Today's message comes from Miles Kessler Sensei, 5th Dan, who trained with Morihiro Saito Shihan in Iwama for eight years and has been teaching in Tel Aviv since moving to Israel in 2005. HisIntegral Dojo combines training in Aikido and Meditation, and his "Aikido Without Borders" foundation provides joint training opportunities for young Palestinian and Jewish youth within a systematic curriculum that offers concrete and positive replacements for violence, hatred, and aggression. He has also created a popularAikido app for the iPhone/iPad. Here is his message for the day:
"Conflict can only happen when there is separation. All separation begins in the mind, and only then manifests outwardly through boundaries, barriers, and walls. True peace requires people to go beyond these boundaries of separation both in their minds and in the world. Peaceful co-existence can only be attained through connection, never separation.
The truth of 'Oneness' can never be seen from fixed perspectives. Any view which says 'we hold the truth, they are wrong' reflects limitations that perpetuate conflict. It seems that this understanding only opens up when one reaches a global, or world-centric perspective. For it is only a world-centric perspective that has the capacity to stand in another person's shoes.
My claim is that this isn't just another relative perspective, but rather a developmental level that needs to be aspired towards. Walls prevent that development, connection encourages it. We practice connection to evolve ourselves and others. We evolve ourselves and others to realize that we are already connected.
That is what Aikido Without Borders is all about."
Miles Kessler
Aikido Sensei, Dharma Teacher, AWB Director
