Category Archives: Aikido

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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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ISRAEL/PALESTINE AND THE DEATH OF DIALOGUE

BLOCKED BY A BUDDHA BRO

A Buddha Bro blocked me on “X” over the Israel/Palestine conflict. I had assumed we’d be able to dialogue across the polarization. We’re both Buddhist meditation teachers sharing a common lineage, friends, and mentors. We’ve both built online platforms dedicated to raising consciousness and culture. I’m half Jewish and he’s a quarter Palestinian. And we both grew up in the American South learning how to code-switch in a cultural milieu potholed with antisemitism and islamophobia.

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From Gross To Subtle And Beyond – Miles Kessler’s Perspective

Guest Blog w/ Andrea Merli

This is a guest post from Italian Aikidoka Andrea Merli of Aikido Novum Experience – where he recounts of his experiences at my recent Integral Aikido seminar in Boves, Italy. | Last weekend we participated in a weekend intensive seminar led by Miles Kessler Sensei. Perfectly organized by Aiki no Kokoro of Boves, Italy. This is one of the events we most look forward to every year regarding our personal and technical development. (cont.)

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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).