Zen in the Art of Archery (读书笔记和抄录)

德国一个搞哲学的人在五几年之前写的，通过讲自己学日本箭道的体会向西方人介绍禅。好几年前RS就极力推荐给我了。我第一次看的时候，觉得还可以吧，可是里面讲的东西对于东方人来说都不新鲜，用英语讲还看着累，所以没看完就让我丢一边了。后来不知怎的想起来了，翻出来重看，看得十分喜欢，一边看一边啧啧赞叹。

这几年我的一个变化是，渐渐觉得看一个东西不光是看它说的是什么，更重要的是它怎么说，怎么让我接受。禅在中国不象在西方那么神秘，中国人对禅多多少少都以为有个概念。但是禅恰恰是可以令人知道很多却不了解，了解很多却无体会，有了体会还可能迷失的东西。所以佛经里说事儿喜欢反来覆去地说，同一件听了好多遍的事，不定哪天听另一个人用另一种方式说，就忽然有了前所未有的冲撞感。这本以箭道讲禅的小书，是面向对禅毫无了解的西方人的。看里面说得好多概念都不新鲜，可是他的文字非常好，而且通过自身修箭道的体会来讲，就有很多更直观的感受。看完之后我感叹，真想不到能有人用西方文字把东方思想讲得这么到位。用中文讲禅，都很难看到写得这么到位的东西。我假设英语和德语足够相近，所以我看得英文版里的语言比较接近原作。虽然是五十多年前的作品，文字读起来非常平易近人。我印象中早年的人们喜欢繁琐的用词，长句子带很多从句，读着特累。这本书就完全不是。他的句子都是短句，词也以短词为主，很少big words，除了一些我估计是原先常用现在不流行了的词，书里的大部分词句都非常简洁易懂。看得出来作者不是那种自说自话的著书人，他写东西时就考虑了要让读者看明白的。这也许是由于德国人的直截了当和高效率，也许是受了禅的影响，因为禅很重要的一部分就是师徒传授，老师怎样通过各种方式启发学生使之开悟。

是一本值得反复读的书。

以下是一些抄录和感想。

词汇：
类似“道”的意思：ultimate reality
类似“无明”，“无为”的意思：Unconscious （第一个U用大写）
平常心：everyday mind
类似“无境”的意思：Groundlessness (G大写)
类似“无相”的意思：Qualitylessness (Q大写)
类似“无住”的意思：detachment

关于呼吸：
The master attached so much importance to breathing out slowly and steadily as possible to the very end, that, for better practice and control, he made us combine it with a humming note. Only when the note had died away with the last expiring breath we were allow to draw air again.

(The Master said) “Concentrate entirely on your breathing, as if you have nothing else to do!”

其它多处也强调了呼吸的重要性。我觉得调整呼吸是一件非常另我抓狂的事。从事运动和修行的人都常强调呼吸有多重要，可是我在这两种场合都搞不好呼吸。有人说练习惯了就会呼吸自如了。我觉得这里面提到的呼气时发声象是个挺好的办法。

The more one concentrates on breathing, the more the external stimuli fade into the background. They sink away in a kind of muffled roar which one hears with only half an ear at first, and in the end one finds it no more disturbing than the distant roar of the sea, which, once on has grown accustomed to it, is no longer perceived, in due course one even grows immune to large stimuli, and at the same time detachment from them becomes easier and quicker.
这一段调吸效果的描述非常清晰。虽然我从来都没弄好过呼吸，但是看了他说的觉得能明白他啥意思。

关于修行过程：
(The Master said) “Whoever makes good progress in the beginning has all the more difficulties later on.”
我的理解是，在整个过程中，最有价值的是学习中的困惑和挣扎，从这种自身困难的经验中向自己学习。没有人会比别人少困惑，只是先后发生而已。困惑和挣扎是最有价值的，所以不应因它们而感到悲哀和对自己丧失信心。修行没有shortcut，也不应当在没有经历所有的过程的时候盲目为结果焦虑。作者描述自己修箭道的过程，中间很长时间没有任何进步，困顿到已经顾不上想自己什么时候能学到哪一步了。或者这样才更能除了眼前的修行什么都不想，或者这正是所有的修行中必须有的经历。

（The Master said) “When you come to the lessons in the future, you must collect yourselves 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!”
我觉得这段话特别有力，值得反复念上百八十遍！

对修行仪式的阐释：各种宗教和修行中有很多形式美。虽然形式不是修行的目的，有时候他们对修行是很有帮助的。作者有一段对修行仪式的解释也非常到位。
He sticks to this traditional custom because he knows from experience that the preparations for working put him simultaneously in the right frame of mind for creating. The meditative response in which he performs them gives him that vital loosening and equability of all his powers, that collectedness and presence of mind, without which no right work can be done.

关于“无住”和境界：
… the mind or spirit is present everywhere, because it is nowhere attached to any particular place.
讲得非常清楚有逻辑。

The demand that the door of the senses be closed is not met by turning energetically away from the sensible world, but rather by a readiness to yield without resistance.
觉得这一段表达得特别好。

关于教学思想和师生关系：
The Japanese pupil brings with him three things: good education, passionate love for his chosen art, and uncritical veneration of his teacher. The teacher-pupil relationship has belonged since ancient times to the basic commitments of life and therefore presupposes, on the part of the teacher, a high responsibility which goes far beyond the scope of his professional duties.
这是对东方教学模式很好的阐释。这些年来西方的“student-centered education”被包括东方和西方的大部分人认为是现代的和先进的。我得承认，我一直暗暗地用有点cynical的态度看这种西式现代教学模式。东方和西方的教学模式各有优点。但是我相信，对于自己愿意学习的学生，东方模式是好的。可能不是最高效率的，但是有些领域的学习是不可以急功近利的。一些技术领域的东西西方模式还是有优点的。但是西方教学还花很多心思在怎样推动和诱惑那些非常不想学习的学生。在我看来，这方面心思花得太过用力，就舍本逐末了。

（The Master said) “And if I tried to give you a clue at the cost of your own experience, I would be the worst of teachers and would deserve to be sacked!”
美国教育很多时候在我看来就是spoon-feeding，于是有时候就会听到学生抱怨拒绝spoon-feeding的老师，“Don’t bother to ask him a question, because he won’t answer it!”, “He is mean and gives you nothing!” …

The instructor’s business is not to show the way itself, but to enable the pupil to get the feel of this way to the goal by adapting it to his individual particularities.