GUIDED CHAOS NEWS #164

IN THIS ISSUE:         •  Salem, Oregon seminar 10/9-10: Early order discount ENDS 9/25/10       •  Austin, Texas seminar 12/4-5: Early order discount ENDS 11/20/10            (Additional discount for Law Enforcement and Military)       •  Adaptation and Archery: "Zen for Assholes"

GUIDED CHAOS INTENSIVES: TEXAS & OREGON! Oregon-Sat. & Sun. October 9-10 Texas-Sat. & Sun. December 4-5 Early-order Discount Law Enforcement & Military Discount      MORE SEMINAR INFO: " WHAT IS THE HOLY GRAIL OF SELF DEFENSE?"

"ZEN FOR ASSHOLES"       THIS INTERESTING PIECE ABOUT ARCHERY HAS GREAT RELEVANCE       FOR THE STUDY OF GUIDED CHAOS

Zen for Assholes by Scylla http://www.teemings.net/extras/general/scylla5.html I am a white, male, upper middle class, exclusive heterosexual, rural dwelling, conservative, white collar worker. Oh, and an asshole, hence the title. Define me thus that you may seem to know me. Identify myself as such and be a prisoner of self-imposed limitations. I love to hunt, and I now do so exclusively with the bow. Unfortunately, I began the wrong way, with sights. The sights I began with were pins. One pin might be set arbitrarily at twenty five yards, for a level shot with a field point. When I draw the bow, I rest the red tip of the pin in line with my target. I release and the arrow flies to that point. On the surface, it seems an eminently useful, logical, and practical aid to shooting an arrow. In actuality it is worse than useless. It is a crippling handicap to my bowmanship. If you were to pick up my bow, notch an arrow, site down the pin and release at a target 25 yards away, you would almost surely miss. You do these things differently than I do. In fact, I do these things differently each time I draw the bow. No two draws are the same. There is different friction, different tension, variations in the arrow, and the bow, humidity, the placement of my hands, the placement of my cheeks, etc. etc. The pin is arbitrary. Why 25 yards? Why for a level shot? Why for no wind? Are real world conditions like this? In fact the pin is an enforcement of mediocrity that I impose on myself. Each shot is different, each draw is different, each condition is different. The pin is set at a point which takes the average of all these conditions with a large margin for error. By depending or shooting with the pin, I assure that each of my shots is mediocre. It's built in by the fact that I'm guiding by assumptions and averages, which only approach reality in roundabout way. The pin doesn't give me reality, it gives me an average. I can improve on this a little. I can use identical arrows, and I can train myself to draw the bow in almost the exact same way and to aim mechanically in the exact same way each and every time I shoot. I can set a tree stand or practice at a target and thus predefine the shot before it exists. By doing all these things I can bring the range of averages, the band of mediocrity in which I shoot down to an acceptable degree, and have a very odd likelihood of hitting my target within that band. But, the truth is, that when I do these things this way, I am imposing myself into the process. I am the weakest part of it. Remember, the entire purpose of this pin was to be an aid in my shooting the bow. The fact is that it has seriously limited my capabilities. I can now only shoot a predefined shot within a broad margin for error. I have become the most inferior part of the shooting process, a poor tool that limits the potential and versatility of a fine and accurate precision instrument; the bow. My capacity for skill and improvement once I have mastered mimicry of my action so that I do it exactly the same way every single time, is now nil. All I can be is an automaton repeating the same action over and over. Great pin, huh? By now it should seem obvious that that pin is a poor solution, a mere quick fix to the problem of shooting a bow accurately. It is arbitrary, and limiting, and by it's very design it sure to provide mediocrity. The pin is an artificial and limiting encumbrance. Though it seems helpful and convenient and rational, it really isn't. It's an arbitrary construct. Some other good examples of aiming pins might be the terms "white, male, upper middle class, exclusive heterosexual, rural dwelling, conservative, white collar worker, asshole." Use them to describe me, but you haven't hit the target. You've just taken a mediocre shot in the general neighborhood. Describe myself that way. Become those things, identify those things with myself, so that I am them, and I am nothing more than diffuse mediocrity, limited by self. Like the pin I have become an artificial construct, useful for only prearranged circumstances. Great, so what's the alternative. Well, most if not all of the really good world-class rel-world hunting archers shoot their arrows without pins. They use Zen whether they know it or not. Zen is basically emptying your mind of preconceptions to better grasp reality. Instead of devising a system of mediocrity to approach the target, Zen's goal is to hit it square every single time. A zen archer shoots by what is called "instinct." He doesn't use pins. He doesn't concentrate on hitting a target. He doesn't aim. He engages in process. It is both deliberate and effortless. The Zen archer awaits a moment. It is difficult to describe but the sole of simplicity to achieve in practice. Take away the sights and the arrow, and draw the bow until your arm can hold it no longer. Rest than do it again. Fatigue the arm. Now wait, and relax. Stand before your target, notch and arrow and draw. Don't sight down the arrow. Look at your target. Be calm and wait. Wait for the moment. If the moment doesn't come. Stop. Rest. Try again. Don't force it, doen't look for it, just wait for the moment. Be honest, and don't delude yourself. You will recognize the moment when it comes, though it may take you days to find it the first time. Continue with this process, and eventually the moment will come. You are looking for the moment when the arrow must fly. You must release it, and it must fly straight to the target. Sounds fishy, doesn't it? My neighbor shoots this way, and he practices by taping aspirin to the center of the bullseye. Watch somebody hit aspirin with a bow at varied ranges up to fifty yards with casual ease several times in a row, and it stops being fishy very quick. He just pulls, draws, and shoots in one nonstop casual motions. Oddly, though my father knows nothing of Zen, he knew exactly what I'm talking about. He had been a Marine Sniper. In fact, he had taught me how to shoot a rifle in a very similar fashion. What you are doing by using Zen is using yourself to use the tools at the limits of their capabilities, instead of reducing them to the limits you have artificially imposed upon yourself. There is an odd thing about this moment, this Zen moment when the arrow must fly. It always occurs at the same time. It occurs in that pause between an exhale and an inhale. It is ironic that the Zen moment, the moment of fulfillment is also the moment of death, the moment of emptiness. You have released a breath but not yet begun the next one. It is the moment of possibility. My father defines it further. In riflery the Zen moment is not only between breathes, it is between heartbeats. Shooting a bow by instinct is the superior way to shoot. You can shoot at 10 yards, or at 100. You can use different arrows, different winds, humidity, elevations. You are not seeking a compromise, a mediocre approach to reality. You are seeking reality itself. You're not shooting for the neighborhood, you're going for the target. The labels "white, male, heterosexual etc." are not me. They only approach me in a vague, disorderly, arbitrary and inaccurate fashion. They are the pins that prevent you from excellence in your shooting. Use them if you must, but don't confuse them with reality. 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