Kyudo as a Form of Meditation

Its been nearly 7 months since my last blog post and I was quickly reminded of that this weekend as I was preparing the minutes for the last meeting of the board of directors of the archery club I belong to.  We were planning to do a general clean-up of our indoor shooting range on the last Sunday of the month and I realized that that was not achievable as we were hosting a Kyudo Beginner's Intensive course at the range that weekend.  Naturally, that got me to reflect on my recent Kyudo practice earlier that week.

The practice of Kyudo is most often associated by the majority as simply a martial art.  Despite the fact that this majority will vehemently disagree with what I have to say here, I am going to come out and say it.  No.  Kyudo is not a martial art or a sport as defined by organizations such as the International Kyudo Federation.

At one point in time the practice of archery in Japan was known as kyujitsu and simply put, it was a skill used by samurai to fire projectiles at their enemies during combat.  However, the introduction of firearms and the extended time of peace during the Edo period allowed for archery to be pursued as an "art" with the purpose of spiritual development by building up both body and mind.  As a result, the skill of warfare was refined to include very prescribed, almost ritualistic, movements or hassetsu designed to focus the archer's attention on the now.

This focus on the "now" dovetails itself really well into Buddhist meditation practices.  I find it interesting that people who subscribe to Shambhala buddhism often refer to meditation as "nowness training."   This spiritual connection should not be new to the reader if you have done any reading on the subject of Kyudo.  Zen in the Art of Archery; One Arrow, One Life; and Kyudo: The Art of Zen Archery all speak to the role of kyudo in Zen Buddhism.  A common denominator in all of these books is the role that kyudo has in meditation and vice versa.

This takes me to my last practice session and how important kyudo is as a form of "nowness training" or meditation.  Last week was probably one of the worst weeks I have experienced in my life as an adult.  At least that's what it felt like as I am sure that I have had far worse.  Conflicts at home with my wife and having received an unwarranted written reprimand at work, a lot of things were weighing heavily on my mind.  So, needless to say, I needed to head down to our little "dojo" (it's not really a dojo.  Its an indoor archery range we use for kyudo practice) for our scheduled practice to press the reset button mentally.

Due to unforseen circumstances, I was the only one at kyudo practice that evening and had the opportunity to really void myself of my thoughts by focusing on the coordinations and on the now.  What I learned that practice is that I am weak with respect to my meditation practice.  I could not focus enough to even remember the correct sequence of the hassetsu and found myself either skipping steps or doing them in the incorrect order.  The lesson I learned that evening was that I need to include meditation practice in my life more frequently instead of relying on it when I need to "clear" my head.