Kenneth Kushner, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, entered Zen training in 1978 and began studying kyodo (the art of traditional Japanese archery) in 1981. This succinct but edifying volume explains the link between the way of the bow and zazen. However, it is not meant as an instruction manual in either. Rather, Kushner's intention is to explain "how something as 'mundane' as archery can be elevated to a serious spiritual experience when it is studied as a Way. . . . In this book I will try to explain how principles involved in the seemingly simple process of shooting an arrow at a target can have profound implications for how one leads one's life."

Practice is essential to mastery of kyodo where it is said that it takes a minimum of 30 years to master the grip of the bow. This demonstrates the truth of the Zen saying: "Thousands of repetitions and out of one's true self perfection emerges." In order to cope with the rigors of the discipline, Kushner took up zazen or sitting meditation. Cimori Sogen Rotaishi has stated: "Zen without realization of the body is empty speculation." In one chapter, the author learns from his teacher Tanouye Tenshin Rotaishi: "The pain isn't getting worse, your tolerance for it is getting less." He keeps on sitting until his difficulties diminish. What he learns on the mat reverberates in all arenas of his life.

For Kushner, training in the art of traditional Japanese archery enables him to cultivate unbroken attention: "In Zen it is recognized that there are no second chances in life; one strives to pay full attention to each instant, to every activity no matter how trivial it might seem. One should throw oneself fully into all activities. Each activity should be done as if it were one's only activity on Earth. In kyudo this means to concentrate on every arrow as if it were the only arrow that the kyudoka will ever shoot."

The title of the book is the most poignant Zen teaching of all — One Arrow, One Life. Time cannot be recapitulated — each arrow, like each deed in life, is final and decisive. All devotees of Zen will savor this excellent addition to Zen philosophy and practice.