Sublime

shakuhachi music, ikebana flower arrangement with its asymmetric

In my own life, Zen and psychoanalysis have been practiced in tandem now for thirty years. Each continues to challenge, inform, and enrich the perspective of the other.

High on top of that mountain, as the sun began to set, I made a pledge to the Tao. I would fully embrace its power and let it be my guide. I was committed to letting go of the small self, in order to embody the big Self. The human experience is fragile, especially in the face of nature. I had experienced this directly on two occasions. I was ready

But the action principles that come from the East are different from those in the West. They emphasize a value system grounded in principles such as non-attachment, purpose, gratitude, interdependence, and coexisting with fear. Such principles are prominent in martial arts (Aikido, Kyudo), psychology (Morita therapy, Kaizen) and even religion (enga

When a man has learned to let his mind alone so that it functions in the integrated and spontaneous way that is natural to it, he begins to show the special kind of “virtue” or “power” called te. This is not virtue in the current sense of moral rectitude but in the older sense of effectiveness, as when one speaks of the healing virtues of a plant.

What stands in your way is that you have a much too wilful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.

The “Great Doctrine” of archery tells us something very different. According to it, archery is still a matter of life and death to the extent that it is a contest of the archer with himself; and this kind of contest is not a paltry substitute, but the foundation of all contests outwardly directed—for