“When drawing the string your should not exert the full strength of your body, but must learn to tlet only your two hands do this work, while your arm and shoulder muscles remain relaxed, as though they looked in pmassively. Only when you can do this will you have fulfilled one of the conditions that will make the drawing and the shooting spiritual.” Spoken by Master Kenzo Awa to Eugen Herrigel at his first lesson in the art of archer. Gaviola Sensei explains that the seed of this delicious fruit tranquility is the proper breather method.
“Press your breath down gently after breathing in, so that the abdominal wall is tightly stretched, and hold it there for a while. Then breath out as slowly and as evenly as possible, and, after a short pause, draw a quick breath of air again – out and in continually, in a rhythm that will gradually settle itself.” The preceding and following quotations were both spoken by Master Kenzo Awa to Eugen Herrigel. “Concentrate entirely on your breathing as if you had nothing else to do.”
“You must hold the drawn bowstring like a child holding the proffered finger. It grips it so firmly that one marvels at the strength of the tiny first. And when it lets the finger go, there is not the slightest jerk, do you know why? Because a child doesn’t think; I will now let go of the finger in order to grasp this other tiding. Completely uselfconsciously, without purpose, it turns from one to the other, and we would say that it was playing with the things. Were it not equally true that the things are playing with the child.”
“The shot will only go smoothly when it takes the archer himself by surprise.”
“The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of your self. You do not wait for fulfillment, but brace yourself for failure.”
“Your hand does not burst open like the skin of a ripe fruit.” The preceding four quotations on purposeless tension all come from the text, Zen in the Art of Archery.
“You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.”
“When you come to the lessons in the future, you must collect yourselves on your way here. Focus your minds on what happens in the practice hall. Walk past everything without noticing it, as if there were only one thing in the world that is important and real, and that is archery.” (or shall we say Karate’.) From Zen in the Art of Archery.
“Believe me, I know my own experience that the Master knows you and each of his pupils much better than we know ourselves. He reads in the souls of his pupils more than they care to admit.” Spoken by Mr. Komachiya, the interpretor for Eugen Herrigel at his lessons with Master Kenso Awa.
One day after having neglected the Art for a couple of weeks, I came to class and concentrated upon my breathing solely. I had not been practicing, and so I was not thinking of all I had practiced, or learned. I did not brace for failure, but Instead I waited for fulfillment, again concentrating completely on my breathing and nothing else. Snesei Lenore had instructed me before my promotion to Yonkyu not to over practice. This was something that in my little truth could not accept. Now, however, after the benefit of this one day’s instructin I finally have come to understand her admonition. Letting a move occure independently of myself had never happened before. I truly could feel Sensei inside of me. This was an exhilarating expercience.
*Gong before me, Sensie
*Teach me poetry
*Magic caress me, Sensei
“Thu pupil should understand or in some cases merely guess what is demanded of him. Hense, there is no need to conceptualice the distinctions traditionally express in images. And who knows whether these images, born of centuries of practice, may not go deeper than our carefully calculated knowledge.” Zen in the Art of Archery, pagee 55, Eugen Herrigel.
“Demonstration, example: intuition, imitation—that is the fundamental relationship of instructor to pupil." Zen in the Art of Archery.
“The pupil should bring three things: good education, passionate love for his art, and uncritical veneration of his teacher. Zen in the Art of Archery.
“Just as one uses a burning candle to light others with, so the teacher transfers the spirit of the right art from heart to heart that it maybe illumined. If such should be granted a pupil she remembers that, more important than all outward works, however attractive, is the inward work which she has to accomplish if she is to fulfill her vocation as an artist.” Zen in the Art of Archery.
“Steep is the way to mastery. Often nothing keeps the puil on the move but his faith in his teacher, whose mastery is now beginning to dawn on him.” Zen in the Art of Archery.
“He who has it would do well to have it as though he did not have it.” Zen in the Art of Archery.
“He who has an 100 miles to walk would do well to regard 90 as half the journey.”
“your arrows do not carry because as if the goal were infitnetly far off.” The preceding quotes are from Zen in the Art of Archery.
At the seminar in Santa Cruz in January of 1984 I worked with a brown belt. He was very helpful with the kumite we were assigned to work on which was an over-hand right at a run; the oobject being to go “through” your opponent. I was having a difficult time in the beginning, and although his instruction was excellent I somehow wasn’t able to get the feel of the move until he said to me, “Your one of Mr. Gaviola’s students arent’ you? I told him that was indeed true, and then he said, “Then you do understand what I’m talking about.” At that moment I improved executive and, although the move was nowhere close to perfection, I came to a correct understanding and was better able to perform it. A great motivation is a great teacher, just as a great teacher is a great motivation.
“Instead of reeling off the ceremony like something learned by heart, it will then be as if you are creating it under the inspiration of the moment so that dance and dancer are one and the same, and the dance is a religious one.” Zen in the Art of Archery, Eugen Herrigel, spoken by Master Kenzo Awa.
