Kenjuudo
Most folk believe that Zen is an Eastern concept, but that's not true. Zen is universal, and just about every culture has it in one form or another. Zen is the infinite nothing between thought and action, that feeling of complete, relaxed concentration where time seems to slow and and everything becomes crystal clear. Zen is about being wholly in the present, apart from the past or future.
It is that one perfect moment when you know you'll make the shot.
Why pistol shooting?
Handgun shooting is not a high profile sport in Australia. Most folks associate guns with farmers, police and criminals, and fail to acknowledge pistoleering as a legitimate form of recreation and competition, let alone a meditative pursuit. Their ignorance manifests largely in fear-based humour. Even some colleagues and friends mock the fact that I am a responsible handgun owner and operator.
Like I said, most of this response lies in fear. A pistol - unlike a rifle or shotgun - has no real hunting applications. It was only ever designed to do one thing - kill people at short range. It is a device of compact power, small enough to be carried without encumbrance yet effective enough to drop a human at 100m or more within a heatbeat.
But I never chose this sport for that reason. Paramilitary handgun training for security and police is very different to target scoring. Those who train for high-risk vocations do so to master speed-response shooting, while my goal is consistent precision. That's where Zen comes in.
The Path
I do not consider myself a particularly spiritual person. The closest I might come to that is a personal type of Zen Taoism, a form of pantheism in which I am merely a small and transient part of the world. I meditate through breathing and muscle-grouping exercises to enhance my weapon control techniques, to force my body to relax and mind to clear when firing under competition pressure. This requires attaining a state of mind where all external distractions are ignored and I am left alone with only the pistol and target in my personal universe. Nothing else - not the fellow shooters, nor the gunshots, nor the flying hot casings - exists during that 60 seconds devoted to each target.
My only purpose is to bring pistol and target together via the bullet. The path of the bullet must be true in order to complete its journey, to reach its proper destination. And so shooting becomes a metaphor for my life and the attainment of my true goals.
Feel Nothing
Fear has no place in the range. Nor does anger, sorrow, joy or pride. Shooting is a sport where your result is instantly apparent. There is never the need for a referee or ajudicator because bullet holes never lie. Hence, when you hit the ten-ring, or miss it for a lower scoring, the temptation for joy or pride, or disappointment or frustration arises. These feelings must be repelled or repressed, for be they positive or negative their effect on breathing-rate and muscle tension will affect your subsequent aim.
Be the Gun
A pistol has no feelings or agendas or disposition. It is merely a tool, a vehicle designed to send a 6 gram lump of shaped lead, plated in copper, at a rate of 420 metres per second towards the target. So too must I become a machine that controls and guides the path of the projectile. My stance, grip, aim, trigger control and breathing must come together in unison with the handgun to create the opportunity, the right time, to shoot on target.
X-ray of the Mind
The results of a ten-shot target can tell you a lot about your state of mind. If my groupings are loose or scattered, as is often the case when I start a shoot, their bias will tell me volumes. Shots dropping below the ten-ring means that I'm anxious and tense. Shots above it indicate that I'm feeling lazy and unmotivated, while shots that veer to one side or the other reflect poor trigger control and hence a lack of assertion. It's pretty basic for a psych test, but I know what the bullet holes represent to me. Not only can correcting my attitude correct my aim, but the reverse is also true. By willing my body and mind into the right frame to shoot true my entire outlook on the day will change.
Peace
Zen Buddhists believe that life is pain, life is sorrow - that the source of all negative emotion is desire, and that only by eradicating desire can one attain true harmony. This is where my own philosophy differs in terms of Zen, that through my shooting and the true, indelible desire to hit my target will I find harmony. Purity of purpose by action.
The irony of a device designed for extreme violence bringing me peace is not lost, but then I often consider the dualism inherent in so many aspects of life. Hate, anger and fear are the opposite of peace, but so too are happiness, joy and other feelings of excitation. Peace is devoid of all that by sheer definition, it is a place of ultimate discipline, logic and focus, surrounded by emotion but not controlled by it.
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