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- The Search for the Bull
- In the pasture of this world,
- I endlessly push aside the tall
- grasses in search of the bull.
- Following unnamed rivers, lost
- upon the interpenetrating paths
- of distant mountains ...
- My strength failing and my vitality
- exhausted, I cannot find the bull.
- I only hear the locusts chirring
- through the forest at night.
- comment:
- The bull never has been lost.
- What need is there to search?
- Only because of separation from my
- true nature, I fail to find him.
- In the confusion of the senses I
- lose even his tracks. Far from home,
- I see many crossroads, but which way
- is the right one I know not.
- Greed and fear, good and bad,
- entangle me.
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- Seeking The Ox
- The Ox has never really gone astray. So why search for it? Having turned his back on his true nature ...
- the man cannot see it. Because of his defilements he has lost sight of the Ox. Desolute, through forests
- and fearful jungles he is seeking the Ox which he does not find. Up and down dark, nameless, wide flowing
- rivers in deep mountain thickets he treads many bypaths.
- At evening he hears cicadas chirping in the trees.
In this picture, the young oxherder is in nature looking a little lost, running here and there. He is searching for something but he is not even sure what he is looking for. This represents the stage when we have not started on the spiritual path yet but we feel somewhat uncomfortable and unsatisfied. There are faint stirrings within us. We think that if we had enough material things we would be happy. We would like to have a house with a nice garden or enough money to buy whatever takes our fancy. Perhaps we hoped that a good relationship or a worthwhile or highly-paid job would give us lasting happiness. But nothing seems to completely satisfy us, to bring us that elusive long-lasting happiness. Events keep happening which disturb our dream world. Something seems to be missing. We are like the oxherder in the picture, there is a refreshing stream, beautiful trees, colourful butterflies and wonderful birdsong but still he is not satisfied. Like us, he is anxiously looking for something, inner peace, contentment, clarity.
~ commentary from Zen, by Martine Batchelor.
[referring to a different set of pictures ... but still applicable]
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