The Art of Storytelling

[Charlotte]

Heard on NPR that an Organization is formed to revive the art.

Almost everyone knows that stories are told via Myths, Legends, fables, by individuals who had one or more life changing experiences never to be forgotten, and incorporated in great Literature. Years ago I read a little booklet "Zen in the Art of Archery", by Eugen Herrigel, "a German Philosopher who came to Japan and took up the practice of Archery toward an understanding of Zen". Introduction by Daisets T. Suzuki. The content left a deep impress on my Mind, joined all other stuff in my subconcious, but surfaced a few weeks ago as if hinting to read it again, and really came to the fore while listening to the interview.

Suzuki-san:

"One of the most significant features we notice in the practice of archery, and in fact of all the arts as they are studied in Japan and probably also in other Far Eastern countries, is that they are not intended for utilitarian purposes only or for purely aesthetic enjoynments, but are meant to train the mind; indeed, to bring it into contact with the ultimate reality."

The Japanese understands that "by the art of archery he does not mean the ability of the sportsman, which can be controlled, more or less, by bodily exercises, but an ability whose origin is to be sought in spiritual exercises and whose aim consists of in hitting a spiritual goal, so that fundamentally the marksman aims at himself and may even succeed in hitting himself."

"Know thyself" is as old as we are; "Sin is missing the mark", or as Mr. Hall puts it, "sin is the refusal to grow". It is the same old story woven into Myths, Lagends and Saga, transformative agents, in great Literature on a more lofty plane.

"To such , I spread my zagu and make my profound bow".

"For the reader, however," writes Mr. Suzuki, "the question may still remain unsolved, "Where is the archer?"

[Charlotte]

Speaking for myself, I like and need to read and write in paragraphs, as continuous writing without a mental breather is like the heart beating without an interval, so again, I will divide this narrative.

Learning to hit the little round mark, the German Philosopher, Eugene Herrigel:

"THAT THE WAY OF THE "ARTLESS ART" IS NOT easy to follow we were to learn during the very first lesson. The Master began by showing us various Japanese bows, explaining that their extraordinary elasticity was due to their peculiar construction and also to the material from which they are generally made, namely bamboo. But it seemed even more important to him that we should note the noble form from which the bow—it is over six feet long—assumes as soon as it is strung, and which appears the more surprising the further the bow is drawn. When drawn to its full extent, the bow encloses the "All" in itself, explained the Master, and that is why it is important to learn how to draw it properly. Then he grasp the best and strongest of his bows and, standing in a ceremoneous and dignified attitute, let the lightly drawn bowstring fly back several times. This produces a sharp crack mingled with a deep thrumming, which one never afterwards forgets when one hears it only a few times: so strange is it, so thrilling does it grip the heart.

"From ancient times it has been credited with the secret power of banishing evil spirits, and I can well believe that this interpretation has struck roots in the whole Japanese people. After this significant introductory act of purification and consecration the Master commanded us to watch him carefully. He placed, or "nocked," an arrow on his string, drew the bow so far that I was afraid it would not stand up to the strain of embracing the All, and loosed the arrow. All this looked not only very beautiful, but quite effortless. He then gave us his instructions: "Now you do the same, but remember that archery is not meant to strenghten the muscles. When drawing the string you should not exert the full strenght of your body, but must learn to let only your two hands do the work, while your arm and shoulder muscles remain relaxed, as though they looked on impassively. Only when you can do this will you have fulfilled one of the conditions that make the drawing and the shooting 'spiritual.'

"With these words he gripped my hand and slowly guided them through the phases of the movement which they would have to execute in the future, as if accustoming to the feel of it."

