This is why you should wear a helmet.

[JamesR]

 

True. About 80% of the fatalities on Thailand roads are bike riders - all types.  In fact I read a while back about 2 bike riders who had cycled all over the world and they were killed in Thailand road.   They went everywhere, including very bad roads in remote/wild countries, only to die on a Thailand highway. 

Part of the problem in Thailand is many people (not all) believe Buddha will protect them so when they ride past a temple or holy place , just three beeps on their motorbikes horn will save them so they do not need to bother wearing crash helmets. 

[gummy]

 

Part of the problem in Thailand is many people (not all) believe Buddha will protect them so when they ride past a temple or holy place , just three beeps on their motorbikes horn will save them so they do not need to bother wearing crash helmets. 

You would have thought by now with so many families losing their loved  ones to road accidents that they would realise that the believe that Buddha protects them is false.

[JamesR]

2 hours ago, gummy said:

You would have thought by now with so many families losing their loved  ones to road accidents that they would realise that the believe that Buddha protects them is false.

Well to believe in a god or such thing then you can be of sound mind anyway.

[gummy]

8 hours ago, JamesR said:

Well to believe in a god or such thing then you can be of sound mind anyway.

This is the wrong thread to discuss delusional religious traits

[colinneil]

8 hours ago, JamesR said:

Well to believe in a god or such thing then you can be of sound mind anyway.

What has god got to do with wearing a helmet while riding a motorbike?

[BlueSphinx]

Helmet off!  - 

At lunchtime today I hopped off my motorbike and went into my local bank.
As I joined the queue one of the tellers said, "Sir, could you pull your helmet off please?" 
Long story short, I'm not welcome in the bank any more!!

 

[AussieBob]

14 hours ago, JamesR said:

Part of the problem in Thailand is many people (not all) believe Buddha will protect them so when they ride past a temple or holy place , just three beeps on their motorbikes horn will save them so they do not need to bother wearing crash helmets. 

Sort of true. But it is not 'protection' as you and I and westerners think, it is more about being 'meritorious' and therefore their soul (if that word is the right one) being OK.  Thais do not fear death anywhere near as much as atheist westerners do, and much less than religious westerners do. It is sort of like 'I have lived a meritorious life, so my inner being (soul) is protected even if I die'. 

There was a movie that sorts of says it:  One guy asks the other one, as they prepare for a battle, how he can be so 'relaxed' about it. He responds that his fate has already been 'written' and there is nothing he can do about it, and that if he is to die today, then he is to die today. He said he does not want to die today, and that he will fight hard not to die today, but worrying about it will not make any difference.

To some extent that is sort of how Thais view things in life, including their death.  So it is not about being protected by Buddha, but having followed the teachings of Buddha means much more than death.

[JamesE]

24 minutes ago, AussieBob said:

Thais view things in life, including their death

And... please let me not come back as a cockroach and please let me win the lottery and please... What? More red Fanta you say? Wait, no, this is a temple, not a shrine. Incense and gold leaf for everybody!

I've always been surprised at how the stoic fatalism of Buddhism and the flat-out bribery of the distant animist traditions got conflated in Thailand. The concept of merit-making, as a means to an end, has always seemed a bit disingenuous. But, Thailand.

[stuhan]

My bike

[stuhan]

Just now, stuhan said:

My bike

 

Just now, stuhan said:

My bike

Only joking,these were my wheels in Guernsey u.k before coming to Thailand,loved this bike.

[JamesR]

9 hours ago, AussieBob said:

Sort of true. But it is not 'protection' as you and I and westerners think, it is more about being 'meritorious' and therefore their soul (if that word is the right one) being OK.  Thais do not fear death anywhere near as much as atheist westerners do, and much less than religious westerners do. It is sort of like 'I have lived a meritorious life, so my inner being (soul) is protected even if I die'. 

There was a movie that sorts of says it:  One guy asks the other one, as they prepare for a battle, how he can be so 'relaxed' about it. He responds that his fate has already been 'written' and there is nothing he can do about it, and that if he is to die today, then he is to die today. He said he does not want to die today, and that he will fight hard not to die today, but worrying about it will not make any difference.

To some extent that is sort of how Thais view things in life, including their death.  So it is not about being protected by Buddha, but having followed the teachings of Buddha means much more than death.

Don't base you knowledge based on a movie, base it on people you know and their own experiences.

I know many Thais who think the beeping of their horn near a Buddha statue protects them on the journey physically.

