In the 1920s Eugene Herrigel, a university professor of philosophy, took up archery in Japan as a way to get closer to an understanding of Zen. Zen in the Art of Archery, published in 1948, is his entertaining account of the process of learning archery. 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.” The thing I really appreciated about this short book was how demystifying it was about Zen and how real it was about mastery. Herrigel spends years on archery, hitting plateau after plateau, putting a monumental amount of work into it. You can feel his frustration every time he hits a wall, how much effort that he puts into breaking past these walls, his satisfaction upon finally getting it, his confusion over what his master is asking of him, and the underlying struggle of wrapping his head around detachment. This format holds a huge advantage over something like Inner Game precisely because we can try feel what he feels, struggle when he struggles, and ultimately realize that we just can't do it unless we ourselves train. 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.

Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel, R. Hull

But after reading it, I would almost hesitate to say this book, or even really Zen as Herrigel describes it, contains much mysticism at all. Despite some of the language in this book being reverent on the unknowable, I think a lot of it might perhaps be better described as the unconscious. Herrigel's journey to mastery over the art of archery is one characterized by progressively growing more skilled at losing himself in the skill, in dissolving into the actions he's performing to the point where it's almost like he isn't doing anything at all. His master stresses this over and over - that any technical training available to Herrigel pales in comparison to the long-term gain that comes from abandoning himself to the skill. The influence of Daoism, Chan Buddhism, and Confucianism on the theory and practice of East Asian martial arts 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.The hand, exercising perfect control over technique, executes what hovers before the mind’s eye at the same moment when the mind begins to form it.

Zen in the Art of Archery – Your Golden Buddha Zen in the Art of Archery – Your Golden Buddha

The painter’s instructions might be: spend ten years observing bamboos, become a bamboo yourself, then forget everything and paint. 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… Just as one uses a burning candle to light others with, so the teacher transfers the spirit of the right art from heart to heart, that it may be illuminated.

Kyudo around the world

Buddhism and Martial Arts in Premodern Japan: New Observations from a Religious Historical Perspective The idea is that when archers shoot correctly, with “truth,” good spirit and attitude, beautiful shooting will naturally follow. (This idea, removed from a spiritual context, is present in modern competition archery traditions, too.) 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.” 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.

The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery - JSTOR

Aggiungo, come mi ha fatto notare un altro amico che l'ha letto nel mio stesso periodo, che l'autore non ci dice nulla di sé e dello Zen dopo la conclusione del suo apprendimento. Questa è forse l'unica accusa che mi sento di muovergli. Nel libro ci viene raccontata l'esperienza come se avesse effetti stravolgenti sull'esistenza umana. Non era forse fondamentale descrivere come e se è mutata la sua vita successivamente ad essa? 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. This supposedly uplifting book has depressed me amidst its poetry and beauty into a realization that I will probably never 'correct my own stance' or 'let the arrow fall at the moment of highest tension', effortlessly hit any goal or even realize what the real goal is... 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. This book is the result of the author’s six year quest to learn archery in the hands of Japanese Zen masters. It is an honest account of one man’s journey to complete abandonment of ‘the self’ and the Western principles that we use to define ourselves. Professor Herrigel imparts knowledge from his experiences and guides the reader through physical and spiritual lessons in a clear and insightful way.

What Is Semantic Scholar?

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. archery is still a matter of life and death to the extent that it is a contest of the archer with himself;” You must free yourself from the buffetings of pleasure and pain, and learn to rise above them in easy equanimity, to rejoice as though not you but another had shot well.