dick dasterdly

22 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

I didn't know they were endlessly changing.  Since I've been here (20 years) no changes for me.  The embassy changed a rule so I'm switching to the income method because I no longer have to pay for an embassy letter.  5000 baht cheaper.  Every little bit helps.

Lucky you.

I was frequently sent to get more photocopies of various documents, which resulted in joining the queue again....

But when I employed an agent, I no longer had to deal with their games.....

7 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Self hypnotization. Isn't that one of the, "Thou shalt not..."?

Is it?  It's not one of the ten commandments I remember - but then again I hold no store by the bible....

4 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:

Apparently you go blind if you do too much of it..

You're better than this stupid post.

I used to hypnotise myself as a young child by trying to understand the infinite .  Something that our brains are incapable to comprehend.

9 minutes ago, 55Jay said:

Where and when did you get this idea about spirits and souls?  Released to where?  Understand what?  The moment after you die isn't important.  You won't even notice.  Cuz ur dead.

As a child when (as I discovered decades later) that I used to hypnotise myself into seeing myself outside my body, and knowing that my body had nothing to do with 'me'.

Please understand that now I know that I used to hypnotise myself, I'm not as sure as previously.  Nowadays, I just hope that our possible spirit/soul is separate from our bodies - so that we can understand the truth and meet those we've lost in the harmony of understanding.

53 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

I think that's one of the little pleasures of existence.

Only as a child.

As adults we realise (or should) that there is no way of knowing - and so it is an interesting, but pointless pursuit.

2 hours ago, mauGR1 said:

I find that honest atheists are better company than fake believers, but, if you deny the existence of gods, and even the existence of an intelligent design.. Do you believe in something ?

Are we wired to believe in something ?

And if you just believe in yourself, is that convenient ?

Agree to this to a certain extent.

Apart from when I was young, only later in life did I meet 'religious' people - and nearly all were the most hypocritical people I've ever met ☹️.

15 hours ago, Spidey said:

Yep agnostic. An even more confusing philosophy for even more confused people. 

As an agnostic I agree ????.

It's impossible to know 'the truth', so some of us keep an open mind, whilst being extremely antagonistic towards any 'god' - if they exist.

21 hours ago, transam said:

But you don't know what I believe in do you.....?

 

If I told you, you probably would not be sad and ????

Quite.

I believe in not causing harm, but obviously I frequently fall short in this respect ☹️.

22 hours ago, 55Jay said:

Long story made short..... the answer to the Big Question is:  We don't know.  Yet. 

I'm cool with that. 

 

I'm not, as not understanding the genuinely important things, annoys the hell out of me!

Which is why I hope that our spirit/soul is separate from our bodies, and that this spirit/soul will be released to understand after we die.

22 hours ago, transam said:

No, the rest of Earths creatures have not been brainwashed, humans are good at the brainwashing stuff...We even have religious folk committing suicide blowing themselves up, together with their own believers because an EARTH BOUND BLOKE told them that is what THEIR god wants.....Now how do they know that if they have never had a chat with their god.....But wait, they follow a book written by guess what.......An Earth bound bloke....????

 

I asked in another post if humans can be hypnotized, nobody has answered my question because they know where I will go with it...????

I discovered (many decades later) that I used to hypnotise myself as a young child....

A bit odd, as a hypnotist couldn't hypnotise me.

2 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

To be serious for a moment I think trying to change some things is alright, with other things not so much.

I.e. it's tradition that sin sod is paid. It does not matter if we like it or not. That won't change anytime soon.

 

But then there are practical things like i.e. trying to introduce preventive maintenance. Or removing the trash from the garden, or maybe stopping at all red lights, even for pedestrians. I think these are the things we can do and maybe some Thais will discover after a while that these ideas are really not so bad.

 

But then again when we see how many farangs present "us", running around without shirt and a bottle of beer in one hand and a hooker in the other hand it's not surprising that many Thais don't really see us as role models...

Nothing we say or think will change anything - it's up to the Thais as to when things change.

Most of us have responsibilities, whether family or pets here in Thailand - so a 'go bag' isn't really on the cards.

A good OP, ruined by going OTT.

9 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

1.  The rules have changed to keep certain ethnic minorities out of Thailand.  I heard this from Immigration workers. 

 

2.  The rules have changed for 4 other countries because the embassy workers are lazy. 

 

3.  Further rule changes will follow in May. 

 

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

Ummm, it was Joe Mc that posted that comment - not me!  I just replied to it!

Please quote the correct post....

3 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I never knew what new documents they were going to ask for when I did my extensions, which was why I used an agent the last couple of times.

Same here.  I just got tired of the endlessly changing 'rules', which resulted in my becoming very stressed every time I had to go to Immigration for 90 day reports/retirement extensions.

Far less stress now that I've employed an agent to deal with this on my behalf.  Even so, when renewing my extension this year, I was told that I needed to go to Immigration for a 'photo to be taken by them.  Thankfully, it was as easy as my agent promised, and I was in and out within minutes, although I did notice that all the employees in the office turned to stare at me!

Presumably they were curious as to why on earth I would pay an agent a lot of money, when I am perfectly legal ????!

39 minutes ago, Joe Mcseismic said:

Money is the easiest way to cull the herd. Get rid of the poorer expats and keep the richer.

This kills two birds with one stone. Reducing the total amount of retirees and increasing the perceived quality of the remaining retirees.

 

I still haven't heard anyone come up with an explanation as to WHY the rules have changed.

"I still haven't heard anyone come up with an explanation as to WHY the rules have changed."

Purely my opinion of course, but I think Immigration indicated strongly that they expected the Embassies to verify income - before issuing 'proof of income' letters.  An almost impossible task for any embassy, and so a few decided to just not bother providing the proof of income letters anymore.....

This resulted in a headache for Immigration, as it was the 'big players' that decided to stop providing income letters.....

Consequently, they had to come up with new ideas for the 'proof of income' method (for expats from those countries), which resulted in a total overhaul of the requirements for retirement visas.....

6 minutes ago, transam said:

For sure all "gods" creatures that we kull every day to eat may have the same thoughts....????

I see no reason to differentiate between human and other animals' souls.

2 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

No way i want convince you of anything, but good and bad ( or the dual judgement) are nothing else than  "tools of knowledge" in this specific reality ; you cannot have the day without the night and so on.

I'm told that there are ways to reach more evolved realities, but then, you'll have to "open the door" by yourself.

 

I don't much care about "evolved realities" - as I prefer to live a life trying not to cause harm.

Hopefully I'll find out that our 'soul' is just 'energy that is part of the universe' - but of course, it's impossible to know.

At the end of the day, if there is a god I would spit in his eye if I were able to meet him, for allowing such cruelty in the world 'he' apparently created, and (having absolute control/powers) could prevent......

But of course I'll never be allowed near 'him' for having these views ????.

I'm finding it impossible to post a new topic on the Buddhism forum.

The 'start a new topic' list, doesn't include the sub-forums.