In preparation for his absence from this month's practise, our senior kyudoka and "teacher" had asked me to lead the practise in his place. Initially, I was honoured to be considered for this task but as we started our pre-practise meditation, the seriousness of the request had hit me. Up to this point, I had been practising Kyudo for only 2 1/2 years and yet, here I was leading the practise. My actions and how I would approach this privilege would set the tone for the practise and since part of this included helping the new practitioners with the hassetsu and their shooting form, more specifically "tiger's mouth," I became really conscious of the flaws with my own shooting form.
Leading the practise was a challenge because, not only did I realise that I was probably not the person to be doing it, one of the beginners brought along a couple of friends to observe the practise. Human nature will often cause our egos to over inflate in these situations and so care needed to be taken to ensure that it didn't "go to my head." My actions, reactions, inaction, and attitude not only would reflect poorly on me but most importantly reflect poorly on others who choose to practise the "way of the bow," and Shibata Sensei, and Kyudo itself.
Our sensei, Kanjuro Shibata XX described the purpose of Kyudo by stating that "the main point of kyudo practise is to polish your heart, deeply." Reflecting on this and recognising that I had to suppress any and all thoughts of self-importance in order for the practise to proceed in a dignified manner, I truly believe that I learnt a good lesson. Leading in this kind of setting is not about power or status but about service. It was about what I could do to help our junior practitioners improve their practise.
It's this thought about service to others that is most profound. Kyudo practise is a metaphor for life. I have often heard of kyudo described as "one shot archery" and really kyudo is a reflection of life because we only get one shot at it. The question is this: how do we want to approach that "one shot?" Do we want to live our lives in a dignified manner, experiencing the joy of giving to others or do we want to be self-centred and live our lives haphazardly with no consideration for our fellow human beings? It's a big question that requires some consideration.
