Yamantaka

MM, apologies but I 've got to disagree with you. Unless you're talking about a clinically obese person, who never walks anywhere, taking a nice walk a few times a week will do nothing to improve health or lose weight. Neither will playing golf, or bowling, playing pool or darts or any of the other things that we like to pretend make us "active", healthy people.

The best way to lose weight is to change diet, and yes, lift weights. They don't have to be big weights, and can be gym machines, but resistance training, done properly, burns more fat than even cardio exercise. This is because, while cardio burns more calories during the actual time spent exercising, lifting weights (with no more than 30 seconds bewtween sets) will keep the metabolism revved up the whole day. And having more muscle means your body will burn more calories just to maintain itself.

As far as diet goes, there are a few simple starting points that will help kick off a lifestyle/body image change: eliminate all deep fried foods; try not to eat stir fried food from restaurants and street vendors since they use palm oil which is great for running your car but deadly for your arteries; stop eating white rice - the "brown" that they remove when polishing it has all the nutrients, so the white rice is empty, and fattening, calories; don't eat white pasta, bread or anything else made with white flour - go whole wheat (and watch that the label doesn't say just "wheat" - that's a marketing ploy); cut intake of dairy products except 0% fat milk and low fat yogurt; eliminate "prepared" meats and canned/frozen foods - they are full of chemicals that interfere with proper conversion of foods.

And for god's sake stop drinking so much! And when you drink, drink lower calorie drinks. Beer believe it or not, is not nearly as fattening as some cocktails, ie 160-200 calories per half litre vs 740 for a margarita and 780 for a L.I. Iced Tea! But considering that a 80kg man who doesn't work out regularly should not consume more than 2000 calories a day, drinking only six beers a day can make up half of his daily diet. With almost no nutritional value, those beers are starving your body of life as well as adding a number of toxic substances.

I hope this helps everyone who wants to get healthy but doesn't know where to start. Without good health nothing else matters much.

Yeah But....

if one is really a practicing Buddhist, what they say good or bad doesn't have any impact, does it?

New division (Guerilla Marketing) of Saen Yim Co Ltd is seeking an intelligent, self-motivated, ambitious, personable and attractive Thai national Administrative Assistant to join in the launch of our new business activities. You must have excellent English and Thai speaking & writing skills, and be conversant with Word, Excel, Publisher, Front Page, Outlook Express and the World Wide Web.

Initially your responsibility will be to make appointments for our Marketing Manager to meet with advertising buyers of major corporations with outlets in Phuket. This can be done by telephone from anywhere in Thailand. This phase of your employement will be a test of your independence, ingenuity, and energy as you will need to search the web for the companies we assign to you, determine the decision maker at each, and secure an appointment with that person.

For this you will be paid THB 1,000 for each appointment made and kept by the advertising buyer. We have an "A" list of twelve companies and a "B" list of twelve more. We could theoretically meet with all of them in two weeks, so your income for successfully completing this phase would pay you THB 24,000 in a very short time. If you have viable suggestions for additional companies which may be interested in speaking with us, these can be added to our lists and you will be paid at the same rate.

The second phase of your employment, should you choose to accept it, would be to accompany the Marketing Manager to the meetings in Phuket which you have set. You will translate the conversations and facilitate negotiations ending in a contract. For each meeting you attend where a contract is signed you will be paid .1% of the contract value with a minimum of THB 4,000 per contract. We expect that most contracts will amount to more than THB 10 million each, so a successful negotiation will earn you much more than that amount.

If you have these abilities, a pleasant personality and a professional appearance, you are welcome to submit your resume with a recent photo via email.

It sounds like you have done everything you could for the poor animal. The only other thing is to try to find someone who needs a guard dog that can keep it fenced in, like a junk yard.

Wait! You forgot the most authentic movie about Buddhism - The Golden Child with Eddie Murphy. I almost achieved enlightnement watching it. I was this close!

My friend's lawyer just got his ex-lawyer disbarred for cheating him. Not an easy task in any country. It took several years but the Law Council pulled his license forever.

