Apech

I assumed everyone would know. Pass the biscuits, old chap.

Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck; And yet methinks I have Astronomy, But not to tell of good or evil luck, Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’ quality; Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell, Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind, Or say with princes if it shall go well By oft predict that I in heaven find: But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive, And, constant stars, in them I read such art As truth and beauty shall together thrive, If from thyself, to store thou wouldst convert; Or else of thee this I prognosticate: Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.

Judge not, that ye be judged.

Worms? Batons? Enough with the metaphors already.

Quite right about Boris. He's a mole put in the Leave camp to bring us back in at the earliest opportunity. In fact as you point out to use a leave vote as a further bargaining chip. This is obvious.

Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.

I have to admit it is very significant that not one of them is talking about the benefits of being in the EU but only the risks arising from leaving it.

Well, I made two attempts to reply to Karl above - but my computer went fuzzy and I lost it all both times. My computer is my friend.

"To H Thy Friendship oft has made my heart to ake Do be my Enemy for Friendships sake."

I think you should put 'in my view' or 'in my opinion' in front of some of those statements. Perhaps the reason you gave up these kinds of practices was because you were mentally masturbating. Do I have to point out that every form of cultivation, Buddhist, Daoist, whatever, involves some stages of retreat or isolation - simply because it is necessary. Anyone who has strong practice will have encountered 'friends' who oppose you in this. It's natural. William Blake said 'opposition is true friendship' - meaning that those that oppose you help you learn about who you really are and what you are really about. Sometimes exposing mistakes you are making in what you are doing. But giving up cultivation simply to please others or to fit into other people's ideas about how to behave or what is important is a big mistake.

Everything nice in America

Its a big subject - these comparisons - maybe another thread?

I went to have my hair cut the other day and the barber said - quote 'you are a little grey' - should I be worried?

really? I have read that the Sakya clan were not in the Vedic mainstream and that although Buddha used vedic based ideas like karma - he reinterpreted them in a way that no Vedantist would do.

I'm not convinced that there really is anything as Buddhist cosmology really. I think that Buddhism just appropriated and adapted the cultural world view of the prevailing times, most notably the Vedic cosmology. I know there is a sutra in which the Buddha appears to outline a cosmology but I think this is an example of one of his semi-humerus critiques of vedic religion.

@Karl, Yes good point about the two phase war. Someone once described (I don't know who though) British foreign policy as - avoid doing anything but when forced, act entirely in our own interests. And actually I wish we had stuck to that. But of course politicians like to meddle in world affairs - and usually come unstuck e.g. Blair. I once read a fascinating book about German history from Bismark to Hitler ( I seem to have lost it so don't know the title) and I think we have an extraordinary misunderstanding about who the Germans are, how they think and why they do what they do. This is probably why we mishandled the end of both wars strategically. In particular the relationship between Germany and the countries to the East is something I doubt we will ever relate to properly. There's always a sense of tremendous intellectual power mixed with insecurity which we as English particularly don't share. Generally speaking English people despise philosophy unless it is a form of empirical pragmatism and also while others dream of perfection - we think, in our hear of hearts that England is already the new Jerusalem and there is nothing more to do than be what we are. Our feet are firmly grounded in self belief and confident of our boundaries. A faith in our own rightness which makes us perfidious Albion to the French. I think this is also why being an EU member instinctively seems like an act of betrayal of our own value. In much the same way as, while being for a time part of the Roman Empire it is not instilled in our blood in the same way as in most of the rest of Europe. I was proudly told by two Portuguese professors once how they had been civilised as part of the Roman Empire for over 700 years and had inherited one of the purest Latin based language forms - to which my reaction was well poor you - you can see why English is such a powerful and adaptable language then being as it is such a bastard tongue. While the tendency to wish to remain pure makes the Romance languages strangely stale and self-preserving. English just eats up other languages as it goes with it's ever widening lexis - what Melvyn Bragg called it's treasure hoard of words. This is also the great mistake of the EU in thinking top down. To have an ideal vision and an ideology which builds its cities in the mind first and then in reality later - only to realise that in the real world they do not work. Instead they should have let the thing develop organically in response to changing environments and with enough adaptability to meet the needs of all its members. Rather like an unplanned city.

@Karl Two wars actually. Both of which in their way led to the deconstruction of the British Empire - brought about principally because of American insistence and our own bankrupt condition. But we fought those wars on the basis of our centuries old tradition of divide and conquer foreign policy. In other words if one European nation appears to be becoming dominant, whether it be Spain, France or Germany then we are automatically against them. This still, I think , informs our horror at Merkel and Scheuble (sp?) ... we just don't like to see a dominant power in Europe. What makes you think that we will be granted liberty? The erosion of our liberty, enshrined in law, doesn't come from Europe but from our own disease of intersectional political correctness. The right to free speech and even the right to a fair trial are being taken away in the name of victim centred social justice. The insidious ideas of the regressive left who have usurped the throne of the repressive right and spouting their memes such as 'Islam is a religion of peace', 'a patriarchy oppresses women', 'our society is institutionally racist' and 'white men are the inheritors of privilege'. The UK and America invented a large portion of this nonsense and we won't have any liberty while it remains the dominant thesis of those in power.

Well, we are not strong, wise or brave. Or at least I have supreme confidence in saying that about our leaders - who will be either Gove (god forbid) or Mini-Trump Johnson (even more god forbid) once Cameron resigns. They will continue to be spineless liars and opportunists. The City will do whatever it pleases - including relocating to Frankfort or somewhere equally grey and metallic. Immigration contrary to popular opinion will be unaffected - apart from perhaps some kind of fringe effect of delaying the employment of well trained nurses and doctors for the NHS - you will note no effort of any government so far has made any significant difference to what is an economic necessity. We will still be in NATO so we will be able to fight pointless wars with abandon. The US will continue to pay lip service to the special relationship while doing whatever it wants. Russian bombers will still buzz our shores. The weather will remain unpredictable - except in that one will be able to say it will be bad. Public transport will be appalling. The roads will be jammed. And it will still take three hours to buy a packet of paracetamol in Boots the Chemist because they try to sell you buy one get one free shower gel and sign you up for a card you don't want. No nothing will change, nothing will improve -- you bunch of bloody optimists!

It may surprise you all to learn that I agree with these criticisms of the EU. The bloc uniformity and forced fitting into the German model and the unelected commissioners telling everyone what they must do - despite that fact they may have voted for something completely different. But I'm afraid to say you are all falling for a false hope - that is that Brexit will cure these ills. Leave the EU and the economic model won't change, the legislation won't change, the erosion of 'democracy' won't change, the influence of the UK in the world may change in that it will lessen (possibly). If the EU subsequently collapses or goes through critical transformation then we will not unaffected - we will just be powerless to influence. Brexit is just a dream of returning to the 1950's, of Agincourt, of the battle of Britain, of Tea Clippers rounding the Horn and watching flags fluttering on seven continents while sipping G and T in the club, cricket on the village green as the sun sets like a satsuma amidst the pink clouds, half a pound of mature cheddar wrapped in greaseproof paper from that nice Mr. Sainsbury round the corner and returning home with the clank of old pennies and half crowns in your pocket. It's gone. It's not coming back. Get real.

Michael Gove eh?

@Bindi Brilliantly well put.

I avoid hospitals - they always seem to be full of sick people for some reason. (ho ho) @Steve, How does doing that exercise make you feel? I think many who read this kind of thing find it possibly depressing - but strangely I always find that death/impermanence meditations lighten me up and make me quite jolly. Not sure why - but perhaps something to do with shedding a little of attachment.

Every topic you start is like a dream come true to me.