Bokken practice is same as running ...

Yes, Bokken practice is same as running in terms of breathing patterns. I discovered that while my yesterday's work out. As the master was telling bokken practice is same as running is same as sitting down in meditation in Friday's class.

I was running on treadmill with an elevation level. I started following same breathing pattern as I did in the Friday's class while doing bokken practice. And what a surprise, running became as easy as that at no elevation level.

I had read something in connection with this in the book "Zen and the art of Archery" by Eugen Herrigel. Eugen Herrigel went to Japan to learn about Zen and picked up archery as the sport to learn the application of Zen. In his initial attempts, he mentions about how difficult it was to even stretch the string and put the arrow on the bow the way it is expected in the Zen art of archery. Within few shots, Herrigel would feel exhausted. His master explains to him that Herrigel has to develop the right breathing pattern. I couldn't make sense of it then but after this experience of mine, I can tell that it is 100% true.

So the master was telling ... Bokken practice is same as running is same as sitting down and meditating. Another aspect is that all should be instinctive and intuitive rather than driven out of intellect. We have learned to do everything through the intellect and it has suppressed our instinctive and intuitive behavior. Yes, it is true that we have to learn everything through the intellect, but then we have to do it so many times over and over again that it is removed from intellect or mind and becomes instinctive and intuitive. Mind you it is not mechanical or habitual. There should be an awareness behind it. The behavior has to come out only when needed and not otherwise. That's what no mind is. No conscious thought. A mind trying to become empty mind is not an empty mind because there is a thought of making mind empty.

To conclude this post, there is a Zen story. A man practiced archery for 20 years. He became master archer with 100% perfect aim. His master called him and said now give up the archery. Forget everything about it. The man followed it literally. Another twenty years passed.He forgot everything about archery even the word 'bow'. The master called on him again. Pleased with students progress, the master said, "When you go out, there will be birds in the sky. If you drop them in your mind, the birds will drop." The man went out. There were birds in the sky. He dropped them from his mind and the birds dropped ...