OPINION - No one will shed a tear for a landlord, but it's a living nightmare

OPINION - No one will shed a tear for a landlord, but it's a living nightmare

The beginning of the end came early one Saturday morning. We were sitting in the departures zone at Stansted airport , waiting to board a red-eye flight for a family birthday reunion early last year. But something was wrong with our bank account. One of our tenants had just paid his monthly rent – for only half the amount due. He’d unilaterally decided to deduct £750. We had no idea why.

Transcendence for Beginners by Clare Carlisle review – a philosopher’s guide to enlightenment

Transcendence for Beginners by Clare Carlisle review – a philosopher’s guide to enlightenment

Can we experience something bigger than ourselves in the midst of busy, humdrum lives? Some philosophers find inspiration in mountains, such as Nietzsche, and some in caves, like Plato. Clare Carlisle found hers in a cave halfway up a mountain. It happened 20 years ago: walking on a Himalayan path, she met a holy man who lived in a cave nearby. Not your stereotypical sadhu, he didn’t have matted hair and wasn’t semi-naked but wore nice trousers and an acrylic pullover. Nor did he have any obvious wisdom to impart; at the last of their three meetings, he and Carlisle mainly got stoned and giggled about the chicken-like patterns on a cushion she had brought him as a gift. Yet, after leaving, she felt a “yearning” for something that they had shared: a sense that there could be a more “noble” way of living, or that we could experience “transcendence”, a higher perspective on life. Continue reading...