tibetan).

[see link for complete review]

Author Interview : James William Coleman

Book : The New Buddhism

Source: http://atheism.about.com/library/books/cha...ColemanChat.htm

Below is a transcript of a conversation between James William Coleman and different members of our forum about Coleman's recent book "The New Buddhism." In it, he argues that while Buddhism has experienced major changes in coming to the West, it has nevertheless retained it's essential identity - and, more importantly, that it is having an effect on religion in the West.

The posts which were part of the original discussion have been edited and brought together to preserve a conversational flow and make it easier to read.

AC: I'm pleased to introduce James William Coleman, author of the recent book The New Buddhism. He has agreed to take time out of his schedule to talk to us about his book and his research into Buddhism in the United States. You can read my review of his book here - I highly recommend it.

Why don't you think that other religions from the Far East have had quite the impact on the West as Buddhism has had?

JWC: Buddhism has sometimes been called the "export" version of Hinduism. While that is kind of an over simplification, it is true that Buddhism was better able to shed it Indian cultural baggage and present something that has cross cultural appeal. Hinduism is almost exclusively in India and closely related cutures, Taoism is mainly in China and its cultural sisters, but Buddhism had already adopted to a variety of cultures before moving to the West.

AC: In your book, you described some of the influences which Western society has had on Buddhism in the West - for example, how women have greater involvement in the leadership of Buddhist communities here. But are have Western religions like Judaism or Christianity themselves had any identifiable influences on Buddhism?

JWC: Buddhism is quite different from the Western religions in that there is no creator God, and less of a feeling that they are the one true faith to which everyone must subscribe. But Buddhist teachers have freely borrowed from Christian and Islamic mystics who have followed a similar spiritual path. Buddhist have also copied many of the organizational structures used by the Western religions. But in many ways Western Buddhism has actually been more deeply influenced by Western psychology then Western religion, and some even claim that Budhism is more similar to psychotherapy then a religion in its focus on the causes of suffering and the way to end them.

[see link for complete interview]

Hope this will be useful to the ppl here who are interested in the book and who are contemplating a purchase.

There's a link to it on their website. It's from RM9.99 a night upwards (+RM12.99 for 12 hours aircon) - so if it's tolerable it might be good for KL visa runs, especially if booked far enough ahead to get the lowest rate...

Tunes budget hotel is a good choice as its location is about 15 mins travel time to the Royal Thai Embassy located along Ampang Road in KL. It is located less than 5 minutes walk from the LRT station at Sultan Ismail and from the Monorail station next to the Sheraton Imperial Hotel.

Would you suggest I go visit any travel agent? Or do you (or anyone else please) have any personal recommendations at all?

You could book through an agent in the tourist areas(for BKK- Haad Yai) They often run a mini bus to the bus terminal in the price but you could also go to the Southern Bus terminal and book yourself. You could even just turn up there if you didn't mind waiting for a few departures.

The direct buses arrive Haad Yai in the morning so you would have plenty of time to organise yourself a bus to KL either that day or the next. Haad Yai is compact and crawling with agents and cheap hotels with ticket agencies.

Just to add to Mahout Angrit's useful reply, when arriving in Hat Yai bus/outstation coach terminal, take a tut-tut to the town centre where there are plenty of travel agents who will sell you an air-con coach ticket to KL (~400B). Coach services to KL are available for travel in the morning at regular intervals, the most convenient one leaves around 10 am Thai time. That will reach KL Puduraya bus terminal at around 6:30pm Malaysian time which is just nice for dinner before you check into your accomodation.

Rather than post long passages of texts from (possibly copyrighted) books, it might be better to post just a paragraph or two with a link.

Thank you.

In view of your advice on the wisdom of posting long passages from the book, I will discontinue doing so although only a small portion of the book offers profound insights on the current state of "Western Buddhism".

Members who are interested in finding out might want to purchase the book (see details in the first message posted) frm amazon.com or elsewhere. No links are available, Khun Sabaijai, and FYI the text was laboriously typed into word processing format by hand.

Thanks to all who have responded to the excerpts in this thread.

The New Buddhism

All forms of Buddhism whether it is the new Western Buddhism, the ethnic Buddhism of the migrant enclaves or traditional Asian Buddhism, share a common quest: liberation from greed, hatred and delusion and the suffering they cause. Their paths to that goal, however, often take markedly different directions. As we have seen, in most forms of traditional Buddhism there is a sharp distinction between the lay people and the monks, nuns and priests. At least in theory, the members of those elite groups devote their lives to the quest for liberation sometimes through the kind of meditation the Buddha recommended for his followers, sometimes through strict moral discipline, sometimes through academic studies, sometimes through the single-minded performance of elaborate rituals. For the vast majority of traditional Buddhists however the quest for liberation takes a backseat to the demands of everyday life. The most those average Buddhists can hope for is to accumulate merit by good works or through the grace of a powerful Buddha or bodhisattva and someday win a better rebirth either in a paradise or in a life that offers them the chance to devote themselves to the Dharma (truth) and win enlightenment.

