sabaijai

I don't know if anyone listed this movie, but "Amongst White Clouds" is a little gem about the Chinese hermit monks.

8,9 and 10 oct. there will be the buddhist filmfestival Europe in Amsterdam.
More info on this website:
http://www.bffe.org/...ct/mailinglist/

To write about human existence as if it is a life  a lay person could think it could be about  life of animals is inapropriate. But we cannot make out what other people think only what we write ourself.
Allthough I am not of the same view I understand the meaning and explanation  of the Koan.
In my view teaching, becoming aware, is action.
Then there is only non-action in relation to other area's of existence.
The action action is in the individual, in the faculties of awareness and all connected to it. As I told, a complete deaf, blind and dumb human probably, certainly at those times , could not come to enlightment in the way teached and talked about  in the early times of history.


This shows all our senses have to be active for knowing the world and life.

It was my point to show some way of writing is just - near - nihilism and no Buddhism.
Maybe at the time Buddha lived and teached the Self was not so essential, I think it was not very essential then.
But now we are 2500 years further on in history and the Self, the I has become more and more important and has become more and more essential  in humanity and it will continue to be more and more essential in future.
And then I do not mean the ego.
If people do not do justice to the self , to the I in the human existence, they will loose connection to human reality at this moment and will not have anymore in the future. That is - for me- one reason, why an interpretation of Buddhism that doesnot see  the I of the human to be essential in human individual existence, will loose ground in the world and will in itself be not essential anymore in the future.

That is  related to my insertion in the topic of Buddhisme. When in Thailand there would be more appreciation, respect and care for the essence of the I of all Thai individuals, live in Thailand would remarkably improve.

christiaan, on 2010-10-03 20:15:19, said:

Some people may sound nihilist to you, to me you sound more like a missionary then a buddhist. A spiritual world has nothing to do with buddhism i.m.o. and it looks like you are continuously trying to convert other forummembers to believe in this strange world.

And you seem to have the even bigger task of saving Thailand by imposing all kind of western values.

A buddhist tries not to judge others and to mind his own mind.

I see in Thailand more friendly and relaxed faces then in the west and I think the west can learn a lot from Thailand at the moment.

What about the sidewalk bars along Sukhumvit Rd.

From a Theravadin perspective I think we'd need to differentiate the blissful feeling of love that you felt and how it changed your life.

I think some Theravadins do have experiences similar to what you describe with their teachers though they wouldn't be encouraged to make much of it in the way a guru lineage would.

So we'd be encouraged to see feeling as feeling, something that is impermanent, not ultimately satisfying, not me, and not something to get attached to or base your spiritual life on.

What is more significant is how it changed your life, and the real test of that is when the feeling is gone what is it that you are left with that better enables you to deal with the uncertainties of life.

In the ultimate sense there is only one type of person who is truly free. No-one, nothing, no place, no condition, can ever enslave that type of person. We call such a person an enlightened being, a liberated being. Note the words themselves - liberation is a synonym for freedom. In the ultimate sense we refer to such a person as a liberated one, one who has attained to liberation, one who has attained to freedom. No person or situation can ever enslave such a mind or condition it, sending it up to heaven or down to hel_l, or cause it to get lost in craving, aversion or confusion. That mind we call the liberated mind.

[...]

It is very important to understand that we are as yet not free. Though we live in a society that is free in the conventional sense, we are not free, because our minds are not yet free. As long as we are unenlightened, we are all afflicted by craving and desire, wanting and thirst, the need to have this or that. Is your mind free when it is still afflicted by such movements, such compulsions, such obsessions? Can you say you are free when things can make you angry and miserable, when people can make you experience hatred and irritation, when situations can make you depressed and miserable? Can you say that you are free? Of course not. If you were free you would certainly not experience any of these negative states.

[...]

Our heart, our mind, is the place where the enslavement ultimately begins and ends. This is where we have the ultimate choice. We cannot control all external conditions, it's not possible. As I said, even enlightened people can be incarcerated, crippled and restricted externally. They can't control everything; but the mind, that is a different matter.

