rychrde

"I did not approve the project just because my son owned the land. I don't think the hypermarket will affect the Sam Chuk market," he said.

that's the LOS we know!!

I have tried to explain the concept of hypermarkets to some Thais, but like everyone else in the world, they file into these cash-cows, happily buy a few bargains then fill their trolley with crap that is cheaper at 7eleven...or of course the local market. And like in the UK, once local trade is dead the prices creep up.

boring and depressing

Roman Catholic 3%.... WTG!!!

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)

2. Secular Humanism (93%)

3. Theravada Buddhism (83%)

4. Liberal Quakers (79%)

5. Nontheist (74%)

6. Taoism (67%)

7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (62%)

8. Neo-Pagan (61%)

9. Mahayana Buddhism (55%)

10. New Age (51%)

11. Scientology (49%)

12. New Thought (47%)

13. Reform Judaism (46%)

14. Sikhism (42%)

15. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (41%)

16. Orthodox Quaker (40%)

17. Jainism (40%)

18. Hinduism (31%)

19. Bahá'í Faith (27%)

20. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (18%)

21. Islam (16%)

22. Orthodox Judaism (16%)

23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (13%)

24. Seventh Day Adventist (12%)

25. Jehovah's Witness (5%)

26. Eastern Orthodox (3%)

27. Roman Catholic (3%)

One thing that does take some thought is the option of how strongly you believe each statement.

Eg Scientology is dangerously high there!! I suspect those were the questions on human suffering being caused by other people.

They could easily have replaced UU with Agnostic, and why are there no categories for Agnostic and Atheist? oh yeah, I just answered my question! guess nontheist fits.

rych

I think it should be about what is most impressive technologically when it was built - no doubt with the additional wonderment of "amazing it is still standing!"

But it'll end up a nationalist battle - they've already caved in to egyptian pressure.

btw as the pyramids have been already chosen shouldn't people have 6 votes now?! never mind

rych

yes, maybe just open a new thread on this! lol

In general I think many children have experiences that in the west would have been categorized as some mental illness. Also looks like children have the good sense not to tell if they feel they won't be understood! Hopefully this is slowly changing.

rych

I feel I can only confirm some of the comments above - find a teacher you trust (and that you can understand each other!)

At lest in the tibetan tradition (possibly in all) the key texts that teachers work with have extensiv commentaries, most of them precisely about the side-effects of the practices, which are normal and not dangerous, and which need some other practice to work through. Many things one can work through oneself but this is one area where a good teacher for you is really worth it.

Although not buddhist, one of the simplest and most effective techniques I have found are the taoist meditations of Mantak Chia. The books are detailled enough no to need to attend the classes. On top of that there is a lngthy Q&A chapter on problems that may arise and their solution. Was impressed he put so much info into the books. Even then I did start to have a problem of recurring nose bleeds. The kind people in Bristol helped me over the phone. One shame about Mantak Chia is how horrendously expensive his retreats are, even in Chiang Mai, but was good they gave me advice when I needed it.

rych

Looking at a map of provinces it could be defined as from SaKaeo through PrachinBuri and Chachoengsao and then drop all the way down to Trat.

btw thanks for moving this to best forum, though I wonder how many people look here :-)

btw2 where do people in Trat currently post local info/msgs?

rych

cool! someone else who does dream, and maybe even sleep, practice :-)

actually find it a bit difficult to do in Thailand as so hot even at night. But they are my favourite practices.

hi rych, i thought i picked up correctly on that code word dzogchen. here in the states i set my a/c on hybernate to sleep and should i ever settle in thailand that will be a requirement. even then i think i would spend the hottest, most humid months in cooler climes.

when you get farther into trance states you don't even need to put your body to sleep as you become able to step consciously into a lucid dream from even just a daydream. though you'd need to be able to sleep and practice dream yoga to get to that point so i suppose there's a catch-22.

what i found most interesting & useful in learning about atiyoga was that before dream yoga i didn't utilize dream states so much as refuge but more as entertainment. (i'm easily amused.) just as the outside world provides distraction from entry within but just as it also provides clues & metaphor to find the way, going within to find refuge can be just as distracting and can grow the ego rather than subdue it. so you learn not just to enter the dream but then to destroy that which so captivates imagination & attention. the peace found there is profound.

but i don't know that one ever remains permanently in such a state. i think it is a place to glimpse but not in which to reside. i don't think one functions well on this planet with one's head in the clouds. we are not that tall. on one hand it might be the only true refuge; but at least for practical purposes, i think it is less of a place of refuge and more of a place of reference. so even given dream yoga and other parlor tricks, we still seek comfort & satisfaction in community (even if it is the community of one) and in naming your applicable preferred theories & so-called (or not) gods.

