As AI becomes autonomous and dominant it is necessary to recover our own autonomy. The decisions we make about what to do, what to share, how to understand our experience, will determine our freedom.
I want to put this practical training discovery into this context because it is urgent that we get it right.
The path to freedom is doing what is wholesome – with our body, words and mind. We eliminate speech, acts and mental states which are unwholesome. We do not automatically know that this is true or how to do it.
At this time people are not learning these things. People live in a distracted and degraded way, distracted by the lure of power and pleasure, degraded by loss of hope, cut off from the conditions – in our surroundings, nourishment and culture – which could restore our lives to us.
We have access to what is good. Let’s use it, and share it.
Here is an important fresh perspective which will help:
Mindfulness of breathing is presented (in Majjhima Nikaya 10, the Satipatthana Sutta, and MN 118, the Anapanasati Sutta) using two initial observations. We are instructed to set up mindfulness in front of us and notice as we inhale and exhale. Next, we notice whether the breath is long or short.
The simile used to teach this second step is a practical, down to earth comparison – comparing the length of a breath to the length of a cut that a wood turner makes in the wood he is carving.
The wood worker is aware of the length of the cut he is making. He knows if it is long or short. Just the same way, we observe and know whether our breath is long or short. The woodworker is focused on the work he is doing. His mind does not wander. Just the same way we remain attentive to what we are doing, with our attention on the length of each breath, as it moves in and out.
The confusion has come from a naïve, literal interpretation of this instruction, without understanding the wood turning reference. When the wood turner is working, he is not making a binary choice – a long cut or a short cut, and that’s it. He moves his blade over the surface of his material as needed, working it little by little, sometimes cutting along its full length, sometimes making a short notch, scroll or bevel, making cuts in whatever length is suitable, sometimes going over a section or touching up with brief strokes. There is infinite variety in the lengths of his cuts, just as there is in the lengths of our breaths.
It is not the intention of the meditation instruction to say that a breath can only be long or short, and that it must be identified as fitting one category or the other. A wood turner would not work in that rigid and artificial way, and we shouldn’t either.
We observe the breath and notice its length. We don’t need to give it an arbitrary label. When we begin, whether sitting, walking, standing or lying down, we may notice that our breathing is somewhat crude. Then as we continue the quality of breathing may smooth out, become deeper and less frequent, or shallower and more frequent, as our body and mind adjust to what we are doing. The practice is that we notice it. We notice it moving in and out. We notice its length as it reaches its turning point and reverses its direction.
This is a natural and effective way to do observation of the breath. It is enjoyable, and it yields presence of mind. It is not rigid or mechanical. It is alive and present.
People’s goals, motives and methods vary. In our approach we are not seeking stress reduction. We are cultivating virtue and freedom. Sometimes, in reflecting on the certainty of death and the unknowable time when we will meet it, we intentionally increase stress. We do this to establish the urgency of sincere, focused training. We use that urgency to energize our training as we proceed toward our goal, just like athletes, professionals, performers or a craftsmen do.
Commitment to practice is the choice we make. We need good instruction and good skills to follow through. Whether AI emerges as a tool, a tomb or in some other unforeseeable way, we can be sure that to experience the freedom to do what is right, we need to practice well.
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Post copyright © 2026 Jeffrey Brooks, MountainKarateNC.com, Yamabayashi Ryu, Mountain Karate Dojo, in the mountains of western NC.
Photo by Maria Baranova via Unsplash
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read True Karate Dō by Jeffrey Brooks
“One of the best books I’ve read in years, inviting and compelling. Jeff Brooks moves effortlessly from martial arts to Buddhism to consciousness studies, self-transformation, and related fields in this wide-ranging and Illuminating study that has much to offer both novice explorers and veteran practitioners. A splendid achievement.”— Philip Zaleski, Editor, The Best Spiritual Writing series