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Makha Bucha Day Celebrations Thailand

The Buddha never said his was the only way, and strength of Thai religious practice is the essential freedom of religious practice granted to all

 

CHIANGRAI TIMES – Makha Bucha Day Celebrations is one of the most significant religious celebrations which commemorate the spontaneous gathering of the 1,250 Sangha followers who assembled together and came to meet Lord Buddha 9 months after his first enlightenment.

Makha Bucha Day  is a Buddhist religious event which honours the day on which the 1,250 Sangha followers without any prior announcement gather together to hear Lord Buddha delivering a Dhamma lecture and they got enlightenment.

Makha Bucha Day Celebrations are characterized by candle light processions three times clockwise around the temple and it is usually celebrated during the evening and on this auspicious day people usually give alms like canned foods and other necessities like robes and candles to the monks. The Makha Bucha Day Celebrations takes place on the full moon day of the 3rd lunar month, Makha, of the year but the date changes every year. Makha Bucha Day Celebrations are observed by Buddhist people with lots of faith and the following activities form an integral part of the Makha Bucha Day Celebrations.

 

Thai Buddhists celebrate three major holy days each year which commemorate events in the Buddha’s lifetime having to do with the formulation of his teachings, which are the basis of Theravada Buddhism. One of these, called Makha Bucha, is celebrated on night of the full moon of the third lunar month, which usually corresponds to February, and is an observance of two unexpected events in the Buddha’s forty-four years of teaching which occurred on the same day. In 2007, Makha Bucha day will be celebrated on February 16th.

The first event occurred nine months after the Buddha had been expounding his doctrine for seven months only. Of his 1,340 disciples, 1,250 of them the Buddha laid down the three main principles of his religion in the Patimokka, of the ‘monk way’, which crystallize the wisdom of all the Buddha’s that came before. These are

  1. Give up evil and refrain from sinning.
  2. Cultivate good — and make merit.
  3. Cleanse one’s mind.

He also admonished his disciples to be good teachers to the laity based on the following precepts:

  1. They should be patient
  2. They should teach the laity to be peaceful
  3. They should be optimistic and not offend others.
  4. They should reach goodness in correct ways.
  5. They should be disciplined
  6. They should be humble
  7. They should concentrate on doing useful things.

The second unusual event occurred on the same day forty-five years later. The Buddha foresaw that due to the state of his health his attainment of Nirvana, or escape from the cycle of rebirths, was approaching within three months. On that day he formulated and preached his Dhamma about the responsibility of an individual or organization. These are that a person should:

  1. enjoy work or responsibility,
  2. be diligent in work,
  3. concentrate on the job while working,
  4. Check all unfinished work thoroughly.

The Magha Puja Day of the second event is also known as the day of the Four Fold Assembly. This was a special assembly which took place at the Bamboo Grove (Veluvana Vihara in Rajgaha, the Capital of Magaha State, India) and contained four extraordinary features, namely:

  1. It was the full moon day of the month Magha
  2. 1,250 monk disciples assembled to see the Buddha, all by themselves, without an appointment.
  3. All these monks were Arahants (or enlightened) who had attained the sixfold super knowledge.
  4. All of them were the Buddha’s direct disciples having been ordained by the Lord Buddha himself.

On the three lunar holy days which include Makha Bucha Thai Buddhists gather at the temple at sunset to Wian Tian, or to circumambulate the Bhot, or the major religious structure in the temple complex where monks are ordained, while holding a lighted candle, temple building are people’s way of showing respect to what is called the “triple gem”, which is the Buddha himself, his teachings and doctrines, and the monkhood he founded.

Buddhism stems from a philosophy the was propounded more than 2,500 years ago in 543 B.C. by a crown prince in the Sakayas kingdom who was named Siddhartha Gautama. Oppressed by the suffering he saw among his people, he gave up his title and his family. He went into the forest to seek a solution meditate, on his thirty-sixth birthday he arrived at his vision that would free the world which let people to give him the title of Buddha, or the Enlightened one, the Awakened.

The Buddha propounded the doctrine of the four noble truths which had the power to liberate who could understand them from the endless cycle of rebirths. These are:

  • The truth of suffering is that existence is suffering
  • The truth of the cause of suffering is desire
  • The truth that suffering will cease when it’s cause is removed
  • The truth that if the cause of suffering is removed, then suffering will cease to exist.

He then preached the doctrine of the eightfold path as the way to eliminate suffering. The eightfold path described in the 4th truth is the way to eliminate desire/extinguish suffering which consists of:

WISDOM GROUP:

  1. right understanding, right ideas
  2. right mindedness, right thought, right resolution

VIRTUE GROUP:

  1. right speech
  2. right bodily conduct, right action right behavior
  3. right livelihood, right vocation

CONCENTRATION GROUP:

  1. right effort
  2. right attentiveness, right mindfulness
  3. right concentration

The Buddha was the only contemporary teacher who endeavoured to alleviate the suffering of low caste individuals at the hands of their higher caste oppressors. He also elevated the status of women in India, treating them with consideration and civility. He promulgated the teaching that women could attain nirvana and preached the paths of peace, purity, and sanctity.

The Buddha never encouraged any animosity or strife. He once said while addressing his disciples, “I quarrel not with the world, monks, it is the world which quarrels with me. An exponent of the Dhamma quarrels not with anyone in the world.” A Buddhist inscription says that, “There was never an occasion when the Buddha flamed forth in anger, never an incident when an unkind word escaped his lips.”
Buddhist temples in Thailand have not only sustained monastic communities, but have also served as schools, village news centers, hospital dispensaries, employment information centers, hostel, and community centers. Thus temples play a vital role in Thai society.
The strength of Buddhism in Thailand is a result of many factors. At least one member of every family studies the Buddha’s teaching in monastic surroundings. Also, it is a tradition the all men over twenty should spend three to four months in holy orders as ‘temporary monks’, usually during the ‘rains retreat’, when monks are confined to their home temples to teach, meditate, and study.

The Buddha never said his was the only way, and strength of Thai religious practice is the essential freedom of religious practice granted to all. Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs have all practiced their faiths without any form of religious harassment or discrimination in Thailand.

So if you happen to be anywhere nears a temple on the evening of a Buddhist holy day when the people are circling the Bhot for Wian Tian, you are welcome to join in as well.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

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Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

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Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

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Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

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Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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Could Last-Minute Surprises Derail Kamala Harris’ Campaign? “Nostradamus” Explains the US Poll.

Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

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