[Charlotte]

Holding and drawing the Bow

"Even at first attempt with a medium-strong practice-bow I noticed that I had to use considerable force to bend it. This is because the Japanese bow, unlike the European sporting bow, is not held at shoulder level, in which position you can, as it were, press yourself into it. Rather, as soon as the arrow is nooked, the bow is held up with arms at nearly full strech, so that the archer's hands are somewhere above his head. Consequently, the only thing he can do is to pull them evenly apart to left and right, and the further apart they get the more they curve downwards, until the left hand, which holds the bow, comes to rest at eye level with the arms outstreched, while the right hand, which draws the string, is held with arm bent above the right shoulder, so that the tip of the three-foot arrow sticks out a little beyond the outer edge of the bow—so great is the span. In this attitute the archer has to remain for a while before loosing the shot. The strenght needed for this unusual method of holding and drawing the bow caused my hands to start trembling after a few moments, and my breathing became more and more labored. Nor did this get any better during the weeks that followed. The drawing continued to be a difficult business, and despite the most diligent practice refused to become "spiritual." To comfort myself, I hit upon the thought that there must be a trick somewhere which the Master for some reason would not divulge, and I staked my ambition on its discovery.

"Grimly set on my purpose, I continued practicing. The Master followed my efforts attentively, quietly corrected my strained attitute, praised my enthusiasm, reproved me for wasting my strenght, but otherwise let me be. Only, he always touched on a sore spot when, as I was drawing the bow, he called out to me to "Relax! Relax!"—a word he had learned in the meantime—though he never lost his patience and politeness. But the day came when it was I who lost patience and brought myself to admit that I absolutely could not draw the bow in the manner prescribed.

"You cannot do it," explained the Master, "because you do not breath right. Press your breath down gently after breathing in, so that the abdominal wall is tightly streched, and hold it there for a while. Then breathe out as slowly and evenly as possible, and, after a short pause, draw a quick breathe of air again—out and in continually, in a rhythm that will gradually settle itself. If this is done properly, you will feel the shooting becoming easier every day. For through this breathing you will not only discover the source of all spiritual strenght but will also cause this source more abundantly, and to pour more easily through your limbs the more relaxed you are." And as if to prove it, he drew his strong bow and invited me to step behing him and feel his arm muscles. The were indeed quiet relaxed, as though they were doing no work at all."

[Charlotte]

Breathing was practiced, the slow and steady outbreathing was combined "with a humming note" for better control.

"The breathing in, the Master once said, binds and combines; by holding your breath you make everything go right; and the breathing out loosens and completes by overcoming all limitations."

Just learned why I hold my breath when absolute concentration is necessary in working with my hands, or the first few seconds on balancing on an unstable object, or while reading a sentence so profound that in its comprehenshion "aha" all limitations are overcome. I just took a deep breath and held it to experience what the Master means by "down-pressed breath".

"The Master now went on to relate the breathing, which which had not of course been practiced for its own sake, to archery. The unified process of drawing and shooting was divided into sections.: grasping the bow, nocking the arrow, raising the bow, drawing and remaining at the point of highest tension, loosing the shot. Each of them began with breathing in, was sustained by firm holding of the down-pressed breath, and ended with breathing out. The result was that the breathing fell into place spontaneously and not only accentuated the individual position and hand movements, but wove them together in a rhythmical sequence depending, for each of us, on the state of his breathing-capacity. In spite of its being divided into parts the entire process seemed like a living thing wholly contained in itself, and not even remotely comparable to a gymnastic exercise, to which bits can be added or taken away without its meaning and character being thereby destroyed."

The student told the Master that he consciously made an effort to keep relaxed, to which the Master replied:

"That's just the trouble, you make an effort to think about it. Concentrate entirely on your breathing, as if you had nothing else to do!" It took me a considerable time before I succeeded in doing what the Master wanted. But—I succeeded. I learned to lose myself so effortlessly in the breathing that I sometimes had the feeling that I myself was not breathing—but strange as this may sound—being breathed."

As the student practiced innumberable failures and few successful shots, he became convinced and "was ready to admit that now at last I understood what was meant by drawing the bow "spiritually.""

[Charlotte]

"So that was it: not a tchnical trick I had tried in vain to pick up, but liberating breath-control with ne far-reaching possibilities. I say this not without misgiving, for I well know how great the temptation to succumb to a powerful influence and, ensared in self-delusion, to overrate the importance of an experience merely because it is so unusual. But despite all equivocation and sober reserve, the result optained by the new breathing—for in time I was able to draw even the strong bow of the Master with muscles relaxed—were far to definite to be denied.

