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Kyudo - The way of the bow
“The archer lifts his bamboo bow,
he draws it back slowly, relaxed,
he holds the arrow just long enough to allow the shot to mature,
and a perfect balance occurs:
with heightened awareness the archer lets go and opens up,
becoming one with the bow, the arrow, and the target.
The impact is heard but the shot continues beyond.
Without aiming, the archer aimed at himself.
Without looking to reach the target, the archer has reached himself.”
Kyudo Québec
Once regarded as the highest of disciplines by the Samurai, Japan’s ancient warriors, the bow fell out of use as a weapon once firearms entered Japan during the 1600s.
But well before that time, Zen Buddhist monks had been using the bow as a means of spiritual development and a path to enlightenment.
The essence of kyudo is well expressed in the two passages below:
“Kyudo is often said to be like life itself: multifaceted and paradoxical. As such, it defies easy definition. Ask a novice practitioner what kyudo is and he or she will probably give you a detailed explanation of the technical or mental aspects of shooting. But ask a master of the art and he will usually reply with a simple, “I don’t know.” He is being neither evasive nor falsely modest. Instead, his answer reflects an understanding of the complexity and depth of kyudo. He realizes that even after a lifetime of study much of kyudo will remain enigmatic and unexplainable. What, then, compels a man to spend fifty, sixty, or even seventy years practicing kyudo when he knows he can never really understand it?
The answer, quite simply, is that he studies not so much to learn about the art as he does to learn about himself.”
Hideharu Onuma, with Dan and Jackie DeProspero (1993). Kyudo:
The essence and practice of Japanese archery.
New York: Kodansha International, p. 2
“Working with the precision of the form, a natural process naturally unfolds through which the practitioner has the opportunity to see the mind more clearly. The target becomes a mirror which reflects the qualities of heart and mind at the moment of the arrow’s release.”
Kanjuro Shibata XX
Thus, an intellectual understanding of kyudo cannot take the place of one’s intuitive, special understanding - gained through experience, not words.
Clearly, the practice of kyudo is neither a sport nor a means of measuring performance: it is truly a meditation discipline. Kyudo has close ties with other Zen-related pursuits such as the tea ceremony (Chado), calligraphy (Shodo), and flower arrangement (Ikebana). All these art forms reflect the heart, mind and energy of their practitioners.
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