Ten Bulls

The calf, bull, or ox is one of the earliest similes for meditation practice. It comes from the Maha Gopalaka Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 33). It is also used in the commentaries, especially the one on the Maha Satipatthana Sutta (Digha Nikaya 22) and the Satipatthana Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 10). In Indian Buddhism the simile of the bull is compatible to the ancient traditional Chinese view within Cosmology that includes the Ox (niú 牛) as a birth year and quality, as a result this similarity helped with the early assimilation of Buddhism into Chinese culture and then on to the rest of East Asia. ^{[1] [web 2]} Buddhaghosa, in his commentary on the Satipatthana Suttas gives a simile of the taming of a wild calf. The calf is the wild mind which is to be tamed.^{[web 2]} The same idea was developed by the Chan/Zen tradition.^{[web 2]}

 

The well-known ten ox-herding pictures emerged in China in the 12th century. D.T. Suzuki mentions four Chinese versions of the Oxherding Pictures, by Ching-chu (Jp. Seikyo, c. 11th century), Tzu-te Hui (Jp. Jitoku, c. 1090-1159), an unknown author, and Kuòān Shīyuǎn (Jp. Kaku-an) (c. 12th century).^{[web 3][web 4]}

 

The first series was probably made by Ching-chu in the 11th century, who may have been a contemporary of Kuòān Shīyuǎn.^{[web 4]} There are only five pictures in Ching-chu's version and the ox's colour changes from dark to white, representing the gradual development of the practitioner, ending in the disappearance of the practitioner.^{[web 3]}

Tzu-te Hui (自得慧暉, Zide Huihui, Jp. Jitoku ki) (1090-1159) made a version with six pictures. The sixth one goes beyond the stage of absolute emptiness, where Ching-chu's version ends.^{[web 4]} Just like Ching-chu's version, the ox grows whiter along the way.^{[web 3][note 1]}

A third version by an unknown author, with ten pictures, was the most popular in China. It derives from the Ching-chu and Tzu-te Hui series of pictures, and has a somewhat different series of pictures compared to Kuòān Shīyuǎn's version.^{[web 3][web 5]} The 1585 edition contains a preface by Chu-hung, and it has ten pictures, each of which is preceded by Pu-ming's poem, of whom Chu-hung provides no further information. In this version the ox's colour changes from dark to white.^{[web 3][note 1]}

The most famous version of the oxherding pictures was drawn by the 12th century Chinese Rinzai Chán (Zen) master Kuòān Shīyuǎn (廓庵師遠, Jp. Kaku-an Shi-en), who also wrote accompanying poems and introductory words attached to the pictures. In Kuòān Shīyuǎn's version, there is no whitening process, and his series also doesn't end with mere emptiness, or absolute truth, but shows a return to the world, depicting Putai, the "laughing Buddha", who is bodhisattva Maitreya.

Liaoan Qingyu (了菴清欲, Jp. Ryōan Seiyoku) (1288-1363) made another version with five pictures.^{[web 6]}

 

In Japan, Kuòān Shīyuǎn's version gained a wide circulation, and many variations of these illustrations were made, the earliest one probably belonging to the fifteenth century.^{[web 3]}

The following illustrations include the verses by Kuòān Shīyuǎn translated by Senzaki Nyogen (千崎如幻) (1876–1958) and Paul Reps (1895-1990).^{[web 4]} The paintings below are traditionally attributed to the Japanese monk painter Tenshō Shūbun (天章周文) (1414-1463).^{[web 7]}

