Totnes, Costa Coffee and a Rocket Propelled Mortar

 

Costa Coffee, a British multinational,  boasts the biggest chain of shops in the UK with more than 1000 coffee shops in the country and hundreds more worldwide and, on average, a new coffee shop opening in Britain everyday. Unlike Starbucks, it also pays its full share of taxes in the UK. …

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OCCUPY! A Poem….

The Arab Spring showed the West a powerful form of street protest. Thousands upon thousands took to the streets in Arab nations and, instead of politely goiing back home in the afternoon, stayed on the streets day and night putting immense pressure on corrupt governments. These Arab citizens gave the inspiration to citizens in so-called Western democracies to to occupy the streets. …

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In his 2012 album, Leonard Cohen sings ‘he’s a lazy bastard living in a suit’ …..and more besides

From “Going Home,” the first track of his 2012 album Old Ideas

‘I love to speak with Leonard,

he’s a sportsman and a shepherd

he’s  a lazy bastard

living in a suit.’ …

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President Obomber: Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

I recall several years ago arriving on a flight from London at Logan International Airport, Boston. The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts and Spirit Centre in Marin County had kindly arranged for me in the 1990’s to use an R-1 (Religious) visa to offer my retreats in the USA.

The immigration officer asked me about my work. I said I was a teacher. He asked who I worked for. I replied I was self-employed (slightly odd for a teacher of non-self, of dependent arising). …

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What the Diamond Sutra, the world’s oldest printed book, has to say on views….

I read this week that restoration work takes place at the British Library in London on  the world’s oldest printed book –  a much love Buddhist text called the Diamond Sutra dating back to 868 AD. (Sutra is the Sanskrit for discourse).

Many Westerners believe the Gutenberg’s Bible from around 1450 AD as the world’s oldest printed book. A copy of the Diamond Sutra printed 600 years earlier remained hidden in Buddhist monk’s cave in Dun Huang , Gansu Province, China for many centuries. …

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