September 24, 2018

The Ox Herding Lesson

Today’s show is somewhat different, although it speaks to the universality of mystical experience. It’s based on a famous Buddhist meditation known as the ox-herding lessons, where an untrained ox is a metaphor for the untrained mind, and the training is analogous for the pursuit of enlightenment. The story is known to have emerged from 11th Century China, and was created in drawings and verse for each step of the way. At some point, it’s said, the original verses were lost, but the drawings were preserved. The tradition has morphed to other animals, including the training of elephants. The original had five stages of development, although later versions doubled the number of steps toward discipling the mind, and then rejoining the world.