Post
by hvj1 » Sun Jan 04, 2015 1:32 pm
Philosophy, Vision, Mission Statement,objectives and Lotus emblem significance of the Shooting Academy
Philosophy:
At Lotus Shooting Academy, we subscribe to the following ‘philosophy’;
There is a reason why we take birth, a reason why we are given the gift of ‘life’ on this planet. Most of us live our lives without understanding or finding the meaning of our lives, and why we are given this wonderful gift of ‘life’ by God. In order to understand the reason and meaning of life, we must answer the following question:
Why do we face problems in life?
To answer this question, let us define what a ‘problem’ is.
We face a problem when we don’t get what we want.
For example the child at birth cries, because it wants the soothing comfort of the mother’s womb.
An employee wants to achieve his sales target for the day, if for some reason he cannot do so, then the employee gets depressed and faces a ‘problem’.
A boy is unhappy because the girl next door rejects his love for her. The boy is facing a problem situation He wants the girl to reciprocate his love, but she doesn’t.
So we face a problem when we don’t get what we want.
And what are these so called ‘wants’, they are nothing but ‘desires’, there is no end to desires so long as we live. Because from the time we are born (we take up a body) to the time we die (we give up our body) there is no escape from our desires. Desires and wants are part and parcel of our bodies, unfulfilled desires/wants lead to problems.
So is God a sadist? Does he get some perverse pleasure in watching us squirm when our our desires our unfulfilled leading us to mental agony?
No! On the contrary it is quite the opposite. There is a logical reason why we are born with our bodies with desires embedded in them. This can best be explained by a simple example;
Assume that you are sitting in your room reading a book which you are enjoying immensely. Suddenly! The room is engulfed in darkness since the only bulb lighting up the room is fused. You are now facing a small problem. You want ‘light’ so that you can continue enjoying the book, but the bulb is fused. The problem can be fixed quite easily, all you have to do, is to replace the bulb with a new one.
Assuming that you have a bulb handy, you set about changing the old bulb with the new. Now you face another small problem! The bulb which you wish to change, is out of the reach of your outstretched hand because you are not tall enough. So what do you do next?
You pull a table or chair, climb on it and change the bulb, problem solved. You can now go back to enjoying your book.
But hold on! What did you just do to solve your problem? You overcame the limitations of your height and reach by raising yourself from the level of the floor to that of the chair/table. Isn’t this how we solve all our problems in life?
Usually, the things that we want in life, be they material, emotional, physical, spiritual are almost always out of our reach, just like the fused bulb. To get what we want/desire, we must constantly raise our level of functioning to overcome our limitations, like in the example above.
A student of Class Ninth, has to spend a year of studies to pass the Class Xth exam. He has to raise his ‘knowledge’ level from that of the ninth grade to the tenth.
Similarly, a couple who wish to buy a new car, initially may not have enough money to buy one, so the wife decides to solve the problem, by taking up a part time job, which enables them to get the extra finance to pay off the loan from a bank which enables them to buy the car of their choice.
Similarly a shooter wishing to improve his performance has to learn and master, a set of skills which enables him to perform better.
So, when you want something, it could be material, emotional, physical, spiritual, you have to constantly raise your intellectual level, financial level, skill levels etc in order to get what you want. And when you do so, you evolve from one level to the other, you evolve to be a better person that you were before.
That is why, God has placed desires and wants within us, so that we constantly strive to raise our levels of functioning, financially, spiritually, physically, mentally. To continuously evolve to being better and better beings.
This is the meaning why God has given us this gift of life. And that is why we face problems in life.
This is the philosophy which we subscribe to at Lotus Shooting Academy. That life is all about evolving and raising our levels constantly.
How this philosophy, shapes our attitude?
There are two ways of looking at problems in life- You may choose to ignore and or avoid them, because you want to avoid the effort you need to take to overcome them. OR you may choose to accept them and face them squarely and positively.
