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One Arrow, One Life: Zen, Archery, Enlightenment

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The traditional Japanese school of archery -- Kyudo -- is more than a technique to have an arrow hit a distant target. As one of the classic Ways, like flower arranging or kendo, it is an exploration into oneself. The author, now a Zen teacher and university professor, is not some a kid talking about how a day of Zen turned him into a Judo machine; rather this is a well thought-out, well-written journey of both Zen philosophy and martial arts practice. We follow Kenneth to Japan where he sits cleans the dojo, sits in zazen meditation, and becomes expert in Kyudo.

One of the first books to introduce a Way of Zen to the West was 'Zen in the Art of Archery.' Now `One Arrow, One Life' references Herrigal's classic, while providing a fresh expression of learning an ancient physcal skill, making them perfect accompaniments. The author has a deeper understanding of the history and methods of Zen, and clearly explains how they mate with a big bow, and how to carry the lessons on to your whole life. This book would be super for someone new to Zen, as well as someone who wants to revisit Herrigal. A lot of ideas that people talk about were put into place in my mind, then to my body and soul, thanks to this book.

Ken Kushner is a professor at the University of Wisconsin's School of medicine who has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1978. In 1981 he began learning the art of kyudo, or Japanese archery. The main thrust of this book is showing us the "oneness" of life in archery and life in zazen. The point is not to promote archery as the ultimate path towards liberation, but rather, to demonstrate how any task we do can become a spiritual practice with the right attitude. Yet he does use many analogies by means of archery to make points about life in general.

In kyudo, it is said that it can take up to 30 years to master the art, so indubitably the way of archery requires a lot of practice. It's a lot like Zen, it takes practice which really doesn't end. To enhance his abilities concerning archery, Kushner realized zazen meditation was the driving force behind it all; for in zazen we face the difficulties of our lives, and with dogged determination they diminish. Zazen is all about attaining a one pointed mind, which of course is never without us, enabling ourselves to take on each task as though it is our one and only task. No future, no past, and not even a present. Only "this."

The title says it all. Everything is included in this life, there is no real dualism or separation. Every arrow which is flung is it, no going back. That's life. You must believe in your shot 100%. This book truly is a must have for all practitioners of Zen for it's contributions to our philosophy and way of life. Enjoy!

I need to make this point clear: If you are looking for a technical manual on Kyudo to teach yourself how to do it, your wasting your time. You will never find a Kyudo book with information detailing all the little nuances, tricks, short-cuts, or even how to release the Ya (arrow). Why? Because Kyudo is a journey and figuring it out of yourself is part of that journey. You do this by first mastering yourself, then you can go on to mastering the bow. The best books on doing this are not technical manuals, but the personal narratives of Kyudo masters. You learn a lot more by learning of their journeys, trials, and tribulations through Kyudo. Through this you can make distinctions between your questions, the questions they had, and how they inevitably achieved those solutions, but for your questions, the answers lye only within yourself. This is the only way you will 'really' understand what it means when someone says, "The arrow exists in the target before it is shot."
As for personal narratives by Kyudo masters, this is one of the best.

Hey, kids, look at this!
We have here yet another book presenting the enlightened teachings of the inscrutable East for the benefit of us bumbling Westerners...How many books on Zen, martial arts, Eastern culture, etc., assume some Asian master has unlimited hidden pearls of wisdom and you, poor reader, are the Western cultural bumpkin who badly needs an extreme make-over? (Answer: too many). Many "devotional" types of books on Eastern cultures, and this book is certainly one, assume this popular mentality; and it is common to see Western authors dabbling in Eastern disciplines perhaps being guilty of holding overly-romantic notions of their esteemed adopted cultures. Even Hollywood likes to get in on this act :-). And this mentality is reinforced by many native Asian teachers themselves, who likely see little reason to discourage Westerners from portraying the East in some kind of exotic, mysterious fashion.
So do you see the pattern yet? Yes- you are correct: East = inscrutable wisdom; West = unsophisticated bumpkins.
And yes, W.W. II veterans, you ALSO are correct: it is precisely the same mentality that cost Japan that war!

The problem with this type of mentality lies in the rather naive, romantic portrayals of Eastern culture. The descriptions of these cultures in "devotional" books tend to be overly-enthusiastic, and sociological problem-areas are seldom, or never, reflected upon. We'll touch upon this idealized, overly-romantic vision later.

But for now let's play along. Now that we are hip to the formula, we can proceed to read these types of books and soak in the pearls from the East, as dutiful Western devotees sitting at the feet of the...waitaminute, this is archery...as devotees cocking an arrow...under the enlightened watch of the master. Are you ready, grasshopper? Notice here you have an ordinary white guy throwing out the pearls below, unfortunately breaking the stereotype of a sagely Asian master...but reality is, as long as I'm writing this review and you're reading it, you're the grasshopper and I'm the theoretical endless fountain of wisdom - deal with it :-).

