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I went trap shooting today for the first time in my life (think clay pigeons) and was surprised to come to the realization that shooting is very ZEN. I should mention first off, that I had never shot a shot gun, I'd always suck strictly to hand guns; so, I was quite surprised when, on my first two shots of the day, I hit the birds dead on and turned them to dust.

Everyone watching me, my fiance and his group of 50-60 year old buddies, thought I was going to be a natural. But, after the second shot...things went down hill and it was another 15 or so shots before I got my third and final (out of 25 rounds) birds. My most common criticism from the life long trap shooters? " You're shooting too soon. Take your time, you have a while!"

I sat the next round out and just watched the guys; I started thinking about why I had started out so strong and ended up getting so carried away. I realized that what was missing was the Zen principle of a silent mind, or the idea of "No mind."

Instead of thinking about what I was doing, or thinking about what I should be doing, I should be clearing my mind and NOT thinking. The first time I shot, I didn't have any expectations of what I was supposed to do. I just knew that when I saw the target I was supposed to shoot it. But, as I kept going I started over thinking what I was doing and soon, I was thinking more about what I should be doing; this resulted in over compensation, anticipatory twitching, and quick shooting before I had my sights lined up.

It wasn't until the second round that I slowed down, took a deep breath and lined up on my holding mark before I cleared my mind that I knocked 3 down in a row. In order to be in the right frame of mind, I had to have an empty mind. I couldn't think ahead to what I [i]was[i/] going to do, instead I just needed to stop thinking!

Needless to say, I improved my hit rate each time, from 3/25 to 9/25 and by the final round I shot 11/25. Not even close to good, but a definite improvement.

I got to thinking, after I had finished up and sat around watching the experts, that there are many activities that the concept of 'No Mind' applies to. I bowl on a league from September to April every year, and found that for bowling, it's much the same...if you over think the game you end up in the gutter. I get crap from my team mates when I line my ball up; it usually involves a few moments of pure concentration on the target and then a few moments of pure relaxation and mind clearing before I stride and release...they always say "Oh, there she goes with her Zen thing again" But even they see a difference in my game when I'm not able to clear my mind.

But, I thought I might ask around and see what activities you employ the 'no mind' concept. I'm sure there are many, not just shooting and bowling!

No, I know that zen is part of everything, but what I'm getting at is that there are certain activities that we may engage in that evoke that zen like state of mind. I don't deny that it should be a part of everything you do, but some things are more zen then others.

I heard it best when someone said about meditation "Meditation is achieved when all the doing is done." (I may be paraphrasing and have to check back on that)

I don't really find myself in that state of mind when I do every activity. Only certain things are meditative for me, like bowling, or shooting or yoga or gardening or running. I don't find the same state of mind when I'm doing something like sewing or swimming or weight lifting...What I'm trying to find out from everything is what activities specifically do they use to obtain a zen state of mind.

NERD ALERT! xP LOL that coming from the girl with the FINAL FANTASY VII tattoo... Just giving you some schit. that's totally cool!

*high five* hellz yeah!

I almost bought a book today called The Zen of Zombies: Better Living Through the Undead

I ended up going with another book, but I might come back to this one because it was actually very true to the Zen philosophies...which was very unexpected. LOL

A novel by an author named Lisa See about Chinese women in the 1800's...it's the Chinese version of Memoirs of a Geisha, it's called
"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan." I was more in the mood for a novel then I was anything else. It was time to take a break from nonfiction and read something else for a change.

it's not really a chinese version of Memoirs of a Geisha, it's just a Memoir about a chinese girl...lol