Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, One and Two

Anu, a friend from Africa, recently asked us to discuss the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures on our Zen Living Yahoo Group. I am posting each stage and my response here in my blog.

Anu writes: It appears that all that is known about the author of the verses to the ten ox-herding pictures, master kakuan shion, is that he was a disciple of daizui genjo [1065-1135] and the twelfth in the line of master rinzai. His dates of birth and death as well as other information are unclear.

Stage 1 :Seeking the oxIncessantly you brush aside thick grasses in pursuit;The waters are wide, the mountains far,and the path leads on without end.Sapped of strength, exhausted in spirits,knowing no longer where to search,You only hear the sound of the evening cicadaschirping in the maple trees.

So Daiho:
May 29th, 1966. The Central Highlands of Vietnam, near the Camnbodian border. It is night. Very dark. The jungle is quite wet. I have just been in a fire fight with a whole lot of North Vietnamese solders. They have us surrounded.

I feel my head. There is a hole in it. I am terrified. Gunfire and grenades build this fear.

I hear the screaming of the dead and dying. I am tired, but cannot go to sleep. I fear I might not wake up. I look to the sky, what I can see of it through the dark canopy of trees. It is a black hole in the universe. I ask G-d to save me.

No answer.

In the morning the few of us who survived being overrun are medevac'd out. I leave Vietnam unable to use the left side oif my body. I am 19 and a high school droip out with a GED.

What's my next step?

Stage Two:

Anu writes:

He has understood the meaning of the sutras and knows about the tracks through the teachings. It is clear to him that all vessels are made of gold, and he knows that the myriad things are himself. But if he cannot distinguish between right and wrong, how can he separate the true from the false? As he has not yet entered this gate, he can be said to have merely seen the tracks. Btw, background to the introduction . . .To each of the ten pictures of the Ten Ox-herding Pictures Master Kakuan has first put a "Verse", and at the end his disciple, Jion (some say Kakuan himself, others say the friend of Kakuan) is said to have put a "General Introduction" to the entire work as well as a "Brief Introduction" to each one of the Verses.

Stage 2 :FINDING THE TRACKS 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?

So Daiho:

So, at 19 on the streets of Miami with a "Retirement" certificate from the US Army and a body that only half worked, I set out to discover life. Here's the thing: trauma disrupts cognitive and emotional processes. Those of us who have experienced such things, 'know the sutras' but are suddenly on their outside looking in. There is a crack in that cosmic egg that has nurtured us and kept us asleep for so long and now the brilliant light of day is streaming down and we squeeze our eyes, not knowing which way to turn.

I attend peace rallies. I attend college. I sleep with women. I drink. I ride a motorcycle. I read books. I learn to play chess at a chess club. I find jobs and lose jobs. The tracks are everywhere. I have found myself in a world without G-d. A world rushing faster and faster and I am on the outside looking in. Do I really want to go there?
Be well,