Ox Herding

Why Do You Meditate

In this Friday's short video, Zen Master Seung Sahn talks about our motivation for practice. He goes right to our intention - no messing around!

Thank you for reading Ox Herding! Enjoy a great weekend!

Barry

Amazing Race . . . to Enlightenment

Anyone know the channel for this program?

Vulnerability

Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.

- Theodore Roethke

As I discussed in yesterday's post, I've been examining how I defend against anything that might crack my image.

How can we open the heart to suffering, if it remains closed to ourselves?

I think Roethke had it right - the path to the great mystery of awakening goes through vulnerability. Indeed, perhaps genuine vulnerability and enlightenment come to the same thing.

 

 

Photos (in order, top to bottom) by James Marvin Phelps, John Hartnup, Richard Masoner, and Seth Melton. Thank you for making your images available through the Creative Commons license.

Most Spiritual

This cartoon from last week's New Yorker touched me especially deeply (as I laughed at its obvious reference to the play of spiritual materialism!).

Lately I've been examining the ways in which I manipulate others to sustain a certain image of myself. For many years, I've fabricated Barry as a insightful, reliable, and decent person. Susann used to joke, "Everyone wants a 'Barry!'"

Of course, that was before the real Barry oozed out from underneath the scrim.

No one wants that Barry. I don't even want that Barry.

But that's the Barry I've got.

Fortunately, the oozing, sham Barry is good for something - it provides the rich, smelly manure needed for growth.

Just lately, some seedlings have appeared and - who knows? - maybe soon a beautiful flower will appear. Or not.

Whatever appears, it will end up in the compost, the final home of even the most beautiful of flowers.

Concealment

I see that I'm not quite ready to let go of the Ox Herding Pictures. Yesterday, I read the following words from Wuye (760 - 821 CE):

The way of our Chan school is different. After the ancient people of the Way attained realization, they went to live in thatched huts and stone houses. They used old cauldrons with broken legs to cook their food, and passed twenty or thirty years in that way. Unconcerned about fame and wealth, they never thought of money and riches. Completely forgetting about human affairs, they concealed their traces among rocks and thickets.

The Ox Herding Pictures point us in a different direction from that taken by Wuye's "ancient people".

Rather than "forgetting about human affairs," the great way of Pu-tai takes us into the marketplace where we can share our lives freely with all in need.

Don't get me wrong - I treasure rocks, trees and streams. They help put my concerns of wealth and fame in proper perspective.

And who doesn't love food cooked in an old cauldron over a wood fire ?

But do we cook this good food only for ourselves? Or might we offer it in gratitude to all beings?

Source: Ordinary Mind as the Way, by Mario Poceski
Photo by Albert

Ox Herding: Third Talk

This Friday's video shows the last of Shinzen Young's wonderful talk on the Ten Ox Herding Pictures. In this talk, he focuses on images 9 and 10. These important images talk about the meaning and function of enlightenment.

As he says, "What is it going to be about?"

I'm deeply grateful to Shinzen Young for making these talks available to a wide audience. With open hands, he exhausts his bag of goodies - over and over.

And thank you for examining with me the Ox Herding Pictures over the last three weeks. Many of you have left wonderful comments and I'm thankful for that.

May your bag be inexhaustible!

Barry

You can go to the first post in this series by clicking here.

Ox Herding 10: Function

X. Function

There is such real suffering in this world.
Do you hear the cries? Do you feel the anguish?
Just now,
In this place,
In this moment:
How can I help you?
How can I help you?

Our Chinese ancestors could not, would not wait for Maitreya to arrive in some fabulous future. So they anointed Pu-tai to do the urgent work of helping all beings right now, right here.

Plump and happy and carrying a vast sack, Pu-tai has something wonderful for all beings.

The Ox Herding Pictures describe the route each of us must follow to manifest Pu-tai in this very moment, right where we sit.

May we support one another in this great work. So much depends on us!

Kuòān Shīyuǎ's last poem describes Pu-tai's much-needed generosity:

X. In the World

He enters the city barefoot, with chest exposed.
Covered in dust and ashes, smiling broadly.
No need for the magic powers of the gods and immortals,
Just let the dead tree bloom again.

You can go to the first post in this series by clicking here.

Image by Yokoo Tatsuhiko

Kuòān's poem from The Oxherder, by Stephanie Wada

Ox Herding 9: Truth World

IX. Truth World

Without thinking,
Salt is salty,
Sugar is sweet.
The tree is green and
The river flows to the sea.
This is true,
But how does truth function?
That's the point!

Our thinking mind makes this world very complex. But, with the ox settled into its stable, the world becomes very simple. Just black type on a pale yellow background.

We might wish to rest in the thusness of truth, but what about those who suffer? When truth appears, we cannot avoid their cries.

This was the decision faced by the Buddha as he lingered under the bodhi tree in the initial weeks after his great enlightenment. He had perceived the truth of suffering and its end, but more remained to be done. And so he began his teaching.

The poem by Kuòān Shīyuǎ doesn't capture this sense of one more step:

IX. Reaching the Source

In returning to the fundamentals and going back to the source,
I had to work so hard.
Perhaps it would have been better to be blind and deaf.
Being in the hut, I do not see what is outside.
The river flowing tranquilly,
The flower simply being red.

You can go to the first post in this series by clicking here.

Image by Yokoo Tatsuhiko

Kuòān's Poem from The Oxherder, by Stephanie Wada

Ox Herding 8: Substance

VIII. Substance

Coming to rest,
What need for words or actions?
Like clouds that come and go, come and go,
We return over and over to primary point.
Our ancestors spoke truly:
KATZ!

Substance animates the universe, yet completely lacks essential nature - responding to circumstance and disappearing with the passing of each circumstance.

If you don't understand, please consider:

Lin-chi shouted, "KATZ!"

Chu-chih held up one finger!

Te-shan only hit people!

What is this? Don't know!

Kuòān Shīyuǎ expressed it this way:

VIII. Both Bull and Self Transcended

Whip, rope, man, and ox,
All are non-existent.
The blue sky being vast,
No message can be heard,
Just as the snowflake cannot last
In the flaming red furnace.
After this state,
One can join the ancient teachers.

You can go to the first post in this series by clicking here.

Image by Yokoo Tatsuhiko

Kuòān's poem from The Oxherder, by Stephanie Wada

Ox Herding 7: Not Two

VII. Not Two

The bull rests easily in the stable.
In the early morning,
I sit with all beings.
Just this.
Just this.

Some versions of the Ox Herding Pictures end with this image.

The ox herder has "transcending the bull" and attained the great awakening. The herder rests easily in the early sunlight of ordinary life, not bothered by the cranky, stinky ox.

Not two. But still one.

More work remains.

As Zen Master Seung Sahn would say, enlightenment is not enough. We must perceive how enlightenment functions. So there are three more images to go!

Kuòān Shīyuǎ's poem reads:

VII. The Bull Transcended

Riding the ox, he has come home.
There is no ox there, and he is at ease.
Although the sun is high, he is still dreamy,
The whip and rope abandoned in the thatched hut.

You can go to the first post in this series by clicking here.

Image by Yokoo Tatsuhiko

Kuòān's poem from The Oxherder, by Stephanie Wada