This work came out of the Zen parable involving The Ox Herding Pictures, which are 9 poems w/ illustrations depicting man's search for enlightenment.

It is part of the 'One Word' Series, where I take a word that contains a word, and make a piece involving both.

1 / SEEKING THE OX / Suddenly he finds himself confronted by a maze of crisscrossing roads. Greed for worldly gain and dread of loss spring up like searing flames, ideas of right and wrong dart out like daggers.

...bone-tired, heart-weary, he carries on his search...

2 / FINDING THE TRACKS / He has been informed that just as different-shaped vessels are all basically of the same gold, so each and every thing is a manifestation of the Self.

3 / FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE OX / If he will but listen intently to everyday sounds, he will come to realization and at that instant see the very Source.

4 / CATCHING THE OX / Today he encountered the Ox, which had long been cavorting in the wild fields, and actually grasped it.

...even while he tugs it by the nose, it might well turn its head toward old haunts...

5 / TAMING THE OX / With the rising of one thought another and another is born. It is only because delusion still remains that thoughts are imagined to be unreal. This state of delusion does not originate in the objective world but in our own minds.

...untethered, it willingly follows its master...

6 / RIDING THE OX HOME / The struggle is over, “gain” and “loss” no longer affect him. Astride the Ox’s back, he gazes serenely at the clouds above.

...this ox requires not a blade of grass...

7 / OX FORGOTTEN, SELF ALONE / In the Dharma there is no two-ness. The Ox is his Primal-nature; this he has now recognized.

8 / BOTH OX AND SELF FORGOTTEN / All delusive feelings have perished and ideas of holiness too have vanished.

9 / RETURNING TO THE SOURCE / He observes the waxing and waning of life in the world while abiding unassertively in a state of unshakable serenity.Alone with himself, he observes things endlessly changing.

...there was no ox, there is no self...

~~~

SUBJECT MATTER: Enlightenment, Traps, Time

PART OF THE 'ONE WORD' SERIES