Marketing Is Really A Long-Term Investment
Find a Thai amulet seller that doesn't sell using hype. Find one that physically resides in Thailand and that can take photos of an amulet you wish to purchase beside today's Bangkok Post or The Nation newspaper to prove to you the amulet really exists. Order an inexpensive amulet or two as a test before spending more than a hundred dollars on a large order. Can they deliver? What is the quality of Thai amulet the seller sells?
MZC: I saw in your schedule that you have talks and question and answer times. What are talks that you have been giving, and what are some of the questions being asked? Do you feel the retreatants have the chance to get past the academic and ask the questions they really want to ask?
"Do you stretch?" I asked while working on his Hamstrings. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" Harvey responded. "Do you stretch regularly?" I repeated my question. "Are you asking if I am stressed?" Harvey couldn't hear my softly-posed inquiry. But he answered the real question I had in mind. I smiled and proceeded in silence.
In addition to Tai speaking people, there are Chinese who have blended seamlessly with the Thai. Other cultures include Malays, Mon, Khmer, and even Vietnamese.
MZC: That's wonderful. You are focusing on the individual human being; you are listening and learning as well. You are opening your heart to the retreatants and enquiring with them. You're asking what makes one happy and peaceful in the midst of particular life circumstances. Do you experience that some of the retreatants, even in the midst of problems, which will continue, find some insight into what happiness might be? Perhaps they discover the joy of serving others as well as getting to know their own mind-hearts?
Whenever we found ourselves separated from theravada monasteries, day jobs were required to pay the bills; nobody was there to back us up. Only in very spiritual countries, and small growing pockets of awareness here in the States, are meditators looked upon as valuable assets, and supported to one degree or another. Because Janet and I were married, however, Bhante G insisted that we live in town rather than at the Bhavana Society, and we understood this. In Thailand, it's okay to be married, because in Thailand there is more room to support spiritual couples, where each can stay in a separate monastery, or separated in a large monastery.
He goes through the Pali Canon and separates what was new to the Buddha and what was also held in Indian philosophy before the Buddha. He can then pinpoint what's unique to Buddhism. So he doubts rebirth and different realms of existence. He pinpoints as distinctively Buddhist: dependent origination; the practice of mindful awareness, being focused on the totality of what is happening in our moment to moment experience; the Four Noble Truths & the Eight Fold Path; the principle of self-reliance, not to be dependent on some authority figure.
