The hand that stretches the bow
“When my bow is stretched, a moment arrives when, if I don’t fire the arrow immediately, I feel that I am going to lose my breath,” the German Eugen Herrigel says to his master.
“As long as you try to provoke the moment of firing the arrow, you won’t learn the great art,” answers the master.
“The hand that stretches the bow must open like a child’s hand opens. What sometimes hinders the precision of the shot is the archer’s over-active will. He thinks: “What I fail to do will not be done”, and that’s not quite how things work. Man should always act, but he must also let other forces of the universe act in their own due time.”
