Video of New Buddha Ram Bomjon Here
posted 21st March 2006 in Mysteries, Religion by jclifford
Earlier this morning, I reported that Ram Bomjon, the teenager from Nepal who is supposed to have proved his merit as a new Buddha or great enlightened teacher by sitting under a pipal tree for ten months straight without moving, eating, or drinking has been found by his followers, after he suddenly went missing earlier earlier this month. (Why didn’t Mary Grace on CNN do some special outraged coverage of this missing teenager?)
Well, here’s a video of Ram Bomjon’s appearance to his followers. Isn’t it interesting how, while “searching” for Ram Bomjon out in the woods, his followers just happened to be carrying a video camera? I know that every time I go out searching for a missing teenager, I make sure to bring at least two camcorders along [sarcasm, sarcasm].
It seems that Ram Bomjon appeared only to announce to his followers to say that he would be gone for the next six years, in a secret place one could reach by five days and five nights of walking. Like all good hoaxsters, Ram Bomjon and his inner circle of followers know better than to let their illusion appear long enough to be closely examined. Note also in this video the clever use of Ram Bomjon’s long hair – as it was used during almost the entire time Ram Bomjon was purported to be meditating under the tree. Can you really tell who that boy is? Do we know for sure it’s the same Ram Bomjon all the time, or could it be more than one boy, switching the role back and forth? Only the wig knows.
Ram Bomjon was, though, good enough to tell his followers that they should set up a new camp on the spot where he appeared to them, for pilgrims and worshippers to come to… and make donations… and buy souvenirs. The Buddha did that too, right?
Tags: bizarre
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Alan asked James to comment a little about Jim’s 14 questions.
James responds as follows:
How can a human hibernate using body stores of fat without having body stores of fat?
I HAVE SEEN STUDIES ON THIS ISSUE.
Next, I’d like to know how Ram Bomjon managed to walk for five days after hibernating.
I HAVEN’T SEEN ANY CREDIBLE INFO ON THIS ISSUE.
I’d also like you to tell me how Ram Bomjon shone a light out of his forehead.
I HAVEN’T SEEN THAT LIGHT, ONLY REPORTS OF TOTAL STRANGERS WHO BELIEVE THEY SAW SUCH LIGHTS. AS I’VE ALREADY WRITTEN EARLIER, THIS MIGHT BE A HYPERACTIVE IMAGINATION, A FORM OF “SELF-HYPNOSIS†STEMMING FROM THEIR EXPECTATION OF SUCH PHENOMENA, OR IT MAY BE SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY.
How does Ram Bomjon manage to have a source of light emanate not just from his forehead, but also from his left side… AND have it enter his chest? They say this is captured on VIDEOTAPE! Wow! How does that work?
I HAVEN’T SEEN ANY VIDEOTAPES SHOWING LIGHT. I DON’T HAVE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT SUCH LIGHTS.
Is it six months or ten months that Bomjon didn’t take food or water?
I WOULDN’T KNOW FROM MY OWN PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE. BUT IF THESE POSTING SHOW SOME CONTRADICTION IN YOUR MIND, GO BACK AND READ ALL THE VARIOUS NEWSPAPER ARTICLES ON HIM, GOOGLE IT, DECIDE FOR YOURSELF WHICH TIME REFERENCES MAKE SENSE.
How did it happen that one of Ram Bomjon’s sisters became unable to speak after she said she doubted the veracity of Ram Bomjon’s meditation without food or water, and remained unable to speak for 22 days? How does that work?
I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIS SISTER OR HER SPEAKING EXPERIENCES.
How did the previously speechless boy Rajesh Mahat gain the power of speech after seeing Ram Bomjon? How does that work?
I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE ALLEGEDLY SPEEHLESS BOY. I READ THE NEWS REPORT AND HAVE NO OPINION ABOUT IT. I SUPPOSE THAT IF HIS PROBLEMS STEM FROM SOME EARLY CHILDHOOD PSYCHIC TRAUMA, PERHAPS HIS EXCITEMENT, RELIEF, INSPIRATION, OR FAITH SEEING BOMJON BROKE THROUGH HIS PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL LIMITATIONS – OR TEMPORARILY DID SO.
Is it true that more than 100,000,000 rupees of revenue has been generated from sales surrounding Ram Bomjon? If this is not true, are the other claims in the website that you took as a legitimate source of information true? How do you know the difference?
THIS SEEMS LIKE A PETTY QUESTION. IF YOU DOUBT AN ITEM OF INFORMATION, GOOGLE UP YOUR OWN SET OF NEW SOURCES AND FORM AN OPINION YOURSELF.
