My Life of Crime as a Shaolin Priest III
Book by: Daphne Sylk
Reads: 4629 | Likes: 0 | Shelves: 0 | Comments: 0
We met in person at twelve, her parents moved to the condo above ours in Greenwich Village. Janah’s dad, James Svensson, is a diagnostic psychiatrist, her mom, Kara, an artist. I have two moms, Susan Sylk, my bio mom, and Chris Fischer, my mom's partner. Janah and I became everyone’s daughter, so we share three moms and a dad.
Janah is a bit of a freak. She has natural snow white hair, and she’s an eidetiker, what people call a photographic memory.
I’m another kind of freak. I have unusually quick reflexes, and heightened senses. I can smell sickness like a dog, hear a whisper in another room, see like a telescope or a microscope, which pays off considering my fascination with martial arts.
Table of Contents
One
In the fifth full year at the temple, approaching the sixth, I’m still in the kitchen every day. Master Sung
calls me, ‘undisputed ... Read Chapter
Two
Most people are limited by their own lack of persistence, because they are lazy, or too easily satisfied, and
also because they are afr... Read Chapter
Three
You Can’t Go Home Again is a novel by Thomas Wolfe.
Obviously, he never knew the moms or the title would have been, You Better Go Hom... Read Chapter
Four
'I couldn’t find the way.'
He says, 'You don’t need to find a way now.'
He speaks the truth. The way, or whatever it might be,&nb... Read Chapter
Five
We dress in street clothes, not robes. We discussed what to do, clothes-wise. Shaolin in America have largely
adopted western dress, to... Read Chapter
Six
Our inward power, when it obeys nature, reacts to events by accommodating itself to what it faces- to what is
possible.
It nee... Read Chapter
Seven
In the present moment, when your mind remains in its own condition without constructing anything,
Awareness at that moment is its... Read Chapter
Eight
Our second target runs a pool hall edging the ghetto on south side Chicago. A dozen tables, a bar, filled all
afternoon and night with ... Read Chapter
Nine
Chaos breeds life, order breeds habit.
Henry Adams
We lounge like lizards for most of the next day, then go to the dojang ea... Read Chapter
Ten
Sonja: Judgment of any system, or a priori relationship or phenomenon exists in an irrational, or metaphysical,
or at least epistemolog... Read Chapter
Eleven
If one is truly to succeed in leading a person to a specific place, one must first and foremost take care to
find him where he is and b... Read Chapter
Twelve
One has to be indifferent-to health, to loneliness, to what people say or do not say, indifferent to success or
no success, indifferent... Read Chapter
Thirteen
When the student is ready, the master appears, and vice versa.
Tuesday afternoon, we visit Chapmans. School is out, although a fair n... Read Chapter
Fourteen
If the chemistry is there, go with it.
Janah Svensson
We are at Chapmans, I’m teaching today, going to practice forms and hang ou... Read Chapter
Fifteen
An ant goes round and round without rest
Like all beings in the six realms of existence, Born here and dying there without release, Now... Read Chapter
Sixteen
Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.
Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shir... Read Chapter
Seventeen
One should absorb the color of life, but one should never remember its details.
Details are always vulgar.
Oscar Wilde
Today, itâ... Read Chapter
Eighteen
If you don’t like who you are, then quit being that person.
'My mother was inattentive, or over attentive, my father was gone, I’m ... Read Chapter
Nineteen
How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?
It’s summer, we have more time during the day. Janah is on a progressive workout schedule, light t... Read Chapter
Twenty
Life is what comes along, get on with it.
Daphne Sylk
'Janah, Nikko’s left Paladin, I want her to hang with us, what do yo... Read Chapter
Twenty One
You are allowed to think that adult life consists of a constant exercise of personal will but it wasn’t really
like that Jean thought... Read Chapter
Twenty Two
A lone hawk
a second
a third
riding air
for play
or prey
Nishiko Murakami
Janah comes in from the shower, Nikko an... Read Chapter
Twenty Three
…the individuals tell their stories to themselves, to each his own, they are the ones who peer in and look at
and notice things on a ... Read Chapter
Twenty Four
To be that which you are is the bath of rebirth. In the depths, living is not an unconditional persistence but
an endlessly slow growth... Read Chapter
Twenty Five
In the end,
it’s the animal,
always the animal.
Daphne Sylk
Janah did her magic, my limp is gone. The swelling on Nikko’s e... Read Chapter
Twenty Six
'I love great food. That’s why I don’t cook.'
Susan Sylk
Susan, 'I’m glad Nikko called, I would have pouted if my new ... Read Chapter
Twenty Seven
You can see a lot just by looking.
Yogi Berra
A doubly massaged Janah is liquid as clear spring water. She’s bubbling in t... Read Chapter
Twenty Eight
I make a good girl bad and bad girls worse
Hinder, All American Nightmare
By the afternoon we’re in a standard rental, and... Read Chapter
Twenty Nine
It takes a lot of intellect and confidence to accept that what makes sense doesn’t really make sense.