In the new Buddhism this fundamental distinction between monk and layperson is almost wiped away. Although some people live a more monastic lifestyle while others live as householders the pursuit of liberation is common to them all. The new Buddhism takes the path of liberation that was preserved and refined by countless generations of Asian monks and offers it up to anyone who is interested.

When Asian Buddhists visit the West, they are often confused by Western practitioners they meet. Not really monks but far more involved and dedicated than most laypeople, Western practitioners are hard to classify with the categories their teachers imported from the East. Many Western Buddhist centres have full-time residents who devote most of their time and energy to their Buddhist pursuits and some of the larger groups maintain isolated retreat facilities for more intensive practice. A few Westerners even shave their heads and take monastic vows, but they remain a distinct minority. And these Western monks never receive the kind of awe and respect that separates the Asian monks from the laity. To most Asians being a monk means being celibate but celibacy is a very hard sell in the midst of Western consumer culture. In Western eyes what was traditionally viewed as a great moral virtue often becomes a kind of pointless repression. Moreover the scarcity of isolated monasteries means that the monks are often in much closer contact with the outside world than their Asian counterparts. All in all the distinction between the monk and the layperson in the new Buddhism is a fuzzy one. Monks are not set off by an aura of holiness and reverence as they are in Asia. Although their Practice is usually more highly focused they are not really doing anything that isn’t common among the laity as well. In one sense everyone is a kind of monk and in another no one is.

If there is a single characteristic that defines the new Buddhism for most of its members it is the practice of meditation. The overwhelming majority of Western Buddhists rank meditation as their single most important activity and almost all of these new Buddhists try to carry on a regular meditation practice.

Despite the enormous cultural gulf the style of meditation practiced is directly derived from the practices and traditions of Asian monastics. Some practice exotic visualizations or working on the unanswerable riddles or koans but most of their meditation focuses on their breath – either counting breaths one by one or simply following them with close attention.

Most of the time members of these groups meditate at home often before a simple altar adorned perhaps with an incense burner, a statue of the Buddha or a painting of one of the numerous bodhisattvas who symbolize an important virtue or quality of mind. They also attend group meetings at Buddhist centres or in an ad hoc variety of rented halls and private homes. Although the focus is on meditation, members frequently chant together and perform other rituals and listen to talks from their teachers. These gatherings not only allow the members to encourage each other’s practice but they provide the opportunity for social bonding and community building.

In addition to their daily meditation, most of the Western Buddhists attend intensive meditation retreats. These retreats which usually range from half a day to a couple of weeks in length, offer participants the opportunity to expand and deepen their meditation practice. Each group and each lineage runs its retreats a little differently. Some are rigorous, tightly structured and highly demanding whereas others are more relaxed and easygoing. Nonetheless a common pattern is emerging among all these groups. For one thing the retreatants are usually expected to maintain silence whenever possible. Many participants report the odd feeling of having attended retreats with the same people over and over again, yet hardly ever having had much of a conversation with them. Retreatants usually rise early and devote long days to alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation. The retreats also provide the opportunity for closer contact with their teachers who give talks and private interviews to help the retreatants with their practice and with the powerful experiences that often occur during these periods of intense meditation. Many retreats also have work periods where the participants pitch in to help with all the physical demands created by any large gathering of people.

No other transformation is more critical to the creation of Western Buddhism than the way it is redefining gender. In traditional Asian culture, the world of the monastic elite is a male world. Although a few female orders have existed over the centuries they have always been separate and subordinate to male authority. Some traditional Buddhists have even questioned the ability of women to achieve enlightenment at all. In this view the best a woman can do is to gain merit through good works and by supporting male monastics, so that she can win rebirth as a man in her next life. Such extreme sexism is by no means universal but women have certainly played second fiddle in Asian Buddhism.