I know of many who said they were scared a loved one is ill and is going to die, or themselves nearly having a road accident and said they were really scared because they though their time was up.

Most Thais do not follow the teachings in details, they go to the temple and listen to monks chant in Sanskrit which they do not understand, many are Buddhists by default due to being born in Thailand, monks may follow what you said above but I know from the 30 years of mixing with Thais they do not follow the same thoughts on death, they are as scared of it as the rest of us are. 

[JamesR]

9 hours ago, stuhan said:

Only joking,these were my wheels in Guernsey u.k before coming to Thailand,loved this bike.

Sell it, put some more money in the kitty and buy a car.

It is not tough for farangs to ride a big bike it Thailand, it is just foolish, only poor Thai people ride bikes in Thailand, the richer ones drive cars. 

[Bluesofa]

6 minutes ago, JamesR said:

{snipped}

Most Thais do not follow the teachings in details, they go to the temple and listen to monks chant in Sanskrit which they do not understand, many are Buddhists by default due to being born in Thailand, monks may follow what you said above but I know from the 30 years of mixing with Thais they do not follow the same thoughts on death, they are as scared of it as the rest of us are. 

I thought they chanted in Pali, isn't that the language of buddhism? I'm open to correction on that.

[Faraday]

23 minutes ago, Bluesofa said:

I thought they chanted in Pali, isn't that the language of buddhism? I'm open to correction on that.

Yes, you are correct, they chant in Pali.

https://www.nku.edu/~kenneyr/Buddhism/lib/bps/wheels/wheel206/chanting.html#:~:text=In Theravada Buddhist countries%2C the,chanting and pronunciation of Pali.

[Faraday]

35 minutes ago, JamesR said:

only poor Thai people ride bikes in Thailand, the richer ones drive cars. 

Incorrect again, Jimmy.

[JamesR]

58 minutes ago, Bluesofa said:

I thought they chanted in Pali, isn't that the language of buddhism? I'm open to correction on that.

 

30 minutes ago, Faraday said:

Incorrect again, Jimmy.

Not incorrect, it depends on the area and both languages are almost the same anyway. 

Edited July 30, 2021 by JamesR
previous comment was for wrong comment

[JamesR]

20 minutes ago, Faraday said:

Yes, you are correct, they chant in Pali.

https://www.nku.edu/~kenneyr/Buddhism/lib/bps/wheels/wheel206/chanting.html#:~:text=In Theravada Buddhist countries%2C the,chanting and pronunciation of Pali.

Maybe they chant in both depending on the area, I have an Indian friend who know Sanskrit and she can understand what they are chanting and told me it was Sanskrit unless Pali is another local name for Sanskrit. 

But my main point was I was replying to the fact it was claimed in a point most Buddhist follow the teachings , my point is a lot of what is being said is not understood by most Thais by the monks when they chant. 

 

[Faraday]

7 minutes ago, JamesR said:

Maybe you only know the poorer ones then and so you view is skewed. 

Here we go again....

 

[Bluesofa]

4 minutes ago, JamesR said:

50 minutes ago, Bluesofa said:

I thought they chanted in Pali, isn't that the language of buddhism? I'm open to correction on that.

21 minutes ago, Faraday said:

Incorrect again, Jimmy.

Maybe you only know the poorer ones then and so you view is skewed. 

I'm confused now.
What does the amount of money they have to do with the language the monks chant in?

[Faraday]

1 minute ago, Bluesofa said:

I'm confused now.
What does the amount of money they have to do with the language the monks chant in?

Re: his post #23408.

"only poor Thai people rides bikes"

 

[JamesR]

7 minutes ago, Faraday said:

Here we go again....

Yep, you with only a local amount of village knowledge think you know Thailand. 

[JamesR]

5 minutes ago, Faraday said:

Re: his post #23408.

"only poor Thai people rides bikes"

It was corrected and move to the correct post, just a mistake, we all make them. 

[Faraday]

5 minutes ago, JamesR said:

Yep, you with only a local amount of village knowledge think you know Thailand. 

QED

[JamesR]

11 minutes ago, Faraday said:

Re: his post #23408.

"only poor Thai people rides bikes"

If you are going to quote someone then make sure you know how to use cut and paste, what I did say way:

"...only poor Thai people ride bikes in Thailand, the richer ones drive cars. "

Maybe you should change your name to "Far Away" as highjacking a prominent British scientist is a bit cheeky. 

[Faraday]

w