"Zen in the Art of Archery" Quotes

The right art is purposeless, aimless! The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede.

To be completely involved in what one is doing is, as Zen has it, to be completely alone with oneself at such times.

The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull's-eye which confronts him. This state of unconscious is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill.

One has to lower both mind and body to that degree of humility which makes it possible for the individual to become one with the target, and, at the same time, to forget all about it.

The hitting of the target is not the goal. The goal is the shooting with precision.

You must concentrate upon and consecrate yourself wholly to each day, as though a fire were raging in your hair.

The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull's-eye which confronts him.

Mastering an art means precisely this: that one is able to execute correctly, easily, and instinctively, without hesitation or conscious thought.

One should not stand at the tip of the breath, but completely on the other side.

The art of archery is not a sport. It is a spiritual discipline; a means for perfecting the mind and enlightening the spirit.