The 10 Oxherding Pictures

The Ten Oxherding Pictures

We haven’t found a good version of the actual pictures to include here, so we will summarize in text.

NOTE 1: Most people interested in Buddhism will not be interested in this. That is perfectly OK! There is so much to enjoy in Buddhism there is absolutely no need to know anything about this. But you may become interested in this at some time and if so, there is a good chance you will find yourself right back here.

NOTE 2: These represent the steps along the path to Liberation. They are not a prescription to follow – you really can’t follow these steps. These are a description of what happens, and as you travel along the path you might want to check in here from time to time. This might help you recognize if you’re on the path at all, where you are on the path, and perhaps if you are still on the path.

1. Seeking The Ox – most human beings spend their entire lifetime in what Buddhism calls “suffering” – either clinging to the past, or hoping for something more in the future – and never taking this very first step. But for some people dissatisfaction happens and all seeking outside themselves no longer works – success/materialism/pleasure/relationships are no longer fulfilling, religion/beliefs/fear lose their grip, science and philosophy leave profound questions that yearn to be answered, the allure/fascination with ‘spirituality’ wears off. You are now seeking the Ox.
2. Finding the Tracks – when your confidence in your mind, beliefs, religion, the sacred, and things you used to not even consider are brought into question – and there seems to be evidence of something else – you have begun to find the tracks of the Ox.
3. The First Glimpse – an Awakening Experience. The realization that in fact there is something more, because you have experienced it yourself. Many get stuck here, believing they are now ‘enlightened’.  But as with all experiences, it does not last, sometimes known as “got it, lost it” and there can be many years between experiences, if ever again. Even so, such experiences can be profoundly transforming. So much time can elapse since an experience that that there is often profound doubt that it actually ever happened. You have had a fleeting glimpse of the Ox.
4. Catching – there is much less doubt about the realization, but there is much struggle and paradox in trying to maintain it. When not perceived, sometimes there is such a painful sense of longing and loss, the value of existence itself is questioned. This is known as The Dark Night of the Soul. You are still trying to capture the untamed Ox.
5. Taming – with practice, sometimes very intense and to the exclusion of everything else in life – and sometimes by the deepest/simplest letting go – this realization can be maintained. The Ox is being tamed.
6. Riding Home – the journey was never necessary, what a laugh, I have always been home! Enlightenment achieved. The realization is constant, but it seems as if “I” realize “Oneness”, which is a profound contradiction. I am riding the Ox.
7. Ox Forgotten – Oneness. Unity. All goals transcended. There is no enlightenment, samsara and nirvana are one. I see there really never was an Ox. I am that. What I am is what the Ox is.
8. Forgotten – Emptiness. No thing. There was never samsara nor nirvana. There never was an I. Everything is nothing. The mind cannot possibly comprehend this.
9. The Source – everything is that. Everything is sacred, therefore nothing is sacred. There is no separate reality, the Ultimate is the ordinary. Pure Consciousness. Being. Tao. God-realized.  Self-realized.
10. Return – in fact nothing has changed. This is in fact as it always has been. Life goes on. Carry water, chop wood. I am not extraordinary, everything is extraordinary, as it always has been. Because life is now lived from the realization, others may be led to 1. Seeking The Ox.

Here are links to other versions of this, known as The Tex Oxherding Pictures, or The 10 Ox Herding Pictures, or The Ten Bulls:

• http://www.buddhanet.net/oxherd1.htm
• http://www.columbia.edu/cu/weai/exeas/resources/oxherding.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Bulls
• http://www.4peaks.com/ppox.htm
• http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/mzb/oxherd.htm
• http://www.buddhistdoor.com/OldWeb/passissue/9710/sources/art9.htm
• http://www.jaysquare.com/ljohnson/ox-herding.html
• https://hmgnosisnz.wordpress.com/2014/02/
• http://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/reader/reader/x5038.html
• http://terebess.hu/english/oxpictures.html