Eugen Quotes & Sayings

In the classic Zen in the Art of Archery, Eugen Herrigel's teacher urged him always to take his next shot unburdened by previous failures to hit the target; as he improved, his teacher urged him not to be influenced by his successes either, to stay in the present moment. — Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

If there is one thing all Fascists and National Socialists agreed on, it was their hostility to capitalism. — Eugen Weber

You must learn to wait properly ... By letting go of yourself, leaving yourself and everything yours behind you so decisively that nothing more is left of you but a purposeless tension — Eugen Herrigel

On the Russian revolutionaries:
To leave your parents, faithful and loyal subjects of the Emperor, to leave your profession, to desist from having children, to lose your fortune, and to give up your civil honor, all for revolutionary conviction, makes for a league of more practical proof than any religious order. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

In all cultures, it is the task of a religion to close the field of contingency ... and to set up havens of the absolute where it is possible to be led from acting to listening, from having to being, from planning to hoping, from judging to forgiving from the finite into the infinite. A society in which such open spaces of eternity do not exist or are only insufficiently developed dies of itself due to lack of air to breathe. — Eugen Drewermann

One must know ones enemy as he is, not as one, for whatever motives, wishes him to be. — Eugen Kogon

Zen Buddhism does not preach. Sermons remain words. It waits until people feel stifled and insecure, driven by a secret longing. — Eugen Herrigel

Whenever we encounter a human being in such a way that we feel absolutely certain of the infinity of that person's worth and the eternity of his or her life, that is Easter. — Eugen Drewermann

Life is movement. Once you stop moving, you're dead. Choose life. — Eugen Sandow

Far from wishing to awaken the artist in the pupil prematurely, the teacher considers it his first task to make him a skilled artisan with sovereign control of his craft. — Eugen Herrigel

Sexuality throws no light upon love, but only through love can we learn to understand sexuality. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

You must act as if the goal were infinitely far off. — Eugen Herrigel

Dachau-the significance of this name will never be erased from German history. It stands for all concentration camps which the Nazis established in their territory. — Eugen Kogon

I must only warn you of one thing. You have become a different person in the course of these years. For this is what the art of archery means: a profound and far-reaching contest of the archer with himself. Perhaps you have hardly noticed it yet, but you will feel it very strongly when you meet your friends and acquaintances again in your own country: things will no longer harmonize as before. You will see with other eyes and measure with other measures. It has happened to me too, and it happens to all who are touched by the spirit of this art. — Eugen Herrigel

Economic freedom has no security without political freedom, and political freedom can find its security only in economic freedom. — Eugen Richter

This means that the mind or spirit is present anywhere, 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. — Eugen Herrigel

This, then, is what counts: a lightning reaction which has no further need of conscious observation. In this respect at least the pupil makes himself independent of all conscious purpose. — Eugen Herrigel

The hand that guides the brush has already caught and executed what floated before the mind at the same moment the mind began to form it, and in the end the pupil no longer knows which of the two-mind or hand -was responsible for the work. — Eugen Herrigel

Assuming that his talent can survive the increasing strain, there is one scarcely avoidable danger that lies ahead of the pupil on his road to mastery. — Eugen Herrigel

The more one concentrates on breathing, the more the external stimuli fade into the background ... In due course one even grows immune to larger stimuli, and at the same time detachment from them becomes easier and quicker. Care has only to be taken that the body is relaxed whether standing, sitting or lying, and if one then concentrates on breathing one soon feels oneself shut in by impermeable layers of silence. One only knows and feels that one breathes. And, to detach oneself from this feeling and knowing, no fresh decision is required, for the breathing slows down of its own accord, becomes more and more economical in the use of breath, and finally, slipping by degrees into a blurred monotone, escapes one's attention altogether. — Eugen Herrigel

The spider dances her web without knowing there are flies that will get caught in it. The fly, dancing nonchalantly on a sunbeam gets caught without knowing what lies in store. But through both of them "It" dances. So, too, the archer hits the target without having aimed-more I cannot say. — Eugen Herrigel

If you want to change people by talking about God, then there is only one way: instead of teaching God, you must live God. Because: "teaching" God is unthinkable in any other way than the way you would teach love or poetry. You teach love only through love, poetry only through writing poetry, faith in God only through a contagious way of trusting. — Eugen Drewermann

