The Present Begins In a Target from the Past

As an undergraduate at a local public college in the late Eighties, I was a fairly naive lad who had rarely never (accept the occasional trip to visit my father's family in the mountains of Pennsylvania) ventured much outside his community or his comfort zone.

My first semester in college I took an introductory course in World Literature. It was in this class that my self ascribed "Jewish-Englishman from Iowa" assigned the class to read, among other books and stories, Zen and the Art of Archery. by Eugen Herrigel.

In the case of archery, the hitter and the hit are no longer two opposing objects, but are one reality.... Zen is the "everyday mind," as was proclaimed by Baso (Ma-tsu, died 788); this "everyday mind" is no more than "sleeping when tired, eating when hungry." As soon as we reflect, deliberate, and conceptualize, the original unconsciousness is lost and a thought interferes. We no longer eat while eating, we no longer sleep while sleeping. The arrow is off the string but does not fly straight to the target, nor does the target stand where it is. Calculation which is miscalculation sets in."~D.T. Suzuki, in Eugen Herrigel's Zen and the Art of Archery

The class, teacher and book opened up a world of philosophical literature and reading that I had not previously had the good fortune of experiencing. I find myself, even after 15+ years culling my memories of past conversations and discussions in classes, of inspiration in the present...

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!