EMILY HERDS AN OX "TO LIVE A LIFE OF MEANING IN GRACE"
Is a narrative through the ten stages of Zen practice and enlightenment.
Emily Herds an Ox is a contemporary novel that utilizes the framework of the "Ten Ox Herding Pictures" from Zen Buddhism. The Ten Ox-herding Pictures have concretely depicted the process in which the imperfect, limited, and relative self (the little child) awakens to the perfect, unlimited, and absolute essential self (the ox), grasps it, tames it, forgets it, and completely incorporates it into the personality. The "Ten Ox Herding Pictures" shows the stages of Zen practice and enlightenment. Depicting both dramatic breakthroughs and plodding practice, it reconciles "sudden enlightenment" with the gradual ripening of the fruit of spiritual practice. The ox represents the true self or the mind, which the ox herder seeks to find and tame.
The "Ten Ox Herding Pictures," are a series of images and accompanying poems or commentaries that are part of the Zen Buddhist tradition. These pictures and texts symbolize the stages of a practitioner's progress toward enlightenment and his or her subsequent return to society to enact wisdom and compassion.
The ten stages depicted in the ox herding pictures are as follows:
- Searching for the Ox: This represents the beginning of the spiritual path, where the practitioner is seeking enlightenment.
- Discovering the Footprints: The practitioner finds traces of the true nature of reality.
- Seeing the Ox: The first glimpse of enlightenment, or true nature.
- Catching the Ox: The difficult task of confronting and acknowledging one's own true nature.
- Taming the Ox: Learning to control one's own mind and passions.
- Riding the Ox Home: Achieving harmony with one's true nature.
- The Ox Forgotten, Leaving the Man Alone: A higher stage of enlightenment, where there is no distinction between the practitioner and the true nature.
- The Ox and Man Both Gone Out of Sight: Complete enlightenment, transcending all dualities.
- Returning to the Origin, Back to the Source: Returning to the world, recognizing that the source of enlightenment is in everyday life.
- Entering the Marketplace with Helping Hands: Engaging with the world compassionately, with an enlightened perspective.
Each stage in this progression represents a deeper level of understanding and integration of Zen principles into one's life, culminating in the return to everyday life with a new, enlightened perspective on the world.