Zen in the Art of Archery
by Eugen Herrigel
List Price:
Our Price: $7.01
You Save: $5.99 (46%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.90 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Eugen HerrigelIntroduction: Daisetz T. Suzuki
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-01-26
ISBN: 0375705090
Number of pages: 96
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Zen in the Art of Archery
Book Review: "I really know nothing."
Summary: 5 Stars
Professor Eugen Herrigel, a German-born professor of philosophy, taught at Tokyo University during the interwar period. During his stay in Japan he became fascinated by Zen Buddhism, then little known in the West, and undertook to study the art of archery with Bowmaster Awa Kenzo, who taught archery not as a technical skill but as a form of meditation practice.
I have read that Kenzo was not a Zen teacher and that this book misrepresents Zen, but I respectfully disagree. Zen has permeated the Japanese fine arts for centuries, and Kenzo's lessons express Zen, regardless of his formal status in the Zen community. Others have criticized Herrigel for coming at Zen obliquely, through Kyudo (the art of archery); again, I respectfully disagree. Zen is not just a segregated "practice" of chants, incense and sitting meditation, it is living life itself, fully. Hence, cooking, cleaning, eating, archery, or even motorcycle maintenance can be Zen practice if done with mindfulness.
Herrigel was writing long before any idea of "Zen" entered into the general Occidental mindset. Indeed, Herrigel's book title has inspired hundreds of copycat "Zen in the Art of . . .", "Zen and the Art of . . .", "The Zen of . . .", and "The Art of Zen in . . ." titles.
While there were other Western (and transplanted Eastern) exponents of Zen in 1948 when Herrigel's book appeared, Herrigel's book became the first "Zen bestseller".
Much of this short (90 page) book discusses the No-Mind necessary to successful mastery of any art. Since Herrigel is attempting to express what is essentially inexpressible, the book's language (in English translation) seems both esoteric and arcane in its utter simplicity.
For all its brevity, this is a dense book, and an interested reader will return to it many times over many years.
Psychology & Counseling Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Psychology & Counseling Books
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Valuesby Robert M. Pirsig
Harper Perennial; Published: 2000-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Consumers, and Providers (4th Edition)by E. Fuller Torrey
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 2001-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Consumers and Providersby E. Fuller Torrey
Perennial; Published: 1995-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.68
Price in other shops:
The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millenniumby Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Harper Perennial; Published: 1994-06-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.75
Price in other shops:
How People Changeby Allen Wheelis
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 1975-07-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.47
Price in other shops:
Sleeping Through the Night, Revised Edition: How Infants, Toddlers, and Their Parents Can Get a Good Night's Sleepby Jodi A. Mindell
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2005-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.43
Price in other shops:
Emotional Blackmail: When the People in Your Life Use Fear, Obligation and Guilt to Manipulate Youby Susan Forward, Donna Frazier, Susan Frazier
Harpercollins; Published: 1997-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
Obedience to Authority: An Experimental Viewby Stanley Milgram
Harpercollins; Published: 1974-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $532.97
My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderersby Helen Morrison, Harold Goldberg
William Morrow; Published: 2004-05-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.97
Price in other shops:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Stressby Jeffrey P.; Davidson, Jeff Davidson
Macmillan Distribution; Published: 1996; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.33
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Real Presencesby George Steiner
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 1991-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.87
Price in other shops:
Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysisby Sigmund Freud, James Strachey
Liveright; Published: 1989-09-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
Five Dialoguesby Plato, G. M. A. Grube
Hackett Pub Co; Published: 2002-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.83
Price in other shops:
Introducing Religion: From Inside and Outside (3rd Edition)by Robert S. Ellwood
Prentice Hall; Published: 1993-03-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $73.08
Price in other shops:
Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconsciousby Prof. Timothy D. Wilson
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; Published: 2004-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.47
Price in other shops:
The Book of Teaby Kakuzo Okakura
Dover Publications; Published: 1964-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.33
Price in other shops:
A Practical Handbook for the Actorby Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Nathaniel Pollack, Robert Previtio, Scott Zigler
Vintage; Published: 1986-04-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.96
Price in other shops:
God: The Evidence: The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular Worldby Patrick Glynn
Prima Publishing; Published: 1999-03-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.04
Price in other shops:
Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introductionby Mark Siderits
Hackett Pub Co Inc; Published: 2007-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops:
Zen Bow, Zen Arrow: The Life and Teachings of Awa Kenzo, the Archery Master from "Zen in the Art of Archery"by John Stevens
Shambhala; Published: 2007-02-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.14
Price in other shops: