transitional objects

origins of the family christmas foto

2011-01-02T12:59:00.003-05:00

sometimes it is like this

2010-04-28T16:08:00.000-04:00

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and then we were all in time, and then we changed.

on friday nights we eat flowers and pizza

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2010-03-06T15:40:00.013-05:00

Perching high up on her toes, she looked into the window. "What do you see?" the little boy asked. "I see a large forest sitting on the back of a giant turtle, and it has just begun to rain." The little boy could not see in at all.

2010-03-01T09:35:00.003-05:00

It is good to get out and take pictures of things besides cuddly infants. Right now Lanie is dressing the baby and I am thinking about thinking about getting up and going food shopping at the coop: short walk to the q, one stop, short walk to the coop. Most commonly featured item on today's menu - wheat free, dairy free products. Wheat free, dairy free products = less fussy infant child!

2010-02-26T07:28:00.000-05:00

man, we are snowed in.

It IS a boy!

2010-02-21T13:48:00.001-05:00

We have a son. He is a delight. He squirms and cries and widens his eyes and wriggles his hips and he appears to see more and more each day. Today is his third week anniversary and we celebrated by going on an hour long walk through the streets of our Ft. Greene. He is most definitely our little pride and joy.

nos levantamos, compadre

2009-11-02T13:09:00.002-05:00

descanso

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you can get with this, or you can get with that

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the snow is getting all melty

2009-02-11T20:37:00.003-05:00

and this makes me sad. i'm always so anxious for the arrival of spring, and even though there is still a bit of time left, it sort of feels like the beginning of the end. i took this picture in january, when it was so cold i worried about the camera freezing in the night.

2009-01-17T11:06:00.000-05:00

Giving the camera a break, these days.

Our Afternoon Leaper

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We're Getting Married.

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And I am happy.

All is boisterous on New Years Eve Day

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i took this picture just before the fall was swept away

2008-12-02T12:36:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving

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it's saturday morning, and the winter is faithfully coming on.

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So last night Lanie was like, "Let's flip the channel and see how the Silver Fox is doing." And I'm like, "Sure thing babe." Next thing you know we're

2008-11-05T15:44:00.003-05:00

at CNN and this is what we're looking at:

I have to say, last night there were plenty of reasons to be proud to be an American, but none more compelling than this.

last of the quaint light house pictures. (i swear it!)

2008-11-04T18:09:00.001-05:00

2008-11-03T10:56:00.001-05:00

We left Brooklyn one month and one day ago. It feels like it's been years.

enacting the dread of the day

2008-10-31T16:07:00.003-04:00

this is my photo of a horror-bespectacled lighthouse here in northern michigan. enjoy it ...... if you dare.

In preparation, for the terror-laced, over-exposed Halloween time fun.

2008-10-30T19:42:00.002-04:00

the myth of specialness

2008-10-28T16:16:00.008-04:00

this is a picture of the local beach here in Charlevoix. it never looks the same as the colors seem to depend on what the wind is doing. the wind is usually doing something, that much is for sure. it's getting ominously cold - the kind of cold that makes you feel bewildered about what kind of person you want to be in the world, or a sparsely populated town. the other day i walked into the post office at three p.m. and there wasn't a single other customer in the entire building. the other day i ordered spaghetti with marinara sauce and i got egg noodles with ketchup.

rrrraaaarrrrrrrh

2008-10-26T19:52:00.002-04:00

no more nature channel!

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on these days we visit the dunes

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this is not prospect park anymore

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2008-10-16T12:05:00.000-04:00

Highlights from Applefest!: 2008

2008-10-16T11:16:00.004-04:00

Vegetables, Burritos and Floating Heads

2008-10-14T10:22:00.000-04:00

i took these adorable pictures of ingrid

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just before she went mad and tried to murder us all

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2008-10-07T13:53:00.001-04:00

second morning

2008-10-06T13:13:00.002-04:00

new home pictures

2008-10-05T16:03:00.002-04:00

after stopping in on canada and niagra falls, we arrived to charlevoix on thursday. it is quiet here.

2008-10-05T15:23:00.002-04:00

2008-09-30T08:55:00.000-04:00

"I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing.” -Anais Nin

Just Joking Sillies

2008-09-29T09:21:00.001-04:00

Of course Ingrid is coming with us.