Nassim Taleb, The Bed of Procru... Read Chapter
Thirty
Like Indian underwear,
I'm creepin’ up on you
Daphne Sylk
We are parked behind an abandoned house, a short block from th... Read Chapter
Thirty One
My idea of camping out is slow room service
Nikko Murakami
It’s time to scope out the house. We take the van to a trail he... Read Chapter
Thirty Two
We have time, the others won’t be back for a few hours. We search around for keys to the van, find them hanging
on a board by the bac... Read Chapter
Thirty Three
When push comes to shove, shove hardest.
Chris Fischer, C-mom
We mill around in the bathroom, wash up and pile into bed. Jan... Read Chapter
Thirty Four
There is no adequate way of describing the beauty of such an object. One can only look at it in wonder.
Daphne Sylk
Mr. Mura... Read Chapter
Thirty Five
Philosophy: A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.
Ambrose Bierce
'Precious angel, you come to see old lady?... Read Chapter
Thirty Six
Ch’an is really the method of no method.
There is no bridge provided, because there is no river. If you let go of your attaching mind... Read Chapter
Thirty Seven
If you can describe it, it isn’t God
Janah Svensson
We are watching the Sunday morning news programs, cold in New York, we... Read Chapter
Thirty Eight
No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.
Lily Tomlin
Later that night, back at the apartment, I’m prepa... Read Chapter
Thirty Nine
The Messiah will come only when he is no longer necessary; he will come only on the day after his arrival; he will come not on the last d... Read Chapter
Forty
It takes extraordinary wisdom and self control to accept that many things have a logic we do not understand
that is smarter than our... Read Chapter
Forty One
Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent.
Various attributions
Janah is in the dojang with Nikko and me whe... Read Chapter
Forty Two
Technology is a tool.
You can build a house with a hammer, or you can destroy one.
There will be unintended consequences either way.
... Read Chapter
Forty Three
More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads.
One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness.
The other, to tota... Read Chapter
Forty Four
The world is gorged with people who think that people with a different ethnicity, culture or religion are
nothing more than ATM’s to ... Read Chapter
Forty Five
There is no simplistic ‘why’ to anything we do.
Neurons connect, fire across synapses, we do things.
Janah Svensson
As... Read Chapter
Forty Six
A bad attitude gets you in trouble.
Nikko has no attitude, she is trouble.
Daphne Sylk
We are walking into the wonderful w... Read Chapter
Forty Seven
Much talk, much worry
And you’re less than ever able to face things
Be done with talk, be done with worry
And there’s no place ... Read Chapter
Forty Eight
I didn't leave my heart in San Francisco….
it was someone else’s heart.
Nikko Murakami
The phone rings, Janah gets it,... Read Chapter
Forty Nine
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in
spirit. Ecclesiastes 7:8... Read Chapter
Fifty
Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are, and
for what, whence, and whe... Read Chapter
Fifty One
How would you like your toast…black, or ashes?
Susan Sylk
Now it’s later, our pack heads to the condo for Sis’ eclecti... Read Chapter
Fifty Two
My idea of suburbs is Queens
Daphne Sylk
I’m driving, 'Man, I hope I never have to get used to this.'
Nikko, 'What?'
'... Read Chapter
Fifty Three
An intercom, 'What is it?'
Janah starts talking, not vocalizing, just moving her lips. She’s hoping to make him open the door by assu... Read Chapter
Fifty Four
George Costanza: Kramer goes to a fantasy camp?
His whole life is a fantasy camp.
People should plunk down $2000 to live like him for... Read Chapter
Fifty Five
Pain in training is nature’s way of telling you you’re making progress.
Suffering over it is voluntary.
Daphne Sylk
It... Read Chapter
Fifty Six
You can be an agreeable landlord, just don’t be a schmuck.
Mrs. Epstein, advising Nishiko
Mrs. Fong has been long consider... Read Chapter
Fifty Seven
If you go to thinking, take your heart with you.
If you go to love, take your head with you.
Love is empty without thinking, thinking... Read Chapter
Fifty Eight
It’s Buddhist. The process tedious, the outcome glorious.
Mrs. Fong.
Chan accompanies Janah and me on a short refocusing i... Read Chapter
Fifty Nine
I don’t want to get married, I don’t see the point. But I loved going to Chan and Ning’s wedding.
Particularly the bit about dres... Read Chapter
Sixty
One day I’m celebrating birth, the next I’m contemplating death. Good thing I’m organized. Even better that I
ignore dissonance.
... Read Chapter
Sixty One
Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul an... Read Chapter
Sixty Two
Mrs. Big Nose: Oh, it's blessed are the MEEK! Oh, I'm glad they're getting something, they have a hell of a
time.
Reg: What Jesus fai... Read Chapter
Facebook Comments
More Literary Fiction Books
Book /
Literary Fiction
Book /
Literary Fiction
Book /
Literary Fiction
Book /
Literary Fiction
Discover New Books
Boosted Content from Other Authors
Poem / Poetry
Poem / Poetry
Book / Romance
Boosted Content from Premium Members
Book / Science Fiction
Book / Mystery and Crime
Book / Humor
Short Story / Other
Other Content by Daphne Sylk
Book / Literary Fiction
Book / Literary Fiction
Book / Literary Fiction
