I believe in letting an invader in and then setting a good example. That is the reply Benjamin Britten gave to a tribunal for the registration of conscientious objectors in 1942 when asked "What would you do if Britain was invaded?" I was reminded of it when researching my recent article on Marco Pallis , who was an authority on both Tibetan Buddhism and early music, and, together with Britten, a champion of Purcell . In his best-selling book Peaks and Lamas , which was written in 1939, Pallis tells this story about the Sakyas , the ethnic group of which Gautama Buddha was a member which inhabited the foothills of the Himalayas. News was brought to them of an impending attack by a hostile tribe and it was debated anxiously whether resistance should be offered or not. Eventually they decided that, as followers of [Buddhist] Doctrine, they were debarred from offering armed resistance, but must welcome the invaders as friends, so they threw down their arms... The Tibetans, how...
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3152886/WITH-LEGAL---53-million-Securitas-Robbery-orchestrated-by-two-cage-fighters.html
The full headline explains why the story has been selected -
£53 million Securitas Robbery orchestrated by two cage fighters
Thanks for noticing our humble class blog. The writing on the blog is by students at Thomas More College (in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, USA) who are enrolled in a first year seminar class called "Listening to the Silence: John Cage and Experimental Music." On an Overgrown Path is, of course, on our required reading list. Indeed, the many thoughtful posts on Cage I found on this blog were a major source of inspiration for the course syllabus.
Best,
Jerome Langguth