Zen In The Art Of Archery - by Eugen Herrigel

Archery and fencing are the two disciplines this book uses to explain Zen buddhism’s practices and nature.

It does so with the simple narrative. The author’s journey into mastering archery through “art without artifice”. This means learning the act of shooting an arrow to become as natural, unconscious and effortless as an apple that falls from a tree. This practice works very well as a driver to the methods and philosophy behind it, which then parallels to any skill or discipline we can set for ourselves.

In short, the main goal is not entirely about learning to shoot arrows with precision, rather creating the habit or achieving the meta-skill of detaching ourselves from the objective when learning something and allowing “it” (the unconscious) to take the reins of the actions.