Mythical Weapons

 

A couple of days ago, I wrote about marksmanship training.

I want to touch on the same topic, but from a Zen perspective.

Let's agree - reading the term Zen, we mean meditation, without reference to Japan.

Meditation and martial arts are intertwined in many ancient cultures.

I'll give you a couple of examples.

Let's start with the earliest times.

In mythology, the story is repeated all the time with a powerful weapon, which can only be used by a chosen one. King Arthur's sword, Odysseus's bow, Prakrit's spear that never misses.

Talk about a certain ability, available only to a few. Mythological weapons have one thing in common - only the hero can use these weapons. Nobody can take Arthur's sword out of the ground, in other words - only a person of a certain spiritual development can materialize it, he can "hold it in his hands."

No one is able to bring the bow into combat state, except for Odysseus.

The non-missile spear was donated by Artemis to Prakrit.

God gives Amiran a golden dagger from birth, the dagger is a part of himself.

Meditation is even etymologically related to weapons. In the Upanishads, the art of meditation is compared to a dagger, with which the adept cuts off the lower layers of the psyche, "turns them off".

In another Upanishad, meditation is compared to an arrow that hits the target. Sometimes the meditator himself is compared to an arrow flying towards a target and hitting it.

"Joining like an arrow with a target" ...

You can endlessly list these mythical weapons. Vajra is a kind of energy whip of Indra, the hammer of Perun, the weapon of the gods from Indian, Scandinavian mythology. Lightning of Zeus or the spear of St. George ...

The epic is a little more modest in its description. For example, the Mahabharata describes how Arjuna, the hero of the Gita, shoots. He hits the moving target, with a bow, aiming through the reflection in a puddle. Again, a mythological language, as in the myth of Medusa the Gorgon. Reflection is an image of the perception of an object in the psyche.

To better demonstrate my thought, I will tell you about a Zen teacher and his student.

Zen uses different martial arts, but above and beyond the goal is one - the achievement of satori, enlightenment, a different vision of reality.

Listen to an example and you will understand what I am trying to say:

The apprentice was accepted by the Master with tal learn archery.

But instead of the shooting itself, the teacher sat him down in front of the wall and made him stare at a black dot drawn on white paper.

Days, weeks, months passed. The student was perplexed, but diligently followed the instructions. Finally, he learned the lesson. One day the dot began to grow, reaching the size of the plate.

Then the teacher allowed him to make a shot, he hit the target, because he perceived the point hypertrophied.

The main question is not "how", but "why". Why should a student master the sword, or the art of killing with bare hands?

I'll use an example again.

There was one archery master to whom a championship seeker showed up. There were witnesses, and the best one should have been determined by competition.

The first began to shoot, and while one arrow was in the air, he managed to release several more, and they all pierced one point.

The second began to climb the mountains. The others followed him, including the opponent.

The master walked for a long time until he reached a cliff. He began to move at dizzying heights, along the wall, with his heels drooping partly from the ledge.

No one even thought to compete with him, because fear did not allow him to follow his example.

Then the Master fired one unintended shot into the air, and without a word returned home, explaining what I was trying to say, but words were missing.

In the Zen style, a wordless transmission. Buddha showed the flower to his disciples, and only one understood the unspoken, smiling back. He became the first Zen patriarch.

Probably, weapons from mythology should be understood as possession of the hidden capabilities of the body and psyche, giving some people superiority over others, while so significant that all this was reflected in the mass unconscious.