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I wonder what the Buddha would have said? Visiting the temple to pray to a fungus

webfact

By webfact
in Thailand News

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bark Senior Member

bark

Posted
Posted

My Cat ( Fluffy ) told me the same numbers, the last Lottery Day. I won 16,000 baht.

The next day I took Fluffy, down to the local cat house for some fun.

I'll let you all know on Friday the numbers for this lottery.

Fluffy is with the fortune teller right now; comparing notes.

 

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bark Senior Member

bark

Posted
Posted
50 minutes ago, Catoni said:

  

     Well... actually... Theravada Buddhism is probably much closer to what Siddhartha Gautama Buddha taught than any other school of Buddhism. Theravada Buddhism is closer to original Buddhism than the various forms of Mahayana Buddhism such as Zen and Pure Land, Tibetan and Tantric Buddhism for example. 

       But still, over the past 2,500 years or so... it too has drifted from what Gautama Buddha would approve of.  

 

The basic teachings are still correct....  the base is there...  It's what has been added to it over time that has changed it from what it originally was. 

    In actual fact...  Lord Buddha himself would not even approve of statues representing him, or of Sai Sin strings or water libation then pouring it on a tree etc.  Lord Buddha would not approve of Sak Yant tattoos with their magical prayers.  I myself am guilty of getting Sak Yant tattoos from a Theravada monk using Khem Sak.      

 

  You have to take into account...  Theravada Buddhism in some places, like Thailand and Cambodia, and probably also Myanmar and Laos, has been...shall we say.. "influenced" with Hinduism and local variations of Animism and local "magic" things over the centuries..  Modern technological society with the desire for gadgets and wealth, has also not helped. 

 

  So today... there are a great many corrupt monks as we are aware...  all around us..   Many corrupt priests and pastors in Christianity.. Jesus would not approve..  But now and again.... you might find one who is very sincere.. and trying their best to be faithful to the basic teachings.. 

 

     You can still find real, serious, Buddhist monks who truly do their best to follow Buddha's teachings with purity. Even outside of southeast Asia.  But you have to search much longer now to find them.    The search is worth it.  

Thank you for writing this. I will now go watch the paint dry on my wall.

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peterb17 Silver Member

peterb17

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, lemonjelly said:

These stories make smile, it's one of the reasons I love being here. The world would be a boring place without a little mysticism here and there. 

 

Absolutely agree.

 

Sometimes things are just a bit weird- go to the ghost festival in Loei- just really strange .

I would have more faith in a fungus than the fairies in the sky that billions weirdly believe in ( all total illogical nonsense) at least it's a living organism. 

 

Living in SE Asia can still be an adventure. 

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stereolab Advanced Member

stereolab

Posted
Posted

With all the Monks operating in Thailand, at least one of them will get this weeks lottery result correct, you will hear a great deal about his fungus, or lucky cat, or whispering tree etc, you will not hear about the 99.9% who failed to predict correctly .

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Si Thea01 Silver Member

Si Thea01

Posted
Posted

My dog is a great predictor.  Every time we walk he does a number 1 three times and a number two twice. so I added 2 and 3 and got five, then I added 3 and 1 and got four then 2 and 2, also four.  What did I end up with.? At the end of the week, a load of crap.  :bah: :wai:

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Catoni Silver Member

Catoni

Posted
Posted
On September 15, 2016 at 6:04 AM, bark said:

Thank you for writing this. I will now go watch the paint dry on my wall.

 

      Have fun doing that.   If you find the post to be a boring subject.... then why waste your time reading it ? ?  Nothing better to do ? ? 

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nausea Gold Member

nausea

Posted
Posted

It ain't Buddhism mate. Thailand needs to go back to first principles. And like the first one is - money ain't everything. You die and you can't take it with you. The second is you die and it doesn't really matter what your children do - you're dead. The third one is the only thing you leave behind you is your good and bad deeds. 

 

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IsItFlab Newbie

IsItFlab

Posted
Posted
On 9/16/2016 at 0:15 PM, PremiumLane said:

Nearly 70% of Americans believe in angels and other nonsense from a book written by a bunch of backward zealots over 2000 years ago, so this kind of stupidity isn't just in Thailand :)

so the universe started by itself...yeh right.

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wotsdermatter Advanced Member

wotsdermatter

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 9/15/2016 at 4:06 AM, dcpo said:

It's kinda weird how Thais get from the teachings of Buddha to their belief in spirits and magic fungi that tell them lottery numbers. But then, it's kinda weird how Catholics get from the teachings of Jesus to massive cathedrals stuffed with gold and a man living in his own private city who tells them what to do (not that they actually listen to him if they don't agree with what he's saying). Human nature. It is what it is.

 
 

 

Remember that a cathedral originally was built to hold a "sacred/artifact" a relic supposedly from Christ, or a disciple, such as a piece of the "original" cross, a bone of some kind from a disciple, etc and they were revered and prayed to and money paid to "assist" in the maintenance and protection of the artifact.  Catholicism was not even founded by any of Christ's disciples or apostles but by a person known as Simon Magus.