Grammar and logic free language from being at the mercy of the tone of voice. Grammar protects us against misunderstanding the sound of an uttered name; logic protects us against what we say have double meaning. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Eugen Bleuler (who in 1911 coined the word 'schizophrenia') once said that in the end his patients were stranger to him than the birds in his garden. But if they're strangers to us, what are we to them? (26) — Michael Greenberg

Put the thought of hitting right out of your mind! You can be a Master even if every shot does not hit. The hits on the target is only an outward proof and confirmation of your purposelessness at its highest, of your egolessness, your self-abandonment, or whatever you like to call this state. There are different grades of mastery, and only when you have made the last grade will you be sure of not missing the goal. — Eugen Herrigel

The more a human being feels himself a self, tries to intensify this self and reach a never-attainable perfection, the more drastically he steps out of the center of being. — Eugen Herrigel

For such is the noble nature of man, that his heart will never wholly lose itself in one single passion or idol, or, as people call it apologetically, one idea. On it goes from one devotion to the next, not because it is ashamed of its first love, but because it must be on fire perpetually. To fall for Reason, as our grandfathers did, is but one Fall of Man among his many passionate attempts to find the apples of knowledge and eternal life, both in one.
When a nation, or individual, declines the experiences that present themselves to passionate hearts only, they are automatically turned out from the realm of history. The heart of man either falls in love with somebody or something, or it falls ill. It can never go unoccupied. And the great question for mankind Is what is to be loved or hated next, whenever an old love or fear has lost its hold. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

You have described only too well," replied the Master, "where the difficulty lies ... The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of yourself. You ... brace yourself for failure. So long as that is so, you have no choice but to call forth something yourself that ought to happen independently of you, and so long as you call it forth your hand will not open in the right way
like the hand of a child. — Eugen Herrigel

You worry yourself unnecessarily. Put the thought of hitting right out of your mind! — Eugen Herrigel

Prof. Eugen Karl Kempf said, "Hard work does not kill. — Lailah Gifty Akita

It is useless to teach those who do not expect to be transformed — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Three-quarters of a soldier's life is spent in aimlessly waiting about. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

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. — Eugen Herrigel

In the case of archery, the hitter and the hit are no longer two opposing objects, but are one reality. — Eugen Herrigel

The Master's warning that we should not practice anything except self-detaching immersion. — Eugen Herrigel

He grows daily more capable of following any inspiration without technical effort, and also of letting inspiration come to him through meticulous observation. — Eugen Herrigel

Being able to wait without purpose in the state of highest tension ... without continually asking yourself: Shall I be able to manage it? Wait patiently, as see what comes - and how it comes! — Eugen Herrigel

It is generally admitted that Dhyana Buddhism, which was born in India and, after undergoing profound changes, reached full development in China, to be finally adopted by Japan, where it is cultivated as a living tradition to this day, has disclosed unsuspected ways of existence which it is of the utmost importance for us to understand. — Eugen Herrigel

The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede. — Eugen Herrigel

As soon as the Gospels were written, speech without experience began to dabble with the new facts proposed by the existence of the Church. People tried to think the new life without being touched by it first in some form of call, listening, passion or change of heart. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

And the great question for mankind is what is to be loved or hated next, whenever and old love or fear has lost its hold. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Thought is not consecrated unless it resists trends. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

In my eyes, concepts of theology have only as much value as they are able to interpret experience. It seems to me that we have long reached the point where we theologians only talk to ourselves and debate with our own history of concepts. — Eugen Drewermann

We are so dull that we rarely realize how much history lies hidden in marriage, and how the one word spoken by the bride makes all the difference between cattle-raising and a nation's good breeding. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

We are all dead men on leave. — Eugen Levine

The effortlessness of a performance for which great strength is needed is a spectacle of whose aesthetic beauty the East has an exceedingly sensitive and grateful appreciation. — Eugen Herrigel

You see, my Lord Archbishop, what is "dubious" about my theology is not that it contradicts particular doctrinal teachings, things are much worse or better: what I want, is no more and no less than a fundamental change in the whole way that theology is done today; but I want this out of faith, not out of faithlessness. — Eugen Drewermann