How did one of Ram Bomjon’s ancestors learn how to fly?
I DON’T KNOW ANY OF HIS ANCESTORS, AND HAVEN’T HEARD ANY DETAILS OF HOW HE WAS ABLE TO FLY. PERHAPS WHEN THE BRITISH WERE DOMINANT IN INDIA HE TOOK FLYING LESSONS WITH SOME GURKAS.
Is Ram Bomjon an incarnation of Lord Krishna?
I DON’T KNOW IF BOMJON IS AN INCARNATION OF ANYTHING.
What did Ram Bomjon mean when he said he had yet to acquire the Buddha’s energy?
SINCE I HAVEN’T SPOKEN WITH BOMJON, I DON’T KNOW WHAT HE SAID IN FACT….OR WHAT HE MAY HAVE MEANT. I WOULD SURMISE THAT HE MEANT “BUDDHA-NATUREâ€. THIS IS DISCUSSED SOMEWHAT IN WIKIPEDIA AT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha-nature
How will Ram Bomjon bring peace to the world, as he says, through six years of meditation? How does this work?
I DON’T KNOW HOW BOMJON DESCRIBED HIS BELIEF, IF ANY, THAT HE CAN BRING PEACE TO THE WORLD. I IMAGINE HE MEANT A VERY SIMPLE PRINCIPLE OF IMPROVING ONE MAN AT A TIME. IF ONE PERSON IS THOROUGHLY PEACEFUL AND HARMONIOUS WITH MANKIND IN HIS DEEPEST NATURE, HE WILL HAVE A MORE PEACEFUL INFLUENCE ON THOSE AROUND HIM THAN IF HE WERE NOT LIKE THAT. BY IMPROVING HIS NATURE, BOMJON BELIEVES HE’LL BE A BETTER INFLUENCE ON PEACE IN THE WORLD. IN ADDITION, IF THE PEACEFUL MAN LEARNS A METHOD FOR BECOMING MORE PEACEFUL, AND CAN SHARE THAT METHOD WITH MORE PEOPLE MORE SUCCESSFULLY FIVE YEARS OUT….. HIS EFFECT AS A TEACHER WILL PRESUMABLY ENHANCE PEACE IN THE WORLD. THIS JUST SEEMS LIKE COMMON SENSE TO ME.
When Gyansagar Lama, “the famous Guru who preaches non-violence,†declares Ram Bomjon to be the reincarnation of Buddha, do you believe him? What’s the standard by which you believe or do not believe him?
I DON’T KNOW THAT LAMA, SO I DON’T HAVE AN OPINION.
If, before his meditation, Ram Bomjon “could not walk straight. He limped,†then how could he manage to emerge from (six?) (ten?) months of meditation without eating or drinking and walk for five days and nights to an undisclosed jungle location?
THERE ARE MANY POTENTIAL EXPLANATIONS FOR THIS, AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT ANSWER IS CORRECT. I HAVEN’T SEEN HIS LIMP PERSONALLY AND HAVEN’T DISCUSSED IT WITH ANYONE. PERHAPS HIS LIMP RESULTED FROM KIND OF STRESS RELATED MUSCLE CRAMPING AND HIS LONG MEDITATIONS RELAXED THESE PROBLEMS SO HIS LEGS SERVED HIM BETTER. STRESS CAN INDUCE A “FROZEN SHOULDER SYNDROME†FOR EXAMPLE, ADHESIVE CAPSULITIS. YET THIS CAN PASS ON ITS OWN AFTER A YEAR OR SO. IF HE WALKED FOR FIVE DAYS WITHOUT FOOD AND WATER, HE MAY HAVE DRAWN UPON SOME RESERVOIR OF ENERGY NOT YET SCIENTIFICALLY UNDERSTOOD. I DON’T KNOW AS A FACT THAT SUCH AN ENERGY RESOURCE IS UNAVAILABLE OR IMPOSSIBLE, SO SUSPEND MY JUDGMENT FOR NOW.
Jim wrote:
..If James is going to believe that it’s reasonably possible for Ram Bomjon to be hibernating, then he’s going to have to explain the other magical behaviors of Bomjon too.”
James replies:
Nonsense! Presumptuous. I don’t *have* to do a single thing that you wish I would do. Any person is free to post as little or much, as complete or as partial an exposition as they feel like doing.
Jim says,
we can defy the whole universe and, gosh, we are the darling center of it all.