“He must dare to leap into the Origin, so as to live by Truth and in the truth, like one has become one with it. He must become a pupil again, a beginner; conquer the last and steepest stretch of, the Way, undergo new transformations. If he survives its perils, then is his destiny fulfilled; face to face he beholds the unbroken Truth, the Truth beyond all truths, the formless Origin of origins, the Void which is the All; is absorbed into it and from it emerges reborn.” Zen in the Art of Archery.
“It is not for nothing that the samurai have chosen the fragile cherry blossom as their trues symbol. Like a petal dropping in the morning sunlight and floating serenely to Earch, so must the fearless detach himself from life, silent and inwardly unmoved.” Zen in the Art of Archery. Eugen Herrigel, Spoken by Master Kento Awa.
“You know already your should not greive over bad shots; learn now not to rejoice over good ones. You must free yourself from the bffetings of pleasure and pain, and learn to rise above them in easy equanimity to rejoice as though not you but another had shot well. This, too, you must practice unceasingly – You cannot conceive of how important this is.” Zen in the Art of Archery.
“Again, after wrong shots the pent-up breath is expelled explosively, and the next breath cannot be drawn quickly enough. After right shots the breath glides effortlessly to its end; where-upon, air is unhurriedly breathed in again.” Zen in the Art of Archery.
You should become utterly egoless so that the soul sunk within itself stands in the plenitude of its nameless origin.
“For access to the art—and the master archers of all time are agreed in this—is only granted to those who are ‘pure’ in heart, untroubled by subsidiary aims.” From Zen in the Art of Archery, page 20, first paragraph, Eugen Herrigel.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see GOD.” From the New Testament, Mathew, Chapter five, verse eight.
“Then comes the supreme and ultimate miracle; art becomes artless, shooting becomes not-shooting, a shooting without bow and arrow; the teacher becomes a pupil again, the Master a beginner, the end a beginning, and the beginning perfection.” Gaviola Sensei Described this a telepathy, this is how you become your opponent. Sensei is so patient, always taking the time to guide me through what must seem to him an obvious path. The quotations is from Zen in the Art of Archery. Page 20, paragraph two, Eugen herrigel.
“Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me…At that day ya shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” From John: Chapter14; verses 10, 11, and 20. At last I understand these scriptures.
“Let your mind go, free your mind.” The sixth percept of Funakoshi Gichin’s twenty.
Zen, whose formal name is Dhyanna Buddhism, originated in India and reached its full development in China.
“No reasonable person would expect the Zen adept to do more than hint at the experiences which have liberated and tranformed him, or to attempt to describe the unimaginable and ineffable ‘Truth’ by which he now lives.” From Zen in the Art of Archery. Page 23 and 24 paragraph four.
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward these openly.” From the New Testament, Mathew, Chapter six, verse six.
“It is no contradiction that there exists a plethora of Zen texts regarded as sacred. They have the peculiarity of disclosing their lifegiving meaning only to those who have shown themselves worthy of the crucial experiences and who can therefore extract from these texts confirmation of what they themselves already posses and are independently of them.” An extraction from Zen in the Art of Archery, page 24, line 10, Eugen Herrigel.
“And He said, unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of GOD; but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.” The Gospel according to Saint Luke, Chapter eight, verse ten.
“Yet the man who is transformed by Zen, and who passes through the ‘fire of truth,’ leads far too convincing a life for it to be overlooked.” Zen in the Art of Archery, page 24, paragraph two, line one, Eugen Herrigel.
“By their works shall ye know them.”
“…But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” New Testament, Mathew, Chapter three, verse 11.
“He (the Zen adept) knows from personal experience that nobody can stay the course without conscientious guidance from a skilled teacher and without the help of a Master.” Taken from Zen in the Art of Archery, page 24, paragraph two, line five.
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way the truth and the life” no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” New Testament, Joh, Chapter 14, verse six.
“No less decisive, on the other hand, is the fact that his experiences, his conquests and spriritual transormations, so long as they still remain ‘his’ must be conquered and transformed again and again until everything ‘his’ is annihilated. Only in this way can he attain a basis for experiences which, as the ‘ all embracing Truth’ rouse him to life that is no long his everyday, personal life. He lives, but what lives is no longer himself.” Zen in the Art of Archery, page 26, paragraph one, line one.
“Then said Jesus unto his diciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his ccross, and follow me. For whoseover will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” New Testament, Mathew, Chapter 17, verses 24 and 25.
“Only the contemplative who is completely emtpy and rid of the self is ready to ‘become one’ with the transcendent Deity.” From Zen in the Art of Archery, page 30.
“Now at last the bowstring has cut through you.”
You must be able to lie as one with nature. It is delicate balance and must be gentle.
Leave everything yours bhind so that nothing is left but puposeless tension.
The symbol for “right pressense of mind” is the empty cricle.
“ONE SHOT ONE LIFE.”
The following are quotations from “The unmoved understanding” which was written by Takuan and translated by Suzuki Diasetz Teitaro, in “Zen Buddhism and it’s Influence on Japanese Culture”. These were found by me in “Zen in the Art of Archery” by Eugen Herrigel.
“All the skill of the beginner only leads to his heart being snatched away by the sword.”
“You must turn your opponent’s sword against him.”