Zen in the Art of Archery Essay -- essays research papers

Zen in the Art of Archery, by Eugen Herrigel describes the ritualistic arts of discipline and focus that the Zen religion focuses around. In this guard, Herrigel describes many aspects of how archery is, in fact, not a sport, but an art form, and is very spiritual to those in the east. The process he describes shows how he overcame his initial inhibitions and began to look toward new shipway of seeing and understanding. In the beginning of the book Herrigel tells us that he is pen about a ritual and religious practice, whose aim consists in smash a spiritual goal, so that fundamentally the marksman aims at himself and whitethorn even succeed in hitting himself. (Herrigel p. 4) Through his studies, the author discovers that at heart the Zen ritual actions, archery in this case, there lies a deeper meaning. Herrigel explains throughout this book that it is not through the actual physical aspect of shooting pointers at repoints that archery is Zen, but through the art and spir ituality through which it is performed. It is not further shooting an arrow to hit a target, but becoming the target yourself and wherefore, in turn, hitting yourself spiritually. By meeting this spiritual goal, you will then meet the physical goal. The struggle then is, therefore not with the arrow or the target but within oneself.Archery, in this book, was the way that the author found his way into Zen Buddhism. One of the most important lessons that Herrigels master taught him was, to correctly master the art of ar...