EP 103: Mindfulness and Martial Arts | Miles Kessler

I’m joined by Miles Kessler founder and director of the Integral Dojo and non-profit organization Aikido Without Borders in Israel/Palestine. As an American teacher of Aikido (6th Dan Aikikai), meditation, and Integral Practice, Miles discusses his challenging journey to becoming more mindful and finding his authentic self amidst the different contexts of his original American culture, his learned Japanese culture, and his Burmese adventure in pursuit of the Dharma. He further shares his insights into Integral Theory and Buddhist mindfulness practices and discusses both martial and mindful approaches to working with and resolving conflict.

Together we further discuss:

Miles’s integral perspective on conflict and the possibility of evolution from our hard-wired zero-sum to a positive-sum approach.
How we naturally kick into survival mode in conflict, and how we can fine-tune into our interior states to tune into others with the possibility of realizing “intersubjectivity”.
How chanting Mantras such as this one can help us self-regulate when facing conflict: “I am not passive, I am not aggressive, I am not passive-aggressive. Who am I?”.
The drama triangle, self-regulation, and letting go of the limited self.


For more information on Mile’s offerings, you can reach him at https://theintegraldojo.com/about/