Internally, there is a choice, but very few can claim that right and make that choice. It requires training, and only when the training is complete does one have ultimate freedom.

- Ajahn Jagaro, True Freedom

rockyysdt, on 2010-09-23 19:22:36, said:

Don't misunderstand me, because I share some of your concerns, but I sometimes think we (note the all-inclusive "we") tend to show a little of our own ego when we imply that we in this forum are more...hmmmm, what word to use....faithful to Buddhist concepts than Buddhist monks.

The airport was the second time in a row their incompetence was shown to all.

Oct 7th was handled so poorly, there is no comparison with a properly handle crowd disbursal.
It was visible to all that it was a punitive strike at an annoying group that had stymied their plans.
This goes a long way to explaining the charges for not PROPERLY doing their jobs.

I watched everything I could in N America when Thai protests were mentioned and let`s just say that it was poor, very poor and frustrating when it came to giving a clear picture of who Thaksin Shinawatra and who his reds really were. I lost all respect I had for CBC SRC correspondent Michel Cormier for insisting on wearing flak gear instead of sitting at his pc doing research on Thaksin Shinawatra and his past. The neutrality was sickening, to the point of misleading viewers in the west into thinking the reds really were a credible democratic movement when most of us knew long before by watching the TRT-PPP-PTV-UDD-REDS metamorphosis orchestrated by a megalomaniac, the non-asian PR firms he hires and an unlimited army of criminal cult-zombies ready to kill at the smell of a few 1000 baht notes. The reds did a 100% job  in shamelessly exploiting words like democracy and wearing  Gandhi t-shirts.

Shame on the media for not calling a criminal a criminal when they see one.

May the upcoming trials put the media to shame as well as Thaksin and his money-hungry criminal parasites.

Thai - Na's Kitchen, Baan Benjarong or Nong Best if you want more working class fare.
Italian - Baan Pizza
Chinese - the Chinese village on the left going up to Morpeng waterfall

For a nice romantic location I go with my wife to the restaurant on the end of Suthep road, then 200 meters up, good parking, it is located on the side of a small  reservoir.
The Thai food is ok, good although not the top but the location is very nice, wooded, rich flowered and no polution.
Then nearby, on the end of Suthep road you go to right, 200 m, just before Wat Fai Hin to the left and straight ahaed for about 500 m (winding and dark road in the evening), nice restaurant situated near a waterfall.
Same story but they have life music every evening I was there. Very popular by the Thai upperclass and some farang.
I don't know the names but it is not difficult to find and worth a visit.

SamritT, on 2010-09-20 17:07:01, said:

Well said but look at the situation yesterday in direct breach of law - no loud speakers only megaphones - they were many loudspeakers on trucks.  No traffic interruption - reds blocked Chiang Mai and Bangkok and more rubbish trashed everywhere and inconvenience to everyone else.

And of course the Police just let it all happen... again.   What is the point of having laws if they cannot be enforced?  

Get rid of this corrupt police rabble here and put some decency behind the badge and get some 'respect' back into the name "POLICE".  And Khun Abhisit - give them a damned pay rise so they don't steal from the public!  You are to blame for too much of this not happening.  

To clear corruption you have to start with those who can enforce anti-corruption so if you pay a pittance to them - they are 'forced' to continue to be corrupt.  Remove the heads that allow it - put a broom thru any of the lower ranks already on the take and employ those with a sense of pride and justice who WILL enforce the law.  Once there penalties are raised people 'lose' the will to ignore the police in everything from traffic fines to jail terms.  They start to pull into line.  At least the majority will.

In general (there is some exceptions); the Red love violence, the Yellow love peace, the Govt (no matter which one) love money, the opposition love to dream of becoming govt.

tim armstrong, on 2010-09-20 13:32:26, said:

If only because they're from the north-west instead.

But still a poor turn-out, for a city of about a million people, who are all supposed to be rabid Thaksin-supporters. Perhaps he isn't missed as much some think ?