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.” Many persons had recommended this little book over the years of high school and college, it being one of the canon of the counterculture like the novels of Kurt Vonnegut, the meditations of Alan Watts or the more scholarly essays of D.T. Suzuki. I resisted, partly because it was so popular, another herd-phenomenon, and partly because it was about archery of all things. But, seeing the thing and how short it was, I finally sat down and read the thing. Allowing such doubts then truly this volume is the direct ancestor of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and numerous martial arts films. 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 Quotes by Eugen Herrigel - Goodreads Zen in the Art of Archery Quotes by Eugen Herrigel - Goodreads

Kyudo] consists in the archer aiming at himself – and yet not at himself, in hitting himself – and yet not himself, and thus becoming simultaneously the aimer and the aim, the hitter and the hit. 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 it may sound – being breathed. However, because of Herrigal’s book, which only became influential in Japan once it was published there, many people associate kyudo solely with the practice of Zen.And now that it has been read ...I'm frankly at a loss for words. But, since a review is a collection of words, I should at least try to say something. Here goes: It is very rare that a book or story functions perfectly at the literal level and at the metaphoric. Even rarer is for something to be at once practical and spiritual. "Zen in the Art of Archery," though, rightfully has its place in the canon of such rarefied and concise works of spiritual literature. Put the thought of hitting right out of your mind! You can be a Master even if every shot does not hit. The hits on the target is only an outward proof and confirmation of your purposelessness at its highest, of your egolessness, your self-abandonment, or whatever you like to call this state. There are different grades of mastery, and only when you have made the last grade will you be sure of not missing the goal.” Like the beginner, the swordmaster is fearless, but, unlike him, he grows daily less and less accessible to fear."

Zen in the Art of Archery) Eugen Herrigel Quotes (Author of Zen in the Art of Archery)

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. 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. Japanese archery is ultimately syncretic and pulls from multiple philosophical and religious traditions: the association with the sacred peculiar to Shinto, the traditions of Chinese civil archery and the moral self-improvement of Confucianism, the cosmology of Daoism, the spiritual development of Buddhism and the mental practice to achieve concrete results on the target from Zen. Like all mysticism, Zen can only be understood by one who is himself a mystic and is therefore not tempted to gain by underhand methods what the mystical experience withholds from him.

With Krishnamurti the idea is to be one with nature and be oblivious to the self or anything beyond the moment, you are one with it and thus don't have an independent existence during that moment. With Zen the idea is to learn the same through the medium of an associated discipline be it archery, swordsmanship, painting, or flower arrangement. The idea still remains to enter a state of awareness so deep that you are one with everything around you, especially the discipline you're practicing at the moment. The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery" (PDF). Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 28 (1–2). 2001 . Retrieved 2016-04-28. Apart from the mandatory clothes and the bow, the most distinctive feature of kyudo is the glove, known as the yugake, which the archer uses to give the string a distinct twist when drawing. A top-level, handmade yugake can cost more than 1200 USD. Kyudo around the world 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.