Surak and Buddha: A Comparison

[Escriba]

Lol! Are you keeping up with the tradition started at Roncevaux? (I believe it's Roncevalles for you. Sorry, I don't speak a word of Spanish)

Yep, Roncesvalles. And no, I'm not following the tradition, even if our biggest city looks like a French colony lately

[enterprikayak]

While we're all discussing Amsterdam and France and the like, here's some funny warnings from a pamphlet my sister picked up last summer in Amsterdam.



My faves?

"Public Urination: Dirty Habit, always committed by men."
"If you visit one of the women, we would like to remind you, they are not always women."
"When you feel sick after smoking or eating space cake...."

And what does "Balletje, Balletje game: don't play it" mean? Can anyone translate?

[Asso]

You are calling up my studies, when I was young!

[Escriba]

"If you visit one of the women, we would like to remind you, they are not always women."

That's incredible (but true.)

[Alelou]

Ah, it takes me back to when I traveled alone through Europe as a young thing. I stayed at a youth hostel in the heart of the red light district, which literally was full of huge plate windows with red lights on over those prostitutes who may or may not have been women. It gave a whole new meaning to window shopping, and it was definitely NOT what I expected.

At least you don't get constantly accosted there, though. In Paris and along the Swiss/Italian borders I had to constantly fend off men, and I learned the hard way that a hard stare, which is usually effective in the US or Britain, was NOT a helpful tactic.

I should try that route again now that I'm middle-aged. Probably it would be much more relaxing!

[panyasan]

Okay, let me explain, because i started the remark about Dutch people. Yes, I am Dutch and living in the Netherlands. My point was not that Dutch people are not nice (but as a real Dutch person I let you be the jugde of that), but more that we are fairly modest in our emotions. Like on funerals, we do not really cry aloud, but more inwardly.

Balletje balletje is just a silly gambling game with one of two balls and three cup. You have to guess where the ball is hidden. Balletje means little ball.

[Escriba]

My point was not that Dutch people are not nice (but as a real Dutch person I let you be the jugde of that), but more that we are fairly modest in our emotions. Like on funerals, we do not really cry aloud, but more inwardly. I process my interthoughs and pain also inwardly and talk about only with my husband or maybe a good friend.

Yeah, I understand. I feel uncomfortable when people cry their their eyes out in funerals. I've been raised in a culture where repressing your feelings is the proper thing to do.

[Alelou]

I think the overall point is that people's idea of "nice" and "friendly" totally depends on what they've experienced as normal growing up. You just have to get used to the local mores before you can judge who's really being a nice person.

I've only been to a few funerals in this country but they were all fairly sober, brief, contained, formal affairs. My mother-in-law's funeral in Puerto Rico went on for three days. Old ladies who weren't even close relations screamed and shrieked and tried to throw themselves on the coffin (although clearly they did expect to be prevented from actually doing it). If we'd stayed for the whole thing there would have been nine days of novena after that. It was wild. It was also kind of fun, though. It was an extended family reunion.

[Asso]

I think the overall point is that people's idea of "nice" and "friendly" totally depends on what they've experienced as normal growing up. You just have to get used to the local mores before you can judge who's really being a nice person.

Pure truth.
In Italy, where there're a lot of regions, with different customs and habits, that's a problem, sometimes.

[Linda]

Try the part in the Bible about Lot's daughters. Lots of fun with Papa after Mama became a pilar of salt.

[Linda]

Oops, I've done it again. Responded to a post on page 1 after the conversation has moved on to page 3.

[panyasan]

Happens to me as well. You just have to be quick around here.
Just to get this thread on track again, I sometimes wonder why Vulcan are vegetarians. Maybe this was based on some understanding of Buddhism, but the reasons not the kill any ants, animals etc. is because maybe that ant is your incarnated version of a family member...
But Vulcan the katra is seen as some very unique, one of a kind soul. That maybe the reason Vulcans do not eat meat, because they go by the assumption that animals have katras too.
But when you live in a desert planet with hardly any wild life (I am thinking of BnB's story now), you need all the food you can get. So maybe Vulcan was not always a desert. I red a very interesting story about that on Hot that Vulcan used to be green, but was distroyed by wars.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

In the novel Spock's World Vulcan was scorched (by solar flares IIRC) in prehistoric times and made a desert planet well before the age of Surak.

I tend to think that Vulcan vegetarianism is fairly recent and coincided with Surak's Vulcan awakening. It is just part of his philosophy and that only dates back approximately 2,000 years or so.

[CX]

Yeah, it's something to do with respecting all life or some such ideal that your average PETA member would go on about. Of course they still have to kill the plants that they eat, but hey, don't get logical with them.

[Asso]

In the novel Spock's World Vulcan was scorched (by solar flares IIRC) in prehistoric times and made a desert planet well before the age of Surak.

I tend to think that Vulcan vegetarianism is fairly recent and coincided with Surak's Vulcan awakening. It is just part of his philosophy and that only dates back approximately 2,000 years or so.

I tend towards your ideas.