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The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures: A Zen Map of the Path

Ten pictures and verses for the path from seeking to returning, read as a practice map

What are the ten ox-herding pictures in Zen?

The ten ox-herding pictures are a sequence of ten drawings, each with a verse, attributed to the Sung-dynasty Zen master Kuoan Shiyuan (Kakuan) in the twelfth century. They follow a herder who searches for a lost ox, catches and tames it, rides it home, forgets both ox and self, and returns to ordinary life. They are a poetic map of practice, not a measured sequence of developmental stages, and no trial has tested them.

The ten ox-herding pictures are the best-known Zen image of the path. A herder searches for an ox that has wandered off, sees its tracks, catches a glimpse of it, catches and tames it, rides it home, and then the ox disappears from the picture, then the herder, leaving an empty circle. The last two pictures return the practitioner to the world, the herder walking into the marketplace with helping hands. The pictures and verses are credited on the Terebess pages cited here to Kuoan Shiyuan (Kakuan), a Sung-dynasty Zen master of the twelfth century. Translations differ in the wording of titles and verses, so this page uses the titles from the Kapleau-credited text on the Terebess page and notes where another translation differs. The practices below take the stages in small groups, and say where the evidence is thin.

Prácticas

Cómo se conectan estas prácticas

The ten pictures trace one movement. A practitioner sets out to find something that seems lost, learns to hold a restless energy steadily, lets both the sought and the seeker drop away, and comes back to ordinary life. Each practice on this page works with one stage of that movement rather than with a separate technique.

Are the ten ox-herding pictures stages you pass through in order?

They are presented as a sequence, and the tradition reads them that way, but they are a poetic map and not a measured order of development. Kakuan’s own series ends in the marketplace, not at the empty circle, and earlier versions existed: according to the Terebess page, earlier versions of five and eight pictures had the ox progressively whiten, with the last picture a circle. Use the pictures to recognise where you are, not as a timetable.

How does the restless ox in sitting differ from the searching in the first pictures?

The first pictures describe searching for something missing, a direction of the mind. The catching and taming pictures describe an energy that is already present and wild, a force to be held. So the practices differ: one notices the search itself, while the other keeps a steady anchor while the energy settles.

Why does the series add pictures after the empty circle?

According to the Terebess pages, Kakuan felt the earlier versions incomplete and added two pictures beyond the circle; he thought an empty circle “being made the goal of Zen discipline” misleading, and the page describes the ultimate goal as “the realization of Oneness (i.e., the effacement of every conception of self and other).” The two practices that answer this are contemplating the empty circle without forcing it, and carrying the practice back into ordinary life.

Does riding the ox home mean the practice is finished?

The pictures do not present riding home as the end. The herder still stands apart as a self, and the sequence continues to the empty circle and then to the marketplace. A calm session is one picture among ten. The seventh picture, in the tradition’s reading, is where the self is still left standing, and that is the place this practice looks.

Can contemplating emptiness or open sitting ever be unsettling?

Yes. Open or objectless sitting can stir strong reactions in some people. When it brings fear, shaking or unreality, stop and ground first, with eyes open and feet on the floor, and do not sit longer to get through it. See the meditation-related-challenges page for more.

How do the ten pictures compare with progress of insight and the Lamrim stages of the path?

Progress of insight in the Theravada tradition and the Lamrim stages of the path are other stage maps, each ordering experience or practice in steps. The ten pictures differ in form: they are images and poetry rather than a list of insights or a graded curriculum. The Terebess reading also presents the last picture as a return to the world rather than a fixed attainment, so read the three maps side by side as different descriptions, not one ladder.

¿Cómo elegir entre ellas?

If you keep hunting for the next technique, start with noticing the search. If you sit and fight your mind, hold the restless ox steadily. If a calm session makes you feel you have arrived, check who is riding. If you are holding on to a blank or open feeling, sit with the empty circle without forcing it. If sitting has come back to you as a question about your ordinary days, carry it into ordinary action. If you want to know roughly where you are, use the map without rushing. If any of this starts to feel frightening or unreal, ground first.

Lo que estos enfoques no resuelven

The ten pictures are a poetic map. No trial tests them as a sequence, and none of the practices on this page has a trial behind it. The stages are one tradition’s and one reader’s account of practice, and a reader can use them to grade themselves, which is the risk the map most needs to guard against. Titles and verses differ between translations: this page follows the Terebess text credited to Philip Kapleau, and Suzuki’s version uses different titles for the eighth and tenth pictures. The Pu-ming edition, which the Terebess Kuoan1 page describes as having a preface by Chu-hung dated 1585 and a poem by Pu-ming before each of its ten pictures, is not verified here for how it ends; that page says Chu-hung professed ignorance of who Pu-ming was.

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Preguntas frecuentes

What are the ten ox-herding pictures in Zen?

The ten ox-herding pictures are a sequence of ten drawings, each with a verse, attributed to the Sung-dynasty Zen master Kuoan Shiyuan (Kakuan) in the twelfth century. They follow a herder who searches for a lost ox, catches and tames it, rides it home, forgets both ox and self, and returns to ordinary life. They are a poetic map of practice, not a measured sequence of developmental stages, and no trial has tested them.

¿Cómo funciona «Notice the search itself»?

The first two pictures show the herder searching through wild country and then finding tracks, so the search is the story’s first movement. Attention turned onto the act of looking can see the assumption inside it: that something is missing and lies somewhere else. Seen as a pattern of attention rather than as the only road, the search loosens its grip. This reading is the tradition’s and Zhi’s interpretation of the sequence, not a tested mechanism.

¿Cómo funciona «Hold the restless ox steadily in sitting»?

The catching and taming pictures show a strong, wild animal held on a rope until it becomes gentle. In sitting this is the restlessness of the mind: the practice is not to suppress the energy but to keep a steady line of attention while it settles. Repeatedly returning to one anchor is a plausible way of training attention, and the image stresses steadiness over force. This is an interpretive mechanism drawn from the image; no trial tests the ox-herding pictures.

¿Cómo funciona «Check who is riding the ox»?

The pictures of riding home and of the ox forgotten, with the self alone, show ease after the struggle. The image still places a self apart from the experience, and that subtle division is what this practice looks at. Noticing the sense of “I have got it” makes visible the self-reference the later pictures go on to address. This is the tradition’s reading of the image; no study tests it.

¿Cómo funciona «Sit with the empty circle without forcing it»?

The eighth picture shows an empty circle, with both ox and herder gone. According to the Terebess pages, Kakuan felt the earlier versions incomplete and added two pictures beyond the circle; he thought an empty circle “being made the goal of Zen discipline” misleading, and the page describes the ultimate goal as “the realization of Oneness (i.e., the effacement of every conception of self and other).” The practice is to look at emptiness without making it an achievement. Removing an object gives the mind nothing to aim at, but this is an interpretive reading, and the practice can be unsettling.

¿Cómo funciona «Carry the practice into ordinary action»?

The last two pictures move from the empty circle back into the world. The Terebess page quotes the Kapleau-credited text for the tenth picture: “He leads innkeepers and fishmongers in the Way of the Buddha.” Zhi’s abstract reads Zen enlightenment as a process of action rather than an outcome. A 2018 Korean-language comparison by Sin, read through a summary of its abstract, describes Kakuan’s series as moving from the subduing of afflictions to liberation and then to the practice of bodhisattva conduct. The practice is where ordinary action is done with attention, so the cushion is not the only place the practice shows up. This is an interpretive reading of the last pictures.

¿Cómo funciona «Use the map to see where you are, without rushing»?

A map helps only if it describes rather than ranks. Naming a present state with a familiar image can reduce the sense of being lost and give you options, while the risk is that the same map becomes a ladder. The series itself ends in the marketplace, not at the circle, which is one reason a reader should not treat the early pictures as failures. This is an interpretive use of the pictures.

¿Cómo funciona «Ground first when sitting becomes frightening»?

When a sitting or contemplation begins to frighten, the reliable anchors are the body on the floor and the sounds and objects around you. Attention given to the outside world offers steady input that is not part of the sitting. This is a safety step, not a claim that the practice has reached an insight, and it does not depend on any theory of the ox pictures.

Are the ten ox-herding pictures stages you pass through in order?

They are presented as a sequence, and the tradition reads them that way, but they are a poetic map and not a measured order of development. Kakuan’s own series ends in the marketplace, not at the empty circle, and earlier versions existed: according to the Terebess page, earlier versions of five and eight pictures had the ox progressively whiten, with the last picture a circle. Use the pictures to recognise where you are, not as a timetable.

How does the restless ox in sitting differ from the searching in the first pictures?

The first pictures describe searching for something missing, a direction of the mind. The catching and taming pictures describe an energy that is already present and wild, a force to be held. So the practices differ: one notices the search itself, while the other keeps a steady anchor while the energy settles.

Why does the series add pictures after the empty circle?

According to the Terebess pages, Kakuan felt the earlier versions incomplete and added two pictures beyond the circle; he thought an empty circle “being made the goal of Zen discipline” misleading, and the page describes the ultimate goal as “the realization of Oneness (i.e., the effacement of every conception of self and other).” The two practices that answer this are contemplating the empty circle without forcing it, and carrying the practice back into ordinary life.

Does riding the ox home mean the practice is finished?

The pictures do not present riding home as the end. The herder still stands apart as a self, and the sequence continues to the empty circle and then to the marketplace. A calm session is one picture among ten. The seventh picture, in the tradition’s reading, is where the self is still left standing, and that is the place this practice looks.

Can contemplating emptiness or open sitting ever be unsettling?

Yes. Open or objectless sitting can stir strong reactions in some people. When it brings fear, shaking or unreality, stop and ground first, with eyes open and feet on the floor, and do not sit longer to get through it. See the meditation-related-challenges page for more.

How do the ten pictures compare with progress of insight and the Lamrim stages of the path?

Progress of insight in the Theravada tradition and the Lamrim stages of the path are other stage maps, each ordering experience or practice in steps. The ten pictures differ in form: they are images and poetry rather than a list of insights or a graded curriculum. The Terebess reading also presents the last picture as a return to the world rather than a fixed attainment, so read the three maps side by side as different descriptions, not one ladder.

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