Thai Buddhism

In Thailand I was impressed with their teachings, as I was trying to tutor English, but seemed to be learning more than the students, and mostly from these words below, and a lot more besides, written and told to me by a dear Thai friend;

"If your mind is happy, then you are happy anywhere you go. When wisdom awakens within you, you will see
Truth wherever you look. Truth's all there is. It's like when you've learned how to read - you can then read anywhere you go."

"People who suffer will accordingly gain wisdom. If we don't suffer, we don't contemplate. If we don't contemplate, no wisdom is born.

Without wisdom, we don't know. Not knowing, we can't get free of suffering - that's just the way it is.

Therefore, we must train and endure in our practice. When we then reflect on the world, we won't be afraid like before. It isn't that the Buddha was enlightened outside of the world, but within the world itself."

-Phra Ajarn Chah

Gautama Buddha's preaching was interrupted one day by a man unleashing a flurry of abusive invective.

Calmly waiting for his critic to finish, Buddha asked: "If a man offered a gift to another but the gift was declined, to whom would the gift belong?" "To the one who offered it," the man replied.

"Then," Buddha declared, "I decline to accept your abuse and request that you keep it for yourself."

On January 1, 1987, German national television aired a New Year's address by Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Unfortunately, it mistakenly reran the speech which he had delivered the year before. While such an incident would hardly raise an eyebrow in many countries, Germans found it hysterical. Indeed, on January 1, 1988, millions tuned in to see whether the blooper would reoccur. They were not disappointed. The introduction of Kohl's New Year's broadcast was followed by two minutes of blank screen. At last the presenter reappeared to correct his error: "And now," he declared, "'Dinner for One,' Freddie Frinton's comedy sketch about an overworked butler."

[The mess was eventually sorted out and the proper speech, incredibly, aired.]

On the eve of the Millennium, "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker made an unusual New Year's resolution: to stop chewing on the inside of her own mouth - a nasty habit which often left her inner cheeks bitten, blistered and bloody. Did Parker keep her resolution? Alas, no. It "bit the dust" a mere 20 minutes into 2001.

["It's born of insecurity and lack of self-esteem and anxiety about the world," Parker explained. "It's like a minefield in there."]

Famed columnist Westbrook Pegler once published a New Years Day column comprising a single sentence, repeated fifty times. The sentence? "I will never mix gin, beer, and whiskey again."

["I claim authority to speak for the rabble," Pegler once declared, "because I am a member of the rabble in good standing."]

At their 2002 New Year's Eve bash in Beverly Hills, Ozzy and Sharon Osborne raffled off a $42,000 diamond necklace. Some time later, they contacted local police in a bid to get the article back. The problem? The woman who won the necklace had not been invited to the party!

Colour: Lime green
Music: Tosca ft Ann Clementi: oscar ...I'm in heaven with this song, especially the beginning. Beautiful! Written by the brilliant Kruder & Dorfmeister.)
Han Ensemble: suite #4

\ \ \

The weather grows cold, you sauceboxes.
-Swift, December 30th, 1710