If I remember my Hinduism correctly, Lord Vishnu the Preserver is actually at the hub of the universe. We are the spokes, and we help maintain the universe by upholding the social order (caste system). See Bhagavad Gita XVIII:61 This is right after Arjuna complains about being expected to kill everyone he loves in a war and Krishna talks him into fighting, since after all Arjuna does belong to the warrior caste. According to the commentary “disappearance of the individual in a featureless Absolute…is devotion to the Supreme Lord.” And the whole point of Buddhaism is detachment…from anger, from lust, from envy,… becasue it is our emotional attachment to the world (which doesn’t really exist but is illusiion), that keeps us being reincarnated. The whole point of the religion is how to stop being alive (undesirable) and go to heaven (desirable).
Scott,
#295 “true beliefs”???
Is this like military inteligence? Student teachers? It sounds like an oxymoron.
A belief by defintion can’t be proven, otherwise it would be called a “true fact”. Is this in refernce to something?
Alan wrote:
If you reread his posts 152 and 155 James says pretty clearly he is just raising a point and doesn’t consider anything proven. I’m not trying to speak for James, he can speak for himself, but it seems to me that’s what he’s saying. You should look again at what he really said.
James replies:
Alan, I would say that your take is pretty accurate. After all, in point number 152 I wrote:
“………….I don’t consider it as a proof. I consider it as a better point on a continuum of plausibility. The fact that I fight for “an open mind†on such a thing doesn’t mean I consider it proven already, just an interesting possibility …â€
Scott wrote to Jim:
“………….Being a western thinker, you simply don’t recognize how “wispy dream visions†are as legitimate a source of information as say, experience or rationality. In fact, they are more legitimate as they can override experience and rationality…..â€
James comments:
This bit of snide sarcasm doesn’t reflect my own thinking, if Scott thought that it did.
“Dreamy visions†can be of a thousand different things, and aren’t necessarily rational, irrational, comprehensively insightful, or modestly insightful. But can a dream of vision even give us any useful insight at all, any creative idea, fresh look, connecting of dots unavailable yesterday? I merely include it for what it is, one state/aspect of the mind that may or may not have value from day to day, moment to moment. But, nonetheless, it is a part of the mind with its own language and nature and value to contribute to the aware person. Certainly, I see no need to mock the suggestion that “visions†are useful or feed useable information to the brain.
Recent psychological studies hold that dreaming is an essential aspect of how humans learn, even though they’re asleep dreaming involves the brain shifting information from the day into long term memory parts of the brain and other forms of mental organization. It’s no wonder that as a byproduct of that ordering people sometimes wake up with fresh insights, have such insights while dreaming. These insights can be combined with further rational thought processes and so on to see if they lead to something new and valuable. One needn’t admit the value of dreamy visions only if they override all rationality.
In a new and different vein on the topic of how the human mind perceives……
“a growing body of research indicates that the tongue may in fact be the second-best place on the body for receiving visual information from the world and transmitting it to the brain. …â€
“….. Interest in enhancement of the senses has come primarily from the military. While Bach-y-Rita and his colleagues were using external skin as a receiver of light-derived images, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Arlington, Va., funded them to develop a sonar-based system to help Navy commandos orient themselves in pitch darkness. The prototype worked, Bach-y-Rita says….â€
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20010901/bob14.asp
Jim,
‘childish negative indulgence’
If I understand the author correctly, it is a technique where you say the sample is absurd therefore the whole is absurd. The way i interpret your 14 questions is that bomjon (sample) is absurd therefore buddhaism and hinduism (they kinda blend together in nepal)(the whole) are absurd.
This is not name-calling, since it refers to a type of “black hat thinking” or logical negative thinking. You may or may not be this kind of person in real life–I don’t know you personally–but is only a particular type of thinking. They call it a “hat” becasue you put it on or take it off depending on the task. The black hat thinking is valuable becasue it protects us from mistakes and danger. You would put on a white hat for neutral information-gathering and a red hat to express feelings without needing to justify them (in order to keep hidden emotions from interfering with the logic).
But these are all western type thinking styles, and without the constructive positive and the creative, the black hat types will just be sitting there with nothing to do waiting for someone to come along they can tear down. For western style ‘critical thinking’ to work, someone has to actually make proposals, so we need the “constructive positive”, creative logical viewpoint, and we need to protect that viewpoint from the black hat types long enough to map it and develop the ideas, then we need the logical negative to find the weak points and the neutral information to get the facts necessary to make decision, so we can either make it workable or work on something else.
James ,
The review you posted isn’t very good, I don’t think the reviewer even read the book. Amazon has a better review. The book is old–it predates blogging for sure, but i think you can draw some parallels.