"TO BE ABLE TO DRAW THE THE BOW "SPIRITUALLY" after a year, that is, with a kind of effortless strenght, is no very startling achievement. And yet I was well content, for I had begun to understand why the system of self-defence whereby one brings one's opponent to the ground by unexpectledly giving way, with effortless resilience, to his passionately delivered attack, thus turning his own strenght against him, is known as "the gentle art." Since the remotest times it symbol has been the yielding and yet unconquerable water, so that Lao-tzu could say with profound truth that right living is like water, which "of all things the most yielding can overwhelm that which is of all things the most hard."

Simple yet profound example, of course, we know that works mentally also when a person wants to argue just for the sake of arguing and it becomes apparent that no resolution can be had, the universal consensus is that the wiser man walks away, in German: "Der Klügere gibt nach", in case you happen to argue with a German who think they know everything, it is known.

In physical confrontations, a thought just crossed my Mind, namely, why Football Coaches have never thought of using this method now and then, viz, instructing the offensive line to wait until they feel the defenders are at the limit of their push-back strenght, step aside quickly to let the defenders fall on thir face, so startling the players in the back field that all their attention is focused on the bizzare scene that they stop wrestling while loking up to catch the ball which isn't even in the air, because the Quarterback, knowing the plan, runs with it up the side-line and, having reached the promised land of the game, waves it at his team with a triumphant smile... Silly me

Yesterday, filling my gas tank, I complimented a pretty, well groomed girl on the other side of the pump, filling the tank of her apparently brand new, spotless Harley Davidson. She smiled "Thank You". The bike was proportional to her attractive size and her smart clothing carefull chosen, I saw. Maybe she went for a Sunday ride.

[Charlotte]

Why the ceaseless search for our origin and for what makes us tick? I has been taught throuout the Ages that every individual, including the atheist, and we as collective Humanity, travel the Road most traveled

The Road to Self-perfection

"In this respect Zen is akin to pure introspective mysticicm. Unless we enter into mystic experiences by direct participation, we remain outside, turn and twist as we may. This law, which all genuine mysticism obeys, allows no exceptions. It is no contradiction that there exists a plethora of Zen texts regarded as sacred. They have the peculiarity of disclosing their life-giving meaning only to those who have shown themselves worthy of the crucial experiences and who can therefore extract from these texts confirmation of what they themselves already possess and are, independently of them. . . . Like all mysticism, Zen can only be understood by one who is himself a mystic and is therefore not tempted to gain by underhand methods what the mystical experience withholds from him.

"Yet the man who is transformed by Zen, and has passed through the "fire of truth," leads far to convincing a life for it to be overlooked. So it is not asking too much if, driven by spiritual affinity, and desirous of finding a way to the nameless power which can work such miracles—for the merely curious have no right to demand anything—we expect the Zen adept at least to show the way that leads to the goal."

Mr. Hall: "Those who are easily discouraged are not worthy of encouragement".

"No mystic and no student of Zen is, at first step, the man he can become through self-perfection. How much has still to be conquered and left behind before he finally lights upon the truth! How often is he tormented on the way by the desolate feeling that he is attempting the impossible! And yet this impossible will one day have become possible and even self-evident. Is there not room for the hope, then, that a careful description of this long and difficult road will allow us at least one thing: to ask whether we wish to travel it?"

Beat'n down by daily concerns and overwhelmed by information fed to us, which we can't digest before we're bombarded with more news, conventional science informing the many that mysticism belongs to the over-active imagination of a world before "the age of enlightenment", the very product of mystic experience.

In the material world, pushing his heavy iron drum, rolling over and crushing what he seeks under it, the Rock Biter laments that "the Nothing is everywhere", the intellectual on his pill fed "racing snail" can't help him out of the thicket of the Forest in which lives the Night Hop, wondering if anyone asking a question or making a comment is "a nutcase", though he continuously eats roots to get to the root of things, only the brave warrior Atreyu with the help of the ancient Mola, the crazy Professor, his wife, and a good luck dragon, finds the Empress with the Pearl of Great Prize on her forehead. However, the favorite rocks of the Rock Biter are those with "vintage crytal".