First, a little discussion on the "Ways". What is a "Way"? Many know that various disciplines in Japan, both the fine arts as well as the more-well-known martial arts, have a "Do" suffix attached to words, such as cha-do (way of tea), sho-do (way of the brush), ju-do, karate-do, aiki-do, ken-do, iai-do, etc. etc. Disciplines even without the "Do" suffix could be included in the general scheme of things here as well, such as ikebana (flower arranging) and Noh theatre. The implication here is that these disciplines really have an ulterior purpose- ideally seen, they can be vehicles toward personal development and spiritual insight. In theory, anyway... The "Do" suffix implies certain assumptions, particularly that each of these relevant disciplines - if practiced correctly in their highly condensed, ritualized form, under a genuine master- can help students attain a realization of the "infinite", or Absolute. So we move from a finite practice as a springboard into the infinite- so to speak. Stated differently, these practices can be viewed as training vehicles designed to point the individual toward Zen ideals of personal enlightenment (difficult in any case, but we're speaking "in theory" here).

Now here we are specifically interested in kyudo, "way of the bow". Authors Ken Kushner and Jackson Morisawa are both kyudo practitioners, which means they practice a form of Japanese ritualized archery. Kushner has been at the Chozen-ji school in Hawaii since 1978, and main author Morisawa is a kyudo instructor, one of the co-founders of the kyudo training there. As other reviewers have noticed, this book is not a "how-to" book, per se, but rather a series of "lessons" on how to view life, ideally, through the insights gained from practicing the discipline of kyudo. [Readers wanting a more detailed "how-to" type of book are better-served looking at other books, such as Morisawa's own "Secret of the Target" (rather hard to find these days), or "Kyudo: Essence and Practice of Japanese Archery" by Hideharu Onuma et al.]

This isn't your feudal-period battleground archery, please note; remember what we discussed above on the "Ways". Rather, kyudo is a highly refined ritual, where each step has been broken down and highly formalized. Each action in the sequence needs to be performed with the proper physical technique (waza) along with the proper psycho-spiritual awareness (shin). Hence, the ideal is a perfect combination of body and mind harmonizing completely into the action itself, whatever that may be (this is starting to look like a New-Age buzz session, forgive me for a moment). So here, in essence, is the goal of all the various "Ways"...
And various background conceptions out of Japanese culture bear in on this general theme, such as "zanshin": a hard-to-define term (lit. "remaining mind/spirit") meaning something like an "all-pervasive spiritual awareness". Students of the martial arts know that such a "global" awareness should extend far beyond fighting, even to one's everyday events. Indeed, one's own general state-of-mind in every daily task- no matter how seemingly trivial- should exhibit this "global alertness"- one should be brushing one's teeth with "zanshin" :-). Also, we don't want any 'breaks" or "gaps" (Japanese: suki) in our actions- any break in concentration or physical form shows a lack of "zanshin", and likely will be rewarded with a rebuke from a severe-looking Japanese instructor (OK, a bit too much stereotype here for the sake of description). Closely watch a seasoned Noh actor, if you have the opportunity, and observe how the performer, whether in motion or frozen in stillness, exhibits an intense "zanshin"- it's what defines a good actor vs. a poor one. Kyudo itself teaches similar life lessons on zanshin through certain sayings, such as "one shot, one life" (or more literally, "one shot and die"- issha zetsumei). In other words, each arrow involves the archer's entire life in that shot. Kind of like "giving 110%", even though it makes no logical sense to talk about giving past 100%... (I threw that cliche in for free, you'll hear it in sports all the time...which shows you how these well-meaning cliches easily turn into rhetoric).
Kushner's/Morisawa's book goes on to entail these types of lessons as "life perspectives", so readers interested in such lessons will find similar material presented in a sermon-like manner...But let's do remember to view these cultural exchanges realistically and not romanticize a particular teaching beyond what we should. Americans could easily find wise sayings which we could give to Japan, such as, "Friends don't let friends drink lite beer...".
That's right - every culture has its own sages.

But even so, here, we're talking about a particularly Japanese cultural contribution that is unique, and SHOULD be celebrated. Japan indeed has much to teach the world in its own aesthetics and methods of learning ("from the body to the mind") in constant repetition of these ritualized forms. (Sometimes I see Japan somehow 200 years ahead of the rest of the world in aesthetic appreciation, like the country jumped into some kind of time-warp, but the culture also has its own set of expectations and frustrations for natives, which should be kept in mind).

