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

I recently held a meditation gathering, where we explored two complementary qualities of Spiritual Resiliency: Withstanding Power and the Repelling Power.

Withstanding Power is the capacity to remain present with discomfort, ambiguity, grief, fear, and uncertainty without immediately collapsing or reacting unconsciously. It is the skill to stay open to whatever challenge may arise in your experience. But resilience also requires healthy boundaries.

Repelling Power is about asserting healthy boundaries. It is the skill to boundary up in order to protect what is sacred within you. Ethical guidelines such as non-harming, mindfulness, and compassion serve as stabilizing forces that protect both ourselves and others from unnecessary suffering.

Spiritual maturity involves learning the wisdom of when to open up to and withstand experience, and when to protect yourself and repel experience. It is knowing when to soften and when to establish clear boundaries.

The ongoing dance between these two skills becomes part of our evolution and growth. Through practice, we cultivate the clarity needed to navigate the moral dilemmas of life with greater awareness, steadiness, and heart. In doing so, resilience ceases to be merely psychological — it becomes deeply spiritual.

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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.

Yet, even under daily sirens from rocket fire, drone threats, and ballistic missile strikes close by the dojo, we stayed open as a sanctuary of emotional and spiritual stability for our community. There were many evenings when we trained under the echo of rocket fire. Often, the sirens sent us running to the shelter mid-class, standing shoulder to shoulder, listening to explosions overhead. And every time the “all clear” sounded, we chose to come back upstairs, bow in, and continue our practice of Aikido.

But while our spirit has stayed strong, our financial foundation has not. The war’s toll has been severe on our dojo. Over the past 2 and a half years, we have lost significant revenue due to membership decline and the cancellation of international seminars and camps. Today, we’ve fallen behind on rent and operating expenses — and without support, the dojo is at risk of closing.

If this dojo and its community have ever touched your life — or if you see meditation and Aikido as an answer to the growing wars and conflicts in the world, then I’m asking from the heart: Please help us stay open.

If you can donate — whatever the amount — your support will make a real difference in a place that needs it very much. You can go to our GoFundMe page here:

Thank you for helping us keep the dojo open and our mission alive.

Miles Kessler Shihan, 6th dan Aikikai
Dojo-Cho – The Integral Dojo, Tel Aviv Director
Aikido Without Borders, Israel/ Palestine
BOD – Israel Aikikai

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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.

In Buddhist psychology, experience unfolds incredibly quickly. A sound, sensation, or thought arises. Almost instantly, the mind labels it as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. From there comes grasping, aversion, or ignoring — and then the sense of “me” forms around the experience.

Meditation helps us slow this process down enough to observe it directly.

We begin to discover the difference between filtered experience and bare experience. A sound is simply heard. A sensation is simply felt. A thought is simply known.

As mindfulness deepens, the mind naturally begins to release its grip. We often think letting go is something we force ourselves to do, but genuine letting go begins through clear seeing itself.

In the talk, I used the metaphor of floating down a river. When we grasp for control, we feel the pressure of the current pushing against us. But when we release our grip and return to the flow, the resistance softens.

Through mindfulness, we gradually return to direct contact with reality as it is. And in that direct seeing, the mind becomes free.

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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.”

In a time of uncertainty and change, this teaching invites you to discover an inner ground that is not dependent on external conditions. It is not a call to isolation, but to clarity—to rooting your practice in direct experience, awareness, and wisdom, even as the world around you shifts.

In cultivating this kind of inner refuge, three qualities naturally begin to develop:

1. First, non-attachment—the ability to meet experience without clinging or aversion.
2. Second, self-regulation—a steadiness of mind that allows you to respond rather than react.
3. And third, creative problem solving—the freedom to meet life with flexibility and insight.

I hope you’ll take some time to watch the recording and apply the Buddha’s injunction to your practice.

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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.

Meditation practice does not ask us to escape these tensions, but to hold them open. To remain present with the complexity. To resist the urge for premature certainty. In this way, practice becomes less about finding answers and more about developing the capacity to stay awake amid what is unresolved.

I explored these questions in a recent community meditation on “War Is A Koan”, and I’m sharing an excerpt below. As Rainer Maria Rilke reminds us: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.” 