It seems that the law firm that accomplished this demonstrated not only extensive ability but also huge cojones, and should be at the top of anyone's list when looking for represenation.

Not superiority, just compassion.

I think most men just want a woman understands and abides by the rules:

These are Men's rules! Please note...these are all

numbered "1."

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

1. If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't expect us to act like soap opera guys.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine. Really.

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss topics such as baseball, the shotgun formation, or monster trucks.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round is a shape.

1. Thank you for reading this; Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight, but did you know men really don't mind that, it's like camping.

Please, remember this is merely humor. Don't post arguements or criticisms.

They are useless. For a short time, right after you've put ice into it, if you sit maybe 60cm away from it and have it aiming right at you, it will cool you a degree or two. But barely more than a good fan.

these soi dogs are so aggressive, how come they're not towards me? Not if they don't have a reason, anyway

I'm with you November. I've lived in Phuket for five years, have walked past many packs of dogs. Never been bitten or even threatened. I think the people who are advocating cruel deaths to semi-feral streets dogs for behaviing like semi-feral street dogs are the more vicious. Dogs sense aggression, fear and lack of self-esteem, and act to assert their superiority.

We are all mental & spiritual Lilliputians (is that spelled right?) compared to the Buddha.

If you are a Buddhist, do you have faith(blind or otherwise), or do you have intuition, intelligence, experience, or anything else?

I don't think that faith in Judeo-Christian tradition is the same as faith would be construed in Buddhism. My read of the former is that faith requires believing without tangible proof, solely because the "heart" id open to accepting God as existing.

The teachings I have taken in Buddhism have always been the opposite: "Listen to this, see if it makes sense for you, examine it to see what's wrong with it. If after that you still "like" it, put it to good use in your life. Faith in the Buddha really is more believing that what he taught was valid and useful. He was after all, a teacher, not a god.

Let me please ask, if I may, if there's another parallel between what I'm going to call Christian pacifism or absolute non-violence, and its Buddhist 'equivalent.' When I discuss this with violent Christians who think their Scriptures are normative for behavior, they blank out, can't think, don't know, insist they must kill for family and kill for country, argue illogically, refuse to argue, etc., no matter what their Scriptures say. Are Buddhists the same?

I would say that the teachings of Buddha and Jesus are almost identical. From my reading of the New Testament, there is nothing in what Jesus taught that can be interpreted as "the Father said 'Thou shalt not kill. For exceptions, see paragraphs 6-29 subsections iv-xxiii'". It is the same in Buddhism. "Do no harm to any sentient being". That's what Buddha taught. For me, it takes a lot of imagination to change that to "pick up a gun because these guys say they want to kill us".

I had a serious conflict (verbal) with the directors of a Dharma centre where I was living. I was assigned to working the garden removing the weeds from a patch of vegetables. One of the teachers for whose teachings I have great respect is Geshe Rabten, who said that disturbing a sentient being's home/nest/hive was doing great harm by destroying the ability to function normally, in which I included taking care of the young.

I chose to carefully pull each weed by hand rather than use a hoe to chop the weeds and turn the soil. Once this was done I planned to heavy mulch which would smother the weeds, conserve moisture in the soil and even fertilize the soil as it decomposed. All without "doing harm". To me it was the perfect solution. This was not fast enough for the directors, who had other (fiscal) responsibilities to maintain the functioning of the centre. Hence the conflict.

Again, we should not confuse the "word" with the people reading the word. People are flawed which is why we try our best to listen to those we believe are not.

Maybe I don't read enough.

I also studied Comparative Religion at university and read several books on Buddhism in the years after. But it was a very different learning experience taking teachings from lamas or geshes.

Camerata would you agree that giving to monks, believing that this will benefit the giver, is not generosity at all but only serving self-interest? In fact, isn't any charity given because it makes you feel good, really to feed one's own ego and therefore not likely to result in positive karma.

