Strangely Perfect

I’ve been (and still am!) busy over the last few months moving house and otherwise making a new life for myself.  Despite this, I did find time to go a see an event that I never thought would happen – James Williamson & Iggy Pop playing on stage together- for the first time in 30 [...]

The Hell of Incessant Suffering and the Land of Tranquil Light Note: This was originally published here http://buddhastate.co.uk/blog/?p=30 on Sunday, September 24th, 2006 at 4:28 pm and filed under Buddhism..  The link has been dead for quite some time, looks unlikely to re-appear,  so I’m showing the words here as they are so wonderful because [...]

As MP’s expenses come to the fore again, Peter Mandelson spoke on Radio 4 this morning and did his usual self by not explaining anything and being perfectly unclear about everything!  Listen hear here! Thank god the interviewer cut him off. The question was “Have you got much sympathy with MPs who’ve claimed under one [...]

Northumberland Northumberland is a lovely place – cold, sunny, windy, dry, overcast, damp, clear, clean and historic.  But mainly brrr  and wow!  Especially on the coast. It’s quite popular with tourists.  Here’s why I go there… …why do the fuckwits? The historic island of Lindisfarne (Holy Island) is connected to the mainland via a tarmac [...]

This Gordon, Gordon Ramsay the Chef,  has all the qualities needed for a Prime Minister. He doesn’t suffer fools He has a plan He abhors a dirty working area

I Got April Fooled by The Daily Mail How? Someone came up to me and said that Wacky Baccy Jaqui Smith had been photographed coming out of an Ann Summers shop with a large carrier bag full of goods. “It’s hardly surprising given the recent sexual embarrassment” …in that area is my one and only [...]

Death Search Four men, old enough and with enough experience of life to be able to look after themselves, have gone missing in Loch Awe.  Two have been found dead and the search is still on.    This of course is tragic, but I can well understand their situation. Colony Holiday When I was 16, [...]

Bishop Richard Williamson says No Gas Cambers existed.. As time passes and memories of mass slaughter diminish, many people start to doubt that people could do such ghastly things to others.  They think, ‘can it really be true?  Surely not?’.  And so it is with the nutty Bishop. Don’t let his bumbling aristocratic ramblings fool [...]

Many moons ago, before Crawling Chaos first played, I heard a tune on the late night John Peel Show called “Wading Through a Ventilator” by “The Soft Boys“.  You can get it on the compilation at left. At only 3:20  it has the unique quality of extending time so it feels like about half an [...]

You should not have the slightest fear in your heart. It is lack of courage that prevents one from attaining Buddhahood, although one may have professed faith in the Lotus Sutra many times since innumerable kalpas ago. There is definitely something extraordinary in the ebb and flow of the tide, the rising and setting of [...]

This is what I have taught my disciples morning and evening, and yet they begin to harbour doubts and abandon their faith. Foolish men are likely to forget the promises they have made when the crucial moment comes.  -  The Opening of the Eyes – The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 283 Yay! Carnival [...]

Well the chickens are not only coming home to roost – they’ve actually laid eggs and the chicks are starting to hatch, like a plot from a sixties spy paperback. Today’s news, (Russia to upgrade nuclear systems), that the Russians are initiating plans for their own missile defence shield shows what happens when god-fearing idiots [...]

Don’t let Sarah Palin’s obvious organisational ability and her successful prosecution of a hunt against corruption fool you into believing that she is anything but a nutter.  Two rights do not make a thousand wrongs.  There are many brave people around. Buddhism says that anyone has the Buddha nature within them, at all times.  Simultaneanity [...]

Two days ago the USS McFaul (DDG-74) passed through the Bosporus en-route to Georgia to deliver relief aid. Now it’s arrived. U.S. Navy relief aid ship reaches Georgia & US warship reaches Georgian port. However, it’s a slightly under-whelming and bizarre effort that isn’t fooling anybody.  To make it sound good, the ship is reported [...]