Paper short abstract:

This paper interprets the spiritualized modern Zen as a form of embodied knowledge. It re-examines D. T. Suzuki’s discourse on Zen arts which was epitomized as "becoming one with the perfecting of skill" in relation to Eugen Herrigel’s embodied practice of Zen in the Art of Archery (1948).

Paper long abstract:

Japanese Zen has been transmitted cross-culturally, both on a textual basis and in the form of bodily practice, since the early twentieth century. Understanding modern Zen as a form of embodied knowledge and skill, this paper revisits the somatic dimension of D.T.Suzuki's discourse on Zen arts, particularly in Zen Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture(1938).

Scholars have pointed out Suzuki’s significant role in constructing the interconnection of Zen with Japanese culture in the twentieth century. Eugen Herrigel's (1884-1955) Zen in the Art of Japanese Archery, which recounted his experience of learning Zen through the bodily practice of Japanese archery in the 1920s, was one of the most widely-known episodes influenced by Suzuki. This paper argues that Suzuki’s discourse on Zen arts sheds much light on an underrepresented trajectory whereby modern Zen was transmitted as embodied knowledge — a form of knowledge in which the body, rather than the intellect, plays a fundamental role in practically knowing what Zen is and achieving non-dual integration with the mind. In Herrigel’s case, it was primarily by recollecting the somatic engagement with the archery tools in and after the training process that he came to regard Zen as a spiritual discipline towards the state of becoming one with the tools. In response to Herrigel, Suzuki also depicted the process of grasping Zen through the practice of arts as "becoming one with the perfecting of his technical skill", and extensively expounded his "No-mind" (musshin) theory in relation to Zen arts such as swordsmanship.

However, the embodied dimension of Zen arts in Suzuki’s writings was overshadowed by his discursive strategy of spiritualizing Zen throughout the mid-twentieth century. Nevertheless, Herrigel's experience illuminates the indispensable role the body played in reforming the modern knowledge of Zen. This paper argues that what is widely labelled as Zen spirituality is inseparable from its corporeality. The body is not merely a subordinate instrument to obtain Zen but also an intrinsic, essential dimension of modern Zen.