Wabi Sabi by Shihan Tang

Amid willowy mists I stand,
Waters beckon to fallen leaves,
Shadows dance on the lake.

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Wabi Sabi is the distinctly Japanese aesthetic ideal inspired by the inherent impermanence, imperfection and incompletenesss of life.

Golden brown leaves, falling to the autumn ground – that is Wabi Sabi.

Cherry blossoms floating in the winter breeze, descending to the winter snow, that too, is wabi sabi.

A ceramic bowl, cracked in certain places but still retaining its essential nature, that, too, is wabi sabi.

The imperfect human who lives from a simple heart and a beautiful soul, that is wabi sabi.

Holding hands with your beloved, watching the setting sun, listening to the evening crickets call, that, too, is wabi sabi.

Looking into the eyes of a newborn baby, knowing that a human soul lives within, inspiring reverence in you, that is wabi sabi

Fact is, everyone knows wabi sabi in his/her soul. It’s just we never had a word for it.

The motto for wabi sabi might well be “Leaves Fall”

Richard Powell may be right in calling it “rustic charm”.

All these – and more – are Wabi Sabi. All we need to do, as Richard Powell said in “Wabi Sabi Simple”, is to Create Beauty, Value Imperfection, Live deeply

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Resource: Richard Powell’s site: http://www.stillinthestream.com/files/index.htm

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