You can watch the full video here (14 min.):

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As mindfulness meditation deepens, insight does not unfold in a straight, ascending line. For many practitioners, the path includes periods of fear, grief, disorientation, or loss of meaning—experiences traditionally referred to as the Dark Night of the Soul. The experience of the “Dark Night” can feel like everything is falling apart. But in Vipassanā meditation, these experiences are not signs of failure, but natural stages of insight known as the dukkha ñāṇas. In other words, these experiences are the very arising of wisdom.

After early clarity and even peak experiences, mindfulness begins to penetrate the three universal characteristics: impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and non-self (anattā). When these are no longer conceptual but directly seen, the mind can no longer rely on its habitual strategies of grasping and control. This shift initiates a descent into the dukkha ñāṇas—a wisdom process that can be challenging, yet is profoundly liberating.

To make these stages more accessible, I teach them using a simple shorthand: The Four R’s.

The Four R’s: A Shorthand for the Dark Night Stages

To make the understanding of these stages more accessible, I teach them using a simple shorthand I call The Four R’s:

1. Recoiling → 2. Resistance → 3. Resignation → 4. Renewal

This framework mirrors the classical insight stages while giving practitioners language that matches their felt experience—in both meditation and daily life. The Four R’s describe the descent phase of insight: what happens as the mind confronts reality more honestly than ever before.

1. Recoiling (Insight Into Fear)

As impermanence is seen everywhere, the mind instinctively pulls back. There can be fear, unease, or a sense of groundlessness. The function of this stage is to confront the mind with the truth that there is nothing stable to grasp.

2. Resistance (Insight Into Misery)

The recoiling softens, but the mind now resists what it sees. Sadness, grief, or a sense of oppression may arise. The function of this stage is to weaken the reflexive habit of grasping and clinging.

3. Resignation (Insight Into Dispassion)

The fight drops away. Things lose their appeal. Even practice can feel flat or meaningless. The function of this stage is to fully exhaust the habitual holding on—to anything at all.

4. Renewal (Insight Into A Wish for Liberation)

Out of exhaustion and clarity, a new orientation emerges. Not driven by ego or ambition, but by a quiet, deep longing for freedom. The function of this stage is to prepare the mind for equanimity and genuine liberation.

Each stage has a precise function. Fear exposes grasping. Misery weakens resistance. Dispassion exhausts attachment. Renewal gathers the mind toward freedom—not through force, but through clarity.

Walking the Path

The Dark Night is not a detour; it is the path working as it should. The instruction is simple, though not easy: continue practicing mindfulness gently and precisely. What brings you into these stages is what carries you through them.

If you are navigating the Dark Night and would like orientation or support, I invite you to book an exploration session with me. Together, we can clarify where you are on the path and how to move forward with wisdom, confidence, and care. Click below!

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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.

We dove into the 3 S’s of Integral Practice—States, Stages, and Shadow—and examined how each dimension shapes the way we show up in conflict, leadership, and relationships. Together we looked at how connection is the real through-line: how martial practices deepen intimacy, how sitting practice expands presence, and how fierce authenticity can turn even conflict into a space of resolution. Rather than avoiding the hard edges of life, Integral Budo trains us to lean in with clarity, compassion, and skill.

This discussion ultimately points toward a path of multidimensional integration—one where our physical training, emotional maturity, contemplative insight, and interpersonal skill all come online together. If you’ve ever felt that your practice was missing something, too narrow, too cerebral, or too isolated from real-world challenges, this conversation is an invitation to expand. To leave Flatland behind. To step into the full terrain of practice.

I hope you enjoy the discussion as much as I did. Leave your comments and questions below!

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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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In Zen Buddhism, the practice of “Koan Study” is meant to give the practitioner a transpersonal experience by exhausting the mind with an unanswerable riddle. But what happens when you insert koan practice into our experience of conflict?

In this short video of “The Aikido Koan”, I lead you through a simple (but not necessarily easy) spiritual practice for working with conflict from the “way of the spiritual warrior”.

There are 3 three typical “egoic” trigger reactions in conflict: aggressiveness, passiveness, or passive-aggressiveness. All three perpetuate conflict rather than resolve it.

The “Aikido Koan” is a self-inquiry practice done while staying present with the stress of conflict, which initiates a process of healing. Engaging with conflict in this mindful, ego-free way opens a path to transformation.

Leave your thoughts, comments, and questions below!

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