Martial Arts

May 09, 2025

Martial Arts Talk—And More...

When you spar, your goal isn’t to win—it’s to learn, grow, and enjoy the exchange. Every movement should be guided by martial intention, but softened by awareness. You reduce speed and force not out of weakness, but out of wisdom—to protect both yourself and your partner.

Sparring is a conversation, not a competition. You move not just against your partner, but with them. To teach through sparring, you must embody your technique with clarity and purpose, but also hold back—adjusting your energy with control, intuition, and your emerging martial knowledge.

The art is in the balance: precision without harm, intensity without ego, and always, the joy of movement shared between two minds in motion.

This is more than just martial arts—this is Self Science in action. Every strike, block, and movement is a study of the self in relationship. Your body expresses what has emerged; your mind interprets it; your focus shapes it. And at the center of it all is your convergence point—your singularity—through which experience flows.

When you spar, you are not just reacting. You are participating in emergence. You are shaping reality through how and where you focus. You are learning not only about your techniques, but about the space between you and another soul—how two beings can engage with purpose, presence, and care.

Martial arts becomes a practice of alignment: of body, mind, and awareness. Every exchange is a reflection of your inner state. And every moment of sparring is a chance to sharpen not just your skill—but your self.

Check out this music video I made to me doing some Bo staff exercises with a 15lbs benchpress bar. (It's obviously sped up)

○

BODY

The Living Boundary

Your body is not one boundary. It’s boundaries all the way down.

○ is body as interface. It’s the place where inside meets outside, where you open and close, where you breathe in air, take in food, receive touch, absorb experience. It is not a wall. It’s a selective membrane—alive, responsive, and always in motion.

Try This

Close your eyes and feel where your body ends and the air begins. Notice how many tiny sensations are being woven into that one felt “edge.”

Explore: Φ Mind • Soul ⊙ The Whole

Φ

MIND

The Field Between

Φ is mind as field—the living medium between center (•) and boundary (○). It’s the whole relational space where signals from the body come in, where awareness from the center flows out, and where the two blend into conscious experience.

Try This

Notice your body breathing by itself. That’s ○. Now notice that you’re noticing. That reflective awareness is flowing from •. Then feel the space in which both are happening. That’s Φ.

Explore: ○ Body • Soul ⊙ The Whole

•

SOUL

The Aware Center

• is soul as center—not a substance lurking somewhere inside you, but the point of view from which everything is seen. It is the structural center of the whole circumpunct.

Bodies change completely over a lifetime. Memories blur, identities shift. And yet, there’s a sense that the one who was there then is the same one who is here now.

Try This

Close your eyes. Notice your breath. Then, gently, turn attention back toward that awareness itself—not the objects in it, but the fact that knowing is happening. That’s •.

Explore: ○ Body Φ Mind ⊙ The Whole

⊙

CIRCUMPUNCT

The Whole You

⊙ is the circumpunct: a circle with a point at the center. The circle is the boundary that holds everything that is “you” as a single system. The point is centeredness—the soul that experiences from within.

Instead of thinking, “I have a body, I have a mind, I have a soul,” you can think, “I am ⊙: a whole being whose body, mind, and soul are three faces of the same process.”

Try This

Feel your body as one shape (○). Notice the space of awareness in which thoughts arise (Φ). Sense the quiet center that’s aware of all of this (•). Then soften your attention to hold all three at once. That’s ⊙.

You are not on your way to being ⊙. You are ⊙, right now.

Explore: ○ Body Φ Mind • Soul