Right off the bat: I'm not going to make up for lost time. I mean, I'd have to talk about our three week long come back tour (see picture) of Holland (lots of friends, haring, family and card board boxes), our collegue Tony who contracted this horrible infection, but is now more or less okay and has no more skin on his left leg because it is now all on his arm, and then there's the big news in Thailand about the Thai rak Thai party, the new kids in both our classrooms and the fact that we went out and ordered a motorcycle (with link to the Vietnamese website, because they have English).Instead I'll just wish you a happy Visakabucha day (no work today, because we have to commemorates the birth, the enlightment and the death of Buddha ) which ties in nicely with all the questions I've been getting through email/msn about Buddhism. They range from 'Have you become a Buddhist now?' (no) to 'What is this Buddhism all about?' (now there's a question). I'll do my best to answer all these questions here, although I'm not sure I'm the best qualified person to do so. I've been meditating for years, but I've never called myself a Buddhist. I have studied Buddhism extensivley and still do as a part of living in this Buddhist country. And being in the Isaan region does give me an interesting perspective. Let's just start out by saying that Buddhism in Thailand is very diverse and, well frankly, a little strange from time to time. And I'd be lying if I said I'd figured it out already. But I'll try.
If you're not interested in Buddhism whatsoever (fair enough): just skip and ignore the 'Dharma if you do/Dharma if you don't'- header from now on :)
