Buddhist monks and Dried Fish 1 again

Hello Everybody.

My first try at this failed so I am going to email this again.This week has been awesome. On Sunday, we went to the temple (buddhist that is) or in another words a wat. We went to Wat Pho which has a huge 160 foot reclining skinny golden Buddha It was incredible. The temple grounds was a variety of colors and spires. It made me think and contrast to the cathedrals in spain and latin america because they were gray, dark, and had images of Christ bleeding and saints suffering while Buddhists temples are red, green, orange, blue, and yellow with buddha smiling. Instead of motivating people with guilt and a sense of right and wrong, the motivation is nirvana, middle road, and inner peace. I think this is why Thai's love their king instead of fearing him like dark age europeans do. The buddhist monks also wear bright orange instead of the brown and black of christianity.However Buddhists do have some different and suppressive beliefs. An important buddhist monk, who is good friends with the king, spoke to us in perfect English for class on Monday. he has a MD from Thailaind, MS and PHD from Oxford and a THD from Harvard. He explained to us buddhist beliefs and how they correlate to health care in Thailand. The majority of the Thais follow a "belief" that karma is that bad and good things happen to people because of what they did in a previous life. This have been used to justify royalty and leaders in a religous way. ALso that a woman is a woman because of a previous sexual transgression. First she was an animal for 500 life times, a prostitute for another 500, a lesbian for 500, a heterosexual woman for another 500 and will then become a man. I thought this was a little ironic because here in Thailand a woman can become a man for a couple of hundred bucks instead of going through all of those life times!!!This monk is contraversial because he does go against some of this thinking and describes that Karma is misunderstood. He also said that the Thail King is more of a calvinist than a buddhist. (this comment would usually have you put in prison but he is a personal friend of the King and is protected). They do have some great beliefs that maintain community, help others, and balance. I think that I metioned in part 2 that this guy started a health care reform that has just been passed in the government. Pretty cool stuff.Well.. I will send more later