Messages from Big Island, Hawaii, in Japanese and English
The book referred the story from the book, “Yumi to Zen (Zen in the Art of Archery)”, written by Herrigel, who learnt Kyudo (Japanese traditional archery) from his master.
This is a famous story, and I have heard about this before. Herrigel tried to hit the center of the target, and pulled the bow by watching the target. However, his master told him, “No. Do not watch the target”. Herigel could not understand, so the master told him to come back at night. The night, the master invited Herrigel to the venue. There was a target far from the shooting area, and one small piece of incense stick was placed in front of it. They could only see the small incense and nothing around it. The master, from far distance, shot the first arrow. They could not see where the arrow hit but they surely heard the sound of arrow sticking in somewhere. Then, the master shot the second arrow. It has hit somewhere too. They checked the target. Then, they found out that the first arrow hit right the middle of the target. And the second arrow penetrated the first arrow’s feather and got stuck into the center of the arrow. The master taught him to shoot without watching by your physical eyes, but watching by your mind eyes. I myself still do not understand the meaning behind of it, but want to explore this more. This book also mentioned the “Force” in the movie ‘Star Wars”. (to be continued) Comments are closed.
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An Interpreter for JCU Archives
April 2021
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