How Intellectually Stimulated Do You Feel

[BigSnake]

Not very

[Austhaied]

With the Dhamma fully in your heart there is suddenly no need for "intellectual conversation"..

That's what i found anyway. It (mostly) bores me to tears to hear how some people think they are the worlds problem solvers just by sitting on a bar stool or hovering over a keyboard on Tvisa.com...

Really..

[Pepe']

She's an MCSD programmer/mathematician with an IQ of 155.

Not sure what point this makes...

The 155 IQ makes her a genius, ( eg. Nobel prize winner.)

Then again, that's kinda normal for chatrooms and internet forums, full of the genius and millionaire types.

Bangkokchat was always full of Handsome Airline Pilots, Models, International Jetsetters, Company Directors or just plain ole' millionaires.

Reality was neither here nor there........

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I was a genius and millionaire. Then I married a beautiful Thai woman from a good family.

She wanted a divorce now I am a mere shadow of my former self.

Poorer but infact much smarter...

[Neeranam]

Is this you?

[Maigo6]

Wow! This guy has just bravely called me a liar from behind the usual battlements of anonymity.

Huh did I call you a Liar whoever you are ?

I don't think I did. In fact when I look at my post I see only facts, nowhere do I see the words " Jingjok, you're lying ".

Do you dispute the fact that internet chatrooms and Forums have some complete dreamers and lets say, people prone to telling a few tales?

I cannot judge you personally as I don't know who you are, I wouldn't know you if I fell out of a tree and landed on you, it's just a Forum. You could be Tom Cruise for all I know ( or care ).

IQ of 155 and over is the estimate for Nobel prize winners, as stated in my post.

Should I care with my IQ of 3000987, and my wife has 15 Masters Degrees, and an IQ of 1900......

Means a lot on a Forum huh ?

Edited March 6, 2008 by Maigo6

[Insight]

Even given the placid nature of the locals, nothing beats the comment from my next door neighbor back in the UK when he heard I was moving out here....

"Bangkok. What a place."

It doesn't take too much imagination to piece together the rest of the conversation.

[Ijustwannateach]

Remember, folks, don't feed the bridge folk even if they beggs for it.

[seonai]

The egos have landed

[Austhaied]

The egos have landed

The Illusion of the Ego

By Remez Sasson

Who are you? How would you describe yourself? If someone calls your name, would you turn your head to see who called you? Are you the name that was called, or is it just a way to refer to you? What if you changed your name, would you still be the same person?

You change the clothes you wear. You change your hairdo, and may dye your hair sometimes. Does this change who you are?

You change your job, car, house, but yet you still are the same one. These are outside changes. The "inner you" never changes. Most people consider their possessions, dress, name, job etc, as being an inseparable part of themselves. If something of theirs is broken or lost they feel as if they have lost a part of themselves. This is the ego at work.

The ego is the erroneous identification of the limitless spirit with the physical body, the emotions and thoughts. The perfect homogenous spirit expresses itself in the world through these three, and identifies itself with them.

The ego is not an independent entity. It is just the union of the spirit with the other three components, the body, emotions and thoughts. According to the philosophy of nonduality, these components, except the spirit, are not independent and constant, and therefore are not real. They are the products of the mind.

The spirit infuses them with life and expresses itself through them. The identification of the spirit with this trio is so strong that hardly anyone notices this erroneous identification. The spirit is free, perfect and independent. The body, thoughts and feelings are temporary and dependent on the spirit. This mixture is the cause of fear, desire, misunderstanding, anger and conflicts in the world.

When talking about the spirit I don't mean a particular soul, but the True Essence, the One vast and limitless Spirit, which is beyond every manifestation.

Each ego unit considers itself as real, and desires to survive and gain power over the other egos. This leads to clashes between them. Each one is shackled to its belief system, thoughts and ideas, and will do everything to defend them.

People also feel being a part of, and identify with the larger ego of family, workplace, neighborhood, football or basketball team, political party, city, country, religion etc. They identify with a thought, an idea or a common cause, and join together, sometimes against other groups carrying a different set of thoughts.

Look what happens at sport contests. If you support one sport team, and your team loses you get depressed. If it wins you get happy. The same thing happens with political parties or with other kinds of groups.

These units sometimes fight with each other, everyone believing they are right and the other party wrong. Isn't it a bit funny? If we consider that the Spirit is one, but manifests in myriads of forms, why then should we identify with one particular and temporary form? What if we become aware of this Spirit, and shift our awareness into it? Would we stay the same, or will we rise above the ego?

The ego is dependent on the thoughts that the mind thinks. These thoughts evoke feelings and desires, which evoke action. If a desire cannot be fulfilled, anger, unhappiness or hostility arises.

