Zen in the Art of Archary
As I sat around thinking of how I could answer this question, I realized that I had never experienced the feeling where I lost my ordinary sense of self-consciousness that Eugen Herrigel describes. I can come up with numerous occurrences in my life where I lost track of time, but not the loss of self-consciousness as well. I would imagine it must take vigorous training to learn this skill of such magnitude. Of course there are instances when I have become very relaxed where I just think to myself and lose track of my surroundings. However, to me this state of mind is more of a daydream state, which everyone has. It is still very far from losing your self-consciousness, because even with that feeling I can still say that I am thinking in terms of "I" and not in terms if "IT". I cant say that I have ever felt this outside force of "IT" that Eugen mentions. Nevertheless, the closest occurrence I can think of is when reading a book, in which I am very interested. When I get into this state of mind I began to truly enjoy the experience, doing so with extreme focus on the text. This is the best example I can supply that
According to Herrigel "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. This is why it can help develop such a great state of unconcerned immersion. Specifically Herrigel can achieve this state since he 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 let him, the archer, release 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 supposedly. In the end, I feel that Eugen's master was trying to portray that 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. For Herrigel to achieve this he had to realize that technical knowledge was n
Some common words found in the essay are:
Specifically Herrigel, Zen Herrigel, Eugen Herrigel, According Herrigel, Response Paper, reading book, answering question, book example, herrigel achieve, loss self-consciousness, purposeless egoless,
Approximate Word count = 774
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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