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

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Most kyudo equipment is sourced directly from Japan. The most distinctive item is the asymmetric yumi bow, usually taller than the archer, and the best of which are made of bamboo. He who masters both life and death is free from fear of any kind to the extent that he is no longer capable of experiencing what fear feels like. It is necessary for the archer to become, in spite of himself, an unmoved center. Then comes the supreme and ultimate miracle: art becomes “artless”, …the end a beginning, and the beginning perfection. 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.” About Zen, despite Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind I don't know enough, or maybe actually too much already, to say anything.

Zen in the Art of Archery - Kufudokan Zen in the Art of Archery - Kufudokan

The painter’s instructions might be: spend ten years observing bamboos, become a bamboo yourself, then forget everything and paint. 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.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.

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

As I understand it, talking about Zen has a tendency to confuse things. What makes this a worthwhile read is not the author’s interpretation of what Zen actually is (or is not) but rather the fact that it is one of the earliest books to expose the Western public to Zen. It spawned a century of speculation and countless books on the subject.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" The hand that stretches the bow must open like a child's hand opens. What sometimes hinders the precision of the shot is the archer's over-active will. He thinks: "What I fail to do will not be done", and that's not quite how things work. Man should always act, but he must also let other forces of the universe act in their own due time.” 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.” Una pequeña joya literaria que va más allá de la apariencia inicial de autoayuda y nos sumerge en la superficie de la filosofía del Zen de una manera práctica y fascinante.