How different are things in the West? Western Buddhist groups have often imported the prejudices of their Asian teachers or assimilated the gender biases of their own culture. At the same time however there is clearly a powerful tide pushing the new Buddhism towards gender equality. While Eastern Buddhism picked up its cultural baggage from the ancient patriarchal traditions of Asia, the new Buddhism is taking shape in an age of feminism and a radical rethinking of gender that is rocking even the most staid denominations. Of course our society remains rife with sexism and patriarchal stereotypes but the kind of women and men (the women slightly outnumber the men in most Buddhist groups) who are attracted to Western Buddhism also tend to be the same kind of highly educated left-leaning people who are most likely to believe in gender equality. In almost all the centres in which control has passed from the hands of Asian teachers to their Western students, women and men practice together as equals, sharing the same roles and the same responsibilities in ways unheard of in most of Asia. Although virtually all Asian and a majority of Western teachers are male, there are a growing number of women in those top positions of respect and authority. Today no one is surprised to see women leading retreats, diving Dhamma talks, or running major Buddhist centres. On a more theological level no matter who occupies those positions of power, nearly all Western Buddhist groups recognize the full equality of the sexes and the ability of all persons of either gender to realize their true nature and attain enlightenment.

Of course we all know that our actual practice often fails to live up to our ideals and Western Buddhism is no exception. Many women continue to feel a sense of psychological alienation and sometimes social exclusion as well. The Asian teachers are male, the images of the Buddha are male, the leaders of most of the groups are male and some women complain that the practice itself is still male oriented. On the other hand a minority of women practitioners feel that discrimination against women is a serious problem in Western Buddhism and most feet that women have an equal chance with men to gain leadership positions in their own group.

The transformation of gender that is evolving in the new Buddhism is not however simply a matter of ending discrimination or of women joining a world that used to be reserved for the male Buddhist elite. As more women are becoming full and equal participants in Western Buddhism their presence is transforming the tradition itself. Numerous changes in attitudes and approaches reflect the experience of women’s culture as it mingles with that of their male counterparts and a new generation of women teachers is bringing a fresh perspective that attracts male and female students alike.

A broad-ranging eclecticism is another characteristic of the new Buddhism that is seldom seen in Asia. In many of the countries of southern Asia, the Theravadin tradition is so dominant that little thought or attention is given to other forms of Buddhism. The Tibetan Vajrayana encompasses a much broader variety of approaches but all of them are seen from a particular Vajrayana perspective and there is little knowledge of Zen or the other Buddhist developments of East Asia. Japan probably has more separate and distinct Buddhist sects than any other country but they tend in typical Japanese style to stick pretty much to themselves.

Ironically the real meeting place for the Buddhist traditions from throughout Asia has been in the West. Indeed the very idea that there is some common thread known as Buddhism that runs through all those traditions is a Western one. Although most of the teachers in new Buddhist groups try to follow one or another Asian tradition there is a unique willingness to utilize insights from other perspectives as well. It is not at all uncommon for teachers from two different traditions to lead a retreat together or for one teacher to give a dharma talk that not only quotes other Buddhist traditions but Christian, Muslims and contemporary psychologists as well. Moreover the important figures who have been active in the West are known to Buddhist teachers from all lineages and they are coming to form a distinct Western tradition all its own. The “beginner’s mind” described by Suzuki Roshi, the “crazy wisdom” of Trungpa Rinpoche or Jack Kornfield’s stories blending ancient wisdom and Western psychology are grist for the lectures and books of Western Buddhists from all traditions.

Not surprisingly the most perplexing problems faced by Western Buddhism revolve around those ubiquitous issues of sex and power. Time and again, emerging Buddhist groups have struggled with the contradiction between the almost unquestioned authority, power and prestige the Asian teachers enjoy in their own traditions and the Western notions of democracy and equality. When the Asians first arrived in the West they were given an exalted status among their followers and all the power and authority that accompanies it. But when those teachers abused their power or were succeeded by their Western students, the ideals of egalitarianism quickly reemerged. Today most Western Buddhist groups remain deeply ambivalent about the role and authority of their teachers.. On one level it is a clash between Asian traditions of collectivism and Western values of democracy and equality. But the problem goes deeper than a clash of cultures and is unlikely to be resolved by shedding the cultural baggage inherited from the East. The tremendous respect and admiration Western Buddhists have for their teachers is not just the result of Eastern cultural influence. The members of these groups want to see their teachers as truly enlightened beings whose depth of understanding and wisdom sets them far apart from ordinary people. And if those teachers are indeed enlightened it follows that they may make administrative decisions or carry on their personal relationships in ways that other people simply don’t understand.

The relationship between students and teachers is a little different in every group. But in general it seems that Western teachers still retain much of the enormous authority and prestige of their Asian predecessors but it is a provisional authority. Teachers whose personal or professional lives violate the expectations of their students often run into serious trouble. Most of the major Buddhist centres in the West have been rocked by some kind of scandal or schism in the last two decades. In some cases the teacher has been removed and replaced with someone else. Other cases have resulted in the creation of new administrative structures and new restraints on the power of the teacher or a mass exodus of the disaffected who go on to form their own group or just drop out. However these problems work themselves out, structures and traditions are evolving that define the limits of the teacher’s power and what to do when these limits are exceeded.

