The third passion

During the last fifteen years I remember experiencing only three overwhelming passions - the kind you read all about, talk compulsively about, seek out people with the same affinity, go to sleep and wake up thinking about. The first was when I bought a computer, abandoning my typewriter for ever and discovering the freedom that this allowed me (I am writing this in a small French town, using something that weighs less than 1.5 kilos, stores ten years of my professional life and can find whatever I need in under five seconds). The second was when I got into the Internet for the first time - by then already a library bigger than the biggest of all the libraries.

The third passion, however, has nothing to do with technological breakthroughs. I am talking about … the bow and arrow. In my youth I read a fascinating book with the title “Zen in the art of archery,” by E. Herrigel (Ed. Pensamento), which tells us about the author’s spiritual journeys by means of this sport. The idea stuck in my subconscious until one day in the Pyrenees when I met an archer. We talked for a while and then he lent me his gear, and ever since then I have not been able to live without practicing archery almost every day.
In Brazil I built a shooting stand in my apartment - the kind you can disassemble in five minutes when the guests arrive. In the French mountains I go out every day to practice, and that has already made me bedridden twice with hypothermia, caused by staying over two hours exposed to a temperature of 6o C below zero. This year I took part in the World Economic Forum in Davos, thanks to very strong painkillers, because two days before the Forum I had a painful muscular inflammation due to positioning my arm wrongly.
So where is the fascination in all this? There is nothing of a practical nature in aiming at a target with a bow and arrow, arms that go back 30,000 years before Christ. But Herrigel, who aroused this passion in me, knew what he was talking about. Here are some extracts from “Zen and the art of archery” that can be applied to many activities in daily life:
“At the moment of holding the tension, concentrate only on what you need to use. Save all the rest of your energy, learn from the bow that in order to reach something it is not necessary to make gigantic movements, just focus on your target.”
“My master gave me a very stiff bow. I asked him why he was beginning to teach me as if I were a professional. His answer was: “If you start with easy things, you won’t be prepared for the big challenges. Better to know right away what kind of difficulty you’re going to encounter further ahead.”
“For a long time I shot without managing to open the bow properly, until one day the master taught me a breathing lesson and everything became so easy. I asked him why he had taken so long to correct me. He answered: “If from the very start I had taught you the breathing exercises, you would have found them unnecessary. Now you will believe what I tell you and practice as if it were really important. Those who know how to teach act in this way.”
“The moment for releasing the arrow happens instinctively, but first you have to know well the bow, the arrow and the target. The perfect stroke in life’s challenges also uses intuition, but we must not forget the technique after we master it completely.”
“At the end of four years, when I was already capable of mastering the bow, the master offered me his congratulations. I was happy and told him that I had reached the half-way point. “No,” answered the master. “So that you don’t fall into any treacherous traps, it’s better for you to consider half-way the point you reach after you have traveled 90% of the road.”

ATTENTION! Using the bow and arrow is dangerous, in some countries like France it is considered to be an arm, and it can only be practiced after receiving your license and only in places that are specially authorized.

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The soldier in the forest

Climbing up a track in the Pyrenees in search of somewhere to practice archery, I came upon a small French army camp. The soldiers looked at me, I pretended that I could see nothing (we all have a little of this paranoia of being seen as spies …) and carried on my way.
I found the ideal spot, performed my preparatory breathing exercises and then saw an armored vehicle approaching.
I immediately put myself on the defensive and reviewed all the possible answers to the questions I would be asked: I have the permission to use a bow and arrow, the spot is safe, any word to the contrary is the responsibility of the forest keepers, not the army’s, and so on. But then out of the car jumps a colonel who asks me if I am the writer and offers me some interesting information about the region.
And then, getting over his almost visible shyness, he tells me that he too has written a book and begins to tell me the curious genesis of his work.
He and his wife made donations for a leper child who originally lived in India but was later transferred to France. One fine day, curious to meet the little girl, they went to the convent where the nuns took care of the child. They spent a lovely afternoon and towards the end of their visit one of the nuns asked if he would help in the spiritual education of the group of children who lived there. Jean Paul Sétau (the officer’s name) said that he had no experience teaching the catechism but that he would give it some thought and ask God what he should do.
That night, after saying his prayers, he heard the answer: “instead of offering answers, try to find out what the children want to ask.”
From then on Sétau had the idea of visiting several schools and ask the pupils to write everything they would like to know about life. He asked for the questions to be put in writing, so that the more timid among the pupils would lose their fear of exposing themselves. The result of his work was gathered together in a book - ” The child who wants to know everything” (Ed. Altess, Paris).

Here are some of the questions:

Where do we go after we die?
Why are we afraid of strangers?
Are there Martians and extra-terrestrial beings?
Why do accidents happen even to people who believe in God?
What does God mean?
Why are we born, if in the end we die?
How many stars are there in the sky?
Who invented war and happiness?
Does the Lord also listen to those who do not believe in the same (Catholic) God?
Why are there poor and sick people?
Why did God create mosquitoes and flies?
Why isn’t the guardian angel close by when we are sad?
Why do we love some people and hate others?
Who gave names to the colors?
If God is in heaven and my mother is up there too because she died, how can He be alive?

I hope that some teachers or parents who read this column feel stimulated to do the same thing. In that way, instead of trying to impose our adult understanding of the universe, we will end up remembering some of our questions as children - and which were never really answered.

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“Warrior of the Light, a www.paulocoelho.com.br publication.”