Bring Our Children A Parent s Guide To Stress-Free Travel
The Great Buddha of Thailand is another colossal statue constructed in honor of Gautama Buddha. Standing 92 meters (300 feet) high and 63 meters (210 feet) wide, it was constructed in 1990 and was finished in 2008. Located in Wat Muang, Aung Thong, Thailand, it is made from concrete cement and finished with gold.
But we weren't in Thailand, we were back in the good old U.S. of A. where only the brightest, healthiest, most ambitious, and most successful are respected. Serenity and peace have little value at all, and are laughable to those caught up in the drive and ambition that are its present day American sacraments. I couldn't complain, however; this country is free and full of opportunity, more than any other, but I couldn't help feel that our heads overrule our hearts here, and that someday this imbalance of wisdom over compassion would spell trouble.
theravada MZC: Did you go to Burma? What was your impression of the monks there? As a visitor, I can feel a sense of tranquility here in the monastery; I see that people are practicing sitting and walking meditation. There's a tangible quality one can feel when people come together to focus on understanding themselves with openness, with a sense of freshness.
Meditation practice is a rich journey best approached with patience, persistence, curiosity and no expectations! Over time, meditating with a group on occasion and seeking guidance from a skilled teacher can greatly support your practice.
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: 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.
MZC: Batchelor is specifically talking about the rebirth in the Indian philosophy where there is a rebirth of the individual soul or atma, which goes from life to life. Batchelor says that the Buddha was not interested in whether this is true or not, whether there is even a soul, if "the mind is different from the body." And further, we cannot know the answer to such questions.
Materials the amulet is made from makes no difference at all in relation to whether or not it is a fake amulet. Gold, silver, brass, copper, bronze, clay, plastic, wood, stainless steel, tin, pewter, bone, ivory - I think I have seen amulets of every sort of material on the planet. Every one of them can be faked easily.
