huli

I consider myself a Buddhist now, and that I got my start in the 70's when I first became acquainted with Krishnamurti. He did not claim to be a Buddhist, but his views were similar.

You can go back to sripat and ask to see a doctor. Keep going to the big room at the end of the hall. They speak english. It will not cost that much for the doctor. 200-300 baht probably. No need for an appointment usually.

Hummus! Now someone is eating sensibly !! Try this: http://mideastfood.about.com/od/appetizerssnacks/r/hummusbitahini.htm

Dave (The Duke's), where would you be without the local carnivores ?! Perhaps you could hand out coupons for free cholesterol testing! By the way, one local hospital is doing a promotion !! Or hand out afterdinner statin tablets instead of mints!

Perhaps TV commentators addicted to and overindulging at your place should automatically be barred from the new (now on hold) health insurance plan for foreigners in Thailand.

Sing for your supper!! http://www.metrolyrics.com/fat-and-greasy-lyrics-thomas-fats-waller.html

Rather than an honest critique of this wildly popular restaurant, you post only insulting remarks. So what if some of the meals are rather high in fat? What is it to you if a lot of people enjoy a high-fat meal from Dukes on occasion? Perhaps TV commentators such as you should automatically be barred from posting.

Usually displayed by a business, they are supposed to attract money or customers to the business, according to my Thai wife.

I went tonight with my wife. Met the owner, got a tour, enjoyed our meals. Its a really nice place.

When I moved here 4 years ago I was scared to drive for a long time. I thought it was too dangerous for me to ever drive here. But then we built a house and my wife insisted we get a motorcycle because we were always having to go get supplies for the builders. I gradually got used to driving but it was nerve-wracking. My wife would be on the back carrying stuff and coaching me. 6 months ago we bought a car, and I went thru the same process with my wife coaching me.

At this point I've been all over the North with both the motorcycle and the car, and it's OK.

It's just a learning curve. If these other people can drive, so can you. There are a lot of tips to consider like with the red lights, and many other things to look out for. Drive slowish and stay constantly alert. When you have a close call, examine the circumstances and learn from it.

Driving a motorbike around CM especially the old city and thereabouts adds a lot to the fun of living here.

Try ying yang massage at Loi Kroh rd. You would not think it but they all are lady boys.

Bars with ladyboys on Loi Kroh yes

Massage shops with ladyyboys on Loi Kroh I've never seen one, and I've been to both of the Yin Yangs

this means you liked the big hands massage ?

Ha Ha, no that's not what I mean! I think you are defaming the place untruthfully. But if you have had a "big hands massage there" then you would know.

Try ying yang massage at Loi Kroh rd. You would not think it but they all are lady boys.

Bars with ladyboys on Loi Kroh yes

Massage shops with ladyyboys on Loi Kroh I've never seen one, and I've been to both of the Yin Yangs

Our printer gets clogged nozzles that I can't clean myself using the utilities once or twice a year. Mywife uses it a LOT. The guy on the second floor of Pantip Plaza is most accomodating, fast, cheap, and he has always been able to fix it.

The food is first class, seriously the nicest Thai food I have had in 7 years here - the price is ridiculous., main courses are around 60 baht - I am sure anyone who has been will back me up on this.

Not me. I like the atmosphere there, but, to me, the food is pretty much the same as any other Thai vegetarian place that makes it fresh. I have never understood why some people think that it is so special.

Some folks rave about A Taste of Heaven too, but I put it right in the same category.

My wife and I ate at Taste of Heaven a couple days ago and were informed by the waitress that they were closing due to a lease problem. Food options were limited and the interior was partly gutted already. Too bad, I kinda liked that place.

Yesterday, we tried the newish vegetarian restaurant on Chang Klan. It's a bit south of the traffic Lanna Palace Hotel traffic light and across from that new shopping center, I forget the name. Anyways there is a big sign on the road and you need to turn in and go a ways behind where there is plenty of parking. The ambience of the place shady trees et al is fine, there is an big menu and very reasonably priced. We thought the food was a bit bland, other than that, it was a nice experience.

While I have a chance, I'll put in a plug for the Lanna Palace buffet lunch, every day at 11:30. You don't hear it mentioned much with the other popular buffets, but it is well worth checking out for about 180 baht.

