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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Goth Zen: Cleopatra Eyes—Drawing the Line Before Crossing It
Read time 2 minutes. Goth Zen isn’t costume worship. It’s the same instinct that made the ancients draw a sacred outline around the window of perception. Cleopatra Eyes is a stand alone article in our ongoing Goth Zen series. Goth Zen? Seems silly, right? Maybe.Until you realize that some rituals are as old as the pyramids. You know…
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Big Misunderstandings
“All good” is not the absence of darkness —but the confidence to move through it. Because what passes away is never truly lost. There are magicians and there are those who show up to watch the magic act.Here’s the deal: Everyone who sees through the illusion is a magician. So which one are you? Follow…
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Lenore: Black No. 1—Goth Zen Mind’s Hymn to Awareness
Read time 2 minutes. Lenore: Black No. 1 is a stand alone article in our ongoing Goth Zen series. Type O Negative’s iconic song Black No. 1 idolizes and mocks in the same breath. Steeped in goth culture, lead singer Peter Steele sounds in love.But perhaps, deep down, he knows he can never have her.So he teases and jeers—“She…
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Only LOSERs: Zen Drop 022
Read time 1 minute. Only Losers is a stand alone article in our BeToKnow series. (nothing to defend, nothing to prove, nothing to win) LOSERs Some view life as a game.(He who dies with the most toys… still dies, nonetheless.)And so they’re caught up in all of this winning and losing. But you don’t win at freedom.Freedom is…