Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous on 25 April, 2008 | No Comments »
[Summary: a Buddhist's thoughts on the Christian Meditation seminar with Father Lawrence Freeman, in Bangkok 2008]
What is Christian Meditation?
The all important aim in Christian Meditation is to allow God’s mysterious presence within us to become more and more not only a reality, but the reality which gives meaning, shape and purpose to everything we do, [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous on 28 March, 2008 | No Comments »
[Summary: final word on the documentary Marjoe, which we watched as a group last week]
Last week we watched the 1973 Academy Award winning documentary ‘Marjoe’ as a group. There were about 25 of us, and as hoped the film raised quite a few questions. It is always nice to hear other people’s view about something [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous, tagged esoteric religion, exoteric religion on 20 March, 2008 | 1 Comment »
[Summary: exoteric/esoteric religion - which is better, and how to judge. Who gets the most out of religion?]
Don’t all monks meditate?
asked Richard
No, not many at all …
was the inevitable reply. And it is true, most people’s religion does not rest on meditation at all.
The common man’s religion comprises mostly ritual, of going to the temple [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous on 22 February, 2008 | No Comments »
[Summary: photos from the third talk by U Vamsa for Little Bangkok Sangha]
Click on the Thumbnails for a larger shot. If you would like a full size original for any reason do ask. Although the originals have not been touched up or filtered. Not that any monk would actually photoshop his profile shots ….. ahem.
[...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous on 11 January, 2008 | 7 Comments »
[Summary: Suan Phai Vegetarian food court is closing down]
…
No sooner do you find a good place to go, than something changes. Suan Phai Vegetarian food court, that we had been using frequently for lunches and the God Delusion documentary, is closing down. The owner of the land had not used it for some time, and [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous on 26 December, 2007 | 4 Comments »
Christmas day, and the school of 2000 children that fills all horizons from my window has employed its favourite device of torment to full effect - its loudspeakers. For an hour this morning rang a child’s voice giving an impressively well delivered rendition of the story of baby Jesus being born in the manger. Now [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous on 24 December, 2007 | No Comments »
[Summary: In an earlier blog about giving (dana) A hotel magnate was referred to for giving her pet dog 6m dollars in her will. Follow up news]
…
The ‘Queen of Mean’ was the nickname given to a millionaire hotel magnate who was well known for her spite. She cut a number of relatives from her will, [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous on 15 December, 2007 | 2 Comments »
[ Getting a theological bashing in a cafe - all the ultimate proof you could ever need. ]
“Because I Said So” was the title of a recent movie, with ex-Gilmore Girls Lauren Graham, and it refers to a common mother’s ‘explanation’ of something when asked “why?“.
It must be in the mother’s handbook for childrearing - [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous, tagged buddhist scriptures, Richard Dawkins, tripitaka on 1 December, 2007 | No Comments »
[Final look at how Buddhist scriptures hold up in the light of the New Atheist's criticisms. The Tripitaka s not "revealed" or the final word - it is only a tool to be taken up, tested and used. Part I ... Part II]
Bring it On Dawkins!
One branch of Dawkins and the ‘New Atheists’ attack on [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous, tagged Buddhism Thailand, suttas on 28 November, 2007 | No Comments »
[Summary: A look at Asian Chanting as a form of record compared to the written word. Arguments for chanting being more accurate. Written in response to the New Atheist contention that all scripture is worse than fairy tale. Continued from Part I "Buddhist Scriptures - Their Veracity]
“New Atheists” Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris et [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous, tagged atheism, scriptures, tripitaka on 22 November, 2007 | No Comments »
[Summary: A brief look at the formation of the Buddhist scriptures - since the New Atheists claim that all religious scripture is nonsense, and worse, dangerous nonsense. ]
I can’t stand anyone who believes in God, who invokes the divinity or who is a person of faith.
says Christopher Hitchens, whose book God is Not Great was the topic [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous, tagged atheism, christopher hitchens, God is not Great on 15 November, 2007 | 1 Comment »
God is not Great is a popular book by Christopher Hitchens on the topic of atheism. He is one of an unholy trinity of writers on the topic in the last few years, the others being Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. The book is available in bookshops around Bangkok.
In brief, Hitchens takes a look through [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous on 5 November, 2007 | No Comments »
Here is what people have been looking at on this site in the last 30 days. The numbers are not totally accurate as many clicks don’t actually ‘count’, such as looking at the ALL BLGOS page. Still, it gives a general indicaiton. The persistent popularity of anything with the word ‘Jatukam’ in it boggles the [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous, tagged Burma, monk's protest on 1 November, 2007 | No Comments »
In the midst of all the news about the recent problems in Myanmar/Burma, and the renewed debate about tourists visiting there one issue that gets lost in the media blitz is the plight of the average Burmese citizen, many of whom live far away from the major cities. With the recent petrol price increases (which [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous on 19 October, 2007 | 2 Comments »
I would never have thought that I would admire President Bush for anything, other than falling off a Segway. His record of murder while Governor of Texas where he refused to allow DNA testing on long standing Death Row cases was spectacularly exceeded by his war record while Top Dog. But this week I was [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous, tagged meditation on 5 October, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Talks at Baan Aree 2007
- the first events under the banner of Little Bangkok Sangha.
This series of six talks was fun for me to do. I always have a deep sense of unreality before doing dhamma talks - are people interested? Do I know what I am talking about? Besides Tom, Audwin and others encouraging [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous on 6 September, 2007 | No Comments »
Sense desires - no one really thinks they can find happiness through sense desires, yet everyone still tries. One millionaire recently came to Bangkok and liked the longtail boats here - so he bought one, and had it shipped back to his country, Canada I think. So much money but what can he spend it [...]
Posted in All Posts, miscellaneous on 27 August, 2007 | 2 Comments »
I actually met mother Teresa once, she put her hand on my head and muttered a prayer for me. Later she gave me some pendents, somewhat smaller than Jatukam ones … The new angle in the world media is that even she had a lot of doubts - the following is a blog from : The [...]
