We knew that time was tight between the end of our conference in the Northern end of Thailand and our flight out of the country from the Southern end. We figured that since we would be flying there would be no problem getting home in a day and giving ourselves 2 full days before our flight to the U.S. We were scheduled to fly back to Southern Thailand on December 1st and get on our flight to the U.S. on December 4th. We flew to Chiang Mai with no inkling that the beautiful new airport we transferred at in Bangkok would be seiged by protesters just a few days later. At our conference we realized that we were not going to be flying back. The alternatives were train, bus, rent a car or rent a mini-van with a driver. Being economical we chose the train or bus, and in the end, due to scheduling, it had to be the bus. It would be a grueling 20+ hour trip home, but we weren't overly concerned because Thailand has beautiful VIP buses that are really nice to ride in. Unfortunately ther...
BANGKOK - Responding quickly to the H1N1 pandemic, Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai announced today that the FDA has completed fast-track approval for a special amulet which would protect all who wore it from catching the virus. The amulet is being manufactured by the Nakhon Si Thamarat temple, which gained notoriety a few years ago for creating the Jatukam Ramathep amulets which were believed to bring fortune to its owners. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Thai-Fda-Approves-Production-Buddh-t285486.html
This chart was introduced in a philosophy class I took last year. I have found it to be a very useful tool to understand worldview from this particular perspective. It has also served as a way to help me evaluate the differences between Buddhist and Christian worldviews. A colleague noticed it is very Western and does not leave much room for "phenomenology" but after a long discussion about what exactly phenomenology is and how it could fit in this chart, we decided we weren't sure where it would go. So, although there are many models and ideas about worldviews, this is one I found particularly helpful. I will include some excerpts from a book by Clement Vidal (The Beginning and the End: The Meaning of Life in a Cosmological Perspective) that helps explain this model. Philosophical Discipline 1. What is? Ontology (model of reality as a whole) 2. Where does it all come from? Explanation (model of the past) 3. Where are we going? Prediction (model of the futur...
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