Hi

agreed, can end up being your own private matrix-style cinema. But I came to it from my own efforts initially. Many years ago had an annoying recurring dream. Was interesting in its own right but would always wake me up. I figured we cannot die in a dream - I could have been wrong! - so spent some time making it lucid so could do what I needed to do. It worked. And was very happy when I discovered this within dzogchen.

btw if you're coming to Thailand there are no dzogchen teachers here. I have not been able to find any. And very very rarely does one come for a short retreat. Where are you in the US?

Dream practice does not seem to me so much of a place of refuge. If I understand it correctly its ultimate aim is to achieve dreamlessness. Once all the neurotic knots have been untied there is little left to dream about, apart from perhaps more profound level dreams, including having teachings :-)

rych

like rychrde, i also study a bit of dzogpa chenpo pretty much as my introduction to buddhism as it ties in very well to my experience in & practice of dream yoga.

cool! someone else who does dream, and maybe even sleep, practice :-)

actually find it a bit difficult to do in Thailand as so hot even at night. But they are my favourite practices.

rych

I think its a great idea, something for Aran to Trat and all in-between

yes, exactly. I see you're in Chantaburi - where do you post local stuff?

btw if any mods think this should be in a better folder then move it pls.

thx

rych

Hi

thanks monty for the clarification, altho the other Aran thread was also talking about the 30 day visa exempt rule and seems to have scared many people. Also, Imm Off verified the story so as usual unclear what's going on. My one year visa had run out so the stamp was for the 30-day exempt.

btw the title did not refer to the Aran thread but to my earlier post regarding overstay.

looking at my passport the actual stamp is the same as ever, they just scribble something in the Visaclass field.

so just as a conclusion, the traditional visa run for most westerners still seems available at Aran.

rych

Hi

just want to see if there is enough support for a South-East Thailand forum.

I live in Sa Kaeo, and the only topics I see are in the Central Thailand forum. But this isn't quite right. Too far east of Bangkok to be really central. Not really Isaan, though close. There seems to be nowhere to logically post anything local about this region.

I include the whole of the SE as I also see nowhere to post about this region. The Pattaya forum is obvious and logical but it does exclude the rest of this region.

any thoughts?

rych

So, let me end my speech with the vision of the Thai Airways International which is "Let's Fly Together".

does that mean one of us has to pilot the bloody plane?

During the previous year, there were about 13.8 tourists visiting the country

nice typo!! but point eight?!! must have been a medical tourist.

apart from that... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

they're doing an amazing thailand show in London, hope I can catch it when I'm there.

rych

cigs are cheaper at the thai borders than in duty free so can stock up before a flight and the minister can go FH with a bong.

Public Health Minister? lmfao. Go and do something positive for the health of YOUR public.

imnsho

rych

yes, for many a sad tale - luckily buddhism found its own refuge in Tibet.

One thing that strikes me from living here is how we westerners can see syncretism in action. Unless someone can give me an example, we really do not see this in action in europe anymore. Yes, in the past we had Plato and Aristotle almost elevated to sainthood within the christian church, but we really do not see the kind of assimilation of divinities from external religions as we do here.

and yes, the above article looks crap in firefox - dunno why but comes out as a 300px column.

rych

good to see such research.

thx for the post

:-)

mmm... how do you authenticate whether a piece has been blessed or not?!!

you really need to start by reading the Thai magazines on amulets. If you can't do that, then get somebody who can.

there are also amulet competitions! These try to get amulets 'authenticated' by judges. Cheaper than going to auction but its a matte of opinion.

This seems to be a very Thai thing, so there isn't a big international market. I have always avoided amulets in favour of statues as the sellers seem to know less about them However, I do know westerners who have bought very valuable things but it is only after numerous rounds of auctions tha their 'real' price is established.

sorry if this doesn't help much but just google for some 'authentication' services. I know one in BKK but they deal in statues.

rych

yep

one can even invert an old saying: any fool can ask a question but only a wise man can ask the right one.

rych

Hi

this relates to a previous post but this is probably a better title.

I needed to get a 30-day tourist visa, or even just a 7-day extension. Anyway, advice here was that Aran was no longer issuing 30-day visas on arrival. I phoned the Immigration Office in Aran and they confirmed that no 30-day visas are being issued and that I had to go to the Office to get a 7-day extension. This was all because my flight departure date was 3 days after my last stamp, but the flight was booked when the 30-day visas were still being issued, so I thought would be OK. The lady I spoke to said to go this Thursday because Fridays are always very busy. However, she forgot that on this particular Thurs the King's daughter was making an official visit to Aran and the road to the Imm Off was closed. As I was already in Aran border I was getting already bored and fed up with the situation.