(Excerpt from “The New Buddhism” by James W Coleman) (To be continued)

City blinded by money in race to bind Thais

Man City should think twice before accepting Thaksin Shinawatra's millions.

David Conn (The Guardian)

May 23, 2007

To describe Thaksin Shinawatra as the former prime minister of Thailand who made a lot of money in mobile phones is rather like summing up Joey Barton as an English footballer who lives in a nice house. Yet whereas Manchester City reached a clear-cut view three weeks ago that Barton's alleged assault on his team-mate Ousmane Dabo was unacceptable, the club are struggling to form a rounded opinion of the man currently dangling £100m before their eyes.

It is not difficult to find the huge questions swirling around Thaksin and his money. Google his name and you find two strands of daily news. The first is his proposed bid for City, the fairy-tale solution for a beleaguered club - he would buy City for about £27m, repay the major shareholders John Wardle and David Makin their £20m loans and provide a mooted £50m for players. The other chronicles the eight-month investigation in Thailand into alleged corruption during his five years as prime minister, which is shortly expected to deliver the first criminal charges against him.

The proceedings follow the ousting of Thaksin by a military government in a bloodless coup in September 2006 after allegations of corruption and cronyism and mass demonstrations against him in Bangkok. After taking power, the military government set up an Assets Examination Committee to inquire into the allegations and examine the fortunes made by Thaksin, his wife Pojaman and their family.

Last Monday, as Thaksin, who is living in exile in London, was stepping up his proposed bid for City, Pojaman was pleading not guilty in Bangkok's Criminal Court to charges of tax evasion and perjury arising out of a transfer of shares in the family's telecommunications company, Shin Corp, in 1997. Two of the couple's children have been hit with a tax bill for $789m (£400m), which the authorities claim is due from the sale of Shin Corp in January last year.

That sale vastly increased Thaksin's wealth but led also to his political undoing. Having been elected by a landslide in 2001 and re-elected in 2005, his government was credited with introducing some major advances including more affordable healthcare for the Thai poor but he was increasingly dogged by allegations that he was running the country in ways which financially benefited himself, his family and associates.

The anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, in its 2006 report on Thailand, said of the country under Thaksin: "Corrupt activities have become highly sophisticated, including conflicts of interest and policy-based corruption. Despite some successes, Thaksin was alleged of [sic] having absolute power, corruption, conflicts of interest, violation of human rights and using inappropriate populist policies to win the rural poor."

There are longstanding allegations of brutality and extrajudicial killings carried out by the Thai police and army in Thaksin's 2003 "war on drugs" and when putting down an insurgency by Malay Muslims in the south. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused his government of failing adequately to investigate the killings, which he denied.

Then, in January 2006, Thaksin's government passed a law which removed a 25% limit on foreign ownership of Thai telecommunications companies. Days later he sold Shin Corp to the Singapore-owned Temasek Corporation, making $1.9bn (£960m). The prime minister and his family structured the sale so that they paid no tax, which further infuriated opinion in Bangkok and led to massive demonstrations on the streets.

An investigation by Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission decided there was no illegality, but the country fell into crisis. Thaksin called elections in April 2006 which the main opposition parties boycotted and which were eventually ruled invalid. In September the military seized power.

This month the Assets Examination Committee investigators recommended that prosecutors charge Thaksin over a 2003 sale of land in Bangkok, which was owned by a fund attached to the Bank of Thailand. The investigators allege that Thaksin, then prime minister, was responsible for it and so had a conflict of interest - it was sold to his wife. Thaksin's lawyer, Noppadon Pattama, has denied that Thaksin did anything illegal and said the former prime minister would fight charges if the case went ahead.

Seymour Pierce, the merchant bank representing Shinawatra's bid, maintains that none of this affects the advisability of selling Manchester City to him. It dismisses the proceedings against him because they have been brought by a military government, which is undemocratic and not recognised by the British government. A spokesman for Seymour Pierce, which stands to make considerable fees if the deal goes ahead, said Thaksin's record had been considered:

"The information we have is that Thaksin was a successful and popular prime minister who was removed by a military coup. There are strict rules on money laundering and politically exposed persons, and we and all the professional advisers are satisfied we are able to act for Thaksin Shinawatra."

City promote an identity as a community club, proclaiming themselves "Pure Manchester" on sky-blue billboards in a 2005 advertising campaign, yet appear to see no conflict between that and proposed ownership by the former Thai prime minister. One desire currently overrides everything: money.

