Zen in the Art of Archery: Training the Mind and Body to Become One

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The mind must first be attuned to the Unconcious. If one really wishes to be the master of an art, technical knowledge of it is not enough. One has to transcend technique so that art becomes an “artless art” growing out of the unconscious. In the case of archery, the hitter and the hit are not opposing objects but are one in reality. The bow and arrow are actually just a pretext for something that could just as well happen without them. They are only the way to a goal, not the goal itself. Only the truly detached can understand what is meant by “detachment,” and that only the contemplative, who is completely empty and rid of the self, the ego, is ready to “become one” with the “transcendent deity.” His trainer, referred to mostly (or maybe solely) throughout the text as Master, has dialogues with his pupil, answers some of his questions straightforwardly, others in epigrammatic quips pitched somewhere between haiku and drollery. The author, Herr Herrigel, grows in proficiency in the bow, gaining strength, insight, and humility, meditating on everything from death to the elusive and ineffable nature of perfection and the essence of Zen. The effortlessness of a performance for which great strength is needed is a spectacle of whose aesthetic beauty the East has an exceedingly sensitive and grateful appreciation.

Eugen Herrigel - Oxford Reference

The Zen Master lives happily enough in the world, but ready at any time to quit it without being in the least disturbed by the thought of death. To become a master, walk past everything without noticing it as if there were only one thing in the world that was important and real, and that is archery. The demand that the door of the senses be closed is not met by turning energetically away from the sensible world, but rather by a readiness to yield without resistance. The soul needs an inner hold, at it wins it by concentrating on the breath. The “Great Doctrine” knows nothing of a target which is set up at a definite distance from the archer. It only knows of the goal, which cannot be aimed at technically, and it names this goal, if it names it at all, the Buddha.

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The shot is a different story. To loose the shot, one must release effortlessly, unconsciously, like a baby grabbing a finger only then to release and reach for something else. If you release with your fingers or your shoulder, you cannot find the perfect shot as you have not let go of yourself. You do not wait for fulfillment but wait for failure. What stands in your way is that you have too much willful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen. Master archers say with the upper end of the bow the archer pierces the sky. With the bottom end, as though attached by a string, hangs the earth. For purposeful and violent people the rip of the thread becomes final, and they are left in the awful center between heaven and earth. Questo libro mi è stato suggerito per la prima volta con grande entusiasmo una decina d'anni fa da un amico, e trovandolo di recente a buon prezzo in perfette condizioni non ho esitato ad acquistarlo. Caso vuole che abbia poi incontrato nuovamente lo stesso amico e riconoscendo il volume nella sua biblioteca gli abbia chiesto di nuovo un parere. Non ricordava nulla del suo contenuto. Ad ogni modo veniva citato ne L'arte di amare che ho appena concluso, quindi si è inserito bene nel mio attuale flusso di letture. Stripped away of archery and Zen we still have a memoir of a forty-year old ex-patriot attempting to learn something intuitive that is being taught to him by an indirect method. It is a story in which years pass before Herrigel is allowed to move on from firing at a target only two meters away, and my phrase completely misses the point. Herrigel spent several years learning what he needed to learn before his teacher considered it was time for him to shot over the normal thirty meter distance. The target in the beginning was not the target, the centre of the target was Herrigel himself. His breathing, stance, relaxation and grip. Once that was in place and he could be a natural counterpart to the long Japanese bow and arrow then the training could be expanded to include the interrelationship with a target thirty meters distant.