Well...as usual, was offered to do the visa run at the border by friendly locals. At this point, I thought, what the hel_l!! They assured me that a 30-day stamp could be done. The passport control going out of Thailand had numerous posters saying that 'visas on arrival', 30-day visas, were no longer being issued until they had sorted out their 'computer systems'. This was kinda worrying. Anyway, I carried on. The sweetener in no-mans-land was a bit sweeter than usual, but just wanted to see what would happen. Well... at passport control re-entering Thailand there were none of the posters saying 'no visa on arrival', and I got stamped in on a 30-day visa!!!! The one thing they do check is that one has a booked transportation out of the country - I saw this with others in the queue but they didn't even check mine. Apart from that, the 30-day visa on arrival seems to be alive and kicking! or was it the sweeteners?

TIT

rych

Tell them to take their poison somewhere else. A JW is forbidden to stay in a relationship with a non JW and they actively break up family and friends to keep the faithful pure and unpolluted by the wrong attitude.

These people will lie cheat and steal to convert a 'soul' and once they have it in their grasp they are ruthless in hanging on to it.

Yes I do have personal experience of these people (they ruined a friends life) and I strongly urge you to stay away from them and indeed any religious group that has 'the one true way'.

agree! get rid of them any way you can. They hate buddhism so I'd have thought that would be enough - buy a tibetan wrathful deity, hang it on the wall and watch their reaction. Have known two people whose lives were ruined: one the JWs kept trying to kill him just because they wanted his property; another risked his life to kidnap and deprogram another friend. Don't be civil - slam the door in their face. Alternatively offer to help them join the 144,000 before the apocalypse. They have no respect for non-JWs so return the compliment.

rych

Experienced recently a local village morlam concert. Reminded me of the playboy bunny scene in Apocalypse Now! Anyway, usual drunken swaying around in the crowd, but as the musicians got more and more drunk the singer could just about summon the energy to shriek out the odd phrase but the music improved no end!! started to sound like morlam jazz!! fun till 3am

rych

Let me first say that I sympathize with RedQ as I had similar misgivings about the word 'refuge'. Translations have a habit of creating unexpected meanings. If such meanings create blocks then it is right to chisel away at the problem until one has a personally satisfactory solution.

First, I'm already committed to one teacher: me.

True. In my wanderings the only buddhist school that speaks that kind of language is Vajrayana, or more specifically Dzogchen (or Atiyoga). In theory, one's ultimate nature can be realized by one's self, because that nature is always there. In theory there is no need for buddhism, no need for masters, no need to refuge in anything... except one's own adamantine nature. I personally think it is important that such a philosophy exists. In theory we can do it all ourselves. In practice we have probably all screwed up at various points and have created a network of internal relationships that hinder our direct awareness of our own inner nature. So in practice there are many techniques to regain that insight and then stabilize it so that we can exist in that state all the time.

The ultimate refuge is in our pristine awareness, or buddha nature. If that still sounds like a kind of 'surrender' or 'hiding' then what you are surrendering to is your own deepest nature, and where you are hiding is called home. Like all psychic states, it just has to be experienced so that the words have meaning.

I would also prefer 'trust' rather than 'refuge'. Trust is better than faith as it is contingent on experiences. Yet again, this may be a Dzogchen view and not necessarily a hinayana or even mahayana view.

One thing we should be grateful for is the lineage of people who have developed, taught and written down these teachings. Without this chain of humans we would probably remain outsiders in a dark world of monotheistic fideism.

rych

write your own!!!!

bina

yeah but then you know how it ends!

How many Orwell quotes can this country live up to?!

Here's one rarely seen,

"As a magistrate his methods were simple. Even for the vastest

bribe he would never sell the decision of a case, because he knew

that a magistrate who gives wrong judgments is caught sooner or

later. His practice, a much safer one, was to take bribes from

both sides and then decide the case on strictly legal grounds.

This won him a useful reputation for impartiality."

from Burmese Days

History of Thailand and Cambodia by M.L. Manich Jumsai

Not a great read but very interesting, especially as I now live close to the Cambodian border. Also made me think that Thailand was very very lucky to have escaped European invasion. The British had their hands full in Burma and India, whilst the French always struggled to put down Vietnamese resistance. Knowing that the French could easily invade Thailand, but didn't quite have the resources and full backing from Paris, they were able to take Cambodia and parts of Thailand just by the mere threat of military force. The general feeling here is that it was skillful Thai diplomacy, but from the documents they had no allies and kept ceeding territory every time the pressure was turned up. The First World War rather saved the country.

rych