See a Rock Biter's typical opinion, apparently unaware that the film was made in Munich, Germany, as he is distracted by the voices not matching the lip movement, and other things he can't fathom.

www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/the-neverending-story-why-adults-should-never-watch

[Charlotte]

Thought of deleting my off topic addition because of my judgmental comment, but as with other such videos the critics decray as "popcorn flicks" etc., I am annoyed and frustrated to the point where I don't care.

I watched several videos on Archery this morning and thought this one in tune with Mr. Herrigel's story, namely aiming at oneself as the target is not shown. It is as slow as the Gentleman's deliniation of the Art, but training the Mind to bring it in contact with the ultimated reality is "The Never Ending Story", which Mr. Vary found painfully slow.

[Charlotte]

"When you come to this lesson in the future," the Master "warned us, "you must collect yourself on your way here. Focus your minds on what happens in the practice-hall. Walk past everything without noticing it, as if there were only one thing in the world that is important and real, and that is archery!"

"The first step along this road had already been taken. It had led to a loosening of the body, without which the bow cannot be properly drawn. If the shot is to be loosed right, the physical loosening must now be continued in a mental and spiritual loosening, so as make the mind not only agile , but free: agile because of its freedom, and free because of its original agility; and this original agility is essentially different from everyhting that is usually understood by mental agility. Thus, between these two states of bodily relaxation on the one hand and spiritual freedom on the other there is a difference of level which cannot be overcome by breath-control alone, but only by withdrawing from all attachments whatsoever, by becoming utterly egoless: so that the soul, sunk within itself, stands in the plentitude of its nameless origin."

[Charlotte]

"DAY BY DAY I FOUND MYSELF SLIPPING MORE easily into the ceremony which sets forth the "Great Doctrine" of archery, carrying it out effortlessly or, to be more precise, feeling myself being carried through it as in a dream. Thus far the Master's predictions were confirmed. Yet I could not prevent my concentration from flagging at the very moment when the shot ought to come. Waiting at the point of highest tension not only became so tiring that the tension relaxed, but so agonizing that I was constantly wrenched out of my self-emmersion and had to direct my attention to discharging the shot. "Stop thinking about the shot!" the Master called out. "That way it is bound to fail." "I can't help it," I answered, "the tension gets to painful."

"You only feel it because you haven't really let go of yourself. It is all so simple. You can learn from an ordinary bamboo leaf what ought to happen. It bends lower and lower under the weight of snow. Suddenly the snow slips to the ground withoout the leaf having stirred. Stay like that at the point of highest tension until the shot falls from you. So, indeed, it is: when the tension is fulfilled, the shot must[i/] fall from the archer like snow from the bamboo leaf, before he even thinks."

This a great example when studying a subject and 'striving' to understand what is meant. Advise from my Philosophy Teacher just crossed my Mind: "What, you have been studying for ten years and nothing is happening? Keep doing it." Anyhow, one is frustrated when no understanding is had, the tension is fulfilled, one puts the book aside, the just read flees the Mind and the nickel drops. Many times this personal AHA moment is met with derision: who are you to understand something? And straight away we doubt our own comprehension.

If the thunder don't get us, the lightening will

[Charlotte]

Mr. Herrigel's exquisite state of unconcerned immersion in oneself is of short duration because disturbed by "moods, feelings, desires, worries, meaningless jumble of thoughts - as though they wanted to avange themselves on consciousness for having, through concentration, touched upon realms it would otherwise not reach.

"This state, in which nothing definite is thought, planned, striven for, desired or expected, which aims in no particular direction and yet knows itself capable alike of the possible and impossible, so unswerving is its power—this state which is at bottom purposeless and egoless, was called by the Master truly "spiritual." It is in fact charged with spiritual awareness and is therefore also called "right presence of mind." This means that the mind or spirit is present everywhere, because it is nowhere attached to any particular place. And it can remain present because, even when related to this or that object, it does not cling to it by reflection and thus lose its original mobility. Like water filling a pond, which is always ready to flow off again, it can work its inexhaustible power because it is free, and be open to everything because it is empty. This state is essentially a primordial state, and its symbol, the empty circle, is not empty of meaning for him who stands within it.

