Category Archives: Aiki-Conversations

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What Is Integral Budo?

Are You Practicing In Flatland?

Are You Practicing In Flatland? In a recent dialogue with Zen teacher and Kung Fu Sifu Keith Martin-Smith and Integral consultant and karateka Charles Crutchfield, we explored a question that cuts to the heart of both spiritual AND martial arts practice: Are we training in a way that includes the full depth of our humanity—or are we inadvertently practicing in flatland? Flatland is the collapse of complexity: reducing practice to technique without presence, spirituality without embodiment, or meditation without shadow work. Our conversation opened up the multidimensional nature of Integral Budo as a path beyond that flattening.

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Aikido, Process Work, & Deeper Currents of Conflict

RAW Podcast w/ Gary Reiss & Miles Kessler

What does it mean to meet conflict—not with reactivity or avoidance—but with presence, clarity, and a willingness to go deeper? In a recent episode of the RAW podcast, my colleague Dr. Gary Reiss and I sat down with host Anouk Louri to explore these questions and share our experiences in trauma healing, martial arts, and group facilitation.

Gary shared his insights from his work in Israel and the Palestinian territories, including collaborations with trauma experts on both sides. Drawing from Process-Oriented Psychology, he explores how we can access the wisdom hidden within personal and collective tension—even, and especially, in heartbreaking times.

I shared the perspective of Aikido, a martial art rooted in harmony and non-resistance, and how its philosophy can help us engage conflict with grounded strength rather than force. Recorded during Gary’s recent visit to Tel Aviv, where we co-facilitated “healing the healers” events, this conversation invites you to reflect on what it means to respond—not react—amid profoundly uncertain times.

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Healing The Polarization In The Self & The World

Process Work & Aikido - w/ Dr. Gary Reiss

What does it mean to heal our wounds? What does it mean to resolve conflict with others? How are these questions related, and if that was a process, what would it look and feel like? These are the questions I recently explored with therapist and fellow Aikido practitioner Dr. Gary Reiss.

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LIBERAL ON LIBERAL CANCEL CULTURE – UUUGGGHHH!!!:

The Moral Panic Of Identity Politics

In the past 48 hours, I’ve had a heated “cancel culture” experience in a Facebook post I made. In the 130+ comments that ensued, here’s a taste of what my liberal brothers and sisters have been calling me:

The Name-Calling

I have been called; reactive, dismissive, pedantic, patronizing, tone deaf, too “wise” to learn, a fragile white man, an old white man, a middle-aged white man, a white man, an economically privileged white man, a privileged man, a man, a claimer of victimhood, a reverse victim, an oppressor, an abuser, a name-caller, an intentional misspeller of names, an intentional fomenter of controversy, a user of teachers as pawns, a misuser of grammar, a recruiter of warriors against diversity, a jailer of queers, a jailer of kids, a MAGA-ist, Ron DeSantis, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, a DARVO enactor, a denier, and an attacker (…to be fair, I’m at least a few of these).

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The 7 Principles Of Living & Dying For The Spiritual Warrior

Bushido Code: The Way Of The Samurai

A Spiritual Warrior is a man or woman who organizes their lives around a set of universal principles. They walk a higher path of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual discipline. This means that every step on this path is a step of self-awareness and self-realization. With an unwavering commitment to universal principles, every relative contradiction, incongruence, and conflict in their life then becomes the territory their path leads them through. By committing to these universal principles, the relative parts of themselves are challenged to grow. These challenges become the practice that leads them forward on the path.