EXTRACTS FROM EUGEN HERRIGEL “ZEN IN THE ART OF ARCHERY”
1.
… Anyone who subscribes to this art today,
therefore, will gain from its historical development the undeniable advantage
of not being tempted to obscure his understanding of the “Great Doctrine” by
practical aims – even though he hides them from himself – and to make it
perhaps altogether impossible. For access to the art – and the masters of all
times are agreed in this – is only granted to those who are “pure” in heart,
untroubled by subsidiary aims … the exercises are mystical [internal]
exercises, and accordingly can in no circumstances mean accomplishing anything
outwardly [with the fist], but only inwardly with oneself … Wrapped in
impenetrable darkness, Zen [Wu Shu] must seem the strangest riddle which the
spiritual life of the East has ever devised: insoluble and yet irresistibly
attractive … remember that [Wu Shu] is not meant to strengthen the muscles …
Relax! Relax! … not a technical trick, but liberating breath-control with new
and far-reaching possibilities … despite all equivocation and sober reserve,
the results obtained by the new breathing are far too definite to be denied …
2.
… Since the remotest times its symbol has been
the yielding and yet unconquerable water, so that 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 most hard” … the physical
loosening must now be continual in a mental and spiritual loosening, so as to
make the mind not only agile but free: agile because of its freedom, and free
because of its original agility; and this original agility is essentially
different from everything that is usually understood by mental agility. Thus,
between these two states of bodily relaxedness on the one hand and spiritual
freedom on the other there is a difference of level which cannot be overcome by
breath-control alone, but only by withdrawing from all attachment whatsoever,
by becoming utterly egoless: so that the soul, sunk within itself, stands in
the plenitude of its nameless origin …
3.
… Even if the pupil does not at this stage grasp
the true significance of his [movements], he at least understands why [Wu Shu]
cannot be a sport, a gymnastic exercise. He understands why the technically
learnable part of it must be practised to the point of repletion. If everything
depends on the artist’s becoming purposeless and effacing himself in the event,
then its outward realization must occur automatically, in no further need of
the controlling or reflecting intelligence. It is this mastery of the art that
the method of instruction seeks to inculcate. Practice, repetition, and
repetition of the repeated with ever increasing intensity are its distinctive
features for long stretches of the way. At least this is true of all the traditional
arts. Demonstration, example; intuition, imitation – that is the fundamental relationship
of instructor to pupil …
