On the Road to the Dojo
When you ride up to the dojo you can see this view. The road is winding and narrow. There are cliffs on both sides.
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Crossing the Ocean
Long ago people looked to the North Star to find their way. The North Star was a navigation tool, not the destination.
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The Length of a Breath
As AI becomes autonomous and dominant it is necessary to recover our own autonomy. Use this critical mind training insight.
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Training vs. Artificial Intelligence
For us there is no other way. There is no other way for the titans and tyrants either. The difference is that we are free to do it.
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Survive and Prevail
To survive through cultural collapse and the dominance of machines, we need to protect and defend our humanity…
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The End of the Asavas
We function as integrated open systems, connected to the world through experience and action. The boundaries are fields. Nothing about us is fenced off, walled in, or separate.
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Two Strands of Tradition
The skill that comes from the reciprocation of these methods is greater than what you would get from doing them separately. It is not enough to do them both. We need to connect them in a meaningful way.
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2026 Mid-Winter Mountain Outdoor Training
Special emphasis on the strike-pull-strike sequences – introduced in Pinan Nidan and emphasized in Rohai.
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真剣勝負 – Combat with Real Swords
It might be the sound of a pebble, launched by a broom while sweeping the Zendo courtyard, resonating against a tile. The shock may be a pair of strikes to the head, painful, stunning, with no recovery time between. The morning star shining red and gold at the horizon might do the trick, if your mind is right, right then.
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Bare Attention in Kata
if our attention is deflected in the heat of combat, we become vulnerable to attack and miss opportunities to respond. The same is true in every moment of life, in every action, reflection, and plan. So we stay sharp, using well-cultivated bare awareness…
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Buddha’s Advice to Invaders
When King Ajatasatru of Magadha was planning his invasion of the neighboring kingdom, he ran the idea by the Buddha, to see what he had to say…
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昔々 The Gate of Life and Death
…That may seem a strange observation, but it is good news. It means we can train our minds and open our eyes…
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Trigger Warning
Some have misunderstood why we do mind training. It is not to mellow out. It is not to graft a foreign spiritual dimension onto martial arts.
