The Ten Oxherding Pictures (IX)

 
Rev. Taigu again takes us for a ride with the next of the Ten Oxherding Pictures. He writes:
“Riding the bull home… As one mounts the bull, rides the bull, the world and practice itself  are not experienced as  obstacles anymore. The bull as an object to grasp, a goal to reach has disappeared. Practice and self are intimate. In this, carefreeness, detachment, joy arise from the silence space of sitting. The boy is not worried anymore about where he should go, where the bull takes him to, what the Bull-boy will become. As the comment sates: this struggle is over; gain and loss are assimilated. The song of the flute is played by ten thousand things met and released. Forms and sounds play and are played. This dance is nothing but the Bodhisattva stepping into the world, freely playing with what comes and goes, fully interacting with things and beings without being caught by any…”

The Ten Oxherding Pictures (VIII)

 
Rev. Taigu again take the reigns to lead us through the next of the Ten Oxherding Pictures. He writes:
“Taming the bull is the story of discipline. One has to take the lead and establish a regular and steady practice. That is, at least, the traditional reading of this image. I would like to come forward with something very different: taming the bull can also be giving a specific direction to sitting, having goals and aims, and therefore we loose the original freedom of practice trying to make it fit our plans.”

The Ten Oxherding Pictures (VII)

 
Rev. Taigu continues his series of talks on the Ten Oxherding Pictures. He writes:
Getting hold of the tail is the moment were we may think we have got it. The gesture is firm, the grasp strong and the will to tame the ox very much alive. If we stay there, we may think with pride that the journey is over and that our understanding is stronger than anybody else’s. A lot of arrogance coupled with struggle are yet noticeable, the attitude is stiff and the sitting rigid as well as the views, the many views we have about things and people. We are drunk with views and opinions, intoxicated with ideas and judgments. This kind of attitude and the state of body-mind characterized by this picture can be seen on various blogs and forums over the internet where people, hidden behind the anonymity and safe veil of their computer screens throw abusive language and display violence, lies, all sorts of judgments being made about people and situations they know nothing or very little about. Internet magnifies the imperfections and problems. You may have a look at how this teenage zen (teenage Zen, because self-infatuation and violence hiding a very poor self image is precisely one of the main problems of adolescence) creeps on line. It also curses our blood. We have to pay attention and come back to not knowing. It is so tempting to freeze every living experience into an asset, something to treasure, to own.

The Ten Oxherding Pictures (VI)

Continuing our glimpse at ...
... catching a glimpse, the watcher

(After a lovely year here at Beliefnet.com, our daily "Sit-a-long with Jundo" Zazen netcasts will be moving home on January 1st to SHAMBHALA SUNSPACE, the webpage of the Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma magazines, where we will be a daily featured Buddhist blog ... sitting there just as we do here. )

The Ten Oxherding Pictures (V)

catching a glimpse, the watcher
(After a lovely year here at Beliefnet.com, our daily "Sit-a-long with Jundo" Zazen netcasts will be moving home on January 1st to SHAMBHALA SUNSPACE, the webpage of the Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma magazines, where we will be a daily featured Buddhist blog ... sitting there just as we do here. )

The Ten Oxherding Pictures (IV)

dancing with shadows ...

 
At the waters edge, under the trees - hoofmarks are numerous.
Balmy grasses grow abundantly - can you see them or not?
Even if you go deeper and deeper into the mountains,
How could his nostrils, well compassing the heavens,
    hide him at all?

The Ten Oxherding Pictures (III)

The first picture    ...  The Seeker
On his blog, Mike Dosho Port quotes Andy Ferguson's translation  of a poem by Sensu Tokujo, one of our Chinese ancestors:
Letting down the line ten thousand feet,
A single breaking wave makes ten thousand ripples.
At night in still water, the cold fish won't bite.
An empty boat filled with moonlight returns.

The fish is the golden fish and stands for a metaphor of awakening for even dead its eyes are bright and wide open. Just like the bull or the ox. We fish something we will never get, we won't be allowed on the promised land, we won't be given what we expected. Much more. We end up with the moonlight , a symbol of the oneness of practice and realization. We end up with Shikantaza, being already home as we start our journey, for there is nowhere else to be. Just being is our home. So the seeking never ceases, it is the action through which we turn the Dharma wheel, it is this continous practice. Nowhere to go, nobody who travels, to destination to reach, just the full joy of being and unfolding this being-time now.

The Ten Oxherding Pictures (II)