Believing we are this ego, each one of us enacts the role of a specific actor on the stage of life. This ego is the mask hiding the real Spirit that we are. Identification with the role we play makes us forget who we really are, and go on thinking we are this or that.

Forgetting our true essence is due to seeing through the eyes of the ego. This is the reason for suffering, unhappiness, depression, anger, conflicts, lack of satisfaction and every other negative feeling. But these negative feelings and situations are sometime the reason for the awakening of the desire to find who we really are, to come home and to return to what we really are - The Pure Spirit.

Edited March 6, 2008 by Austhaied

[seonai]

Cool, thanks Austhaid

[xsplat]

The point was completely clear and it had rather more to do with stimulating your sense of self-worth than with stimulating discussion.

What's the point of debating someones motives for discussion? If you are less arrogant than me, does that make you a better person? Calling someone else arrogant is just being arrogant at your own lack of arrogance.

Edited March 6, 2008 by xsplat

[RueFang]

Thanks for that Austhaid, my thoughts exactly

[Austhaied]

Thanks for that Austhaid, my thoughts exactly

You are both very welcome (Seonai and your good self)..

It does make sense.

[Jingjok]

Wow! This guy has just bravely called me a liar from behind the usual battlements of anonymity.

Huh did I call you a Liar whoever you are ?

I don't think I did. In fact when I look at my post I see only facts, nowhere do I see the words " Jingjok, you're lying ".

What weasel-worded nonsense! Your post was an absolute and clear inference that I was one of the ‘dreamer’ to whom you refer below.

Do you dispute the fact that internet chatrooms and Forums have some complete dreamers and lets say, people prone to telling a few tales?

I’m not that experienced on forums: I just don’t know. What I do know is that making up stories in an attempt to impress strangers, some of whom hide behind anonymity, would be a completely pointless, self-delusional, and to my mind rather strange and inexplicable thing to do.

I cannot judge you personally as I don't know who you are, I wouldn't know you if I fell out of a tree and landed on you, it's just a Forum. You could be Tom Cruise for all I know ( or care ).

I’m not suggesting that I am generally well-known! Just that I don’t hide behind a total cloak of anonymity, and will stand by my opinions and comments face to face, as any man should.

IQ of 155 and over is the estimate for Nobel prize winners, as stated in my post.

Rubbish.

Whilst not wishing to enter the murky waters of debate on what IQ is, which is maybe more soundly defined not as raw cognitive ability or the ability to transpose experience into novel solutions, but as ‘that which is measured by intelligence tests’, this nonsense requires an answer.

The award of Nobel prizes had nothing to do with IQ.

An IQ of 155 is not so rare: it is the first percentile on the Cattell scale, meaning, by definition, that 1 in 100 people have this. Even you must concede that rather less than one percent of the world population have been awarded Nobel prizes.

BTW, the correlation of words like ‘genius’ right down to ‘moron’ (we have many examples of both on TV) with IQ scores is long obsolete.

Should I care with my IQ of 3000987, and my wife has 15 Masters Degrees, and an IQ of 1900......

Means a lot on a Forum huh ?

A specious argument. Yes it does mean a lot on a forum if said forum is to be for anything more than for idiots to make up stories.

Never forget there are people behind these stark lines of text: the whole edifice is not some monstrous AI program provided for your sole amusement.

Perhaps you and many others should consider that before posting insulting comments. Unless of course you are prepared to be identified. I’d have thought someone who presumes to use Lee van Cleef as an avatar might just understand that.

The egos have landed

LOL! Yes, I realise it all appears silly and deeply unattractive from a female perspective, but it’s a man thing. Sorry about that.

[Maigo6]

What weasel-worded nonsense! Your post was an absolute and clear inference that I was one of the ‘dreamer’ to whom you refer below.

So what do you want to do, Pistols at dawn ?

This is a Forum, don't take things so serious...<deleted>.

[Naam]

What weasel-worded nonsense! Your post was an absolute and clear inference that I was one of the ‘dreamer’ to whom you refer below.

So what do you want to do, Pistols at dawn ?

This is a Forum, don't take things so serious...<deleted>.

heavy sabres, sunday at dawn, my backyard. i will provide the drinks, wife and maid will take care of the wounds. dog will eat cut off body parts.

[Maigo6]

heavy sabres, sunday at dawn, my backyard. i will provide the drinks, wife and maid will take care of the wounds. dog will eat cut off body parts.

Can I just have the drinks and the maid ?

[Jingjok]

So what do you want to do, Pistols at dawn ?

Certainly. I took first prize in 9mm pistol last year at the local range. No doubt you'll think I dreamed that up too, but I can show you the trophy if you really insist

[Naam]

heavy sabres, sunday at dawn, my backyard. i will provide the drinks, wife and maid will take care of the wounds. dog will eat cut off body parts.

