A Simplified Marketing Plan That Executes
The problem is, faking Thai amulet authenticity is an easy and profitable feat. Very few experts can tell every fake amulet, so other criteria must be taken into account to assess a fraudulent claim of authenticity. Thee following are soft criteria that you can use as tips to help you decide whether the seller is authentic or not. These have more to do with getting to know the seller than any sort of truth analysis of the amulets he or she is selling.
BN: The word Buddha can mean knowing, knowing something. The five skandas may be the object of meditation (and we come to see their impermanent and dependent characteristics) and there is the awareness of them. Yet still the awareness is part of the characteristics of phenomena. I agree. I don't think that awareness can be truly separated from the characteristics of phenomena. Of course awareness is fundamental and essential to mindfulness.
BN: Yes and I see it now in Burma and in the world. I gave a presentation on ethics recently to the judiciary in Xalapa. We spoke about how institutions can too often act like predators rather than being fair to the people. How can we say we are serving others if we are exploiting them? At the time of the Buddha, you would be brought to the king if you committed some offense. Simple. A punishment or a pardon was swiftly given. Now it's so much more complex. Modern society demands that we apply ethics more broadly.
Harvey was still wearing his business suit and relayed to me that he was here on his lunch break and that he only had exactly one hour. "No problem", I assured him. This confirmed my decision to go ahead with Thai massage.
Massage Therapy is a well-known and well-documented remedy for inducing relaxation and reducing mental stress. In particular, traditional Thai massage with its slow meditative and rhythmic compressions, yoga-like stretches, and passive joint movements seemed to be an ideal tool for someone like Harvey.
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.
BN: The amazing thing for me in Burma was the people's devotion to Theravadan Buddhism; the monks are very serious about studying the Pali Canon. They monks are very orthodox; they study Pali grammar according to the ancient method. Though it's a poor country, the people are very nice. And they live under very difficult conditions. I think Buddhism has helped a lot, but on the other hand, I wonder if the people are too patient, if they put up with too much. I ask myself whether the people should tolerate so much.
Also pay attention to what you hear and smell. There may be bird song, road noise or the chatter of people or animals. Consciously tune in to these different sounds. Notice the sound of different birds, different vehicles. Listen for subtler sounds as you tune in to the soundscape that constantly surrounds us. You'll find yourself hearing things that have merely passed you by before. There are also plenty of smells around you what can you identify as you focus on this sense?