Having arrived with dreams in their hearts four years ago at a 48,000-seat stadium built by the local council, City have tumbled into gloom. Season-ticket sales have fallen 20%, borrowings stand at £103m and Stuart Pearce was sacked as manager after his side scored fewer home league goals last season than any top-flight club in history. Wardle and Makin, who loaned £20m mostly to finance Kevin Keegan's spending before Pearce, want out.

City announced at December's AGM that they were talking to investors, but stories of US businessmen never solidified into a bid. Ray Ranson, the former City full-back, has made a proposal backed by the private equity fund Sisu, which City refuse to entertain. The club seem to have fallen on Thaksin's bid because he is offering cash.

Some fans are dazzled by the mooted millions, but not all. Ollie Goddard, of the Manchester City Supporters' Trust, has spent days researching Thaksin and concludes: "Many of the accusations against Thaksin clearly come from the military government seeking to justify their stated reasons for mounting the coup. But we are still concerned that our club could be damaged by association with him, particularly if criminal proceedings are mounted and he is imprisoned or subjected to huge financial penalties."

From Dr Juree Vichit-Vadakan, secretary-general of the Thailand branch of Transparency International, came a plea: "Yes, we have a military government, but Thaksin was ousted after widely reported allegations of corruption, nepotism and cronyism. British people should think harder whether they want somebody to buy a football club who is surrounded by moral uncertainty. Is money always the most important thing in life?"

The answer to that question is expected from Wardle, Makin and Manchester City within the next few days.

Buddhism in the West – A Historical Overview

Just a century and a half ago Buddhism was virtually unknown in the West except to a few travelers and intellectuals. As Thomas Tweed has shown in his excellent study of the early American encounters with Buddhism, many of the American Christians who first heard about Buddhism were puzzled by how a religion with no God and no immortal soul attracted so many of te world’s people. But as time went by Buddhism gained a following among a small group of intellectuals who saw it as more tolerant, more rational alternative to Christianity and among some of the growing numbers of people interested in spiritualism and the supernatural. Much of this early interest was however stimulated by books and stories about Buddhism that were often of questionable accuracy.

The World Congress of Religion held in Chicago in 1893 is often credited with the introduction of the first traditional Buddhist denominations to North America. In actual fact however there were already a substantial number of Asian immigrants in North America who had brought various versions of popular Buddhism with them – even if they were too far removed from the cultural elites who attended such meetings to be given much attention. To this day the most obvious division in Western Buddhism is between the “ethnic Buddhism’ of Asian immigrants and the “new Buddhism” pursued by Western converts who interestingly enough are often the same kind of people as those who attended the World Congress of Religion back in 1893.

Faster and easier travel, virtually instant communication, and a growing tide of migration brought the East and the west inextricably closer together than ever before. As ethnic Buddhism became more common in the West it made numerous adaptations to its new environment but it nonetheless maintained its Asian traditions and outlook. Unlike the new Buddhism that has such a strong appeal to the sophisticated and the highly educated the other stream of Western Buddhism seeks to serve the needs of average people. Monks are few and far between and rituals and ceremonies abound. Its followers are mainly found in the ethnic enclaves of the big cities and among some of the more surburbanized descendants of earlier Asian immigrants. Ethnic Buddhism’s primary role is to minister to the social and spiritual needs of the Asian communities of the West, much as the Christian churches and Jewish synagogues serve their communities often providing a taste of the comfort and security of home in the process.

The first Buddhist tradition to make the leap to a Western audience was Japanese Zen. A Japanese Rinzai master Soyen Shaku spoke at the World Congress of Religion and the writings of his student D. T. Suzuki introduced paradoxical Zen thought to many fascinated Western intellectuals. By the 1950s most educated Westerners had at least heard of Zen Buddhism even though it continued to be seen as something hopelessly strange and exotic. During that era the young Bohemians of the “beat generation” took up Zen as a kind of intellectual talisman and challenge to the existing view of things. The next two decades saw something of a “Zen boom” when for the first time significant numbers of Westerners began actual Buddhist practice. By the time the first wave of enthusiasm had died down residential Zen centers had sprung up in most of the major urban areas of North America and Zen had firmly established itself as a religious presence in the West.

