One German professor of philosophy, Herrigel, became interested in Zen just by reading in the libraries. And he became so enchanted with it that he took three years’ leave from the university and went to Japan to find a master. He had many acquaintances among professors in the universities, so he enquired and they all told him about one man, a very famous master archer. “Right now there is no one else of that quality. If that man can accept you as his disciple, it will be a great blessing.”
He went. Humbly he said that he has come from Germany and he wants to be his disciple. “And I have come to learn Zen.”
The master laughed. He said, “We don’t know anything about Zen. I am an archer. I can teach you archery, and by the side, if Zen happens you are fortunate. It happens if you follow exactly what I say.”
And he was saying, “Looking at the target, stretching your bow, let the arrow go by itself: you be relaxed.”
This was absolutely absurd. How can the arrow go by itself if one is relaxed? One has to be very tense, one has to concentrate, and the man is saying nothing about concentration; he is talking about relaxation. Herrigel was a very good hunter, so it was not a difficult problem for him: one hundred percent of the time he was hitting the target.
But the master would always say, “No, the thing is missing. You don’t listen to me. You are too concerned with hitting the target, you are too tense, afraid that you may miss the target. That target is not the real target; that is just a device. Stretch the bow, be relaxed, and let the arrow go by itself.”
Three years of constant frustration… Every day it would begin, and every day the master would say, “It seems impossible… you cannot succeed. As far as being an archer, you are — you can compete with any archer — but you had come to know Zen. And I told you I don’t know anything about Zen because I did not want you to be concerned about Zen, because even a concern about it becomes a tension.
“Now I want to say to you: if you can manage to let the arrow go by itself, and you remain relaxed and unconcerned, perhaps by the side you will have a taste of Zen.”
After three years of constant failure Herrigel went to the master and said, “Tomorrow I have to leave. You have been kind and compassionate, but I cannot do this; both together seems to be illogical to me. So tomorrow sometime I will be leaving. If I have time, then I will come just to see you for the last time.”
And he came for the last time. The master was teaching another disciple, and Herrigel was sitting on the bank just looking, because now he was finished. He had decided, “It is not for me.” He could not even understand the language of how it could be possible.
The master was teaching the disciple, and to show him how it should be, he took the bow and arrow in his hands; he stretched the bow. And Herrigel saw, with surprised eyes, that the master was absolutely relaxed, and the arrow reached to the target. And he could see that the arrow was going by itself. It did not have the tension of the master; the master was absolutely relaxed standing there. He was not even worried whether it reached to the target or not.
Herrigel said, “My God! For three years he has been showing me: how could I manage not to see it? It is so apparent that he manages it. Logical or illogical, he is managing it!”
Spontaneously he stood up, went to the master, and took the bow and arrow from his hands. He had not come to try again, but just on the spur of the moment… He had seen for the first time, because for the first time he was unattached, for the first time he was unconcerned — he was leaving, he was finished. His eyes were clear, there was no desire.
He took the bow and arrow, stretched the bow, became relaxed and let the bow be released on its own. It hit the target. The master said, “You have done it! I knew one day you would be able to do it, but I never knew that it would be the last day. And today you had not come to do it. That’s what I have been telling you — that it is a doing which is totally different from ordinary doing. It is action through inaction, doing through non-doing.”
Herrigel said, “Now there is no problem: I have understood it; I have tasted what I had come for. I have tasted that relaxed moment. So that is Zen.”
