Zen in the Art of Archery
Zen in the Art of Archery (ISBN 0679722971) is a book written by Eugen Herrigel in 1953.
This was one of the first books to introduce Zen to westerners, and still one of the best for taking the practical route rather than the contemplative. He describes Zen in the archery as follows: "The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull's-eye which confronts him. This state of unconscious is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill, though there is in it something of a quite different order which cannot be attained by any progressive study of the art . . ." In the 1930s this German philosopher spent several years in Japan. He taught University courses and studied kyūdō, a form of Japanese archery and also ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement art).
External links - Yamada Shôji, The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery. Japanese Journal of religious studies, Spring 2001, 28/1–2. (Number 586). Alternate point of view. full-text PDF 265K
- "Zen in the Art of Archery - A practitioner's View", Liam O'Brien, Kyoshi 7 dan full-text PDF
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