"Out of the fullness of this presents of mind, disturbed by no ulterior motive, the artist who is released from all attachment must practice his art. But if he is to fit himself self-effaclingly into the creative process, the practice of the art must have the way smoothed for it. For if, in his self-immersion, he saw himself faced with a situation into which he could not leap instinctively, he would first have to bring it to his consciousness. He would then enter again into all the realtionships from which he had detached himself; he would be like one wakened, who considers his program for the day, but not like and Awakened One who lives and works in the primordial state. It would never appear to him as if the individual parts of the creative process were being played into his hands by a higher power; he would never experience how intoxicatingly the vibrancy of an event is communicated to him who is himself only a vibration, and how everything he does is done before he knows it."

Beautifully said, methinks, and what is true in the lesser is true in the greater, the symbol of the Universe also an empty circle, with a dot in the center, the Sun; with a dot in the center from which proceeds a line, the Soul's meaningful journey in a state which aims at no particular direction, the circumference the sum of its experienes, the "Ring Pass Not", but we can and do expand it even only by living. The Who chime in "the season's right for knowing", even if "we don't know where we're going" as long as we join together in the Band and hopefully reach the point of departure.

[Charlotte]

"The Masters behave as if they were alone. They hardly condecend to give their pupils a glance, still less a word. They carry out the preliminary movements musingly and composedly, they efface themselves in the process of shaping and creating, and to both the pupils and themselves it seems like a self-contained event from the first opening maneuvers to the complete work.

"As in the case of archery, there can be no question but that these arts are ceremonies. More clearly than the teacher could express in words, they tell the pupil that the right frame of mind for the artist is only reached when the preparing and the creating, the technical and the artistic, the material and the spiritual, the project and the object, flow together without a break. And here he finds a new theme for emulation. He is now required to exercise perfect control over the various ways of concentration and delf-effacement. Imitation, no longer applied to objective contents which anybody can copy with a little good will, becomes looser, nimbler, more spiritual. The pupil sees himself on the brink of new possibilities, but discovers at the same time that their realization does not depend in the slightest degree on his good will.

"Assuming that his talent can survive the increasing strain, there is one scarcely avoidable danger that lies ahead of the pupil on his way to mastery. Not the danger of waisting himself in idle self-gratification—for the East has no aptitude for this cult of the ego—but rather the danger of getting stuck in his achievement, which is confirmed by his success and magnified by his renown: in other words, of behaving as if the artistic existence were are form of life that bore witness to its own validity.

"The teacher foresees this danger. Carefully and with the adroitness of a psychopomp he seeks to head the pupil off in time and to detach him from himself. This he does by pointing out, casually and as though it were hardly worth mentioning in view of all the pupil has already learned, that all right doing is accomplished only in a state of true selflessness, in which the doer cannot be present any longer as "himself." Only the spirit is present, a kind of awareness which shows no trace of egohood and for that reason ranges without limit through all distances and depths, with "eyes that hear and with ears that see."

[Charlotte]

rum1.aarch.dk/uploads/media/Eugen_Herrigel-Zen_in_the_Art_of_Archery.pdf

After reading this and the other in the booklet, I posted this but not the other. Anyone interested can read details and wait without purpose" until 'It' shoots".

"One day I asked the Master: "How can the shot be loosed if 'I' do not do it?"
" 'It shoots," he replied.
"I have heard you say that several times before, so let me put it another way: How can I wait self-obliviously for the shot if 'I' am no longer there?"
" 'It' waits for the highest tension."
"And who and what is this 'It'?"
"Once you understand that, you will have no further need of me. And if I tried to give you a clue at the cost of your own experience, I would be the worst of teachers..."

"Don't ask, practice!"

"So I stopped asking, and would have liked to stop practicing, too, had not the Master held me inexorably in his grip. I lived from one day to the next, did my professional work as best I might, and in the end ceased to bemoan the fact that all my efforts of the last few years had become meaningless.

"Then, one day, after a shot, the Master made a deep bow and broke of the lesson. "Just then 'It' shot!" he cried, as I stared at him bewildered. And when I at last understood what he meant I couldn't supress a sudden whoop of delight."

Isn't it always that way, just when tension gets unbeareable we let go and sooner or later 'It' shoots.