day 201: rain rain go away...

concepts:

• focus
• opening up
• trigger
  

lessons:

• bagua fist form
• kyudo
  

today posed all kinds of issues, with intermittent rain that forced us to relocate class to the picnic shelter--noticeably smaller, and definitely harder to work in. the rain also posed some traveling hazards, with a good portion of us arriving late due to traffic problems caused by slick roads and obscured vision.

bagua fist form

Sifu decided to adjust the class today to just working on the fist form, with less in the way of applications, particularly since the concrete floor was rendered quite slippery by the rain. we took some to warm up with a review of the forest palm and the portion of the fist form we'd done to date. once we had done this to mutual satisfaction, Sifu then took the remainder of class to take us some more moves into the form.

at some point in the near future, i think i'm going to need to start recording the portions of the form we're doing. it is a very long form, and so it may warrant recording sections of it to help everyone remember the sequence of moves as we go along.

kyudo

kyudo was noticeably drier. the rain had largely let up by the evening, and the class is held inside the gymnasium of the Japanese Cultural Center in Pasadena.

things were a progressive today. i say that to mean that Sensei asked me and Phunsak to shoot an arrow, except going all the way through the procedure, commencing with stringing a bow, putting on a glove, going through the form, and then shooting and exiting the dojo. we were also asked to store the glove and unstring the bow.

this was a pretty big step. we'd shot an arrow before, but today was significant in that we were asked to go all the way through the entire procedure that the other students went through. i noticed this, and made my best efforts to try and avoid any mistakes.

having said that, the big issue was still shooting the arrow. Sensei made a number of comments regarding my execution of the shooting form:

• focus--he noted that i should focus along the arrow more and connect the target to the arrow. he also hinted that this wasn't just a literal act (i.e., concentrating on a specific target), but also metaphorical (i.e., concentrating the mind, along with the body, into a single act with a single purpose at a single point in time)
• opening up--he commented that i needed to open up as i raised the bow and proceeded into the draw, reminding me to expand outwards, so that i was pushing out from the center to draw the bow, as opposed to pulling on the string
• trigger--he said to treat the glove as a trigger, and to release when the timing was right. again, this wasn't just in the literal sense (i.e., at the end point of the exhale prior to the inhale), but also in the metaphorical sense (i.e., when the mind was ready)
  

Sensei had us shoot only 1 arrow each today, saying that this was plenty. i think he was right. and i can see why we've spent so much time on other aspects of kyudo separate from actually shooting an arrow. the act of knocking an arrow, drawing the bow, aiming, and then firing is a profoundly complicated procedure for the uninitiated, and provides plenty to worry about without the added burden of all the other elements involved in the art. it makes things much easier (in the sense that you can provide much more of the necessary concentration) to shoot an arrow if you have gained some measure of familiarity and comfort with the non-shooting aspects first.

i found today's act also really insightful on both literal and figurative levels:

• there are many nuances to just shooting the bow and arrow. the arrow has to be knocked correctly. the glove has to be placed correctly. the bow must be drawn correctly. the string must be released correctly. and the slightest variation can produce significant differences in the result--and that includes the trajectory of the arrow.
• posture is HUGE. just like the above, the slightest defect in posture can make a major difference in the arrow's path.
• the release of the arrow has a psychological feeling that i can only describe as akin to the triggering of a rifle shot. i mentioned this to Sensei later in the week. i say this because the act has an immediate, intimate sensation (both a rifle shot and an arrow accelerate within millimeters of the ear, eye, and face...you can literally feel them going past). this makes for a visceral experience. i found that it snapped the body and mind (just as much as it snapped the air), and crystallized the moment of release in the consciousness. the feeling is very much like being awoken by a sudden jolt, so that you switch instantaneously from a slumber to a state of alert. but just like the arrow hitting the target, the act of awakening serves to focus--except that the focus isn't just on the act of shooting, nor just the path of the arrow, nor just the point where the arrow hits the target, but also on the moment in time and space that the entire event unfolded...with you at the center.
  

this was good. i learned a lot. in ways that you can only learn by doing.

there's a joke from a poster of Frank Sinatra that i keep thinking about that i keep thinking about to describe this. it had a picture of Sinatra, with the line "to be is to do, to do is to be." it was promptly followed by the punch line "do be do be do be do." it was a joke, but i find it strangely taoist in a way, and in a manner that fits situations like this. because it's right: to be you must do, to do you must be. at least sometimes.

i'd like to do this again.