With a good old friend, I am revisiting a good old friend, the book Mentor, by Larry Daloz. I got to chapter 8 and I ran across this quote again, which I loved the first and second times I found it. Now, though, I am inspired to commit it to memory:
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, Zen in the Art of Archery
Hi Melanie, I love Dr. Daloz’s work too! It has been an important influence in my doctoral research. Cheers, Harriet