Health is a divine gift, and the care of the body is a sacred duty, to neglect which is to sin. — Eugen Sandow

Primitive, simplistic anti-Communism is all too often used as a common denominator for diverse efforts to perpetuate one's own power in a democratic system, convert opinions into dogma, and kill off all opposition, even silent. — Eugen Kogon

I still have a photo, taken ... by Eugen Bavcar, a Slovenian photographer -who is blind. — Jacques Bonnet

Often nothing keeps the pupil on the move but his faith in his teacher, whose mastery is now beginning to dawn on him ... How far the pupil will go is not the concern of the teacher and master. Hardly has he shown him the right way when he must let him go on alone. There is only one thing more he can do to help him endure his loneliness: he turns him away from himself, from the Master, by exhorting him to go further than he himself has done, and to "climb on the shoulders of his teacher." — Eugen Herrigel

Archery is still a matter of life and death to the extent that it is a contest of the archer with himself; — Eugen Herrigel

Don't think of what you have to do, don't consider how to carry it out!" he exclaimed. "The shot will only go smoothly when it takes the archer himself by surprise. — Eugen Herrigel

The space of play and the space of thought are the two theaters of freedom. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

He who suffers wins in politics. The martyr does not obtain the victory personally, but his group, his successors, win in the long run. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Everybody is a bit right. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

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 without 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 fall, it must fall from the archer like snow from a bamboo leaf, before he even thinks it. — Eugen Herrigel

The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of yourself. You do not wait for fulfillment, but brace yourself for failure. — Eugen Herrigel

He who believes in nothing still needs a girl to believe in him. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

To a mankind that recognizes the equality of man everywhere, every war becomes a civil war. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Experiences of the first order, of the first rank, are not realized through the eye. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

You had to suffer shipwreck through your own efforts before you were ready to seize the lifebelt he threw you. Believe me, I know from my own experience that the Master knows you and each of his pupils much better than we know ourselves. He reads in the souls of his pupils more than they care to admit. — Eugen Herrigel

This exquisite state of unconcerned immersion in oneself is not, unfortunately, of long duration. It is liable to be disturbed from inside. As though sprung from nowhere, moods, feelings, desires, worries and even thoughts incontinently rise up, in a meaningless jumble ... The only successful way of rendering this disturbance inoperative is to keep on breathing quietly and unconcernedly, to enter into friendly relations with whatever appears on the scene, to accustom oneself to it, to look at it equably and at last grow weary of looking. — Eugen Herrigel

Humanity has always conquered the flux of natural time by means of a rhythm between active and passive time-spans. To reconquer his holidays, to establish a new and better time schedule for life, has been the great endeavour of man ever since the days of Noah. — Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

People are given a false alternative: the choice between an unenlightened belief and an enlightened unbelief. Most intellectuals seem to pay homage to the second variant. — Eugen Drewermann

The preparations for working put him simultaneously in the right frame of mind for creating ... that collectedness and presence of mind ... 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. — Eugen Herrigel

The man, the art, the work--it is all one. — Eugen Herrigel

And what impels him to repeat this process at every single lesson, and, with the same remorseless insistence, to make his pupils copy it without the least alteration? 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 repose 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. — Eugen Herrigel

What is the use of freedom of the press if the government is in possession of all the printing presses, what does freedom of assembly avail if all the meeting places belong to the government? In a society in which there is no more personal and economic freedom, even the freest form of the state cannot make political independence possible. — Eugen Richter

We see in the 20th Century an unfortunate trench warfare, in which psychoanalysis, in a struggle against the internalized compulsion and superstition of a particular doctrine, has expressed itself atheistically. By contrast, theology is not merely under suspicion of talking soullessly about God. Both theology and psychology, in striving for human health, need one another like the right and the left hand. — Eugen Drewermann

The right art," cried the Master, "is purposeless, aimless! The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede. What stands in your way is that you have a much too willful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen. — Eugen Herrigel

Civilisation has, indeed, become a slaughtering-car crowned by a grinning effigy of Comfort, before which man blindly and voluntarily hurls himself in his own ignorance. — Eugen Sandow

If cats could write history, their history would be mostly about cats. — Eugen Weber

You must learn to wait properly. — Eugen Herrigel