{"id":257,"date":"2009-10-18T09:44:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-18T09:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/10\/that-tail-again-a-bit-on-the-ten-ox-herding-pictures\/"},"modified":"2009-10-18T09:44:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-18T09:44:00","slug":"that-tail-again-a-bit-on-the-ten-ox-herding-pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/10\/that-tail-again-a-bit-on-the-ten-ox-herding-pictures.html","title":{"rendered":"That Tail Again: A Bit on the Ten-Ox Herding Pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTruly experience the all-inclusive activity of life\u2026,\u201d says Bokusan in commenting on the firewood and ash simile of the <\/span><\/span>Genjokoan<\/span><\/span><\/span>. Reading the commentary of this 19th century Soto Zen teacher, what strikes me again and again is his insistence on realization. Somehow in the 20th century, much of Soto Zen seems to have taken a turn away from this emphasis.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That brings me to the Ten Ox-herding Pictures, a wisdom-development system that\u2019s been around in various forms for about a thousand years. Apparently, Dogen wasn\u2019t into it, although I can\u2019t find his negative reference just now. Anyway, Dogen\u2019s dead \u2026 and (despite his brilliance and despite that I\u2019ve argued that his Shobogenzo<\/span><\/span><\/span> and <\/span><\/span>Eiheikoroku<\/span><\/span><\/span> ought to be regarded as \u201csource texts\u201d for Soto Zen) we are free to use non-Dogen elements in this teaching and practice of non-self.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To agree completely is to be unfaithful.<\/p>\n

Imho, the Oxen are important right now because they point to the possibility of practice, a possibility that often gets lost and forgotten in the course of study in our busy modern lives.<\/p>\n

In what follows, I\u2019ll present and comment on just the first couple (and very briefly introduce the rest) of ten frames. Daido, by the way, has a nice little book on these, Path of Enlightenment: Stages in the Spiritual Journey. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1. Searching for the Ox
Here\u2019s the traditional verse for this stage:<\/p>\n

When the truth is found to be lies<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> and all the joys within you dies\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> When the garden flowers baby are dead yes<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> and your mind is full of red\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> your eyes, I say your eyes may look like his<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> but in your head baby I\u2019m afraid you don\u2019t know where it is\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> tears are running ah running down your breast<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> and your friends baby they treat you like a guest<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> don\u2019t you want somebody to love<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> don\u2019t you need somebody to love<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Okay, that isn\u2019t the traditional verse and it really works best to hear Gracie Slick wail it out. Yes, I saw A Serious Man<\/span><\/span><\/span> last night \u2013 a great portrait of Jewish samsara. Jefferson Airplane\u2019s tune haunts the film and is also a great Searching for the Ox verse, especially \u201cwhen all truth is found to be lies\u201d includes our cultural myth that finding someone to love (or maybe Gracie was just thinking \u201chave sex with\u201d \u2026) will somehow save you.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sick of lies. Sick of our culture. Sick of our self. Where to turn? Somehow, maybe while reading about the dharma<\/a> or watching Oprah or seeing the posters at the food co-op, we become aware that there\u2019s another way and we set out to find it.<\/p>\n

And what was very recently pretty simple \u2013 when I started looking <\/span><\/span>Katagiri Roshi was the only Zen teacher for about 2,000 miles \u2013 first became the spiritual supermarket and is now a spiritual mega-mall. In this context, finding a true path is no easy matter. And we\u2019ve got this heavy cultural load of multi-tasking that makes it more difficult to stick with one thing for a long time.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mysteriously, some of us stumble upon an affinity with a tradition and a lineage that point to the most important thing.<\/p>\n

2. Finding Traces of the Ox
We see the traces of the Ox when we hear the Heart Sutra<\/span><\/span><\/span> and our heart stops \u2026 for a moment. Or when we hear a dharma talk or read a Zen book and we cry out to ourselves, \u201cThis is what I\u2019ve always believed.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At this stage, the task is to develop some mastery for how the great mystery is to be sought within this imperfect human system. Finding Traces of the Ox refers to getting into a way of seeking. We learn the language and the practices of a tradition, begin to develop a relationship with a teacher, begin to have an intellectual understanding of the teaching, etc.<\/p>\n

This stage is fraught with peril.<\/p>\n

It is so easy to lose touch with what brought us to the dharma to begin with. Probably it wasn\u2019t a need for belonging. Looking at the Ox-Herding pictures this morning, I\u2019m struck by how the person is alone, searching for and taming the Ox, until the Ox is forgotten way up there in the seventh stage.<\/p>\n

However, a shift often takes place so that the original waft of Way Seeking Heart just blows hot air \u2013 dogma runs over the dharma. Zen students cut their hair short and wear dark-colored cloths. Zen lingo spews from the mouth. And because the person looks and sounds so Zen (in whatever locale-specific way that\u2019s normed), about this time, the second-stage student gets recruited to serve on this or that committee at the local Zen Center. Danger! You might wind up looking and sounding like a Zen student but having really lost your way.<\/p>\n

It is important to do the work of this stage without getting so identified with \u201cZen the religion\u201d that we forget that the raft is not the shore. This work culminates in a deep, personal cry, \u201cWhat am I?\u201d or in the Rumi poem I quoted in the webinar Saturday (see below) \u201cWhat is life worth? If there is a God, come into me NOW!\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Glimpsing the Ox
.. and the ass of the ox at that in the thicket of our own views.<\/p>\n

In some ways, this is the beginning of practice. Very important here to have a teacher who can point out that this glimpse \u2013 isolated, private mental experience \u2013 <\/span><\/span> doesn\u2019t satisfy our original true aspiration. We\u2019re called to actualize our little glimpse of enlightenment, come hell or high water. Even to look into our own greed, anger, and ignorance from the perspective that\u2019s been opened up through our glimpse of the Ox\u2019s ass.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the work of the next several stages.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an interesting and very powerful shift in the Ox metaphor within this system. At the beginning the Ox represents true nature. In the middle stages, the Ox represents our own greed, anger and ignorance but still as some thing<\/span>, something outside, something witnessed. Then the Ox disappears. Then the self disappears. Then the 10,000 things advance, confirming the selfless self.<\/p>\n

Then we\u2019re ready to begin anytime anywhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTruly experience the all-inclusive activity of life\u2026,\u201d says Bokusan in commenting on the firewood and ash simile of the Genjokoan. Reading the commentary of this 19th century Soto Zen teacher, what strikes me again and again is his insistence on realization. Somehow in the 20th century, much of Soto Zen seems to have taken a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThat Tail Again: A Bit on the Ten-Ox Herding Pictures<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Truly experience the all-inclusive activity of life...," says Bokusan in commenting on the firewood and ash simile of the Genjokoan. 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