Jim wrote:
“..De Bono wrote a book (!) but despite writing a book (!) has it wrong. It’s easier to think that people can hibernate, or fly, or not eat or drink for six (ten?) months and then go on a five-day hike while having a light shine out of their forehead. …”
James replies:
I is not easy to think that humans may be able to hibernate, , plus defend oneself against people who mock and make fun of the idea, plus seriously try to come up with rational and scientific information supportive of that possibility.
Compared to that…….it does seem easier to me for someone to simply mock it as unheard of and odd, and probably crazy. Actually, it just involves making a bunch of easy to write negative, snide, sarcastic potshots.
Jim wrote:
“…….De Bono wrote a book (!) but despite writing a book (!) has it wrong. ”
James replies:
How much of de Bono’s book did you read before dismissing his book as wrong Jim?
James writes:
I beg your universal pardon. I should have written “going to have to explain the other magical behaviors of Bomjon too” if he wants to be consistent.
I understand now from your answers that consistency may not be important to you. I understand now that you are comfortable picking and choosing magical phenomena to endorse. I understand now that you are interested in being credulous at extraordinary claims.
You have the right to all of the above.
Alan,
“Scott,
#295 “true beliefs�??
Is this like military inteligence? Student teachers? It sounds like an oxymoron.
A belief by defintion can’t be proven, otherwise it would be called a “true factâ€. Is this in refernce to something? ”
–this sounds like something Jim would say.
If you really don’t think that “I believe X” entails “I believe X to be true” then I don’t know what to say to you.
James:
“Recent psychological studies hold that dreaming is an essential aspect of how humans learn, even though they’re asleep dreaming involves the brain shifting information from the day into long term memory parts of the brain and other forms of mental organization. It’s no wonder that as a byproduct of that ordering people sometimes wake up with fresh insights, have such insights while dreaming. These insights can be combined with further rational thought processes and so on to see if they lead to something new and valuable. One needn’t admit the value of dreamy visions only if they override all rationality.”
-Did you read any of this research. You are conflating two different things to suit your conclusions.
(i) The neurophysiological “housecleaning” that occurs during REM sleep
(ii) The content of dreams that occur during REM sleep.
Two separate phenomena.
It’s like saying that the sound of your heartbeat (a by-product of the function of your heart) makes blood pump around your body.
Scott,
#295 Is this in refernce to something? â€
I think you mean to continue from #262, which I stopped trying to digest in order not to be intrusive when you had so many papers to grade?
You’re comparing me with Jim? Eeewwww.
Since I seem to be more enamored with de Bono than with Chomsky, at least for the moment, maybe because it is practical rather than theoretical, this is what de Bono says about true beliefs:
-Much of what passes for fact is simply a comment made in good faith or is a matter of personal belief at the moment.
-The important point is the use to which the facts are to be put. Before we act upon a fact or make it the basis for a decision, we do need to check it. So we assess which of the believed facts could be useful and then proceed to try and verify it.
-Believed facts v checked facts
I’m not sure what this is in refence to, subjective mental states of #262 or the happiness list in #296 that doesn’t seem to connect to anything. Were we talking about religion? If this is about religion, we’re in bad shape, becasue people often base their actions and decisions on religious beliefs, which by definition can’t be checked. I mean they can be checkd internally, to see if they are in agreement with scripture or the belief system, but the entire belief system can’t be checked and is accepted on faith. that’s why they call it faith, it can’t be checked.
My computer has also declared war on me and refuses to paste anything to a word document. I have tried the usual WMD: diskcleanup, defragger, and spybot program, but the computer just lobs back a bunch of page faults and fatal exceptions. This cramps my ususal writing style of pasting someone’s post onto a word document, highlighting salient phrases, and writing with spellcheck with the post I’m talking about in front of me, and means I can’t save anything from internet to disk. Mabe it’s time to dig out my software guy and rebuild everything, but these wars always cost money.
Scott wrote:
“…..-Did you read any of this research. You are conflating two different things to suit your conclusions.
(i) The neurophysiological “housecleaning†that occurs during REM sleep
(ii) The content of dreams that occur during REM sleep.
Two separate phenomena.
It’s like saying that the sound of your heartbeat (a by-product of the function of your heart) makes blood pump around your body.
