You may never have considered trying traditional Japanese archery—kyudo—but it offers a profound form of exercise that combines physical activity with mental clarity.
In 1948, a slender paperback, “Zen in the Art of Archery,” by German philosophy professor Eugen Herrigel, introduced Westerners, particularly Americans, to Zen Buddhism. This is not a book on meditation; it is a book on Japanese archery.
Herrigel had taught in Japan, where he became interested in Zen. He was advised to approach learning Zen through one of the Zen arts, such as calligraphy, archery, flower arranging, or the tea ceremony. Herrigel chose archery, and narrated his struggle to do it in the Zen way, letting go of his rationalist habits and learning to trust the intuitive and mystical Way of the Bow….