Journalistic Pieces For Sale
The following articles are looking for homes in magazines. The first 200 words or so are available here; for professional enquiries to read the articles whole, contact info@acanofwords.eu. The following full-length review is 1,125 words in length, including directions and hotel guide.
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Hot News Again
A review of the facilities at Thermae Bath Spa, Bath, UK
While you can see green from almost everywhere in Bath’s city centre, up here at Thermae’s rooftop pool it’s a complete panorama; you’re completely surrounded by fine C17 Georgian buildings with green countryside breathing close beyond. Roman Baths meet Nicholas Grimshaw’s futurism via Jane Austen’s Georgiana.
I would recommend starting at the outdoor rooftop pool and working your way down, especially if it’s a rare sunny day; you never know how long good weather will last, even if the south-west is Britain’s sunniest region.
The natural spa water is constantly being pumped up to replenish, with the consequence that at roughly ten minute intervals both the metal underwater ‘air seats’ area and one half of the pool, become a jacuzzi – close your eyes and you can become part of the fizz. The jet on your shoulders up here is far more powerful than the downstairs one, and is worth the cost of two-hour admission alone. It was the strongest barrage of water I had ever been under.
The water itself is actually cooled down to 35 degrees Centigrade from 46, as it is deemed to be too hot, for children especially. On advice from experts, Thermae decline entrance to those under twelve for health reasons. Twelve-to-sixteen-year-olds…
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An Interview with Lama Jampa Thaye
(November 2007; the full article is 4,159 words in length)
Lawrence Pettener conducted the following interview with Lama Jampa Thaye, the European leader of the Dechen group in November 2007 in Bristol, UK. Lama Jampa has taken high teachings with His Holiness Sakya Trizin (Sakya) and Karma Thinley Rinpoche (Kagyu). He is unusual in being a western-born Lama (Bolton, Lancashire, England), and taught Comparative Religion for many years at Manchester University. He has a centre in Mexico and teaches in Los Angeles, and is the author of several books, including Rain of Clarity (Ganesha Press 2006), Way of Tibetan Buddhism (Thorsons 2001) and River of Memory (Ganesha Press 2005).
Lawrence Pettener: I was reading your memoir, River Of Memory. It struck me that you brushed past your family background in a phrase or two, and that your feelings were missing, as though it were almost a catalogue of initiations and empowerments.
Lama Jampa Thaye: That wasn’t an autobiography; it’s very important in Tibetan buddhism to preserve the lineage and the practices, and this was as you say almost a catalogue of what teachings have been received and so on. It might look like a memoir, but it’s no such thing at all; we rarely talk about such things; it’s very difficult to get serious Dharma people in Tibet to discuss such things. Self-disclosure is very uncommon; one should rely on the teaching, not the personality. I understand that could make the Dharma look a little inaccessible to westerners at first, but I think that they’ll appreciate that without being showy, one can actually learn a lot by studying and practising, and then the personal comes between the lines rather than that being in the lines themselves, if you see what I mean …
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