James replies:
I agree that I am conflating and condensing material relating to dreaming, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
My take on what had been written about dreaming here was that it is is only valuable if it totally overrides rationality and experience. I felt that it is important to show that dreaming is at least useful, even if it does not override rationality. It is not simply a zero. Sleep and dreaming accomplish a lot, and a lot of diverse stuff. A part of that stuff impacts our mental health, our capacity to be rational, our capacity to learn, our memory, the organization of information in our brain, our ability to be creative. The effects of REM sleep include the “housecleaning” you reference. Dreams can also have content which people sometimes find to include inspirational matter, sometimes, an appearance of “ready made” answers to problems they’ve been wrestling with, and sometimes other useful stuff. It’s a soup mix of useful stuff. It’s appropriate to condense and conflate this overall info into a short paragraph to give a response in this forum that doesn’t take up a lot of my time and yet
records at least a partial and relevant response to the implication that “wispy dreaming visions” are useless if
they fail to overcome rationality and experience. Anyone who wants to perceive meaning in what I’d written will do so, and anyone who wants to find fault with it will do so. Each will find what they want to find, as you have.
Jim,
#310 (to James) “you are comfortable picking and choosing magical phenomena to endorse.”
#301 (James’ answers to the 14 questions) James doesn’t appear to ascribe a supernatural or miraculous cause to any of the Bomjon phenomenon, but where he attepts to explain them, he attributes them to hallucination or natural phenomenon, however improbable. Unlike Mackers, I don’t think James is personally religious, but is willing to mine fringe religious experiences for possible personal enrichment.
Post 312: “You’re comparing me with Jim? Eeewwww.”
I had intended to say “Sounds like something James would say.”
I’m not Jim and I’m not James either. Maybe Jim and James is the same person.
Only if he’s suffering Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Why, if that were true, Alan, I’d just hate myself!
Then Jim, if you annoyed yourself, you could always call yourself a ‘twit’. http://www.sex-lexis.com/Sex-Dictionary/twit
but only a lowlife would do that.
No, they’re separate people. James has creative imaginatation, Jim has discernment, but I doubt if either one of them has any new oxymorons.
I’ll give him his due, James certainly has a creative imagination.
Alan says in regard to James:
“…..#301 (James’ answers to the 14 questions) James doesn’t appear to ascribe a supernatural or miraculous cause to any of the Bomjon phenomenon, but where he attepts to explain them, he attributes them to hallucination or natural phenomenon, however improbable. Unlike Mackers, I don’t think James is personally religious, but is willing to mine fringe religious experiences for possible personal enrichment….
James replies:
What is a “supernatural” or “miraculous” cause???
That’s quite interesting and amusing. Actually, I am quite religious, born to a family who raised protestant children. However, having lived in the east (India, Himalayas, etc.) and having practiced meditation, yoga for
years, and scientific research in these areas generally, my notions of God, religion, “self,” spirituality have expanded, morphed, relaxed and become more inclusive. I respect science for what it is and what its good at and feel it shouldn’t be whimsically disregarded. Yet, I don’t think science has or can have all the answers and am quite ready to step off of that “canoe” in the river of life and wander about by other means if I think there may be something worthwhile/interesting to pursue before getting back into the “canoe,” a comfortable default mode.
My characterization of Bomjon Miracles: In a way, I think once a person feels something is a miracle, they inherently suggest it is unreal. Once something suggestive of a miracle is believed as a real experience and fact, it is presumably part of some context that can be understood from some standpoint, scienfific, or analytical, or something. So I’m not inclined to use the term miracle much because it doesn’t seem to lead anywhere. I did not presume miracles occurred as to Bomjon per that list of 14 points, because I have so little
basis in personal knowledge/experience to assign credibility to most of those as being anything more than ordinary.
However, other aspects of Bomjon’s surprising feats involve things I have at least a little confidence in based on experience or other things, and so I was willing to venture out and sketch out a possible explanation for those, or at least a potential framework in which it may later be understood. I’m not thereby saying I “believe” or deem them “proved.”
When I was very young I began reading books on the medical uses of hypnosis. I learned and practiced it with friends. I was able to use hypnosis in my mid teen years to bring about fairly remarkable physical feats, a friend lifting an extremely heavy mahagony queen sized bed with his little finger, and other things. I’ve noted some of the scientific studies of yogi’s who appear to do dramatic things like stop and start their hearts, live on one breath a minute, stop breathing for extended time. I have some personal experience with things related to this which I’m not going to describe here. These and other experiences through my life have made me cautiously comfortable viewing humans as capable of surprising feats like the allegation of Bomjon not eating for months, walking a long distance with no food, etc. I can readily imagine how some people who lack certain experiences I’ve had wouldn’t see any basis, intuitive inclination, or intellectual honesty in giving “benefit of the doubt” perspective to such things as the Bomjon story involves. But I’m not compelled to evanlgelize or persuade others to adopt my views. People have their own finite sets of experiences, and thus views of what is plausible intuitively.