Zen in the Art of Archery: Eugen Herrigel, R. F. C. Hull

Lao-tzu could say with profound truth that right living is like water, which “of all things the most yielding can overwhelm that which is of all things the most hard.” I learned to lose myself so effortlessly in the breathing that I sometimes had the feeling that I myself was not breathing but, strange as this may sound, was being breathed" Oh, wow. In Britain Spring may well be here and with spring come the lambs new born, which means that Mothering Sunday is upon us see there is a logic of sorts and naturally due to my bibilophila what better way of making the solemn day than by giving a book. Ah, you are thinking you gave your Mother Zen in the Art of Archery...how...singular - but of course not - quite how crazy do you think I am? No, I bought her a blood-thirsty murder tale set in the Swedish Arctic full of moss, body parts, snow and police procedure, departing the bookshop well satisfied the feeling arose and condensed in the nether regions of my brain where I don't normally go, that the things we do for entertainment can be a bit strange. I reflected on this to a dear friend and mentioned by way of clarification that what I was reading was perfectly normal the memoir of a Nazi-ish he became a party member after the events of this book middle aged German professor of his struggle to learn Japanese style archery as a means of understanding Zen in Japan in the 1920s. As I was saying, perfectly normal reading. Zen takes Buddhism a step beyond the simple dictums of Theravada. The feeling I had while reading this was similar to the one I had when I read Jiddu Krishnamurti. The underlying idea is the same but expressed in different ways.

Zen in the Art of Archery also relates to the " inner child" idea in humanistic psychology. Later literature either discusses balancing the "inner game" and the "outer game" or counseling approaches to accessing, communicating and collaborating with the inner child beyond sports. [ citation needed] Soltanto quando gli assicurai solennemente che un maestro che prendeva tanto sul serio il suo compito avrebbe potuto trattarmi come il suo più giovane allievo, perché volevo apprendere quell'arte non per divertimento ma per amore della 'Grande Dottrina', mi accettò come allievo… This was one of the first book I read on the subject. Given the choices made by Herrigel later in life, it is unclear what he took away from these experiences.

Zen in the Art of Archery | Semantic Scholar [PDF] The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery | Semantic Scholar

Like the beginner, the swordmaster is fearless, but, unlike him, he grows daily less and less accessible to fear." The right art is purposeless, aimless! The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede. What stands in your way is that you have a much too willful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.

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The instructor’s business is not to show the way itself, but to enable the pupil to get the feel of this way to the goal by adapting it to his individual peculiarities” When we face the target, it is like a mirror that reflects our heart. We must confront ourselves in this mirror.” – Takeuchi Masakuni being able to wait without purpose in the state of highest tension...without continually asking yourself: Shall I be able to manage it? Wait patiently, as see what comes - and how it comes!” I must only warn you of one thing. You have become a different person in the course of these years. For this is what the art of archery means: a profound and far−reaching contest of the archer with himself. Perhaps you have hardly noticed it yet, but you will feel it very strongly when you meet your friends and acquaintances again in your own country: things will no longer harmonize as before. You will see with other eyes and measure with other measures. It has happened to me too, and it happens to all who are touched by the spirit of this art.” O'Brien, Liam (November 2003). Zen in the Art of Archery: A Practitioner's View (pdf) (Speech). The Buddhist Society, London . Retrieved 14 March 2016.

Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel | Goodreads Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel | Goodreads

Grading might happen once or twice a year, and there is a programme of competitions and events around the world. Bow and arrow are only a pretext for something that could just as well happen without them, only the way to a goal, not the goal itself, only helps for the last decisive leap. This book comes highly recommended by personages as disparate as Mike Tyson and Norman Mailer (actually, Tyson and Mailer might not be all that different). Wary of Western appropriations of Eastern arts and mysteries, I put off reading this book for some time. I failed to see a genuine learning in the voice of the author. It was almost caricaturish. Lately I have also become very sensitive to cultural appropriation, and I no longer enjoy reading books on Yog that are written by someone who can't read Sanskrit, or a book on Zen by someone who doesn't understand Japanese language.

You have described only too well," replied the Master, "where the difficulty lies...The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of yourself. You...brace yourself for failure. So long as that is so, you have no choice but to call forth something yourself that ought to happen independently of you, and so long as you call it forth your hand will not open in the right way--like the hand of a child.” The path to achieving Zen (a balance between the body and the mind) is brilliantly explained by Professor Eugen Herrigel in this timeless account. All right doing, is accomplished only in a state of true selflessness, in which the doer cannot be present any longer as “himself”. Only the spirit is present. Bow, arrow, goal and ego, all melt into one another, so that I can no longer separate them. And even the need to separate has gone. For as soon as I take the bow and shoot, everything becomes so clear and straightforward and so ridiculously simple..."