My Thai wife and I live in a residential area south of Chiang Mai Gate. There are a lot of hill-tribers around and over a year ago our next-door neighbor convinced us to put up one of those boxes (ours is red) and get the BIB to stop and sign the book on a routine basis. We have been splitting the monthly cost of 600 baht with him. The idea being that we have them a bit more attentive to any problem, should one occur. They come by about once a day on an irregular basis and sign the book. As it happened, there have been a couple of neighborhood issues, but we don't think that his arrangement made any difference in the police services provided, to tell you the truth, and we are thinking of quitting.

In the 4 Noble Truths Buddha said that the origin of suffering is selfish desire, not "the mind being sent outside."

Likewise, following the 8-fold path to overcome selfish desire is the way to overcome suffering, not

"seeing the mind clearly."

In my opinion, what the monk says is different from what Buddha said, and it's not just a matter of saying the same thing with different words.

My wife says we paid 24K baht for this term for our daughter who is now in M4 @ SH College. This includes the uniforms and most of the books.

However, they have a scam going on where they virtually insist that she also go to special tutoring every Wed til 7pm, Sat mornings, and all day Sunday that you also have to pay for. An extra hour and a half of instruction on Wed is 550 baht a month. Once you pay for these, the school willl often cancel the class at the last minute for some flimsy reason and keep the money.

I know a German guy who goes to the place at Pantip Plaza, 3rd floor I think. He's real happy with it, especially because it was the cheapest he found in CM and he has a limited budget. Sorry I forgot the name, maybe someone else knows. If not, go there and poke around, it's easy to find, big sign on the office.

I am becoming a big fan of the Leila (I am 90% sure that is the correct spelling) massage places. There are 5 of them, I think, all in the old city. They are all staffed by women who are ex-prisoners, but you can't tell that unless you read the brochure. They get a whole lot of training and then work at the shops after they get out.

It's 200 baht for a Thai massage and I think they follow their training better than most places. They have nice purple uniforms, and the facilities are very nice. They are also very busy, which is surprising since it is the slow season. They probably have 15 or so girls at each place.

There is always a big sign. One is midway down the Sunday walking street, another is at the east end of Ratwithi near to MoonMuang. If you find one of those, get a brochure and it will have the directions to the others.

It looks like a very successful business model training these prisoners and I think they can claim to be good quality compared to all the other places around.

I would like to know from Camerata or others with factual knowledge, is it true or not, as Rocky claims, that the Pali Canon was written, or even changed, by Buddhagosa in the 5th century?

Wiki Quote:

Buddhaghosa went on to write commentaries on most of the other major books of the Pali Canon, with his works becoming the definitive Theravadin interpretation of the scriptures. Having synthesized or translated the whole of the Sinhalese commentary preserved at the Mahavihara, Buddhaghosa reportedly returned to India, making a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya to pay his respects to the bodhi tree.

Buddhaghosa was reputedly responsible for an extensive project of synthesizing and translating a large body of Sinhala commentaries on the Pāli Canon. His Visuddhimagga (Pāli: Path of Purification) is a comprehensive manual of Theravada Buddhism that is still read and studied today.

My contention is that interpretation is everything.

Look at what has already been said of Buddhagosa:

Quote:

The Visuddhimagga reflects changes in interpretation which appeared during the centuries since the Buddha's time.

The Australian Buddhist monastic Shravasti Dhammika is critical of contemporary practice.He concludes that Buddhaghosa did not believe that following the practice set forth in the Visuddhimagga will really lead him to Nirvana, basing himself on the postscript to the Visuddhimagga:

Yet Nanamoli notes that this postscript does not appear in the original Pali.

Even Buddhaghosa did not really believe that Theravada practice could lead to Nirvana. His Visuddhimagga is supposed to be a detailed, step by step guide to enlightenment. And yet in the postscript [...] he says he hopes that the merit he has earned by writing the Vishuddhimagga will allow him to be reborn in heaven, abide there until Metteyya appears, hear his teaching and then attain enlightenment.

According to Kalupahanan, Buddhaghosa was influenced by Mahayana-thought, which were subtly mixed with Theravada orthodoxy to introduce new ideas. Eventually this led to the flowering of metaphysical tendencies, in contrast to the original stress on anatman in early Buddhism^.

So there you have it.

Interpretation is EVERYTHING.

Well, it seems to me that you now have changed your mind, and now admit that Buddhagosa did not, after all, write the Pali Canon in the 5th century (post 19). What he did was to write Commentaries and also new creations of his own, most notably the Vishuddhimagga, that are not sutras.

