Category: Videos
-
Video: Conscious Awareness and the Nature of Illusion
Redefining illusion There are two reoccurring themes referenced in this video. First, you are not your thoughts and emotions. You are the one that witnesses the thoughts and emotions. Second, there is an illusory quality to reality as we experience it. Orgyen Chowang makes a subtle yet profound point regarding illusion which I have often…
-
The Illusion of I and the Burden of Concepts and Ideas
Read time 5 minutes. The attached video opens with a quote from One Dharma by Joseph Goldstein: “Thoughts themselves are the thinker.” The Illusion of I is a stand alone article in our Who Am I series. At first glance, this statement is almost disarming in its simplicity. But if we sit with it, the implications unravel the very core…
-
SacredEffort: The Power of Devotion (When No One’s Watching)
Read time under a minute. Zen practice transforms all effort into SacredEffort. Ever wonder if it matters?If anyone’s watching? Some routines are just ruts.They disappear over time.But some…Some are sacred.You keep doing them even when no one thanks you.Even when nothing changes. Even when you’re questioning your faith. Because you remember what it means.And that…
-
Goth Zen and the Art of Melancholy: Living Disguised as Loss
Read time 2 minutes. The Art of Melancholy is a stand alone article in our ongoing Goth Zen series. We chase light.We idealize positivity as if it is synonymous with living. Meanwhile, every tradition whispers of balance, equality, and the middle way. There’s a feeling that washes in when summer turns to fall—a sense of satisfaction, of being…
-
Be Kind To Karma: Zen Drop 023
Read time 1 minute. Be kind to karma. It’s the only karma you’ll ever need. So karma’s a bitch, huh?Well, that’s one way to greet the universe.Let’s call it… a choice. The Germans have a word—schadenfreude—taking pleasure in someone else’s misfortune. Maybe if English had a word like that,we wouldn’t be so quick to call…
-
Maybe Karma’s Not the Bitch Around Here
Read time 2 minutes. Karma—Is she a goddess, or just a girl named Karma? Either way, the phrase “karma’s a bitch” hardly seems appropriate. Whenever a defendant loses on Judge Judy, they always say the same thing:“It is what it is.”As if everything is completely out of their control. Sure, stuff happened while I was walking my…
-
Beware or Be Aware?—ButterflyInstead
Read time 2 minutes. ButterflyInstead is a stand alone article in our BeToKnow series. The grind.It’s how we make progress, right?It’s how we “get ahead.” Like a caterpillar inching. The grind repeats you.But its absence scares you. ButterflyInstead Like a moth to the flame Light promises the way,and we chase it—calling it clarity.An irresistible attraction. But artificial…
-
Strawberry Fields Forever is Not-Not Zen
Read time 3 minutes. Find out what makes “Strawberry Fields Forever” so strange and emotionally familiar and discover “nothing to get hung about” as a mantra. This is a stand alone article in our BeToKnow series. John Lennon’s Strawberry Fields Forever: “That is—you can’t, you know, tune in—but it’s alright.That is, I think it’s not too bad.” How…
-
Silence is the Loud Unamplified: Zen Drop 25
Read time under a minute. What does it mean to hear?What does it mean to be quiet? There is no empty.No nothing.Not really. So what does it mean to be silent?Noise rises and loops.It fights and feeds on itself. Feeds the senses.But what isn’t loud can’t be heard.Not even softly—just steady.Unrelenting. You only recognize itwhen you…