Category: The Archer’s Notebook

No matter how much I aimed. Each time the arrow landed somewhere I did not expect. Even if I hit the golden circle, the arrow was not exactly where I expected it. That was one. Two: I didn’t even know where I was looking, Yes I was aiming at the centre of the golden circle but do I know exactly which point accurately? No, I didn’t know. It was always an approximation.

Which made me think. Do I really know what I want out of life? Do I have a purpose? Or is life directing me completely regardless whether I know or not? Even if I knew, can I aim at what I want? And even if I can aim, can I hit it?

My coach was flawless when he grabbed the bow, he made it look so easy, and the first two arrows he shot were right in the middle of the golden circle.

Then he shot the third arrow amd it hit the red one.

Then I did a research on archery. Those who have been practicing for decades, still don’t always hit the point they want.

And I was even more surprised to find out that world class professional archers made peace with this and even cultivate “not-knowing” they even have a term for it “surprise release”!!

This , unlike the first lesson “no fireworks” did give me fireworks, that no matter how much and how many times I say “I have seen all there is to see in life”, it never ceases surprising me.

If I want proof? My shots where direct empirical evidence.

When I have nocked my arrow (nock means to place the arrow and clip it to the string in readiness to shoot) and then when I have drawn the string and kept on aiming for a couple of seconds, then released the arrow.

In hindsight I realized I was never thinking of anything else. Every time I drew the string, my mind was not thinking of anything else at all.

Not how good or bad of an archer am I. Not what will I become in the future. Not what will become of this shot. Not possible benefits or harms that I might get out of this shot.

And when the arrow hit the target, that was just that, regardless of where it hit, it was the end of the story. Each arrow ends when it hits regardless where it hits.

So is the case with life. This lesson taught me to just “be” with this immediate moment and do this every moment. Now? I am writing this post. I don’t know what will become of it, where it will lead, who will read it, whether someone will ever read it or will I be the first and last person to read it in life.

I don’t know and for the first time, not knowing feels like liberation not confinement.

This post is my arrow. It is being nocked and drawn. When I hit “publish” that will be releasing the string. I can’t control the arrow’s journey mid-flight, nor this post’s journey, they will hit wherever they hit whenever they hit whomever they hit and I am absolutely powerless in that control.

And for the first time, being powerless feels like liberation not confinement.

Ready?

Here is to me hitting “publish”

I have read a lot about archery. The spiritual and mental and emotional and psychological benefits of it were enormous according to what I have studied. So I went there with a giant expectation. That I would feel some special spiritual state.

So I got there, the coaches gave us the safety orientation. Archery components. And then…

We shot some arrows.

When I gripped the bow for the first time and it was the first time I grabbed a bow. I felt like someone else. Some new identity. I don’t know what identity it was but I felt different.

Other than that no fireworks were there. I felt normal. I shot an arrow after an other for like half an hour and went back home.

And the first lesson I realized in hindsight. That this is just life. No fireworks. And that is stable. Seeking excitement and seeking special states comes with turbulence. High and low. Being normal in life and ordinary I reasoned , is what accomplishes things that people call extraordinary that puzzle you because you are never not ordinary. You are just you. No glamor. No whizzles.