Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences 
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I remember my kids coming home from elementary school and telling me that it was against the law to spank them. I invited them to try me. There have indeed been some cases here in Ontario as well as some challenges to the current law. The challenges resulted in some clarification: parents and other caregivers are indeed permitted to use reasonable force to discipline their children. However, ‘reasonable force’ includes hands only (no instruments) and frowns on any sort of public humiliation. I think this is a just law and as a parent I can work within it. In general I have not found physical punishment useful. I don’t think that punishment is an effective way to deal with children, with only occasional exceptions. And my recollection is that the frequent strappings we took from the Brothers in Catholic high school produced precisely the opposite effect to what was intended. One case that made a lot of headlines here in Ontario involved an Illinois man, a father of a 5-year old girl who spanked her bare bottom on the hood of the car in a restaurant parking lot. (She had intentionally slammed the car door on her 2-year old brother’s hand.) I did feel sorry for the father. I think that had he done the spanking inside the car or if the girl had been left fully-clothed, there would have been no case.
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Name : George, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Buddhist, Age : 54, City : Toronto, Ontario, State : NA, Country : Canada, Occupation : Evaluation researcher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College,Have you tried Google? I’m gettin 238,000 hits.
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Name : George, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Buddhist, Age : 54, City : Toronto, Ontario, State : NA, Country : Canada, Occupation : Evaluation researcher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College,The greeter is wishing me happiness or merriment and that’s great. I return the greeting, e.g., Christmas, because it does apply to them even more than it does apply to me. Sometimes I see a greeting in the form, ‘Merry Christmas/Hannukah/Kwazaa/whatever’. I find that kind of greeting insensitive because Christmas cannot be compared to Hannukah. So I don’t say anything at all in reply. Occasionally people ask me what kind of major Buddhist events are there and how do Buddhists greet each other during such periods. I explain that as far as I know such greetings are not used in a North American context.
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Name : George, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Buddhist, Age : 54, City : Toronto, Ontario, State : NA, Country : Canada, Occupation : Evaluation researcher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College,The ‘About’ Web site (http://buddhism.about.com) has a nice overview and lots of links. It gives fair and comprehensive treatment to the various schools of Buddhism, though a bit heavy on Zen.
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Name : George, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Buddhist, Age : 54, City : Toronto, Ontario, State : NA, Country : Canada, Occupation : Evaluation researcher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College,As far as I know, the Buddhist ‘bible’, the Tipitaka, does not have anything specific to say about gay sensuality or gay householders among non-ordained people. In general, Buddhism appears to say that culturally-acceptable sexuality is not wrong–but of course it’s not ‘right’ either, in the sense that any kind of sensuality does not further one’s development. I recall reading an interview with the Dalai Lama some years ago where he was asked about homosexuality. He first indicated that it was ‘wrong’ but then immediately reconsidered and, correcting himself, declared that it was not wrong. Of course, there are many cultural taboos around homosexuality which are confounded with what the Buddha actually taught. So if you find yourself in a Buddhist culture that looks upon homosexuality as wrong, then openly flaunting your orientation would upset people, and that act of intentionally upsetting people would be considered unskillful, or ‘wrong’. In the Buddhist monastic code, the ‘Vinaya’, a man having sex (male penetration into any orifice, presumably of either gender) is considered ‘defeated’, implying that the penetrator should be summarily dismissed. In fact, any act of sexual nature between an ordained man and any woman is grounds for dismissal. However, it appears that non-penetrating sexual acts between two ordained men consitute a lesser offense. I found that quite amusing.
User Detail :
Name : George, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Buddhist, Age : 54, City : Toronto, Ontario, State : NA, Country : Canada, Occupation : Evaluation researcher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College,
