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A review by talonx
Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel
1.0
This slim book has two points that are valuable
- Contemplation and meditation (the Vipassana kind) are essential to mastering any skill, including art forms.
- Years of practice are necessary to perfect technical expertise, where the necessary movements become effortless and can be performed without thinking.
There is nothing new about these two, but this book is well-known because it is one of the first books to introduce what Herrigel thought was Zen to Western audiences. Herrigel wrote this book about his experiences with learning archery from a teacher in Japan. I read about this book in Thad Carhart's memoir "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank", where his French piano teacher gives him this book to read to improve his playing.
Although the book attempts to talk about the spiritual dimensions of practice, it does not do to much in that direction. Instead, we get trite utterings which promise to sound profound - if only we could understand them.
A good critique of Herrigel's book is Yamada Shōji's paper "The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery" - https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/journal/6/issue/162/article/1043 - which demolishes the basis of Herrigel's entire interpretation of his experience.
- Contemplation and meditation (the Vipassana kind) are essential to mastering any skill, including art forms.
- Years of practice are necessary to perfect technical expertise, where the necessary movements become effortless and can be performed without thinking.
There is nothing new about these two, but this book is well-known because it is one of the first books to introduce what Herrigel thought was Zen to Western audiences. Herrigel wrote this book about his experiences with learning archery from a teacher in Japan. I read about this book in Thad Carhart's memoir "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank", where his French piano teacher gives him this book to read to improve his playing.
Although the book attempts to talk about the spiritual dimensions of practice, it does not do to much in that direction. Instead, we get trite utterings which promise to sound profound - if only we could understand them.
A good critique of Herrigel's book is Yamada Shōji's paper "The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery" - https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/journal/6/issue/162/article/1043 - which demolishes the basis of Herrigel's entire interpretation of his experience.