Aimless Aim

Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A slim book with some really wonderful insights, but the good stuff takes up less that half of the tale. The parts where he simply describes himself learning Japanese archery and what the teacher told him are really, really great.

I especially like this...

"The right art," cried the master, "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 receed."


But whenever he tries to go beyond that it just seems a bit pretentious.

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