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In what may unfortunately count as an uncommon act among people of my generation, I frequently read many of the olden works of American society. One favorite author of mine is the late Jeff Cooper, USMC.
Many of his writings have much in common with what a spiritual leader would say in a religious context. In driving back from the range yesterday, I've come to a conclusion why that may be the case.
When an individual decides to meditate, they attempt to discover more about themselves by isolating all distractions and inputs of the world around them. Zen teachings partly include the concept that we must sort out our inner selves by muting the loudness of the modern world.
Let us evaluate what us shooters do when we take the line.
We put on our noise-isolating hearing protection.
We systematically load a firearm, and arrange a target. Once done, we concentrate to the exclusion of all other sensory inputs on the front sight of the weapon in question. The outside world is gone, and we're left with ourselves, the firearm, and its front sight or electronic scope. Sounds rather similar to organized meditation no? Although admittedly 5.56mm is much louder then your standard meditative chant!
Thus one could say that when shooting you don't just get to know a firearm better. You discover more about yourself and the depths of your identity through the gun, which becomes a mirror for your sense of self -and thus achieves a personal importance beyond just an inanimate collection of plastic, metal and wood parts. A firearm can metaphorically serve as a meditative instrument beyond its physical nature. Among other things, this explains the rabid defense of firearms and calibers among certain gun owners.
Hopefully that's not too cryptic, but what say you?
Many of his writings have much in common with what a spiritual leader would say in a religious context. In driving back from the range yesterday, I've come to a conclusion why that may be the case.
When an individual decides to meditate, they attempt to discover more about themselves by isolating all distractions and inputs of the world around them. Zen teachings partly include the concept that we must sort out our inner selves by muting the loudness of the modern world.
Let us evaluate what us shooters do when we take the line.
We put on our noise-isolating hearing protection.
We systematically load a firearm, and arrange a target. Once done, we concentrate to the exclusion of all other sensory inputs on the front sight of the weapon in question. The outside world is gone, and we're left with ourselves, the firearm, and its front sight or electronic scope. Sounds rather similar to organized meditation no? Although admittedly 5.56mm is much louder then your standard meditative chant!
Thus one could say that when shooting you don't just get to know a firearm better. You discover more about yourself and the depths of your identity through the gun, which becomes a mirror for your sense of self -and thus achieves a personal importance beyond just an inanimate collection of plastic, metal and wood parts. A firearm can metaphorically serve as a meditative instrument beyond its physical nature. Among other things, this explains the rabid defense of firearms and calibers among certain gun owners.
Hopefully that's not too cryptic, but what say you?
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