2008-09-27T11:00:00.001-04:00

2008-09-25T21:39:00.000-04:00

This is what I look like when I'm yawning. I've never thought to wonder what I looked like while yawning up until this very evening. It seems that when I yawn I have an upside down u parading across my brow. It seems that when I yawn there is a little man jumping rope inside my head.

guard dog-a-rama

2008-09-25T10:53:00.001-04:00

We are moving to Michigan in six days. We have put a lot of things in storage, and will be leaving Ingrid behind to protect our goods. We will miss her, but she must go where her services are needed most.

Don't Ask Me - What You Know Is True

2008-09-22T22:56:00.000-04:00

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Allie's Curtains

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at the beach

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Las Palmas, West Hollywood, Rojo

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hhs

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grauman's theatre and crane and sky and morning

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on these days that we fly to l.a.

2008-09-02T23:52:00.000-04:00

way high in the british pink sky through the clouds and around the mountains into the desert we landed. in the los angeles town the weather was perfect and there was little sleep amidst the palm trees and arc lights and dinners in the hills. our friends are wonders, and i am blessed.

2008-08-26T17:13:00.000-04:00

In the Afternoons We Are Sleepy and Ferocious

2008-08-21T14:38:00.000-04:00

Scenes From A Mall, Revisited

2008-08-19T17:24:00.000-04:00

youthier!

2008-08-19T17:05:00.000-04:00

This is me on top of South Sister mountain in Oregon back in the summer of 1996. I added the rocks - which make me think of two of my favorite people in the world, Lanie and Jonathan R. - for dramatic effect. I was such a little thing back then! Look at me, all tired and happy from the long hike up. Come to think of it, as I sit here internetting the afternoon away (computers did not exist in 1996), I'm feeling a little tired and happy right now too. The passage of time is just so cute!

(photo courtesy of Sarah C: a good friend from way before)

Scenes From A Mall

2008-08-17T17:16:00.000-04:00

(photo courtesy of the Circuit City guy)

Today I went to the local mall to pick up a new USB cable (35 bucks!). It's the near-to-downtown Brooklyn shopping plaza that has been meeting my needs in good order for the last three years. There are lots of creative murals of people doing neighborhoody things painted on the walls:

A lady taking her baby for a spin in the stroller

A tennis player

Fun and Mirrors

2008-08-17T13:25:00.001-04:00

i lost the cord to my camera in the flipping park so i haven't been taking pictures. i may not have been taking pictures anyway, as of late, i have not felt like taking pictures. i'm not sure why that is. new york is still here, but this morning i spent my time packing up boxes and throwing away half-eaten chiclet packages. we're leaving for michigan very soon.

2008-07-20T18:50:00.000-04:00

2008-07-16T01:31:00.000-04:00

in the end, we went to florida ...

2008-07-13T01:26:00.000-04:00

we found this park in old san juan and i decided to want to live in it, and sleep in it, and eat rice and beans and pizza in it, all the time.
(photo courtesy of cake power flower hour)

2008-07-09T09:28:00.000-04:00

We missed La Familia Railey every step of the way ...

2008-07-05T10:15:00.000-04:00

here on the porch we relaxed and read books with words in them. sometimes in the hammock i tried to sleep, but palm fronds scraping a tin roof always woke me up. there was nothing to do. (thanks to lanie for another great photo).

how the haircut was

2008-07-04T09:45:00.000-04:00

2008-07-02T21:54:00.000-04:00

while i got my hair cut lanie took this picture of a casa viequense on her walk. she came in to the barbershop where we were talking about connecting vieques to the mainland with a bridge. "the old people are against it," said the barbero, "me, i want a bridge."

2008-07-01T10:09:00.000-04:00

at the finca caribe in vieques these books were drying in the sun. lanie took this picture and then we went to the wave beach.

if you are looking for me, this is where i will be

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Bardo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This is an article on a Buddhist concept. For other meanings of the word Bardo, see: Bardo (disambiguation)
Bardo
Wylie: bar do
intermediate state
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Buddhism