•  
  1. In Search of the Bull
  In the pasture of the world,
  I endlessly push aside the tall
  grasses in search of the Ox.
  Following unnamed rivers,
  lost upon the interpenetrating
  paths of distant mountains,
  My strength failing and my vitality exhausted, I cannot find the Ox.
•  
  2. Discovery of the Footprints
  Along the riverbank under the trees,
  I discover footprints.
  Even under the fragrant grass,
  I see his prints.
  Deep in remote mountains they are found.
  These traces can no more be hidden
  than one's nose, looking heavenward.^{[web 8]}
•  
  3. Perceiving the Bull
  I hear the song of the nightingale.
  The sun is warm, the wind is mild,
  willows are green along the shore -
  Here no Ox can hide!
  What artist can draw that massive head,
  those majestic horns?^{[web 8]}
•  
  4. Catching the Bull
  I seize him with a terrific struggle.
  His great will and power
  are inexhaustible.
  He charges to the high plateau
  far above the cloud-mists,
  Or in an impenetrable ravine he stands.^{[web 8]}
•  
  5. Taming the Bull
  The whip and rope are necessary,
  Else he might stray off down
  some dusty road.
  Being well-trained, he becomes
  naturally gentle.
  Then, unfettered, he obeys his master.^{[web 8]}
•  
  6. Riding the Bull Home
  Mounting the Ox, slowly
  I return homeward.
  The voice of my flute intones
  through the evening.
  Measuring with hand-beats
  the pulsating harmony,
  I direct the endless rhythm.
  Whoever hears this melody
  will join me.^{[web 8]}
•  
  7. The Bull Transcended
  Astride the Ox, I reach home.
  I am serene. The Ox too can rest.
  The dawn has come. In blissful repose,
  Within my thatched dwelling
  I have abandoned the whip and ropes.^{[web 8]}
•  
  8. Both Bull and Self Transcended
  Whip, rope, person, and Ox -
  all merge in No Thing.
  This heaven is so vast,
  no message can stain it.
  How may a snowflake exist
  in a raging fire.
  Here are the footprints of
  the Ancestors.^{[web 8]}
•  
  9. Reaching the Source
  Too many steps have been taken
  returning to the root and the source.
  Better to have been blind and deaf
  from the beginning!
  Dwelling in one's true abode,
  unconcerned with and without -
  The river flows tranquilly on
  and the flowers are red.^{[web 8]}
•  
  10. Return to Society
  Barefooted and naked of breast,
  I mingle with the people of the world.
  My clothes are ragged and dust-laden,
  and I am ever blissful.
  I use no magic to extend my life;
  Now, before me, the dead trees
  become alive.^{[web 8]}

The following set was drawn by the court calligrapher Karasumaru Mitsuhiro (1579–1638). The set includes ten waka (Japanese poems in thirty-one syllables) rendered in high Heian period Japanese calligraphic style.^[2]

 

The ox-herding pictures had an immediate and extensive influence on the Chinese practice of Chan Buddhism.^[3] According to Chi Kwang Sunim, they may represent a Zen Buddhist interpretation of the ten Bodhisattva bhumi, the ten stages on the Bodhisattva-path.^{[web 9]}

The pictures first became widely known in the West after their inclusion in the 1957 book, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings, by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki. Alan Watts included a description of the Ten Bulls in The Spirit of Zen.^[4] The pictures went on to influence the work of John Cage, particularly in his emphasis on rhythmic silence, and on images of nothingness.^[5] The pictures, especially the last one ('In the Marketplace'), have provided a conceptual umbrella for those Buddhists seeking a greater engagement with the post-industrial global marketplace.^[6]

Cat Stevens' sixth studio album Catch Bull at Four is a reference to the 4th step towards enlightenment. On the album, the song Sitting refers to meditation, and the apprehensions that may result from the experiences resulting from enlightenment. Catch Bull at Four was commercially successful and spent 3 weeks at number one in the Billboard album charts in 1972.

Leonard Cohen based his song 'Ballad of the Absent Mare', which appeared in his album Recent Songs published in 1979, on the Ten Bulls stories.^[7] In the liner notes to the album, Cohen thanks his Zen Master Roshi for inspiring one of the songs: "I owe my thanks to Joshu Sasaki upon whose exposition of an early Chinese text I based 'Ballad of the Absent Mare.'"

