Ten Bulls · Lablypedia

History

Indian background

The calf, bull, or ox is one of the earliest similes for meditation practice. It comes from the Maha Gopalaka Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 33). It is also used in the commentaries, especially the one on the Maha Satipatthana Sutta (Digha Nikaya 22) and the Satipatthana Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 10). In Indian Buddhism, the simile of the bull is compatible to the ancient traditional Chinese view within cosmology that includes the zodiacal Ox (niú 牛) as a birth year and quality, as a result this similarity helped with the early assimilation of Buddhism into Chinese culture and then on to the rest of East Asia. Buddhaghosa, in his commentary on the Satipatthana Suttas, gives a simile of the taming of a wild calf. The calf is the wild mind which is to be tamed. The same idea was developed by the Chan/Zen tradition.

Chinese origin

The well-known ten ox-herding pictures emerged in China in the 12th century. D.T. Suzuki mentions four Chinese versions of the Ten Bulls, by Ching-chu (Jp. Seikyo, c. 11th century), Tzu-te Hui (Jp. Jitoku, c. 1090-1159), an unknown author, and Kuoan Shiyuan (Jp. Kaku-an) (c. 12th century).

The first series was probably made by Ching-chu in the 11th century, who may have been a contemporary of Kuòān Shīyuǎn. There are only five pictures in Ching-chu's version and the ox's colour changes from dark to white, representing the gradual development of the practitioner, ending in the disappearance of the practitioner.

Tzu-te Hui (自得慧暉, Zide Huihui; Jp. Jitoku ki) (1090-1159) made a version with six pictures. The sixth one goes beyond the stage of absolute emptiness, where Ching-chu's version ends. Just like Ching-chu's version, the ox grows whiter along the way.

A third version by an unknown author, with ten pictures, was the most popular in China. It derives from the Ching-chu and Tzu-te Hui series of pictures, and has a somewhat different series of pictures compared to Shiyuan's version. The 1585 edition contains a preface by Chu-hung, and it has ten pictures, each of which is preceded by Pu-ming's poem, of whom Chu-hung provides no further information. In this version, the ox's colour changes from dark to white.

The most famous version of the oxherding pictures was drawn by the 12th century Chinese Rinzai Chan/Zen master Kuoan Shiyuan (廓庵師遠, Kuòān Shīyuǎn; Jp. Kaku-an Shi-en), who also wrote accompanying poems and introductory words attached to the pictures. In Shiyuan's version, there is no whitening process, and his series also doesn't end with mere emptiness, or absolute truth, but shows a return to the world, depicting Budai ("Laughing Buddha"), who is the bodhisattva Maitreya.

Liaoan Qingyu (了菴清欲, Jp. Ryōan Seiyoku) (1288-1363) made another version with five pictures.

Illustrations

In Japan, Kuoan Shiyuan's version gained a wide circulation, and many variations of these illustrations were made, the earliest one probably belonging to the fifteenth century. The following illustrations include the verses by Kuòān Shīyuǎn translated by Nyogen Senzaki (千崎如幻) (1876–1958) and Paul Reps (1895-1990). The paintings below are traditionally attributed to the Japanese monk painter Tenshō Shūbun (天章周文) (1414-1463).

Karasumaru Mitsuhiro's set

The following set was drawn by the court calligrapher Karasumaru Mitsuhiro (1579–1638). The set includes ten waka (Japanese poems in thirty-one syllables) rendered in high Heian period Japanese calligraphic style.

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Parallels in the Indo-Tibetan tradition

A similar series of meditative stages is depicted in the Nine Stages of Tranquility, used in the Mahamudra tradition, in which the mind is represented by an elephant and a monkey. This is based on the teachings of Asaṅga (4th CE), who delineating the nine mental abidings in his Abhidharmasamuccaya and the Śrāvakabhūmi chapter of his Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra It is also found in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṅkāra of Maitreyanātha, which shows considerable similarity in arrangement and content to the Bodhisattva-bhūmi-śāstra.

In this scheme, śamatha practice is said to progress through nine "mental abidings" or Nine stages of training the mind (S. navākārā cittasthiti, Tib. sems gnas dgu), leading to śamatha proper (the equivalent of "access concentration" in the Theravāda system), and from there to a state of meditative concentration called the first dhyāna (Pāli: jhāna; Tib. bsam gtan) which is often said to be a state of tranquillity or bliss. However, this Indo-Tibetan series of stages is not equivalent to the ten bulls, since it is strictly a description of samatha practice, while the ten bulls depict the stages of awakening to the nature of mind (and as such, is not strictly about samatha only, but about the entire path of awakening).

Influence and cultural legacy

The ox-herding pictures had an immediate and extensive influence on the Chinese practice of Chan. According to Chi Kwang Sunim, they may represent a Chan/Zen interpretation of the ten Bodhisattva bhumi, the ten stages on the Bodhisattva-path.

The pictures first became widely known in the West after their inclusion in the 1957 book, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings, by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki. Alan Watts included a description of the Ten Bulls in The Spirit of Zen. The pictures went on to influence the work of John Cage, particularly in his emphasis on rhythmic silence, and on images of nothingness. The pictures, especially the last one ('In the Marketplace'), have provided a conceptual umbrella for those Buddhists seeking a greater engagement with the post-industrial global marketplace.

Cat Stevens' sixth studio album Catch Bull at Four is a reference to the 4th step towards enlightenment. On the album, the song Sitting refers to meditation, and the apprehensions that may result from the experiences resulting from enlightenment. Catch Bull at Four was commercially successful and spent 3 weeks at number one in the Billboard album charts in 1972.

Leonard Cohen based his song 'Ballad of the Absent Mare', which appeared in his album Recent Songs published in 1979, on the Ten Bulls stories. In the liner notes to the album, Cohen thanks his Zen master Kyozan Joshu Sasaki for inspiring one of the songs: "I owe my thanks to Joshu Sasaki upon whose exposition of an early Chinese text I based 'Ballad of the Absent Mare.'"

In the 1989 South Korean film Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?, an ox escapes into the forest and one of the protagonists, a young boy, attempts to hunt it down through the bushes. During the opening scene of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2010 film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a water buffalo stands tied to a tree before breaking loose and wandering into a forest.