Can I just have the drinks and the maid ?

i appreciate that you didn't ask for my wife unfortunately (for you) our maid is married to our gardener and somehow i have the feeling that he will object

[Naam]

So what do you want to do, Pistols at dawn ?

Certainly. I took first prize in 9mm pistol last year at the local range. No doubt you'll think I dreamed that up too, but I can show you the trophy if you really insist

my dog says "NO PISTOLS!"

[Jandajoy]

Re OP

Does stimulation relate to challenge?

live with my wife...... all the challenges required for some one of the human persuassion.

[jasreeve17]

I'm not sure what someone's location has to do with being intellectually stimulated or not. People are either innately intellectually curious, or they're not. How complicated does it have to be.

I work. I travel. I have a large and high quality library of books in my apartment. I have the internet. I watch good movies. I can keep up with world events very easily. There is also a good range of art galleries, museums etc in Bangkok to visit if the mood fits.

Life is what you make it.

Oh My God. Mark the date. I totally agree with you.

The lunatics are grouping together. Will they take over the asylum soon?

[Jingjok]

Heavy sabres, Sunday at dawn, my backyard. I will provide the drinks, wife and maid will take care of the wounds. Dog will eat cut off body parts.

Well, I haven’t brandished a sabre since I was at school, so 9mm semi-autos it will have to be. Appallingly vulgar, I know, but one has to move with the times, and I’ve run out of matched hand grenades.

…unfortunately (for you) our maid is married to our gardener and somehow I have the feeling that he will object

Oh good, your gardener may act as my second.

my dog says "NO PISTOLS!"

He really wants those body parts doesn’t he? Tell him he can wait inside then have a whole body later

[RueFang]

Anyone feel the need to get back on topic as this thread has turned into possibly the most intellectually stimulating conversation I have ever witnessed!

[Jandajoy]

Its all what you make out of it. It's a pity that Bangkok has a very small art scene and only a few galleries distributed all over the city. Most intellectuals escaped to Chiang Mai. But with the Internet you can have everything you are interested in right in front if you want to so that's my way of escaping.

I really wonder where this country is heading... seems like nobody cares about anything except the next episode of a soup opera or money that should come with as little effort as possible.

Are those the ones sponsored by Campbells, by any chance?

condensed mushroom. Don't add water, just an egg. Stir slowly over a low heat for a while. Consume.

2-3 hours later you'lll be producing the same sort of guff as these postings. (not all, but most)

[FBN]

Much ado about nothing more than a bit of mental masturbation really...

[xsplat]

Much ado about nothing more than a bit of mental masturbation really...

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[Pepe']

Is this you?

-----------------

Why yes but I don't recall giving you permission to use my picture...

[xsplat]

I think I have something to say, and tenderly try to broach the subject.

Well I'm sure you have something to say, but with a one in three post deletion rate you need to either improve your delivery or improve what it is you have to say.

But you have spoken and it would seem spoken enough that we might indeed know thee.

If it quacks its more than likely a duck....

I'm having a snappy retort two days late moment.

The differences between a troll, a PC bonetard, and some guy who enjoys making fun of retards while educating them, is about the combinations of awareness of ones own motives, schedenfreud, empathy, and understanding social dynamics. The PC bonetard has empathy, but is Utopian about social dynamics. The troll is only about schedenfreud. A monster who combines a little wordly irony and schedenfreud and empathy mixed together may need a shave and be capabable of wandering under bridges, but is not a smelly little troll. You, Sir, are a bridge toll attendant. An NGO bureaucrat.

It is weak punk talk to label people who disagree with you and make you uncomfortable and don't conform to your Mighty Righteousness as trolls. Try engaging the issues, with the rest of the adults.

Edited March 8, 2008 by xsplat

[GuestHouse]

I'm having a snappy retort two days late moment.

The differences between a troll, a PC bonetard, and some guy who enjoys making fun of retards while educating them, is about the combinations of awareness of ones own motives, schedenfreud, empathy, and understanding social dynamics. .

And in the same post....

It is weak punk talk to label people who disagree with you and make you uncomfortable and don't conform to your Mighty Righteousness as trolls. Try engaging the issues, with the rest of the adults.

Retard is a verb....

And I say your 'snappy retort' is about as intellectual as that which I just flushed down the toilet.

Reading your posts reminds me of those old detergent adverts - content extacted from Wikipedia as a prop to your affectation of intellectualism - just like the 'guys in the white coats' standing in the background as Mrs Suds tries to decide what washpowder is best for her family.....

[sic] "Xplat washes whiter because these scientists have got white coats".

No need to label you Xplat you do a great job of that with every word you type.