I would postulate that the only true compassionate giving is giving to those for whom you hold the most negative feelings and which present you with no satisfaction for doing so.

There seems to be a lot of confusing what "people" believe with what Buddhism teaches. Accepting the beliefs of people who have never taken Buddhist teachings about what is or isn't Buddhism probably isn't going to give you an accurate picture.

There is merit in Buddhism but it doesn't "buy" anything. The concept here has been distorted by those wishing to profit from it. There is no "holy spirit" inside statues, amulets, paintings - same explanation. There are stupas which contain the remains of dead Buddhists, and they (the Buddhists, not the stupas) are revered because of what they taught or accomplished.

All of these "props" are merely instruments which are used to focus the mind when doing meditations, especially analytical meditations. If they are not available, anything or nothing for that matter could be an acceptable substitute.

Jesus also taught some wonderful things:

Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if anyone would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

Jesus of Nazareth

Matthew 5:38:45

and

Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least among you, you did not do for me.'

These are beautiful and immortal truths that sadly are ignored as often as the teachings as Buddha.

PeaceBlondie, you are correct. There is no justification in Buddhism for war as we know it. If someone comes into your house and tries to kill you, it's pretty certain that if you kill him while trying to protect your family, Buddhism would say that the karma you accumulate from that would be mildly negative, if negative at all. It would be parallel to the law: the paradigm is, "if you shoot someone dead on your front lawn, drag him into the house". The karma would be similar: if you can defend your family without killing, that is obviously better.

Remember there are four karmic aspects to every act. Even the Dharma has shades of gray.

There is a big difference between being a Buddhist and being a Buddha. A lot of westerners seem to think that taking lay vows or putting on robes should instantly bring enlightenment. If only!

The debate could arise from the idea of defending one's country. If we were all Buddhas, we wouldn't really care if one group of tyrants replaced another. But our delusions and our egos motivate us to perceive this as equivalent to losing our lives, so we justify armed defense. But I would be surprised to learn that there were many actively practicing Buddhists enlisting in the military.

Canuck: No , No, No! Statues like green Fanta. Fire hydrants like the red. Everyone knows that!

That's a good explanation. Statues and other images of Buddhas are merely reminders of what has hopefully been learned. The respect paid to them is not for the image but for the teachings that have been received. They were surely provided by Buddhists and most of the population of Thailand are Buddhists by birth, but most have taken very few Buddhist teachings.

I agree. Sadly, people in Thailand do not live according to Buddha's teachings any more than people in the states live by Christ's teachings. All talk the talk but few walk the walk.

Or the Buddhist version: Life's a bitch and then you die. Then you're reborn and life's a bitch again and then you die, and so on. Until you get it right.

The biggest problem for westerners and Buddhism seems to be to stop seeing it through "Judeo-Christian tradition" eyes. I've spoken with a lot of friends who don't "get" the premise that Buddhism is not a religion in that sense, that Buddha is not God to Buddhists, and that we don't worship idols and paintings.

For instance, many people were outraged for me when the Taliban blew up those statues of Buddha in Bamian (?). And they even got a little upset me for not being upset!

Better for you perhaps but not for everyone.

That is one aspect of Buddhism that greatly appeals to me, there is no one to blame for what happens to me except my own thoughts and actions.

I never could grasp the concept of God and faith. Especially the idea that when something good happens, it is God's blessing, and when something horrific happens, like 40 million children dying every year of preventable diseases and starvation, it is God's plan that we are too ignorant to understand.

If I can expand on the previous answers, negative action, what we would call evil, arises not only from ignorance but also from delusion and attachment. These are all tied into the most potent destructive element of all sentient beings, ego.

There are four aspects of Karma: action, intent, object of the action and the results of the action. Each contributes to the Karma acquired, good or bad. The idea is that whatever happens to us, we rejoice. If something good happens to us, we rejoice for obvious reasons. If it's bad, we rejoice at having burned up some negative Karma, and at having the opportunity to practice patience or compassion, rather than reacting in kind.

The real question is, why do I keep capitalizing the word karma?