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The Tibetan word Bardo means literally "intermediate state" - also translated as "transitional state" or "in-between state" or "liminal state". In Sanskrit the concept has the name antarabhāva.
Fremantle (2001) states that there are six traditional bardo states known as the Six Bardos: the Bardo of This Life (p.55); the Bardo of Meditation (p.58); the Bardo of Dream (p.62); the Bardo of Dying (p.64); the Bardo of Dharmata (p.65); and the Bardo of Existence (p.66).
Shugchang, et. al. (2000: p.5) discuss the Zhitro (Tibetan: Zhi-khro) teachings which subsume the Bardo Thodol and mention Karma Lingpa, terma and Padmasambhava and list the Six Bardo:
In the terma discovered by Karma Lingpa, Guru Padmasambhava introduces six different bardos. The first bardo begins when we take birth and endures as long as we live. The second is the bardo of dreams. The third is the bardo of concentration or meditation. The fourth occurs at the moment of death. The fifth is known as the bardo of the luminosity of the true nature. The sixth is called the bardo of transmigration or karmic becoming.[1]
Contents
[hide]
1 Six Bardos
2 Exegesis
3 See also
4 Notes
5 Further reading
[edit]Six Bardos
Shinay bardo (Tibetan): is the first bardo of birth and life. This bardo commences from conception until the last breath, when the mindstream withdraws from the body.
Milam bardo (Tibetan): is the second bardo of the dream state. The Milam Bardo is a subset of the first Bardo. Dream Yoga develops practices to integrate the dream state into Buddhist sadhana.
Samten bardo (Tibetan) is the third bardo of meditation. This bardo is generally only experienced by meditators, though individuals may have spontaneous experience of it. Samten Bardo is a subset of the Shinay Bardo.
Chikkhai bardo (Tibetan): is the fourth bardo of the moment of death. According to tradition, this bardo is held to commence when the outer and inner signs presage that the onset of death is nigh, and continues through the dissolution or transmutation of the Mahabhuta until the external and internal breath has completed.
Chönyid bardo (Tibetan): is the fifth bardo of the luminosity of the true nature which commences after the final 'inner breath' (Sanskrit: prana, vayu; Tibetan: rlung). It is within this Bardo that visions and auditory phenomena occur. In the Dzogchen teachings, these are known as the spontaneously manifesting Thödgal (Tibetan: thod-rgyal) visions. Concomitant to these visions, there is a welling of profound peace and pristine awareness. Sentient beings who have not practiced during their lived experience and/or who do not recognize the clear light (Tibetan: od gsal) at the moment of death are usually deluded throughout the fifth bardo of luminosity.
Sidpai bardo (Tibetan): is the sixth bardo of becoming or transmigration. This bardo endures until the inner-breath commences in the new transmigrating form determined by the 'karmic seeds' within the storehouse consciousness.
[edit]Exegesis

Fremantle (2001: p.53-54) charts the development of the bardo concept through the Himalayan tradition:
Originally bardo referred only to the period between one life and the next, and this is still its normal meaning when it is mentioned without any qualification. There was considerable dispute over this theory during the early centuries of Buddhism, with one side arguing that rebirth (or conception) follows immediately after death, and the other saying that there must be an interval between the two. With the rise of mahayana, belief in a transitional period prevailed. Later Buddhism expanded the whole concept to distinguish six or more similar states, covering the whole cycle of life, death, and rebirth. But it can also be interpreted as any transitional experience, any state that lies between two other states. Its original meaning, the experience of being between death and rebirth, is the prototype of the bardo experience, while the six traditional bardos show how the essential qualities of that experience are also present in other transitional periods. By refining even further the understanding of the essence of bardo, it can then be applied to every moment of existence. The present moment, the now, is a continual bardo, always suspended between the past and the future.
Used somewhat loosely, the term "bardo" may refer to the state of existence intermediate between two lives on earth. According to Tibetan tradition, after death and before one's next birth, when one's consciousness is not connected with a physical body, one experiences a variety of phenomena. These usually follow a particular sequence of degeneration from, just after death, the clearest experiences of reality of which one is spiritually capable, to, later on, terrifying hallucinations arising from the impulses of one's previous unskillful actions. For the spiritually advanced the bardo offers a state of great opportunity for liberation, since transcendental insight may arise with the direct experience of reality, while for others it can become a place of danger as the karmically created hallucinations can impel one into a less than desirable rebirth.
In the West, the term bardo may also refer to times when our usual way of life becomes suspended, as, for example, when we are on retreat. Such times can prove fruitful for spiritual progress, as external constraints diminish, although they offer challenges because our unskillful impulses can come to the fore, just as in the sidpa bardo.

2008-05-06T17:55:00.000-04:00

enter pineapple

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enter pineapple

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