Ch2 A Thai Monologue With Japan. History of Thai-Japanese relations. It was interesting, but not useful for my purposes of understanding engaged Buddhism or Buddhist ethics. Chapter ends with him asking Japan to stop being so consumerist / western and to start looking out for their Asian countrymen.

He closes by saying that western ways of life are not necessarily bad, but that people should look deeply into other traditions to find solutions to problems of the modern industrialized world. Buddhism in particular has a lot to offer.

Spiritual advisors to the king were educated abroad and no longer understood the message of Buddhism. Eg some claimed that Buddhism was the cause of economic stagnation and mental illness. Had these so-called experts not been educated abroad, no one would have taken them seriously.

Buddhism had been Thailand’s source of education and culture, but when western science and education methods came in, they pushed Buddhism out of these aspects of public life. Buddhism became more formalized into a state religion.

This market opening meant that influences from many western countries were able to flood in. In a sense, Thailand has been culturally influenced by a greater number of western powers than the colonized countries who were mainly influenced by a single country.

Ch1: The Religion of Consumerism. Sivaraksa is Thai. Discusses the history of Thailand’s encounters with the West. Siam (his preferred name for the country) managed to avoid colonization by other western countries in part by fully opening their borders for trade and cultural exchange. However, …

Damn dude. I just tell cursor what I want and let’r rip!

Frog on the pow. Where’d he ski from? Nobody knows,where he’ll go.

So maybe I’ll start posting here just to gain some momentum. The ball starts rolling now …