The headwaters of the second stream of the new Buddhism are in the remote Himalayan mountains of Tibet. For centuries Tibet was one of the most isolated countries on earth. But the Chinese conquest of the 1950s and the brutal repression that followed sparked a Tibetan diaspora that brought their culture and especially their religion onto the world stage. The first Tibetan teachers reached the West during the 1960s but they didn’t build much of an institutional presence for another decade. Fueled by a seemingly inexhaustible supply of charismatic Tibetans symbolized by the Dalai Lama with his combination of compassionate presence and political importance Tibetan Vajrayana has exploded on the Western Buddhist scene in the last two decades. Culturally the extroverted Tibetans could hardly have been more different from the proper Japanese. Zen monks wear robes of black and brown, decorate their temples with elegant simplicity and tend to display a measured emotional mien. Tibetan temples on the other hand are a riot of bright colours and exotic images. They commonly include paintings and sculptures depicting multi-armed gods engaging in fiery sexual intercourse and unlike the Japanese, the Tibetans do not hesitate to display passionate emotion.

The newest stream of Western Buddhism actually has the most ancient roots. Known in the West as Vipassana this style of practice derives from the Theravadan tradition predominant in the southern parts of Asia and most scholars would agree that it adheres more strictly to the Buddha’s original teachings than any of the world’s other Buddhist sects. One of the most important differences between Vipassana and the other traditions of the new Buddhism is as much as anything a matter of historical accident. The Zen and Tibetan traditions were carried to the West by Asian teachers but Vipassana teachings were brought back by Westerners who went to Thailand or Burma to seek them out. As a result the Vipassana style is the most secular and most Western and it has the lightest cultural baggage from the East. Many Vipassana teachers especially those on the West Coast are also heavily influenced by Western psychological thought and the therapeutic tradition it fostered.

Perched somewhere between the ethnic Buddhism of the Asian immigrants and these three streams of the new Buddhism lies a fascinating Japanese denomination known as the Soka Gakkai. The Soka Gakkai traces its origins back to Nichiren, the 13th century Japanese prophet who saw the Lotus Sutra (one of the great religious texts of Mahayana Buddhism) as the apex of Buddhist wisdom and predicted doom for Japan if it did not return to its veneration. The Sokka Gakkai was founded in 1930 as a lay affiliate of Nichiren Shoshu – one of the numerous Nichiren sects in Japan. Japan’s traumatic defeat in World War II led to the dizzying growth of new religions in the 1950s and 1960s – an era of Japanese history that has sometimes been dubbed “the rush hour of the gods”. It was during this period that Sokka Gakkai/Nichiren Soshu saw its most explosive growth becoming one of Japan’s largest faiths, the sponsor of a major political party, and winning many Western converts.

Because most of Sokka Gakkai’s members in the West are not Asians it would seem to qualify as an important part of the new Buddhism explored in this book. But unlike those groups Sokka Gakkai remains firmly rooted in mass rather than elite Buddhism. While other groups focus on meditation the repetition of a chant in praise of the Lotus Sutra (Nam Myoho Renge Kyo) is the central practice of the Sokka Gakkai. While other Western Buddhist groups tend to display indifference or even hostility toward the pursuit of material gain, Sokka Gakkai believes that diligent chanting produces wealth as well as personal happiness. Wheras most other groups believe that new members will come when they are ready, Sokka Gakkai has until fairly recently pursued an aggressive policy of proselytization known by a descriptive Japanese name (shakubuku) which translates as “break and subdue”. All in all Sokka Gakai’s practices and beliefs differ from the other Buddhist groups that appeal to Westerners in so many ways that a separate book would be required to do them justice.

I have recently started reading a book, "The New Buddhism" (Oxford University Press; 2001; ISBN 0195131622) written by James Coleman who is a sociology professor at the California Polytechnic State University. "The New Buddhism" describes the recent evolution of Buddhist practice in the West and in its opening chapter encapsulates most aptly, the background and the various strands of Buddhism as practised in the West. It also gives the reader an overview of the basic tenets of the Buddhist spiritual tradition and I have found this introduction a great help to my understanding of Buddhism.

To share with my fellow TV members the more significant thoughts by the autghor, I am reproducing below the following excerpt from the book's first chapter:

For most Westerners, a mention of Buddhism is likely to bring to mind head-shaven monks in exotic robes, a kung <deleted> master dispensing wise sayings after vanquishing evildoers in a cloud of kicks and punches, or some other image of the mysterious and foreign. Some Western scholars have even questioned whether or not Buddhism is really a religion, since it doesn’t give the kind of attention to God (or gods) that many assume to be the sine qua non of all religious life.

Buddhism is certainly not a Western religion, but only the most ethnocentric observer could attend a Buddhist service, with its robed priests, its rituals, and its devoted followers, and fail to see the similarities with Western practice. From its very beginning the central goal of Buddhism was, nonetheless, radically different from that of the Western faiths. Instead of glorifying or praising a deity or seeking to live in accord with the divine will, the goal of Buddhism is personal awakening: even the gods bow to the enlightened one. Many Western mystics have trodden a path familiar to the Buddhist seekers. But mystics have always remained on the margins of the Western religious establishment; in Buddhism they are its core. The Buddha made no claim to be any kind of deity or to have some special message from God. He said he was simply someone who woke up and saw things as they are. His goal was not to teach a new creed or new way of life but to help those who gathered around him to see the truth for themselves.

