How many of you have had a Zen moment?

[curious2c]

I went out to the range today, raining and snowing though it was. I had my 44 Desert Eagle, and my 45 ruger.

I have four clips for each so I loaded them all up. I set up my targets as usual, and then on a whim took some out to four hundred yards and then followed them in every fifty yards setting a target.

I was by myself as I started to shoot. My 45 banging away I shot until I emptied a clip, reload the next and continued shooting. I was doing ok, not spectacular or anything.

Then...I went to the DE. As I aimed for the first of my shots I felt a calming fall around me. The snow seemed to freeze in place, the wind died, and my hearing, though muffed, became sharp.

I started to shoot and only stopped when I ran out of clips, not even remembering when or if I switched them out. As I turned from my shooting spree, (and hitting all my targets) I found six guys standing there and they had been there for quite some time. I picked up my targets and cleaned up and left. I had lots of compliments on my shooting.

Didn't tell them about my poor performance of just a bit before with the 45, not did I mention how lousey I shot the last time I was out at the range. Hell...I still can't remember conciously shooting all four clips out of the DE.

If that wasn't Zen...what was it?

 

[Morwen]

...

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

In the Woods

When I was 9 I think it was, we lived in Washington. This was like 30 years ago, it wasn't as built up as it is now, still very rural where I lived.

I was cutting through some old forest and all was green and brown and sunlight and my thoughts stilled and where no more. I was a part of the green and brown and sunlight. I can't explain how it felt very well, because being of the moment is beyond vocalization. I was grounded in the earth, and a part of the sky and eating the sunlight.

Being 9 I ruined it of course by realizeing it. "I'm not thinking anything" I thought. Then realized I was thinking and told myself to stop thinking, but of course I couldn't.

It was a beatiful moment though, and I see remember it clearly as if it had happened yesterday.

 

[curious2c]

I don't think most people are going to put shooting together with Zen. It's ultimately a destructive act, many chemicals went in to make a bullet, a long chain of economic extraction...

If anything you felt Black Zen.

I'm not against guns, in principle, but I don't splendor in them.

There is not very much in life that doesn't have chemicals, or a long chain of economic extraction...computers for one that I can think off off hand. It is all destructive until the purpose becomes readily seen. Even the act of having a campfire is a chemical chain and destructive in this way.

Black Zen? I have never heard of it. Zen is self enlightenment, an awareness of oneself in respect to the surroundings and their place in it.

I splendor in my life and my interaction with life. Guns are a useful tool and yes...in my work as a mechanic I have had Zen moments while working with wrenches too.

Zen happens when one least expects it to and when it does it is 'right'.

 

[curious2c]

Re: In the Woods

When I was 9 I think it was, we lived in Washington. This was like 30 years ago, it wasn't as built up as it is now, still very rural where I lived.

I was cutting through some old forest and all was green and brown and sunlight and my thoughts stilled and where no more. I was a part of the green and brown and sunlight. I can't explain how it felt very well, because being of the moment is beyond vocalization. I was grounded in the earth, and a part of the sky and eating the sunlight.

Being 9 I ruined it of course by realizeing it. "I'm not thinking anything" I thought. Then realized I was thinking and told myself to stop thinking, but of course I couldn't.

It was a beatiful moment though, and I see remember it clearly as if it had happened yesterday.

I had a moment like that when I was about ten. I was out on the river walking, looking for a friend who had gone fishing. Similar feelings of being 'part' of 'all'. Friend saw me and hollered out, ruining my experience for that time.

 

[teddybear4play]

If that wasn't Zen...what was it?

You were in the zone.

I remember watching a documentary about being in the zone on a newsmagazine show. Interestingly, the "sport" they focused on for professionals was shooting. They equipped handguns with a modified laser sight and a target that could track the laser's movements on the board.

For all the professional shooters, there was a moment, usually 1 or 2 seconds before they fired, where the slight wiggling that naturally occurs for unsteady hands calmed as they focused and fired. The life-sign monitors they had placed on all the shooters showed a spike in brain waves but a drop in heart rate.

To contrast, they took a bunch of people completely at random and gave them a somewhat simpler task . . . hitting a 10-foot putt for like $20 a pop. They were all fucked up.

Unfortunately, none of the tests could point to how exactly the shooters managed to calm themselves to hit perfect shots but the amateurs couldn't keep from having convulsions over their putts.

So for some reason, maybe the weight or feel of the gun you were using just worked better, perhaps a subconscious decision on your part to calm yourself after your lackluster results with the .45 Ruger, or possibly some sort of indescribable epiphany you reached, you fell into a trance born of deep concentration.

I say try it again tomorrow and see what happens.

TB4p

 

[Blindinthedark]

Zen Story.

There was a professor of Zen studies who had spent 20 years researching the religion. One day he had the opportunity to interview an old Zen master. The Zen master invited the prof to tea that day.

They were seated and in accordance to the custom the master served the tea. He placed a cup in front of the prof and started to pour. Soon the cup filled up and began to overflow. The prof, not wanting to cause a scene, didn't say anything. After a few moments the professor could contain himself no longer and finally said,
"Stop! The cup is full. It won't hold anymore tea."
The Zen master replied,
"Like this cup, your mind is full. We must first empty it before you can learn more."


Zen stories are so cool.

 

[that_girl]

Half assed zen

I'm a photographer by profession. When I was in Niagara falls, ON, I went on the Maid of the Mist. while I was near the falls, I just started shooting off my camera, over and over, not really paying attention to sizing, framing, etc...i dont recall how, but I went through a roll of film (36exp) in about five minutes...i thought that when the pics came back, they would be terrible, but they were all actually pretty badass.

 

[SINthysist]

I don't think most people are going to put shooting together with Zen. It's ultimately a destructive act, many chemicals went in to make a bullet, a long chain of economic extraction...

If anything you felt Black Zen.

I'm not against guns, in principle, but I don't splendor in them.

Then why is Archery one of the crown jewels of Zen?

 

[SINthysist]

Zen Story.

There was a professor of Zen studies who had spent 20 years researching the religion. One day he had the opportunity to interview an old Zen master. The Zen master invited the prof to tea that day.

They were seated and in accordance to the custom the master served the tea. He placed a cup in front of the prof and started to pour. Soon the cup filled up and began to overflow. The prof, not wanting to cause a scene, didn't say anything. After a few moments the professor could contain himself no longer and finally said,
"Stop! The cup is full. It won't hold anymore tea."
The Zen master replied,
"Like this cup, your mind is full. We must first empty it before you can learn more."


Zen stories are so cool.

Kaplau made it up...

 

[Blindinthedark]

Kaplau made it up...

Sorry, explain "Kaplau".

 

[SINthysist]

It happens all the time in fighting. You do things out of habit. Training reactions. Time doesn't have a meaning when you are in the ring unless you lose focus, then it becomes painfully slow...

 

[SINthysist]

Author of "The Three Pillars of Zen," and where you will find that story. It's quite a good book in some ways yet there's that accusation of fraud which I've seen leveled at the guy. In fact, we've even discussed it here within the last year or two...

 

[SINthysist]

I like Nagamini's instructions on meditation, but for Zen, the Fifth Ring, The Book of Void, describes it best as I understand it and experience it in moving meditation...

 

[Blindinthedark]

Author of "The Three Pillars of Zen," and where you will find that story. It's quite a good book in some ways yet there's that accusation of fraud which I've seen leveled at the guy. In fact, we've even discussed it here within the last year or two...

Oh I see. I never thought of the stories as true. Just parables to help us see things in a new light. Like the ultimate Assops (<-spelling) fables.

Nothing else seems to compare to the pure simplicity of the message that the Zen stories tell. The suprise ending is has always been like a cold shower to me. Eye Opening.

 

[that_girl]

Aesop, even

 

[Blindinthedark]

Aesop, even

Thank you Girl.
Assop lol Sounds like a gay pleasure ritual.

 

[that_girl]

Yes. Yes it does.

 

[SINthysist]

The Tea Master

The Lord of the Land (in Feudal Japan) coveted the Tea Master's Wife. When the Tea Master refused to surrender her, the Lord informed him that he would come the next morning and duel the Tea Master, the winner possessing the wife.

That night, the Tea Master killed his wife and family and burned down his house. In the morning, the Lord arrived on the scene, the Tea Master awaiting with drawn sword.

The Lord left knowing he was about to get his ass kicked.

Zen.

 

[that_girl]

Uh huh....

*slowly shuffles off the thread, staring walleyed at SINthysist*

 

[teddybear4play]

The Tea Master

The Lord of the Land (in Feudal Japan) coveted the Tea Master's Wife. When the Tea Master refused to surrender her, the Lord informed him that he would come the next morning and duel the Tea Master, the winner possessing the wife.

That night, the Tea Master killed his wife and family and burned down his house. In the morning, the Lord arrived on the scene, the Tea Master awaiting with drawn sword.

The Lord left knowing he was about to get his ass kicked.

Zen.

Sounds like a Keyser Soze story.

TB4p

 

[Morwen]

...

 

[SINthysist]

The Body of a Rock

A Lord asked the sword saint Musashi, "What is the Body of a Rock?" (The Fire Book)

Musashi summoned his disciple, and when he arrived Musashi ordered him to perform Seppuka (Ritual Disembowelment [sp?]) which the disciple calmly proceeded to do. As he was about to make the cut, Musashi stopped him and turned to the Lord.

"This is the Body of a Rock."

 

[SINthysist]

Zen does not take you to Gawd.

Pay your respects to the Gods and Buddhas, but do not rely upon them...

Musashi

 

[SINthysist]

I don't know if I've been stared at walleyed.

I have been to a Chinese feast where they ice a fish's head and cook his body. They bring him out and he gasps and looks all walleyed as you eat him.

That's Zen too...

Chan.