Traditional Archery

[SimonR]

Dear Joko Sisook and friends,

I believe Andrea’s explanation on the differences is very good and the pictures help a lot. What she says about the aims and objectives I believe is very important, and I think that a lot of the high level practitioners of modern archery have the essence of traditional archery in their skill. The Costa Rican national champion practices modern archery but he has studied a lot of traditional Japanese archery, which he considers very important for his practice. It is beautiful to see the state of mind he enters when he is going to shoot an arrow. In different words, he talks about the importance of "zero mind" when you practice archery, and I guess that is a common aspect of most of the "masters" in traditional or modern archery.

(There is a very nice book called "Zen and the art of archery" if someone is interested.)

In that sense, I believe that we can adapt our interests to what we have available, here in Costa Rica, is very difficult to have access to traditional archery, but using a modern arch my emphasis is on presence, calmed mind, intention and joy, I really enjoy it very much. Actually the arch I use is very similar to the one in the picture on the right, as I don’t use the stabilizers or the sight.

What is the difference between traditional Kung Fu and modern Wushu ?

Very interesting question for our Virtual Kwoon, probably you could open another thread on the subject.

Best wishes for all,

Simon

[Kingmonkey]

Zen in the art of archery

Very good book, indeed....