This was the reception area, and there are still Christmas decorations hanging up here and there. On the floor are books, menus, torn awnings and sand.
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
If you have ever been a guest at a social gathering or at someone’s home in Thailand you were probably impressed with their incredible hospitality and ability to make you feel like a VIP. As soon as you show up they hurry to greet you and take care of you. Perhaps you noticed that they made sure you had a refreshing drink and refilled it for you several times. Perhaps you also noticed they made sure you had a comfortable place to sit and fed you freshly prepared or opened snacks. If they had food, you were sure to notice that they served you and probably served you first, making sure you had a good portion of the best meats or shrimp. They were extremely attentive, asked questions about you, listened to all you had to say, complimented you, and made you feel like, well, royalty. For a westerner, it is truly an amazing experience. The Thais know how to treat you like a superstar! On the flip side, as we take those steps to become friends with real Thai adults, we must also learn how to...
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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