We are living through a time of enormous uncertainty, conflict, and moral complexity. In periods like these, spiritual practice is tested. It is easy to become overwhelmed, reactive, emotionally shut down, or polarized. Yet it is precisely during difficult times that practice becomes most essential. Spiritual resilience is not about avoiding hardship — it is about developing the inner strength to remain conscious, grounded, and connected to our humanity in the midst of hardship
For over twenty years, The Integral Dojo in Tel Aviv has offered Aikido, meditation, and conflict resolution to a community of practitioners seeking stability, strength, and inner transformation. The past two and a half years of war have tested us like never before.
It is said, “We don’t see things as they are — we see things as we are.” This points to one of the deepest insights of meditation practice: our experience of reality is shaped by conditioning, identity, trauma, preference, and habits. We are only partially seeing the world — we are also seeing the filters through which we perceive it.
When everything around you is shifting, the Buddha’s final teaching points you back to something unshakable. On his deathbed, the Buddha encouraged all practitioners to follow this injunction: “Be an island unto yourself.”
How can you keep your heart open in the midst of a moral dilemma? In times of conflict, we are often confronted with moral dilemmas that cannot be easily resolved—questions of action and restraint, justice and compassion.
The Inner Path of meditation is thoroughly known. Its development is predictable, which means that it is teachable. And since it’s teachable, it’s learnable.
The 3 Stages of Japanese sword crafting are the same 3 stages of traditional Budo training, of any form of personal development. Namely; 1) shape, 2) sharpen, 3) polish.
When transitioning from one year to the next, it’s good to assess what aspects of your life would you like to leave behind, what would you like to carry forward, and what would you like to awaken in the new year. Most importantly, where are you at this very moment, and how does this facilitate the transition?
On Dec. 20th, I facilitated an end-of-year community meditation with our community. In this session, I spoke about how transitions apply to the Tibetan Buddhist teaching of rebirth consciousness. In this teaching, it is said that what we carry forward into our next rebirth is the totality of our karma and the totality of our wisdom.
Based on this talk, we did a reflection practice on where we’ve been, a mindfulness exercise to ground in the present, and a guided meditation to set intentions for the coming year. You are invited to join this practice by watching the replay below.