Jim wrote in no. 310:
“…………. understand now from your answers that consistency may not be important to you. I understand now that you are comfortable picking and choosing magical phenomena to endorse. I understand now that you are interested in being credulous at extraordinary claims.
You have the right to all of the above.
—–
James replies:
Yes. Of course I have the right to all the above. And, I’d be crazy not to use that right.
Consistency: consistency is important to me, but obviously it is important to balance consistency
with many other factors.
You seem to imply that in order to be “consistent” I had to believe in a miraculous nature for all
curious events surrounding Bomjon if I believe that one was “miraculous.” And, you seem to imply that in order to be consistent I had to believe that all circumstances alleged to have occured around Bomjon did occur in fact….. if I admit that any one circumstance occured (i.e. those circumstances being characterized as “miraculous.”)
But why is that so? Why must am I only consistent in that context and manner? Doesn’t it beg the question of “to what principle” am I being consistent when forming my judgments/opinions of what has occurred or which occurrence is miraculous?
What if I feel obliged to be consistently cautious and “evidence-based” in deciding what has happened with Bomjon.
If that is the principle I am trying to be consistent with, then I am indeed consistent to admit as fact
or plausible that which I perceive some credible evidence or explanation for, or witness of, and to
disregard as factual that which I perceive a lack of credible evidence, explanation or witness for.
The type of evidence, explanation, or witness that tips the balance of credulity for me may vary on
what the type of circumstance/alleged miracle is. For example, if I have a personal friend who personally visited Bomjon and observed him for two weeks, I may consider his testimony adequate evidence sufficient to
believe Bomjon didn’t eat for weeks and remained still. If my witness also saw Bomjon get up and walk after weeks of no food, water and sleep, I may not be able to explain how he did that physiologically but I may be comfortable regarding the alleged faiure to eat and walking with out food as factual (pending further info). Yet,
as to an allegation that he had some distant relative who flew through the sky, I may have no source of information about that act, that person, and that class of behaviors to justify any confidence at all. In that setting, I may feel more comfortable defaulting to very ordinary explanations as most plausible, such as “flying” means piloting an airplane, or that “flying” was perceived by an opium smoking bunch of people back then.
The suggestion that in order to be “consistent” I MUST agree that all ten alleged miracles occurred because
I’m receptive to the suggestion that one or two happened, is preposterous to me. It seems to imply that
consistency is a unidimensional and simple thing….i.e. anytime one believes in one of a class of events one must believe in the entire class without consideration of any data or issue other than items in that class. That’s frankly a stupid way of seeing consistency in my view.
I believe that any thinking and aware person would “pick and choose” by various standards among all described events before suggesting that one believes that one, two, five or ten occurred, or occurred as described.
Wow, your friend watched Bomjon night and day for two weeks? Really and truly? That’s incredible!
Wow, your friend personally watched Bomjon get up and walk away after weeks of no food, water and sleep? Saw no food, no water, no sleep? For weeks? Then personally watched Bomjon get up and walk away? Really and truly? That’s incredible!
Look up the meaning of the word incredible.
Jim wrote:
“…..Look up the meaning of the word incredible.”
James replies:
Yawn. All you’ve got is sarcasm. That’s not worth anything to me.
Oh, I’ve got sarcasm aplenty. But that’s not all. No, I’ve got new questions for you:
Did your friend really watch Bomjon night and day for two weeks?
Did your friend really watch Bomjon get up and walk away after seeing him have weeks (actually, months) of no food, no water, no sleep?
James,
Jim always has plenty of sarcasm, but that’s his own special cynical way of trying to get more information by insinuating that you’re an idiot and trying to get you to prove you’re not. He’s adopted the black hat position on this and he’s not going to take off the black hat anytime soon.
But if you know an eyewitness to Bomjon events, yes that’s worth telling. What did you hear?
James is teh awesome. GO JAMES!!!!!! some people are unable to realize or admit when they have been beaten. the “logic” escapes them.