It is quite reasonable to critique Buddhagosa's writings. Some people may find them lacking and others may find them original and superior.

Mail the check to your home bank for deposit. Registered or whatever. That won't take too long.

Then transfer the money from that bank to your Thailand bank on the internet. That's free and takes three business days in my case.

IMO, this is the best way to access the money from a foreign check.

Oh how I wish it were that easy. I spent last night on the phone trying to get my bank in the states to allow me to transfer funds from my account there, but they only allow transfers within accounts inside their banking system. They charge me a $40 wire fee to push a button and transfer my money here, rather than let me do it for free. I would like to own that button!

In my case, I have a Citibank checking account in America, and my official residence with them is now in Chiang Mai. I got the account in preparation for moving to CM using an American address and then later changed my address to CM. I don't think I could have opened the account using the CM address initially. I have my SS and pension deposited in there. I can access the account online. I don't know how many other banks do online money transfers, but there must be others.

To transfer money from Citibank to Bangkok Bank via online I send the money as an interinstitution transfer to the NY Branch of BB. These interinstitution transfers can be to any bank in the US, not only another Citibank. Citibank views this as an in-country money transfer, but the money actually ends up in my CM BB savings account in 3 business days. Citibank doesn't charge me anything, but BB charges me 500 baht (I think) for each $2000 I bring in.

I also have an option to wire transfer money to BB for $30, and that comes the same business day as an international wire, I believe what you refer to. However, you can send a lot of money for just the same $30, lowering the cost per dollar.

So, it is good to get a bank account where you can transfer money to any bank within the country online, and then just send it to the NY Branch of Bangkok Bank.

I hope someone will find this information helpful. It works like a charm for me.

Mail the check to your home bank for deposit. Registered or whatever. That won't take too long.

Then transfer the money from that bank to your Thailand bank on the internet. That's free and takes three business days in my case.

IMO, this is the best way to access the money from a foreign check.

I imagine in the Buddha's day it would have required considerable effort to build a monastery. But my point was that we can't claim that an action creates no merit when the Canon clearly says it does.

I don't feel imprisoned by the Pali Canon. It's the best reference we have for what the Buddha said. The majority of Western scholars consider the earliest identifiable stratum to be the Vinaya (excluding the Parivara) and the first four nikāyas of the Sutta Pitaka. So the "later" parts are most of the Khuddaka Nikkaya and the Abhidhamma.

How would you put this in laymans terms?

Also, it isn't just the Pali Canon, but who interpreted the original teachings into it.

Didn't Buddhagosa write the Pali Canon in the 5th century?

As such isn't his works subject to misinterpretation?

In other words, re interpret the original Sanskrit and also rein interpret Pali to English.

I would like to know from Camerata or others with factual knowledge, is it true or not, as Rocky claims, that the Pali Canon was written, or even changed, by Buddhagosa in the 5th century?

Like the forest monks...treat any illness with the Dhamma....meditation and mindfulness...you either get better or die.

I thought Buddha said that monks are entitled to medicine?

If a forest monk is not affiliated with a temple or the Sangha, I don't know where the money to buy medicine would come from, however.

got mine and returned it recently

they wanted to know if my address and wife were still the same...

Bought PCX 150 yesterday and will give it a good try.

I have been driving 24 years with Suzuki GSX-R750, Honda CBR 600/900/1000 and finally I want to give rest to my toes (and back), that's why scooter.

Anyone knows if back rest like in photo can be found in Chiang Mai?

http://www.powerbypcx.com/achat-dosseret-pour-passager-honda-pcx-speed-252277.html

you should look at what they have at the motorcycle accessories place on Chiang Moi, it's maybe 50 yards past the big helmet store on the right heading towards Wararot Market. I have a PCX 150 and bought something similar from them a while back. It is more of a triangular cushion compared to your picture. My wife and I are both big and she really needs it. I have a custom seat too similar to the picture but I'm not sure if was really worth it. Think long and hard before buying a custom seat.

When I first came to Thailand in 1970, I loved the place. Especially "mai pen pai." I mean, a people so mellow that any difficulty could be smoothed over with a few words that everyone understood.

Now I live here and am married to a Thai. She never says mai pen rai. To her it is often used as an excuse for personal irresponsibility. I'm late for work. Mai pen rai.

I wonder if others have a take on this. Is mai pen rai a good or bad saying overall in your opinion?