Intro

“All that you have to do is to be aware from the beginning to the end, not become inattentive in the middle of it.” -Krishnamurti

I was a born doubter. I felt that all the so called knowledge dispensed were just people repeating what they had been told. Anything taught, seemed, at best, a partial truth. 

Then I heard what I’d been waiting to hear.

I was nineteen before I heard the word, ‘Zen,’ and a music magazine delivered it. In an interview, John Denver said he’d never been happier since he had discovered Zen. Asked what Zen meant, he said Zen means, “what is, is.” 

Upon reading that, I put down the magazine, drove to the bookstore and bought a stack of zen books. 

The core teaching of Krishnamurti (above) and Zen deliver the same message: Pay attention.

From Merriam Webster: Zen: “a state of calm attentiveness in which one’s actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort.”

Simply put, to practice Zen means to be attentive. If you are battling to win a national championship or preparing your next meal, attentive is the way to be.

After about ten years of training, I realized: live like you shoot. In total attention, errors disappear and accuracy peaks.

After shooting the final target to win my first national championship, my first thought was: “I can’t believe I won this fucker.” I was a doubter.

With attention and conviction, you can excel at anything. 

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Each Monday, I’ll post a new topic in one of two categories. One will be on shooting, and the other will be on living, or: “how I learned to live from what I learned by competing.” 

Thanks for coming in.