The Buddha was, in other words, not a Buddhist. It was the institutional structures and traditions that grew up around Siddhartha Gautama’s teachings that made Buddhism into what we traditionally call a religion. As the German sociologist Max Weber pointed out, once any charismatic religious teacher dies, the message must be “routinized” if it is to continue. The inevitable result is a more formalized doctrine and some sort of institutional structure. The paradox, often evident in Asian Buddhism, is that those same structures too easily become an end in themselves, preserving the letter but not the spirit of the founder’s teachings.

What was the Buddha’s message? Spiritual seekers, scholars, and intellectuals have struggled over the question for centuries. Although it is relatively easy to describe what Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) said or at least what the surviving texts claim he said, the point was not to learn a set of doctrines but to experience the reality that underlies them. When they become an end in themselves, the fine words and the intellectual knowledge can actually become a barrier to true understanding.

The marrow of Buddhism is the actual experience of the awakened state, but the words that describe it can at least give us some clues if we don’t confuse the description of the food for the actual meal. Looking through awakened eyes, everything is a vast interdependent stream of changing phenomena. Things arise from an infinite chain of past causes and produce effects that have endless consequences. Everything is related to and dependent upon everything else. Nothing, including ourselves, has any independent being or unchanging essence. We are simply an ever changing stream of experience. In realizing this great truth, Siddhartha also saw the origins of human suffering in our deepest desires and attachments. We cling to one passing phenomenon after another and struggle endlessly to hold back the inevitable tides of change. We vainly strive to colonize our experience: to create an artificial world of safety and pleasure and to exclude the inevitable human experiences of pain and uncertainty. The Buddha was not however the life-denying pessimist that he is sometimes pictured to be, for he also saw the end of suffering through the cultivation of ethical behaviour, meditation and transcendent wisdom.

As Buddhism developed into an institutionalized religion, the struggle to wake up to those great truths fell primarily to the monks who gave up their everyday life and dedicated themselves to the pursuit of enlightenment. But of course everyone can’t be a monk, and it was left to lay Buddhists to lead ethical lives and provide the material support the monastics needed, so that in some future time (perhaps in a future life) they might have their own opportunity to realize enlightenment. Thus Buddhism came to be split into two institutional realms. The monastic elite continued Gautama’s quest for enlightenment, while new forms of mass Buddhism sprang up that were more concerned with earning an auspicious rebirth – usually by accumulating merit through good works, by faith or by chanting some magic formula. Although the Buddha never laid claim to any kind of divinity, the stories of his incredible abilities and accomplishment grew over the years, and he became an object of popular worship in many forms of Buddhism. In the Mahayana tradition, which became dominant in northern Asia, a retinue of godlike boddhisatvas (powerful beings who dedicated themselves to help others on the road to enlightened) joined the Buddha in the popular pantheon. In exchange for their material support, the priests and monks came to fulfill the same kind of functions for lay Buddhists that priests in other religions did. They officiated at ceremonies, gave advice and performed rituals.

Of course, the lay/monastic distinction was not quite as clear-cut as have been made above. Many lay Buddhists certainly attained deep realization, while many monks and priests, particularly during the periodic eras of institutional decline, showed little interest in following the arduous path to enlightenment that the Buddha laid out. But this division between the masses of laypeople and the monks and priests who at least in theory are following the path to enlightenment remains central to the Asian Buddhist tradition. Over the years, this elite group of men (and a few women) came to be vested with great prestige that set them off from their lay followers and made them the object of tremendous respect and authority.

May all who read this increase their understanding of the Buddha's teaching. Sadhu!

My wife is a landowner in Chiang Mai and we were thinking about a semi-retirement relocation to the area especially because of the international schools. But we'll stay where we are now or go where the government does recognize the health and economic issues related to excessive pollution as long as our kid's education is a concern.

The smog problem in Chiang Mai is only apparent for two or three months of the year. But I wouldn't want to rent or buy a place to live next to threats that are more visible like power plants or a refineries either. It's a risk that's not immediately apparent like the difference between the safety of riding in a car with a seat belt or a motorcycle until the odds catch up with you.

Third world is a good way to describe the problem and the attitudes allowing the problem to persist. Leave it to a first world country's forum to discuss alternatives like methanol production.

Yeah, wholeheartedly agree with you. Just needs some moralizing farang to start the ball rolling.......

