Zen In The Art Of Archery By Robert Sharf: An Analysis

All religions have both a historical background and a philosophical outlook on life that are individual to each and every religion’s conviction. As human beings, we each experience life in a different way and have our own outlook on many things including our stance on religion. Buddhism and Christianity are both religions that have very distinct branches and throughout history have been altered historically and philosophically. The essays Teaching and Learning in the Rinzai Zen Monastery by Victor Hori and Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience by Robert Sharf showcase similarities and differences between Buddhism and Christianity. Victor Hori is an experienced Rinzai Zen monk who has written about his thirteen year experience

Sharf credits the widespread western influence of Japanese Zen Buddhism to followers of Zen Buddhism wanting to attract intellectuals to the Buddhist religion by exaggerating the sensation of “mystical enlightenment”. It is possible that by exaggerating Buddhism rituals, they have altered the original traditional rituals through time. In the story Zen in the Art of Archery, Eugen Herrigel attempts to use rote memorization in order achieve a personal experience from Zen archery. The goal is “not to shoot the arrow but rather to allow the arrow to ‘shoot itself’” . Herrigel performed the task over and over again for weeks until eventually, without explanation the head monk accepts the shot of the arrow. Sharf scrutinizes that the use of routines and memorization hinder preserving tradition because of the subjectivity of each individual’s experience. He argues that by continually performing the same task the individual will lose sight of the cultural significance of the task and will eventually cease to be tradition which has influenced modern

Hori explained that monks learn to follow tradition through experience, but the art of teaching experience in the Japanese Zen monastery is perplexing. Monks use two styles to teach, teaching without teaching and teaching with teaching. These styles complement each other by making the monk want to work harder in order to become more quick and efficient in their assigned duty. Elder monks will not help younger monks in teaching without teaching, they will only scold them until they are doing their job efficiently and in the traditional manner. In order to continue the teaching without teaching throughout the Zen Buddhist monasteries, monks will be assigned a new office position every six months; Monks do not get any forewarning and must act upon the jobs as quickly and efficiently as possible. Hori’s firsthand accounts of experience in the Zen Buddhism monastery verify that teaching in Zen Buddhism differs from the Western civilization style of teaching, teaching with teaching. It would not be common for people of the West to expect to understand how to do a task or job without being given the proper