weather the boy is a fraud or not is pure speculation to anyone other than the boy and those that are close to him.there was an article in GQ magazine about him and the reporter that went to interview him spent the night. His tale of the time was that about the pure agony of spending hours on end sitting in complete stillness, not to mention in silence and eyes closed….. NOw the reporter was a grown man not a boy of 15, how many kids do U know that age with that type of attention span or dedication…… He also spent the night out side with a couple of monks and the article says that the government was handing out firewood to prevent people from freeezing…. this kid has not only spent all day in perfect stillness/silence but has also spent the night outside with nothing but a cloak there again in perfect stillness….at least thats what the article says….the author george saunders claims to have almost frozen that people were dying in that type of cold yet this young boy sat outside all night with little more than a burkapacloak… neways the point is how do U ever expect to find your own rite without faith in the incomprehensible…… there are well documented articles on th internet of incorruptibility….. that which classifies a saint….. men and women that have been dead for 75 150 2-300 years but their bodies remain the same as the day they died…. skin still soft and flexible not cold…..no signs of physical decay… some buried in conditions ideal for rot yet remain in perfect shape…….I don’t think the buddah boy claims to be a buddah I think he only wants to meditate I think its his town that has become impressed with his feat, which bythe way is more than most would ever attenpt… I don’t think the town is just pouring in prosperity…….but my opinion is just speculation from an article i read….. have faith because with faith men can move mountains
There is a documentary on this boy that was telecast on Discovery Channel. It clearly showed the boy in meditation continuously without food and water for more than 4 days(after this the boy didnt stop but the cameras had to). It clearly shows that there are so many aspects of this universe that are
1. Difficult to comprehend
2. Even if comprehended, cannot be articulated through language
James ,
You tried your best to bring some sense in to the “typical” western attitude of “know-all rationalistic” approach.
Fortunately,the entire scientific community (western /eastern) is not biased.Thats the reason we have theories like relativity,Quantum mechanics to explain the inexplicable.
For a person who asks so many questions (MrJ Clifford), has he ever thought how can matter be in two places at the same time (Quantum mechanics makes u believe)?
This is the same kind of attitude that has made even the greatest of scientists like Einstein to eat back his words “God does not play dice with the world”.
There are several examples of Yogis in South of India like Sambandhar,who spontaneously composed beautiful verses praising the nature of God at the age of “Four”. This is well known in the western world also. Please refer to any literature on this.Do you think this is within human rationale?Saints like Manikkavachagar and karaikkal ammaiyar just dissolved themselves in the divine grace leaving behind only ashes.
To cut the long story short, science has lot of unknowns than knowns.
To question everything with an open mind is fine.You may end up with something brilliant like relativity/Quantum theory.But to question something ,thinking that the solution will exist within your current limited solution space, is stupidity.
Hooray, just this week I was was wondering when this was going to come up again.
Don’t you think it’s spooky that I was thinking about it, then it happened.
Prove to me that it wasn’t a psychic premonition.
Scott, I can’t prove it wasn’t a psychic premonition, therefore it must have been!
And anybody who disagrees with me is just another intolerant asshole who doesn’t understand the deep, mystical scope of the universe.
I could spontaneously sing “Jesus loves me” at the age of “Two”. I doubt very much whether the editors of this fine forum think this is within human rationale. My mother has proof of this on tape. Where is the proof of the poetry-spouting four-year-olds? I am not quite hot enough to dissolve myself into ashes yet, but am working on being in two places at once. As soon as I figure out how to collect two paychecks for the same hours, I’ll let you know how it is done.
IH and IH’s Evil Twin
Why do you people have to be so cynical about this? You make fun of him. You’re making fun of a boy that’s inpiring thousands of visitors worlwide! You’re making fun of a “hoaxer” (I dont think it’s a hoax) that could very well be on his way trhough his OWN form on enlightenment. So what if it’s a hoax? BIG. FREAKING. DEAL. He’s making the world a better place! He’s introducing a bit of hope into a hungry world’s eyes! Don’t you see? This boy is sending a message of peace out to the world, and he’s not afraid. Like I said, even if it WAS a hoax, he’s making people happy. Why do you have to ruin a nice moment? It’s so typical of most people to make fun of things they clearly don’t understand, and I guess this is a perfect example of exactly that.
Hmm… I wonder about your motto: “In a time of darkness, inching towards the light…”
In reality, you appear to be so benighted that you can’t even design a website that can be viewed in a half-decent browser (for example, Firefox). Your article displays several thousand pixels wide, requiring a lot of tedious horizontal scrolling in order to read it. It may have looked OK in Internet Explorer – I wonder if you bothered to try it out in anything else? Perhaps we could “improve” your motto (so that it applies to your opinions as well as your site): “In a time of darkness, fuck the light… stick with what you know”.
I browse in Firefox all the time, phil_w. It’s my primary browser. Check the other portions of this website — they look fine in FireFox. Somebody must have added a 1000 pixel image in the hundreds of comments here. This is the only post which I can find behaving like this.
And I find myself not caring overmuch. I care less about the style of design than the matter of content.
Yeah, somebody added in a 1000px-long line of text in the comments.
