My roomate and I boxed today in a homemade ring under the apple tree in the back yard. Then we ate blackberries and plums growing by houses in our neighborhood. Everything made perfect sense.

The biggest lesson I got out of this first attempt was that mad punches are bad punches. You sometimes can get drawn into them after a particularly good smack in the face. It’s an instinctual anger response, but it can be overcome. Mad punches are bad punches because they get you off balance physically and emotionally and leave you open for even greater damage instead of fortifying your defenses and continuing forward strategically. I am really enjoying applying lessons learned in chess to the physical world. Even just one session has helped immensely. Tranquility and clarity are descending upon me in self-organizing waves. There is a science to life and to all existence and its root is so simple:

The brain-body is a continuum for the actualization of intention within the world of action.

The body is like a dog, whose sole joy comes from making its master happy. The body is unable to not follow commands given to it. If it is not functioning according to how you’d like it to be it is because some connection is not being fired in your cause effect linkage system. Typically all such misfirings come about as a result of feeding into the system conflicting sets of commands. Your body uses natural laws and processes to the best of its ability to fulfill the commands you give it. Why are the commands you are giving to it not being followed? Are these desires rooted in the foundation of your being? If they are, they will be fulfilled. The question then becomes not, “How do I get my body to listen to the commands I give it?” but instead reverts to: “How do I unite myself with the root of my being?” This is a much more important and useful question to ponder and experiment with experientially.

You do not breathe with your lungs. The purpose of lungs is to filter air passed through them, aiding the transfer of oxygen into the blood. The purpose of lungs is not breathing. The diaphragm is the mechanism used for breathing. It is a simple machine. The machine works according to the exact same principles as a bellows.

Lie on your back and breathe normally. Feel the cavity of your chest expand and release as you inhale and exhale. Now stop doing that. Using ONLY the muscles of the stomach, push out with your diaphragm. Air will naturally be pulled in through your nose or mouth, passing across the myriad surface area of your lungs, etc. Again using ONLY muscle power, compress your stomach muscles upward and inward towards your diaphram (the bottom bit of your rib cage-ish). This one’s a little easier to see starting out: you should have air get pushed forcefully out of your lungs. Repeat this process for five minutes vigorously. Then for ten minutes. Then 20. You will have to be vigilant to make sure you don’t get back into sloppy lung-”breathing” patterns. Notice your mind calming and becoming still as you fall into the rhythm of this type of breathing. Try to carry it through with you in normal daily life. Use your muscles to breathe. Don’t be lazy. Pump the bellows. That’s what they are there for. This is how you increase the fire within your body.

The bellows feed air to the fire which you can grow and sustain over time. You can tell when the fire is burning poorly because you get a lot of nasty “smoke.” Thoughts are smoke rising from the divine fire powering the core of your body. When your fire is burning bright, you will have few thoughts and they will be clear and warm. When your fire is not burning well, your thoughts will be literally cloudy, or poisonous. Imagine you were burning a certain kind of nasty dried leaf which put off noxious smoke. What kind of fire is burning in your body? What are you feeding it as fuel? What kind of smoke are you exposing yourself to?