 

Buddhism is not a religion but a philosophy/way of life to reach nirvana for which one must be reincarnated many times to achieve.

 

Both have pulled the wool over the eyes of their "followers" over the years.

Edited by wotsdermatter
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wotsdermatter Advanced Member

wotsdermatter

Posted
Posted
On 9/15/2016 at 4:06 AM, dcpo said:

It's kinda weird how Thais get from the teachings of Buddha to their belief in spirits and magic fungi that tell them lottery numbers. But then, it's kinda weird how Catholics get from the teachings of Jesus to massive cathedrals stuffed with gold and a man living in his own private city who tells them what to do (not that they actually listen to him if they don't agree with what he's saying). Human nature. It is what it is.

 

 

Remember that a cathedral originally was built to hold a "sacred/artifact" a relic supposedly from Christ, or a disciple, such as a piece of the "original" cross, a bone of some kind from a disciple, etc and they were revered and prayed to and money paid to "assist" in the maintenance and protection of the artifact.  Catholicism was not even founded by any of Christ's disciples or apostles but by a person known as Simon Magus.

 

Buddhism is not a religion but a philosophy/way of life to reach nirvana for which one must be reincarnated many times to achieve.

 

Both have pulled the wool over the eyes of their "followers" over the years.

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Si Thea01 Silver Member

Si Thea01

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, nausea said:

It ain't Buddhism mate. Thailand needs to go back to first principles. And like the first one is - money ain't everything. You die and you can't take it with you. The second is you die and it doesn't really matter what your children do - you're dead. The third one is the only thing you leave behind you is your good and bad deeds. 

 

 

I've found a way to take it with me and for a small fee directed to my bank account I will share it with you.  :whistling:  :wai:

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Si Thea01 Silver Member

Si Thea01

Posted
Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, nausea said:

It ain't Buddhism mate. Thailand needs to go back to first principles. And like the first one is - money ain't everything. You die and you can't take it with you. The second is you die and it doesn't really matter what your children do - you're dead. The third one is the only thing you leave behind you is your good and bad deeds. 

 

 

self deleted, double entry.:wai:

Edited by Si Thea01
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rkidlad Platinum Member

rkidlad

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, IsItFlab said:

athiests are the lowest forms of scum on this planet

 

12 hours ago, IsItFlab said:

athiests are the lowest forms of scum on this planet

 

Ha ha. You'd be a welcomed addition in heaven or wherever it is you think you're going. 

 

Cant explain why we're here? Let's just make up stories of a higher being based on no evidence and impossible physics. 

 

We're all destined to be worm food, boy. We are not special. 

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Catoni Silver Member

Catoni

Posted
Posted (edited)
On September 17, 2016 at 5:43 PM, wotsdermatter said:

 

Remember that a cathedral originally was built to hold a "sacred/artifact" a relic supposedly from Christ, or a disciple, such as a piece of the "original" cross, a bone of some kind from a disciple, etc and they were revered and prayed to and money paid to "assist" in the maintenance and protection of the artifact.  Catholicism was not even founded by any of Christ's disciples or apostles but by a person known as Simon Magus.

 

Buddhism is not a religion but a philosophy/way of life to reach nirvana for which one must be reincarnated many times to achieve.

 

Both have pulled the wool over the eyes of their "followers" over the years.

 

    Simon Magus is an interesting character.   At that time there were many popular religious leaders wandering that part of the world.

 

    Jesus Christ and Simon Magus were probably the two most influential...   Magus met a number of Jesus's disciples, including the disciple Simon Peter a few times.   He was baptized as a follower of Christ but ended up in arguments and more or less went his own way and made his own type of Jewish/Magus religion.. 

 

   Simon Magus and the disciple St. Peter did not get along together at all. Originally friends.... they ended up in a very serious argument in front of a lot of people.

 

   At some point..... when the disciples Peter and Paul had gone to Rome... they ran into Simon Magus there as well... and ended up denouncing Magus in front of the Emperor Nero... but all three ended up being killed...   

        Simon Magus was later crucified, possibly even flayed. He was another victim of the rampant anti-Christian sentiment of the era.  Ancient Persian scholar Omid of Askar described his skin "being torn from the flesh, his muscles baking on wooden planks high on the cross".  - Wikipedia

 

     But in some esoteric circles.... it is claimed that his powers gave him the ability to cheat death... and he walks the world today....  blending in with society wherever he goes.. as in the story of the Wandering Jew.

 

    Apparently Magus had magical powers...among other powers, he could also levitate and fly..   He had his own disciples and a great following of people.... and claimed at one point to be more powerful than God and Jesus.   Magus spent time in both Israel and Rome, probably Greece, and educated in Alexandria. 

   The story of Simon Magus's life would make a great Hollywood movie.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Magus

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