Sorry, phil_w, but I’m not going to add in widget AJAX blahdeeblah functionality that uses 100 lines of code to break it up.
Gosh, Phil_W. I’m using Firefox, and I have no problem viewing the site.
Maybe the problem is that YOU don’t know how to set up your computer.
Hey Guys,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3236118.stm
After reading so much about James and Jim’s comments I was forced to atleast quote this article in BBC. JIM, what is your argument to this? 10 days under scrutiny day and night, without food and water. Would be very interested in knowing what levels of reasoning can explain this.
Kesavan
I can’t speak for anyone else, but did you notice this “news” item is from in India? Stories of official bribery in India have persisted from Kipling’s day to the present. This is like asking the Vatican to analyze the Shroud of Turin. if you know anything about medicine in India, they do use a lot of enemas, especially herbal ones, I think for vermifuge, and it’s common to have them in a hospital. At any rate medicine is absorbe more effeciently when introduced into the intestine. It is a poor country, perhaps the ayervedic mdicine is more cost effective. They don’t say the poor guy didn’t have any enemas.
Damn this page is too hard to read because of the page width. Someone should go up to post #58 and break that long link. Its just a search string and it doesn’t link to anything anyhow. Grrrrr.
The link is fixed.
Ten days not equaling ten months. Or, can Ram Bomjon defy time as well?
1.Does any one have any idea of what ram bomjan can do???
2.If he wastes so much time, how can he compete with people who utilise time to do wonderful things in the world.
3. If he does this for self realization what does that have for the rest of the world??
4.I hope he likes sex
Well, you must read ‘the monk who sold his ferrari’its a great book by Robin Sharma.this book tells you the true meaning of happiness and how you can acheive it. true(Inner)Happiness doesn’t come by having expensive cars, big house etc, instead it comes when you are at peace with your self, u r enlightend and when you acheive ‘NIRVANA’.Nirvana is a state in which you get lasting happiness and pleasure its the ULTIMATE GOAL OF LIFE.This Pleasure is far more sexual pleasure or anything else. Ram Bomjam is meditating to achieve the state of nirvana and one can actually achieve it by meditating.
you may be having gr8 sex or would be the richest but somewhere at the bottam of your heart you know that somthing is missing in ur life , something is wrong somewhre in ur life. and if u still cant Appreciate that fact then tell me ‘do u have any kind of fear’?? are u afraid of anything in this world??? if yes then u haven’t acheived nirvana yet……way to go buddy!!!
Why in these tumultuous times of tyranny and poverty do you fear hope? Why do you see this boy as such a hoaxster? Can he not simply be a boy in search of self, and inner peace? And intern can that search not deliver hope to a world in tremendous need of it? You claim that this boy has acted in some sort of offense to the ways of Buddha for fleeing a crowded mass to find peace, but if you remember the tale of Guetama Siddhartha (Buddha),you would be wise to remember that when he first found suffering and death, he had fleed his family of a wife and son and his royal line, to search out peace. He did not have such crowds following his every move and doctors trying to examine him through his meditation. No, Buddha found Nirvana in solitude and only then returned to combat suffering with enlightenment. So let this boy take the steps needed into finding his Nirvana, and instead of mislabeling him Buddha-Boy, let us simply call him a boy in search of something divine in world so lost of such things. Also according to him Buddha is not what he believes himself to be (yet), as stated “Tell the people not to call me a Buddha. I don’t have the Buddha’s energy. I am at the level of rinpoche [lesser divinity].” Considering Buddha is just a term meaning enlightened one, I would say he is more of Buddha then you sir!
Thank you,
Soul of Vision
It´s amazing: all your 345 comments, all antagonizing, arguing, debating… at the end its all about the opposite: quiet contemplation… SILENCE, the silence u can only think of because u are now (we are now) used to click and destroy every second…
THINK ABOUT IT
One last thing before i go, fuckers (yeah, í´m a mere grotesque mortal):
this kind of skepticism (sorry dont know how to spell that word, but i know u will understand it, fuckers) is the same that got jesuschrist into a cross.
the central point is: nowadays a religious figure would have much less value than a barrel of oil.
motherfuckers all of u.
J. Clifford
fuck u!
Ken, does that kind of statement bring you enlightenment?
Soul of Vision I don’t fear hope. I fear hype.
Casanova, there is nothing in the historical record that verifies that Jesus ever actually was crucified. The evidence for Jesus is of the same nature as the evidence for Robin Hood – there is none.
Skepticism never got anyone executed. In fact, skepticism is what has saved innocent people from being executed by those who used their faith to presume guilt.