An issue here concerns the practicality of this manner of teaching, where everything is seen through rose-colored glasses (Chozenji-colored glasses?). In the Chozen-ji view of the world, one doesn't have the proper view if one isn't seeing everything in terms of vehicles toward enlightenment. If this sounds a little over-the-top for the average person, it just may be :-). After all, we all know that famous maxim "words are cheap", and it is easy to teach admonitions which sound good in theory but are difficult to embody personally. Much of this type of "devotional" literature is in that category. People spout all kinds of philosophical stuff that sounds good, but then you look at their own lives...
The fault isn't that teachings, such as "one shot and die", don't have value, per se, but one should realize these are idealized sentiments that most folks will find rather difficult to put into every action. Do you brush your teeth as a means of Zen practice, reader? Why not? Answer: "because we're not Zen students and don't pretend to be, dummy". I hear ya. Do you know of anyone who puts their whole life, so to speak, into every action they do? How about the Chozen-ji crowd itself? Congrats, neither do I. The teachings sound lofty, but on a daily level, much of it remains somewhat rhetorical.
And I have to be honest here, once one moves out of the Japanese "fine arts" per se, and into the more-physical "martial" arts, these lofty spiritual teachings have little place in the mentalities of the majority of practitioners- Japanese or otherwise (aikido might be an exception). Yes, I know the "Do" suffix is tacked on the end of these disciplines as well, but practically speaking, the majority of martial artists around the world probably don't view their art specifically as a vehicle toward Buddhist goals of enlightenment. The "Do" aspect should thus be seen as a huge over-statement of reality, or at least as mere lip-service to ideals which aren't taken too seriously. Do you really think, for instance, that a world-class Japanese judoka practicing for the Olympics is thinking in terms of Zen enlightenment? Yeah, right... (Did you know that many Japanese citizens view suspiciously people who choose to become karateka, for instance- it doesn't enjoy a terribly refined reputation and practitioners are perceived as somewhere between thugs and country bumpkins? Oh yes. Not much spiritual enlightenment in this scenario...). And in the fine arts, one should be careful not to read too much Zen or Shinto into activities that many native Japanese see as essentially enjoyable hobbies. Native Japanese can be highly amused when a Westerner comes out spouting lofty sentiments about being one with the universe through Shinto or Zen...just as we might be amused at a Japanese holding romantic notions about, say, the wild wild West, with everybody wearing cowboy boots and cowboy hats, like on TV Westerns. Moral: don't try to over-spiritualize activities that for many natives are merely enjoyable cultural hobbies. Most Japanese aren't trying to become spiritual giants through these practices, and so Westerners guilty of trying to extract deep Zen or Shinto lessons out of common cultural events are being a bit romantic :-).
So I see the relevance of this type of literature - for most folks anyway - to be rather minimal. It should more properly be seen as the domain of a specialized group of students, seeking a particularly Zen experience through some kind of ritualized formal training.

One last note. As I mentioned in another review of a Chozen-ji book, one should always do some background-digging on the characters involved in one's favorite religious path. In this case, we're talking about Sogen Omori, founder of the Chozen-ji school we're looking at here. Omori was indeed a famous Rinzai teacher in Japan, and his views of combining Zen training with physical movement, such as swordsmanship or the fine arts, is very influential. These insights, however, must be tempered with the realization that Omori himself was in reality a right-wing zealot in Japan with violent political views, as readers of Brian Victoria's books will know. A pity the lofty Zen teachings weren't exactly followed in his own life completely, which shows us that one should be cautious viewing any spiritual teacher as a "sage".
Other examples abound. In Kyudo, particularly, one can point out the example of the German Eugen Herrigel, whose book "Zen in the Art of Archery" became a Western classic (indeed, his book influenced these Chozen-ji authors as well). Unfortunately, Herrigel went on to became an ardent Nazi, which serves to prove that even though influential people may say nice spiritual things, they have as much trouble as anyone else trying to live these philosophies.
I don't write these comments to pick on the Chozen-ji school particularly, but only because they represent very clearly some common (rather simplistic) assumptions about "getting enlightenment from the East". I wish something like ritualized archery could turn everyone into a spiritual giant, but alas, human nature is pretty complex, and our biology always always seems to throw a monkey wrench into these spiritual projects :-).

Since Eugen Herrigel's classic on Zen and the Art of Archery I have not come across with a book that ignated my heart. In a world where technology, sophistication and complexity abounds, this simple story shoots an arrow of love straight to the heart of the reader. Kushner shares his story of how he decided to learn the art of kyudo and the insights of his zen practice, his difficulties, his findings, his struggles and joys. He connects remarkably well the teachings of his kyudo teachers with that of his Zen practice. An easy to read small book which faithfully conveys the message of love, simplicity and authenticity enabling the reader to easily travels back in time Kurshner and experiences his first steps of his learning journey. A must reading for those interested in catching the spirit of zen and kyudo and not just the technique.

The author uses his study of Kyudo and relates to the ideals and practice of Zen Buddhism. This is a good book of practice for anyone who wants to bring a living, moving Zen into the activities of everyday life. Kushner takes us through his life experience in learning Zen. Is failures and his success. Lets us know that Zen can be understood and practiced by anyone. This book is very a important addition to all who study Zen. The addition of this book should be required for all practictioners of Martial Arts who wish to reach the pinnicle of their art. Kushner begins with a solid introduction to the foundation techniques of both kyudo and zazen-breathing, posture, and concentration. Shares his experiences with us. And lets us follow him through his advance studies.

This book was an autobiagraphical approach as to who one man learned. In this way the book was not what I anticipated. I thought thst I would be reading a book about techniques not how one internalized techniques. The below book was what I found more helpful. Kyudo: The Essence and Practice of Japanese Archery (Bushido--The Way of the Warrior).