Then you are back in the first world! Just take the rough with the smooth, friend.

"ThaiWrite" Version 1.0 (Beta)

Five first members who want to test the Beta version will get a free registration. If you are interested to be a tester and give us your comments, please post here and we will send you a private message.

This program contains over 1,000 useful sentences in English with Thai Script translation and English phonetic. Each line shows the English, The Thai, and the Phonetic, from left to right. Click on the "Copy" button and the Thai script will be sent to your clipboard. You can Paste the Thai script on any suitable text application, like email.

Thank you

"SpokenThai" team

Do you have any plans to launch the software for use in PDAs? Would be good for foreigners who can't read or speak Thai to communicate with the locals. Or for those who have just arrived in LOS without the advantage of having learnt Thai previously.

I flew from Kuala Lumpur to Chiang Mai today on AirAsia. When passing from the departure hall to the outbound immigrations queue, an AirAsia agent was weighing everybody's hand luggage with a manual scale. He made every passenger with a bag exceeding the 7 kilogram limit go back and check that bag. I've flown with AirAsia a lot since 2004 (almost one hundred flights) and I have never encountered this enforcement of the weight limit for hand luggage. Not sure if this is a new policy of consistently enforcing this weight limit, just a random enforcement of the limit, or something that only pertains to ground operations at KLIA.

Anybody else with similar recent experience...?

Don't think that is a new rule. The 7kg limit has always been there. Read the fine print in Air Asia's T&C.

As for consistently enforcing the hand luggage weight limit, again this is not so based on my experiences flying Air Asia out of KL, Bangkok, Hanoi, Phnom Penh and Chiangmai.

This manual weighing of luggage at the check-in counter is most probably random and when it is done, the experience could be rather unsettling. It has happened to me in Hanoi once in October but the next time 3 weeks ago, it was not repeated.

It appears that this random enforcement of the hand luggage weight limit (7kg) is down to your luck. One way out of any possible hassle is (if travelling with others) to ensure your hand luggage does not exceed 7kg (find a weighing machine somewhere!) and shove the rest of your stuff into your checkin luggage and to do a group checkin of all you and your friends' luggage.

I would like to share a photo which is a personal favourite of mine taken at the Chiangmai International Flora Expo in November. This was taken within the Lanna Palace pavilion inside the expo grounds. I find the colours of the palace interior dazzling and hope you all enjoy it as well.

Nice pics 'Bakuteh' I was there on Christmas day. Here are a couple of the many photos that I took on that day.

ImageDude

Great shots as always, my favourite is the one with the three Santarinas (with Ronaldo wink on my face)!

The perspective with the Lanna Palace in the background is superb.

Happy New Year to you All.

Panoramic Photo of this year's Light & Sound Show in Kan. 4 Firework Photos stitched together vertically.

Yours truly,

Kan Win

Great shots, must rank as one of the best photos I've seen. Congrats!

I would like to share a photo which is a personal favourite of mine taken at the Chiangmai International Flora Expo in November. This was taken within the Lanna Palace pavilion inside the expo grounds. I find the colours of the palace interior dazzling and hope you all enjoy it as well.

Here are some taken at the 'Union of Hilltribe Villages' in Chiang Rai.

ImageDude

Good, well-taken photos you have here. Great composition, really enjoyed them. Keep up the good work!

I can confirm that the new immigration rule applies to all nationalities.

My bro-in-law who is a 74 yr old Briton confirmed this when he went to the Immigration Department to seek clarification. And he is in a fix as his only option is to apply for a retirement permit. Recently (before the new ruling) he bought a bungalow and registered it in his Thai companion's name. Only consolation is that he has not, apart from his property purchase, been too financially disadvantaged.

Add me to the list!

Thailand doesn't want me anymore, so I'm seriously considering Malaysia as one of my options.

The best places to find out more:

http://mm2h.motour.gov.my/

http://www.malaysia-my-second-home.com/

Nothing to get phobic about Malaysian politicians' exhortations of support for Iran and the Islamic world, the Malaysian government is known for acting in variance with its official position on international affairs. So one wouldn't get too worried about what to expect if you decide to reside in Malaysia.

The bottomline in Malaysia is business from tourism and retirement schemes and the government there is not going to jeopardise its economy on account of politics anytrime soon.

A pleasant place to visit and retire, many Malaysians who don't see eye-to-eye with the government have migrated to Australia and the US but still visit home every year in absolute safety.

If the worst happens, you can still pack up and fly home to more temperate climates and not feel much loss as a consequence. If you can put politics and religion (proselytizing) on the backburner you will certainly enjoy your long term stay in Malaysia.