Zen in the Art of Archery Eugen Herrigel Pantheon Books/Random House, New York (1953, 1981) Eastern ways of thinking and learning can help us know ourselves and bring balance into our lives. Book Review © Dr. Terry J. van der Werff, CMC

It is commonplace to speak of the unrelenting change that we experience these days in our personal and professional lives.  Companies come and go.  New technologies make what is familiar obsolete.  The Web turns business models on their heads, and market evaluations of Internet stocks makes heads turn.

Sometimes it pays to stop and smell the roses or simply get off the treadmill and be anchored.

Let me suggest a little book (81 pages) so full of meaning it takes hours to get through.  Indeed, I suspect it's better read over a period of days to absorb properly.

Herrigel was a philosophy professor who lived and taught in Tokyo for a half dozen years in the 1930's.  Drawn to mysticism, he sought to understand Zen Buddhism through the medium of archery and apprenticed himself for six years to a Zen Master.  This book describes what he felt and learned about this art and through it about Zen itself.  "For access to the art - and the master archers of all times are agreed in this - is only granted to those who are 'pure' in heart, untroubled by subsidiary aims."  Thus, the pursuit of archery is not one of sport, but one of gradual mastery of one's self.

Painstakingly, from the first lesson onwards, Herrigel is taught how to breathe and to relax, even as his arms and shoulders strain at the pull on the bow.  Then to allow the bowstring to release itself, not the archer releasing it.  All the while, trying not to think about technique, nor to strive to hit the goal, eventually achieving a "purposeless and egoless" state which allows the arrow to shoot itself.

After several years of diligent practice, "more right shots occasionally came off."  Note the stress on the shots acting, not the archer shooting.  Then the Master instructs, "Our new exercise is shooting at a target."  All the practice had been without a target until now!

In the end, the art of archery really is about a contest between the archer and himself.  It's as if the natural state of the arrow is in the center of the target, and the only contribution is to free the arrow to pursue it rightful place.

Read this book, and savor its ideas to bring patience and balance into your life.

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