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

in the Japanese Zen monastery; he emphasizes routine use of tradition in Zen Buddhism and how his experiences in teaching and learning in Rinzai Zen Buddhism could not be compared to those of the West. Contrastly, Robert Sharf uses a historic approach to gather insight on the history of experience and meditation throughout the Buddhist religion; he uses written texts in order to prove that Buddhism’s “traditional” values are influenced by western civilization. In Victor Hori’s essay, he uses his experience in both Japan and the west to contrast western influence on modern Buddhism, the experience of teaching and learning, and practice of meditation. Whereas Robert Sharf uses historical texts and personal interviews to showcase the western influence on modern Buddhism, the experience of teaching and learning, and the practice of meditation.
As both a philosopher and a Rinzai Zen monk, Victor Hori explains how tradition is used as a means to preserve the Rinzai Zen religion. Hori lived in the Rinzai Zen monastery from 1977-1990 which would be considered modern Buddhism, but he was constantly taught the importance of carrying tradition. His thirteen years in the monastery proved that new monks are very important to the monastery and are expected to learn and understand the ways of ancient Rinzai traditions in order to preserve them. According to Hori’s accounts, shintōs, younger monks, have much to learn at the Japanese Zen monasteries and must learn through both rote memorization and logical understanding. Hori states that the lifestyles of monks should emulate that of medieval Japan and that by giving offices to monks each six months, they will assume their position as officers without being taught but simply by learning it himself. Monks must perform their duties traditionally, correctly, and promptly . Because Hori has learned the severe importance of ancient traditions in his religion, comparing what he has been taught to that of western civilization would be hypocritical to his religion.
In contrast to Hori’s experience of preserving tradition, Robert Sharf discredits the sincerity of the so-called ancient traditions throughout Buddhist religions.

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

Buddhism.
While Hori only speaks on behalf of Rinzai Zen Buddhism, he uses his experience in the monastery to form an ideological conclusion that teaching and learning protocols in Japanese Zen monasteries have no similarities to those in the West.

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

instructions.
By using historical texts, Sharf explains how Western civilization in the nineteenth and twentieth century directly influenced the teaching and learning of Buddhist religion. In the Buddhist religion, experience as a way of learning is portrayed as an extremely important part of the religion but Sharf is skeptical of the genuine significance of experience. Throughout historical texts, Buddhists often fail to carefully explain the term experience and its importance in enlightenment and in the Buddhist religion. Through Gimello’s essay, Sharf argues that “Buddhist practices were designed to evoke experiences that conform to, and thus confirm, the central tenets of Buddhism” . Sharf criticizes that familiar Zen Buddhism words for experience were seldom shown in traditional Buddhism texts and refutes the relevance of satori, to understand in traditional Zen Buddhism, as a replacement for the modern uses of experience in Buddhism. Sharf acknowledges both the lack of experience in traditional Buddhist texts and criticizes the conformity of experiences as being influenced by the West.
The importance of meditation in the Buddhist religion is undisputable, but the origin of meditation in the religion is unclear. Hori trusts that meditation is a traditional concept used by ancient followers of Buddhist religion and he also describes meditation as a vital ritual in Buddhism. In Zen Buddhism, meditation is used as a form of repetition that is to become second nature to learning monks. It is believed that meditation exercises will guide monks to enlightenment. In Rinzai Zen Buddhism, meditational practice can often lead to harsh punishment if answering the kōan incorrectly; this punishment would often be encountered as abuse in the West, but is a way of gaining experience according to Japanese Zen monks. When practicing zazen, sitting meditation, elder monks use traditional kōans in order to provoke enlightenment. Kōans are enigmatic riddles used to inspire monks to achieve enlightenment and are habitually repeated in order to completely understand. Because answers to the kōan are completely subjective and must be approved by the rōshi, finding the answer to a kōan is meant to invade one’s mindfulness which will incite the answer to the kōan. Throughout Hori’sdescription meditation, he aims to determine that the teachings of Japanese Rinzai Zen contrasts that of any Western civilization .
In contrast, Robert Sharf uses a historian’s perspective in order to prove that meditation in the Buddhist religion is a fairly modern derivation and has been entirely influenced by the West. Sharf explains that Japanese intellectuals emulated the West in order to vindicate the growing Buddhist religion. In the twentieth- century, Japanese Zen leaders began influencing Buddhism’s meditation to become more similar to Christianity’s use of faith. According to Sharf, the sangha, community of Buddhist monks and nuns, would rarely practice meditation. The author affirms the lack of traditional meditation by referring to Mahasi Sayadaw’s style of practice. He critiques that Mahasi’s vipassana practice was not introduced until 1939 and explained that meditation was previously a precarious ritual. The author again declares the lack of attestment of meditation before modern Buddhism and uses Sri Lankan followed Buddhism to prove the recent evidence of meditation.
Considering Victor Hori and Robert Sharf contrast greatly in their personal experience of Christianity and Buddhism, Hori’s accounts are more reasonable considering he has lived in the monastery for thirteen years. Because Hori has lived both in the United States and Japan, he can compare the relationship between religions through his own understanding. Hori is using his personal accounts in order to prove his case, but Sharf is using found evidence in order to explain how Christianity could possibly have affected traditional Buddhism. In Sharf’s essay, he tries to use all different forms of Buddhism in order to support one main idea of the Buddhist religion as a whole. Christianity and Buddhism are not equivalent, but this would be similar to an author criticizing Catholic, Methodist, and Protestant religions in order to criticize Christianity as one group. According to class lectures Datoki-ji’s, meditation-centered Zen practice, appeared in 1431 , which contradicts Sharf’s argument of Western dominated influence in the twentieth century. In Sharf’s argument of western influence on meditation, it is a possibility that Sharf failed to explore works that would contradict his argument. Because Hori is a monk, he has been taught to rote memorization in order in order to gain mystical insight and it has also been taught to him that the ritual of meditation has been passed down for centuries. In all religions, followers must have faith in what they are taught and must not question the reasoning, Hori will manifestly agree to his religion’s teachings. As humans, we are taught to have faith in what we are taught throughout our childhood and life and it makes logical sense to agree with an insider’s perspective rather than a person who is able to pick and choose which ideas of the different Buddhism religions to summarize the entire Buddhist religion.
It is important to consider the historical and philosophical accounts of a religion and Hori and Sharf have successfully explained each of their respective accounts. Hori highlighted the importance of tradition in the modern Japanese Zen Buddhism, explained his accounts of being taught the ways of the monastery, and recalls his accounts of meditation throughout his experience in the monastery and disregards that Christianity can account for his teachings and experience in the monastery. Sharf uses his limited knowledge of all Buddhist religions and uses their texts and historical background to showcase Western influence on traditional ideas, explains how teaching of Buddhist values was heavily influenced by the west in the nineteenth and twentieth century, and regards that meditation is a recent development because of the lack of confirmation in the sangha. While both accounts offer very good evidence and great insight, Hori’s accounts have meaning, background and experiential information which are plausible and agree with the notion that western civilization has not excessively influenced Buddhism throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.