Zen in the Art of Archery - Eugen Herrigel [22]
“I must only warn you of one thing. You have become a different person in the course of these years. For this is what the art of archery means: a profound and far-reaching contest of the archer with himself. Perhaps you have hardly noticed it yet, but you will feel it very strongly when you meet your friends and acquaintances again in your own country: things will no longer harmonize as before. You will see with other eyes and measure with other measures. It has happened to me too, and it happens to all who are touched by the spirit of this art.”
In farewell, and yet not in farewell, the Master handed me his best bow. “When you shoot with this bow you will feel the spirit of the Master near you. Give it not into the hands of the curious! And when you have passed beyond it, do not lay it up in remembrance! Destroy it, so that nothing remains but a heap of ashes.”
X
After all this, I fear the suspicion will have grown up in the minds of many readers that, since archery is no longer of any importance in man-to-man contests, it has survived merely as a highly sophisticated form of spirituality and has thus become sublimated in a not very healthy way. And I can hardly blame them for thinking so.
It must therefore be emphasized once again that the Japanese arts, including the art of archery, have not come under the influence of Zen only in recent times, but have been under its influence for centuries. Indeed, a master archer of those far off days, if put to the test, would not have been able to make any statements about the nature of his art radically different from those made by a master today, for whom the “Great Doctrine” is a living reality. Throughout the centuries the spirit of this art has remained the same—as little alterable as Zen itself.
In order to dispel any lingering doubts—which as I know from my own experience, are understandable enough—I propose, for the sake of comparison, to cast a glance at another of these arts, whose martial significance even under present conditions cannot be denied: the art of swordsmanship. I make this attempt not only because Master Awa was a fine “spiritual” swordsman as well, and occasionally pointed out to me the striking resemblance between the experiences of master archers and master swordsmen, but, even more, because there exists a literary document of the highest importance dating from feudal times, when chivalry was in full flower and master swordsmen had to demonstrate their prowess in the most irrevocable way, at the risk of their lives. This is a treatise by the great Zen master Takuan, entitled “The Unmoved Understanding”, where the connection of Zen with the art of swordsmanship and with the practice of the sword contest is dealt with at considerable length. I do not know whether it is the only document to expound the “Great Doctrine” of swordsmanship in such detail and with so much originality; still less do I know whether there are similar testimonies with regard to the art of archery. However that may be, it is a great stroke of luck that Takuan's report has been preserved, and a great service on D. T. Suzuki's part to have translated this letter to a famous swordmaster more or less unabridged, and thus made it available to a wide circle of readers. Arranging and summarizing the material in my own way, I shall try to explain as clearly and succinctly as possible what one understood by swordsmanship in the past, and