Sit with the empty circle without forcing it
Sit with open attention and nothing particular held, letting any sense of blankness be without trying to keep it.
Why it works
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.
How to do it
- Sit with a quiet, open attention, holding nothing in particular.
- When a sense of blankness or open space appears, let it be, without trying to hold it or deepen it.
- If you notice you are trying to get the emptiness right, name that effort quietly and return to plain sitting.
- Stop after a short period, and end with ordinary attention to sound and the body.
Evidence
The reasoning comes from the tradition’s account of why the later pictures were added, as the Terebess page presents it. No trial has tested emptiness practice of this kind. (mechanistic)
Open, objectless sitting is traditionally learned with a qualified Zen teacher, so learn it from one rather than from this page. Open, objectless sitting can also unsettle some people. If it does, stop, use the grounding-first practice, and see the meditation-related-challenges page.
Sources
- Kuoan Shiyuan (Kakuan), The Ten Oxherding Pictures, as presented on Terebess Asia Online; translation as credited on the page.
- Kuoan Shiyuan (Kakuan), The Ten Oxherding Pictures, Terebess Asia Online, page on Kuoan Shiyuan and the Pu-ming edition (translation by D. T. Suzuki as credited on the page).
- Suzuki, Daisetsu Teitaro. Manual of Zen Buddhism. OpenLibrary work record OL29222W (title and author as listed; the Kuoan1 page credits its translation to this book).
Common mistake
Making the empty circle the goal of Zen discipline. Kaku-an thought this misleading, according to the Terebess page, which is why he added pictures beyond the circle.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures: A Zen Map of the Path
- Notice the search itself
Watch the mind’s seeking as an event in itself, rather than only as the route to something you still lack.
- Hold the restless ox steadily in sitting
In sitting, return attention to one anchor again and again, holding it the way the verses hold the rope: firmly, without yanking.
- Check who is riding the ox
When a session feels smooth, notice the sense of having arrived and ask, gently, who is noticing it.
- Carry the practice into ordinary action
Take one routine activity and do it with ordinary attention, offering the small help it needs without making a show of it.
- Use the map to see where you are, without rushing
Pick the picture that describes this week’s practice, and let the map describe you rather than rank you.
- Ground first when sitting becomes frightening
When contemplation brings fear, shaking or unreality, stop, open your eyes, and reconnect with the body and the room before anything else.
Related concepts
- Zen Buddhism: Its History, the Rinzai and Sōtō Schools, and How to Begin
The branch as a whole: where Zen came from, how its schools differ, and the practices of a Zen community
- The Progress of Insight: The Stages of Insight in Vipassana
The Burmese insight map of what meditators say they pass through — read as a map, not a ladder
- Zen Koans: Inquiry Beyond Reason
Rinzai inquiry practice — how koans work, how to approach them, and honest limits
- States vs Stages of Consciousness: Wilber, Combs and O’Fallon
Why a powerful experience and a lasting change are different things, and how each one grows
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