In the 1989 South Korean film Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?, an ox escapes into the forest and one of the protagonists, a young boy, attempts to hunt it down through the bushes.^[8][9][10] During the opening scene of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2010 film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a water buffalo stands tied to a tree before breaking loose and wandering into a forest.^[11][12]

A similar series of meditative stages is depicted in the Nine Stages of Tranquility,^{[web 2]} used in the Mahamudra tradition, in which the mind is represented by an elephant and a monkey.^{[web 10][web 11]}

This is based on the teachings of Asaṅga (4th CE), who delineating the nine mental abidings in his Abhidharmasamuccaya and the Śrāvakabhūmi chapter of his Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra^[13] It is also found in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṅkāra of Maitreyanātha, which shows considerable similarity in arrangement and content to the Bodhisattva-bhūmi-śāstra.^{[note 2]}

In this scheme, śamatha practice is said to progress through nine "mental abidings" or Nine stages of training the mind (S. navākārā cittasthiti, Tib. sems gnas dgu), leading to śamatha proper (the equivalent of "access concentration" in the Theravāda system), and from there to a state of meditative concentration called the first dhyāna (Pāli: jhāna; Tib. bsam gtan) which is often said to be a state of tranquillity or bliss.^[14][15]

However, this Indo-Tibetan series of stages is not equivalent to the ten bulls, since it is strictly a description of samatha practice, while the ten bulls depict the stages of awakening to the nature of mind (and as such, is not strictly about samatha only, but about the entire path of awakening).

• Nine Stages of Tranquility (depiction with elephants)
• Buddhist Paths to liberation
• Bodhi
• Five Ranks
• Monomyth
• Nirvana

Background

• Rahula, Walpola (1978), Zen and the Taming of the Bull: Towards the Definition of Buddhist Thought, Gordon Fraser Book Publishers
• Tan, Pia (2004), The Taming of the Bull. Mind-training and the formation of Buddhist traditions (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-07-18

Commentaries

• Yamada, Mumon (2004), Lectures On The Ten Oxherding Pictures, University of Hawaii Press
• Samy, AMA (2005), Zen: Awakening to Your Original Face, Cre-A
• Shibayama, Zenkei (2012), A Flower Does Not Talk: Zen Essays, Tuttle Publishing
• Daido Loori, John (2013), The Eight Gates of Zen: A Program of Zen Training, Shambhala Publications

General

• Terebess Online, Oxherding Pictures Index, huge collection of resources on the oxherding pictures

Zide Huihui (Jp. Jitoku Keiki) (1090-1159) version (six pictures)

• Terebess Asia Online, The Six Oxherding Pictures by 自得慧暉 Zide Huihui (Jitoku Keiki), 1090-1159

Chinese Pu-Ming (Jp. Fumyō) version (ten pictures)

• Terebess Asia Online, The Ten Oxherding Pictures by 普明 Puming (Fumyō), an unknown author

Kuòān Shīyuǎn (12th century) version (ten pictures)

• Paul Reps (1957), Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
• Reverend Eshin, Ten Oxherding Pictures
• John M. Koller, Ox-herding: stages of Zen-practice

Extended commentaries

• Commentary by D.T. Suzuki
• Commentary by Shodo Harada
• Commentary by Sheng Yen
• Commentary by Ruben Habito
• Commentary by Martine Batchelor
• Commentary by Chögyam Trungpa

Taming the Elephant

• Dharma Fellowship, Deepening Calm-Abiding - The Nine Stages of Abiding
• Skyflower Dharmacenter, Mahamudra Tranquility and Insight

Other

• A comparison between the Zen Buddhist Ten Oxherding Pictures and the Theory of Positive Disintegration
• Dward Muzika, Awakening versus Liberation

Video

• Taming the Mind-Ox by Stephen Nachmanovitch