If you embrace this philosophy as we do, then it defines the way you look at life, in short it defines your attitude towards life. Because you accept, that problems and limitations are part and parcel of our lives and the only way to overcome your problems, is to accept them and face them squarely, positively.
How this philosophy helps you to reduce problems in your lives?
When you set goals for yourself, you are like the driver of a car, travelling late night to reach your destination (goal). The headlights of the car, illuminate the road to his destination. With the help of his car’s headlights, the driver overcomes the problems in his journey, by avoiding fallen branches, pit holes, wild animals and people that suddenly cross his path.
The driver in the car ignores all that is not illuminated in his path. So also, when you set goals for yourself in life, you traverse the journey of your life, illuminated by the light of knowledge, focusing on overcoming only those problems which you are bound to face along the journey.
You thereby expend your precious resources (time, energy, money) only on those obstacles that need to be overcome. For example, the person who comes back home after a long hard day in office, he needs to finish his dinner early so that he can work late night on an important presentation which he has to deliver in office next day. The outcome of the presentation could help him to get a promotion.
But what if he sits down to listen to the gossip, provided by his wife, on the latest ‘happenings’ in their building. Gossip about who has bought a new car, or whose son is having an affair with whose daughter in the building, or what shopping their neighbor’s have done on their oversees holiday in Singapore? Obviously if he chooses to waste his time, trying to compete with the Joneses, then he is not going to do justice to his presentation and can probably kiss his promotion goodbye.
In shooting also, a shooter is constantly trying to reach the goal of shooting a ‘10’ in each and every shot. To do so, he has to master a set of skills which will enable him to shoot a ‘10’ and then learn further skills which help him to repeat the maximum number of ‘10’s in a match.
But shooting as a sport can be extremely harsh. The target is like a ‘looking glass’. At the end of the match, the targets reflect your performance. If you have shot badly, then only YOU yourself are to blame and not the shooter on the neighboring firing point. The shooter has to learn to accept his own limitations, he has to develop a positive attitude, that failure is temporary and that he can take many positive takeaways which he can then dovetail in a better training program. This brings us to the Vision, Mission Statement and the Lotus Shooting Academy.
Our Vision:
We at Lotus Shooting Academy, visualize a world comprising of human beings who have evolved from ordinary mortals to individuals who bring high value, not only to their own lives and immediate families but also to society at large. We therefore use the sport of ‘pistol Shooting’ as a medium for developing such individuals.
Our Mission:
Our mission is to provide a ‘holistic’ training program which develops the whole person, not only technically but also at the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level. Holistic training is necessary because human beings are multi-dimensional. We have conscious and unconscious aspects, rational and irrational aspects. We are a body-mind, not just intellectual, but we are emotional, blessed with instincts and intuition. And we have to use all of these resources to produce extra ordinary performance.
Our objectives:
Firstly, to make our holistic training program so affordable that the maximum number of people can avail of it.
Secondly, to provide support via online, group coaching sessions and one-on-one personal coaching, enabling the true seeker of knowledge and those willing to put in the time and effort an opportunity to carve out for themselves a niche in society.
Finally, Why we call ourselves as the Lotus Shooting Academy?
The Lotus flower grows in muddy water and it is this environment that gives the flower’s first and most literal meaning: rising and blooming above the murk to achieve enlightenment. So also, our philosophy cultivates the attitude and goals so important to rise from a lower level to a higher level.
The second meaning, which is related to the first, is ‘purification’. It resembles the spirit which is born into murkiness. This process of ‘purification’ is achieved through our ‘holistic’ training program.
The third and final meaning refers to the ‘faithfulness’. Those who are willing to rise above the muddy waters will need to be faithful followers. The term ‘willing’ refers to those who ready to accept all obstacles in their path leading to their goals. To be faithful means to be self-disciplined enough to adhere to the tenets of the ‘holistic’ training program.