xiii. self, originally uploaded by sparrowsfall.
Both praise and blame cause concern,
For they bring people hope and fear.
The object of hope and fear is the self
For, without self, to whom may fortune and disaster occur?
Therefore,
Who distinguishes himself from the world may be given the world,
But who regards himself as the world may accept the world.
x. harmony, originally uploaded by sparrowsfall.
Embracing the Way, you become embraced;
Breathing gently, you become newborn;
Clearing your mind, you become clear;
Nurturing your children, you become impartial;
Opening your heart, you become accepted;
Accepting the world, you embrace the Way.
Bearing and nurturing,
Creating but not owning,
Giving without demanding,
This is harmony.
a true story of how i lost my coat and gained a girl.
At the Corner Restaurant, originally uploaded by sparrowsfall.
my girlish little wife.
Bonnie and Pepper, originally uploaded by sparrowsfall.oh, those were the days!
long ago, when we lived on thirty-ninth terrace next to the half-way house for the criminally insane, and up the street from the sunfresh where everyone these days keeps getting shot or stabbed.
how could we leave that all behind?
i. the way, originally uploaded by sparrowsfall.The Way that can be experienced is not true;
The world that can be constructed is not real.
The Way manifests all that happens and may happen;
The world represents all that exists and may exist.
To experience without abstraction is to sense the world;
To experience with abstraction is to know the world.
These two experiences are indistinguishable;
Their construction differs but their effect is the same.
Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way,
Which is ever greater and more subtle than the world.
just one month before sparrow was born.
one of her last shifts before maternity leave.
